The sun completes its analemma once more over Fathomland; another year gone, and a new one borne upon the starry night. Ye weary traveler deserve some rest at the Fathomland Inn and Lounge. Come down to the bar once you’re settled in your room, with its rough wooden floor, oriental carpet and fresh linen sheets, beeswax candles. We have just tapped a fresh barrel of IPA downstairs, there are sushi rolls on the counter being pawed at by the other travelers (actually, maybe skip the sushi rolls). Let’s hit the surf!

• We finally got the shiny new database implemented, TimeScaleDB, in order to handle larger time-series datasets in the new and shiny WIT 1.0. This is a Big Deal. We now have end-to-end hydrometric management tools to work from SDIQs/Velocity Area Qs, to Rating Curves, with Gauge Level Checks (GLCs), and into time-series. So much more we want to do, but let’s work together! The more the merrier, I say. Want to code something wild and cool! Contact us! Want to implement your tools in our framework? Why not! I say. Want to use exclamation marks in every sentence?! Go for it!
• We implemented the first version of GRATE! (Generalized Regression Analysis Tool, Eh?) a “Made in Canada” regression tool, for the people, by the people, of the people, in the people.
• Work continued on the AutoSync and KTS-Sink services to get telemetry data (T-HRECS and AQ) automatically into the KTS, now with the Modify Function add-on.

This is a Big Deal

G.Sentlinger, Director and Lead Tenor, Fathom Scientific Ltd

Additionally, we’ve issued our first Total Recall! for the QiQuac, installed our first floating Velocimeter for Image Velocimetry and Uplooking acoustic ground truthing. We installed several AutoSalts all over Europe and continue to build quality Rating Curves, for the people. Read on!

1.0 In the Mean-Time

Team Fathom has been churning away at the same old tasks, but with some major breakthroughs.

–New: Improved Onboard AQ SDIQ Calc and Transit Time Reach Velocity.  Onboard every AQ is improved Q Calculations.  These calculations are used to set the start of an SDIQ, and the end point, should it arrive.  Currently, it uses a DQ/DT calculation to find the end point which is impervious to rising and falling BG-ECT, but does not handle inflection points in the BGECT very well, such as the peak of a hydrograph and trough of the EC.T signal.  The transit time is calculated between the end of the pump, and the peak of the breakthrough curve.  The Reach Velocity is calculated by the reach length divided by the transit time. We will start building reach velocity as well as stage-discharge  curves for a more robust estimate of Q.

–New: WIT 1.0.  Did you know the Salt Portal has been in beta this whole time?  Well guess what: It’s released!  This comes with some major features, many of which you’d not even notice!:

–New: Time Series DB: A major overhaul of the database has been completed.  The previous version of the DB loaded mega-big JSON fields into memory before display.  This often caused the entire server to run out of memory and crash.  It was not ideal.  The new DB loads buckets of timeseries data into a fraction of the memory to allow more data to be loaded and more users onboard.  

-Along with the new DB, Amin has been working ceaselessly (it’s actually in his contract, so it’s ok) on other features such as the KTS Sink Service.  For AQ and AT files synced through telemetry, the files live on the server in an AWS S3 Bucket.  The user can create a KTS-Sink service to go onto the server and collect all device data on a regular interval.  That data can also be sent vis FTP to an external server OR have a modification applied, similar to a derived channel.  For example you can filter outliers, or apply an offset.

–Newish: Device Monitor: Primarily for the AQ service for now, you can see last communication, battery level, current VPN IP, and more!

1.1 Total Recall 2025

You know you’re a real company when you issue recalls, and that’s exactly what we are going to do. 

