2024-09-14 12:22:00
Lotti Jones
Leipzig, Germany
Germany
NOAA-18
It felt magical when a bright-green signal began to cascade down the waterfall display. I turned to Heide, my partner in our Leipzig open-weather workshop, who was next to me. We both made excited, eyebrow-raised faces. Were we imagining things? Was everything set up right? Our laptops responded with reassuring rhythmic tick-tocking and high pitched sounds that danced around our ears. I was surprised how the satellite continued talking with me, even as I played with different heights of the v-dipole antenna and the wild wind whirled around us. Ten minutes passed quickly. Soon I was angling southwards, feeling the radiant sun on my face and seeing other workshop people communing with NOAA-18 across the park while it faded into static.