Contest #766: northeast of Gillam, Manitoba, Canada

This week’s contest was a circle around a tower in the middle of nowhere just northeast of the community of Gillam, Manitoba, Canada.

While Belarus, the US, Malawi, Algeria, Venezuela and Burundi also celebrated their birthdays, July 1 was Canada Day, celebrating 155 years of independence.

And what the heck is it? Well, we picked it because of the odd look, but here’s what we’ve found so far. By checking the land ownership on Manitoba’s property assessor website, it belongs to the local hydro (power) company. It’s listed as “Electrode Station”. So, we believe it is a HUGE hybrid tower/ring grounding electrode station for the power plant. By HUGE, we mean nearly 800M diameter to the ring. It appears to be a component of the Nelson River HVDC Long Distance Transmission System. Nelson River uses a bipole HVDC transmission scheme, which requires large ground electrodes to provide return current should one side break. Since we are talking about megawatts of power, an electrode station of this size is required.

Found (just) before the hint:

  • Lighthouse

And after:

  • Phil Ower

5 Replies to “Contest #766: northeast of Gillam, Manitoba, Canada”

  1. A deep bow to Lighthouse and Phil. The fact that I could not find it is frustrating but the fact that the men were separated from the boys, is satisfying even though not both contenders are masculine. Congrats to both.

  2. this one was incredibly tough – congrats to those that managed to get it

  3. I agree with Paul and Graham, respect for those who found this very difficult contest, whether before or after the hint. Congratulations!

Comments are closed.