1. T-HRECS Radio Box -The waterproof box implemented in 2019 has a fundamental weakness where the cable gland enters the box.  Torque on this on this point can break the box and allow water in.  We have a repair to the cable gland.
2. QQ Power Management Board (PMB) This has been an issue for a long time, but only turns up occasionally.  The PMB power switch circuit can enter an undefined state, somewhere hovering between 3.3V and 0V.  The only way to wake it out of its funk is to disconnect the battery inside the QQ, or remove the PMB on later models.  Additionally the PMB is susceptible to overvoltage from some fast-chargers.  When we designed the QQ PMB, 5V charging was the maximum, but with the introduction of quick chargers, voltages up to 48V are possible.  We’ve built in overvoltage protection and solved the undefined state problem.

If you have T-HRECS Serial Number TM7.602 and lower you are eligible for the T-HRECS Radio recall. All QQ are eligible for the PMB recall.

1.2 Want some Jam with that PMB?

Recalls are boring, right?  So let’s add some Jam! As a special Total Recall Winter 2026 offer, you can upgrade your QQ to a highlander kit for just $5,500.  This includes:

• 2^nd Duck Box with 
• 3^RD Up or Downstream T-HRECS Radio
• 4^th T-HRECS DL for autonomous logging
• Radio Repeater which doubles as a QQ Fee-Oh router for use with the QQMobile App on iOS and Android.
• Additional Pipettor.

With the Highlander upgrade you can measure in difficult sites (incomplete mixing and/or changing BGECT from urban or agricultural runoff) OR break the kit into two independent kits.  

We’ll also clean and calibrate your existing kit.  Alternately purchase a single 3^rd Radio Probe for 2025 prices of $1400 with a small pelican case for $1900.

1.3 Inflation and Dark Matter

In 2026, we’ll be increasing prices by 20% over 2025 prices to match inflation over the last several years.   But you can still get 2025 prices until Jan 31, 2026 as part of the Total Recall 2025! program, including new kits or AutoSalt systems.  We don’t like to increase prices, so want to ensure you are getting something in return.  For this reason, we’ve introduced many  new features, including CE compliance stickers! Now with fewer fires! Raised without the used of Artificial Intelligence, and in some cases, no Intelligent Design Whatsoever!

2.0 Fathomland Beasts and Misadventures

As part of my official duties of Captain/Deckswab/Prisoner of the Good Ship Fathom, I take it upon myself to travel to the furthest reaches and darkest corners of the globe. Some recent adventures included McKeand River near Iqaluit on Qikiqtaaluk (Baffin Island), the Autonomous Region of Trento in Northern Italy, and Mediterranean island of Corsica.

The following is not required reading, but your life will be improved by reading it: guaranteed!

2.1 The wind whistled by on the flaps of the tent.  The temperature was dropping fast outside.  -15, -20

Sam and I had the distinct pleasure of being Citizen 7 and 8 in Alextown, the small ramshackle village setup by Alex Flaherty of Polar Outfitting in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Qikiqtaaluk Region. Alex was the sheriff of the litttle town comprised exclusively of his deputies. I just kept singing Billy Joel’s Allentown, replaced with Alextown.

Well we’re living here in Alextown

And the Generator never shuts down.

And the Starlink signal’s strong as can be!

Gets us online

Online for free

And the Xbox has a snowmobile game

Or you can take a sled yourself on the range

The vista’s bound to take your breath away

Auroras and sunsets, foxes and game

And we’re living here in Alextown

Adapted from Billy Joel’s Allentown.

It used to be that the north was connected by trails and inukshuks, stacks of rock that could indicate a cardinal direction, or fish nearby, or shelter.  The landscape spoke in stone, but I didn’t know the language.  I was a tourist in a foreign land, although it was still called Canada.  These days it’s connected by planes, helicopters, and snowmobiles, but this vast landscape is still a small community.

As we head out onto the tundra, we are assigned a security detail, he is given a rifle and told that if a warning shot doesn’t scare off a polar bear, then shoot him.  I’m told not to shoot him in the head, it’s too thick.  Aim for the chest where it will go in to the vitals.  OK, got it. Part of me thinks the the polar bear’s life is more valuable than mine.

