Once, you’ve found the perfect site, you’re ready to begin deploying your node. When you first open a yellow overpack of six nodes, the nodes are in deep sleep; they must be woken up before they can begin collecting seismic data. To do this, you must use a handheld terminal or HHT for short – one of the key tools for successful node deployment. To wake up your node, attach a cable from the HHT to the node; unfortunately, node deployment is not wireless. That being said, an HHT has a variety of fancy features, which you will probably not use, but certainly add to the fun. They come equipped with a camera, flashlight, internet explorer, and we’ve been told you can even make phone calls. After getting distracted by all these other applications on your HHT, you finally come to the clock app, which you’ll use to jolt your node out of its slumber. No worries if you’re not tech-savvy, this app is quite intuitive. After physically connecting the node and HHT, simply tap (with your finger or the stylus) the “Wake Up RU” button. Once awake, the little light on top of your node will give off one red blink every five seconds. This means your node is still a little groggy, but no longer in deep sleep and therefore ready to be deployed.

To your site, you should bring your woken-up node, a shovel (and maybe other big digging tools), and a bucket of stuff. The essential packing list for this bucket is an HHT, a notebook and pen, a compass, a bubble level, your phone, and flagging. The non-essential packing list might include a hammer, rebar, sand, a trowel, gloves, and a wrench – though we probably won’t get into why you might use any of these things in this post. The first step is to get digging… which is also when you might realize that your site isn’t so perfect after all. It is a test of willpower that determines whether one might stay at their “perfect” site or opt for a place that’s a little easier to dig. A pickaxe can certainly help to break up rocks and roots in some tricky soil, but it can really only get you so far. Ultimately, you’ll need to end up with a hole that’s about ten inches deep.

Before plopping your node into its hole, use your compass to figure out where north is and orient your node such that the black arrow points toward geographic north. Before we leave, our compasses have been set to correct for the regional difference between magnetic north and geographic north. Softly, push the spike into the soil. Then, put the bubble level on top and try to level the node. Once it is level, give it one sharp push into the soil and check that it is still level. Then pack in the dirt around it and bury it, checking that it remains level and oriented to the north as you partially bury it.

Now, it’s time to use your HHT again. Connect the node to the HHT and open the app called “Field Tool Mobile,” which has a yellow cylindrical icon. Be patient! This app takes a while to get going. When it gets started you’ll be greeted by a bunch of yellow squares in the middle of the screen and a menu across the bottom. Begin by tapping the “GPS” button in the bottom menu and click “disconnect.” Each site has an associated HHT number, which you should have accessed online before heading out into the forest. Tap the “Map” button on the bottom menu and hit “Select line,” which will bring you to a different screen. From there, find the associated HHT number and hit “Okay.” The last step is to click the “RU” button in the bottom menu and then hit “Deploy.” The HHT will run a few tests and then pop up some numbers. As long as none of them read “NaN,” hit “Yes” to continue with deployment. The HHT woman will then speak to you: “Starting Operation.” At this point, you can disconnect the cable from the node.

It’s now just a waiting game. After the woman speaks, the light on top of the node will switch from its slow blink to a fast blink. When the node is officially deployed, it gets a heartbeat – a double blink that happens every five seconds. To get a heartbeat, the node has to get a GPS fix, which, when in deep forest, can be hard to come by. While waiting on the glorified heartbeat, there are a couple other tasks you can take care of. These include burying the node, dropping a waypoint on a GPS tracking application on your phone, flagging the site with yellow and orange ribbon, and taking some photos and thoughtful notes about your special site. In your notebook, you should write down the date, time, site name, HHT number, serial number, elevation, latitude, longitude. After taking care of all these tasks, check back on your node. If you have my luck, your node does not have heartbeats. At this point, you can carry your tools back to the car, go foraging for berries, take a hike, pick up trash, interact with the locals, go on a backpacking trip . . .  and hopefully after all these activities, your little node will get its heartbeat – a deployment success!

–  Lexi Arlen