Messages

1

Volunteers / Re: October 2024 work reports

« on: October 28, 2024, 08:44:11 PM »

The star party at Alna Center on Saturday night was well attended and an enjoyable experience for us astronomers. Lots of inquisitive passengers. Weather was good, wind died down a bit right as it got dark out. I think we had 6 telescopes and one binocular station setup. I missed looking at the comet but I heard lots of oohs and aaahs most of the night.

2

Volunteers / Re: January 2024 Work Reports

« on: January 19, 2024, 10:58:26 AM »

I am planning to be there. Same time 8:30am-ish?

3

Work and Events / Re: Brush Cutting 1/6/2024

« on: January 05, 2024, 08:56:36 AM »

I'm planning to be there tomorrow morning. Dress warm everyone.

4

Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad / Re: Sandy River and Rangley Lakes Railroad work trip.

« on: November 01, 2023, 10:33:36 AM »

I am planning on going up there on Saturday to volunteer. I've never been to SR&RR but have driven through the area many times. Where is the place to park and meet up with the volunteers? I'm coming from Rome, so it doesn't make sense for me to drive to Alna.

5

Museum Discussion / Re: Cell coverage on the WW&F

« on: May 31, 2023, 09:33:01 AM »

Actually you do not want the antenna located very near the booster as it will create a signal loop and nothing will be amplified. Follow the manufacturer directions to ensure the external antenna is placed far enough from the booster's inside the building antenna. Yes there are some signal losses with the cable, but the manufacturer usually ensures there is enough amp to overcome signal loss. Additionally the external antenna should be facing the cellular provider's tower to ensure the best signal. Source: former RF ISP installer

FWIW, I have US Cellular and most of the ROW is nearly unusable. Just a tiny bit of service at the star party that was held at Alna Center, likely due to the field being open and somewhat flat.

6

Work and Events / Re: Spring Work Weekend 2023

« on: April 28, 2023, 09:09:19 PM »

10-4. See you all tomorrow morning.

7

Work and Events / Re: Spring Work Weekend 2023

« on: April 28, 2023, 10:58:13 AM »

I plan to be there tomorrow morning all day, was not planning on Sunday (weather looks to be pretty lousy). Is the general start time at 8am like previous years? I am happy to be on track/ballast crew or help at head tide (I assume that crew is clearing brush like years past when I helped).

8

Museum Discussion / Re: wwfry.org email server is DOWN!

« on: September 24, 2022, 04:38:02 PM »

Has the museum considered Google Workspace or Microsoft Office 365 for email hosting (as well as other included benefits like large mailbox storage, shared mailboxes, cloud file storage, video conferencing, etc)? Both solutions are free for non-profits. I've set up a few of my IT clients who are non-profit with Microsoft Office 365 and they love it. Sign-up process isn't too difficult, just need to send in the 501c3 paperwork to Microsoft and they approve it usually in a week then setting up the Office 365 tenant. Email can even be migrated from a webhosting provider. Then you aren't particularly tied to your webhost if they are having issues with email systems. Microsoft also offers non-profits $3500 in free Azure credits so you could host the museum website essentially for free, with some minor administration needed.

9

Volunteers / Re: April 2021 Work Reports

« on: April 17, 2021, 05:31:31 PM »

4/17: Work crew cleaned up Head Tide ROW. Sorry I did not get any photos of before work. I took photos after we had mostly finished work. Most of the stuff we cleared was small saplings that we cut down with brush trimmers, loppers, and chainsaw. A couple of dead trees were taken down with chainsaws. One tree that had fell on the ROW was also cut up. A few of us also walked the ROW down to the bend in the Sheepscot River. Pedestrian walkways are in need of repair.

10

Volunteers / Re: November 2020 Work Reports

« on: November 28, 2020, 07:46:47 PM »

Ballast crew today (see attached photo). I didn't keep track of how many of us there were. We offloaded two flat cars near the Nature Conservancy trail head on Rt219. Something that I noticed with these loads of ballast were some large rocks, 6" or larger, that I did not notice in the previous ballast crews that I've worked on. Had fun. See you all on the next ballast crew.

11

General Discussion / Re: Who Am I? or, Let's Introduce Ourselves

« on: November 28, 2020, 07:34:08 PM »

Hello all, I'm Josh from Rome (Maine). I finally got around to creating an account on the forums here. I've been volunteering at WWFRY since fall work weekend of 2016 I think. You can thank John McNamara for inviting me to visit WWFRY. He visited another museum that I volunteer at several years ago, The Telephone Museum. I also serve as VP on the board of directors and manage the website and social media pages. My interest in railroads comes from spending my youth at my family's summer camp in Belgrade next to Maine Central Railroad / Guilford Railroad / Pam Am Railroad. I befriended some of the railroad workers there, learned to operate some of their machinery, hearing their stories, and whatnot. My dad also had model trains that we used when I was young. These days, I own a busy IT consulting business in Oakland serving clients all over the state, though mostly in the Central Maine area. Other hobbies that I enjoy is amateur astronomy, hiking, photography, and birding. Lastly, it's pretty amazing to see the growth of WWFRY rail lines and building in the short period of time that I've been a member and volunteer. Always something new to see when I visit. Here's to many more years to come.