In the end, we are not confronted by any polar bears, only a curious arctic fox. The AutoSalt fared last winter ok: Site A was knocked over by the high water level, so we moved it up the hill.  We installed a NuPoint Iridium Camera to both take photos and, get this, allow two-way communications with the AutoSalt.  This would allow us to download measurements and change settings from the comfort of our office in Vancouver.  It worked like a charm for 3 days! Then both the AQ and NuPoint lost power, or seems to have.  We have a Unidata NRT Globalstar unit hooked up in parallel and it continues to transmit battery voltage each day.  So this remains a mystery until our return trip scheduled for April.

The rating curve and hydrograph are reasonable so far.  We’ve made 99 measurements from the two sites, McKeand A and McKeand B, however I didn’t plan for the large range we saw in 2024 and only captured flows between 6 and 45 cms, missing the gargantuan flows of >500cms in 2025 freshet. 

There’s always 2026, I’ll keep you posted.

2.1.1 Iqaluit

The mosses bloomed, red and gold and green, like an intricate Persian carpet across the ancient rock.  Iqaluit is a paradox, a question mark on an otherwise alien world.  A mixture of money, bureaucracy, tradition, stilted homes and cell phones, snowmobiles slowly decaying back into the earth. 

From space you can see the striations across the surface, like those on Europa, Jupiter’s largest moon.  In town, we wait for the wind to die down.  3 days of routine, wake, coffee, run, lunch, nap, dinner, games with Sam, my companion in our quest to destroy the one ring. Just like last year. 

The site of the Iqaluit Nukkiksautiit Hydro Project, chosen as one of Canada’s 7 Major Projects in the Second Tranche, is in its investigation phase and we are proud to be providing hydrometric support through the installation of two AutoSalt stations.

2.2 Corsica

The air was warm as I exited the plane, balmy, almost.. Mediterranean. I’ve heard the word, but never really experienced it. Not only balmy, but full of history. The epic wars, the playground of the Greek gods, the Titans and water naiads. So much recorded history, the sum culmination of millennia of human wonder, enquiry, and imagination hit me in the warm breeze.

I spent the day in Bastia, Corsica, in Corsica at a fabulous AirBnB run by Silvia, an elvish architect who’d renovated her 15th century apartment to capture and redistribute the Corsican sun in subtle and inspiring ways. I found the best coffee, OKoffee, and met up with my french companion, Fabien Thollet. Fabien has been a stalwart proponent of AutoSalt since the beginning, steadfastly solving problems, suggesting improvements, and presenting at conferences, and I thank him for the success in France.

Fabien and I made our way to DREAL HQ, where we met the jovial and good natured team of Olivier, Sebastien, Caroline, Gilles, and Oceane. The team, Gilles in particular, was expert and setting up a 1000L tank to deploy at Restonica. I chatted with Olivier the most, who spoke the best English (and my French is still poor, although I can say things like

Mon Fille avait a cheval appelle Shadow.  Ils’appelles shadow parce-qu’il  etait noir mais puis est devenu  blanc”  I didn’t actually say that, something close to it though.  It was such a pleasure to know a bit more French than they knew English. “Elle etait chaud sang” Caroline seemed very interested “Mon chevon est arabian” 
“Aha! Elle aime a ..run” 
“Oui, courir”  
“Aha, courier, a runner, right.”

It was the longest conversation in French I’d had since arriving.  But soon I’d exhausted my verb conjugations.

The Corsican Pine is unique to Corsica, growing up to 40m tall, it’s strong and long and so is used as a mast in ships that sailed the Adriatic sea.  As I take the ferry across from Corsica to Toulon, I look out on the dark water marked only by the white foam.  The stars above, and like Galileo, just like Galileo, wondered my place in this world.

I fear we’ve lost this sense of wonder.  I don’t know if it will return. Olivier and I reminisced at the thrill of solving a 3^rd order differential equation, something I’ve not done since university.  The beauty of hand written equations and solutions.  On the gravestone of Stephen Hawking, a man trapped in a collapsing body while his mind roamed the universe and beyond the universe, to the beginning of time, or as he’d have it, the bottom of time, as he proposed a wrap around solution to avoid dividing by zero.

2.3 Trento

I had the pleasure of spending a week with Mauro Reguzzoni and his son Edoardo. Mauro started Hortus from the ground up, as a young man, and has grown it into one of the leading environmental monitoring firms in Italy.  They just moved into a new building in Gallarate, housing 40 employees working on early flood warning systems, <Insert brochure for Hortus>

We spent the day setting up AutoSalt for the City of Trento. The installation is top quality, housed in a garden shed, featuring 3 solar panels, and a retractable antenna mount, it’s another evolution of the system.  I had the weekend free to thought I’d swing up to Lake Como, I’d heard of it, seen photos.  Looked magical!  What they don’t show in those magical photos is the swarms of tourists milling about, looking for something to eat, or drink, As I sat judging the pudgy tourists staggering around staring at their phones, taking selfies, I realized, with horror that I too was a tourist.  I looked at my touristy pudgy hand as I ate yet another croissant, drank yet another cappuccino.  I recoiled and let out a little “Oh No!” I hoisted my 18kg backpack and slung my satchel with two laptops, multimeter, random wires and fasteners around my shoulder and booked it out there before I became fully tourist, I decided to make my way to Venice, My Little Buddy Nick Page (remember MLBNP?) had told me to see Venice, but to get there I had to take a train to Milan, Verona, Padua.  It’s right out of Shakespeare.  (Did Shakespeare ever come to Italy).  I couldn’t make it to Venice, nor would I want to stay there, way too expensive, on this day, but I could make it to Padua.  So I booked a room on HostelWorld, and jumped on the next train to Milan.

Things were looking up! Galileo Galilei built his telescope in Padua and first observed the rings of Saturn, the moons of Jupiter, and the surface of the moon. He worked as a professor at the oldest university of the world, UofPadua, established in 1222.  He challenged the catholic church on it’s geocentric solar system and made the equations of the heavens way easier to manage.  We look back now from our priviledged vantage point and think how ridiculous an earth centric world view is, but if you grew up in Italy, or any ancient time, and your elders and parents told you that Apollo pulled the sun across the sky in a chariot, and the lighting and thunder were the gods and titans battling it out, that’s what you believed. That’s what everyone, in that culture believed.  Imaging the thrill of learning, privately in your little apartment above the street, that it was all wrong.  I stood beneath his window, in a spot, I’m almost certain he stood, or at least walked, 400 years ago, and looked at the same sky.

At any rate, as I pondered the majesty of Galileo, I got a message from my hostess “I’m sorry, but I didn’t realize the room for your last-minute booking is not available.  But I’ve called my friend Carlo in the old city center and he can take you tonight in his home.”  After a few quick texts with Carlos, my arrive time, around 20:30, not too late, it was all sorted.  Then I realized with some concern the train was not staying on the path Google Maps said it should.  It veered quite far south actually, away from the train station where I was supposed to catch my next train in 20mins from Milan to Padua.  I’d jumped on the wrong train to Milan, it took me to the wrong train station.  I tried to get to the correct station, but missed my connection.  I rebooked for the next train, 2 hours later.  I texted Carlo “It’s late, but don’t worry, I’ll be up”

I passed the two hours, got on the train, and after a few delays “Sorry Carlo, now we arrive at 11:00” we arrived at Padua.  I was up early, at the door, my backpack on.  The train came to a stop.  I pushed the button to open the door.  Nothing. Hm. I pushed it again.  Nothing.  I felt the seconds slipping by.  I burst back into the car, streaming down the aisle, my satchel catching on the seats as I ran “Sorry, Sorry, Sorry” until finally my satchel broke into pieces strewing my things onto the aisle.  “Oh no” I said quietly.  A nice person attempted to clean up after me, I stuffed what I could into what was left o my bag and ran to the door just as it was closing.  I shoved my arm, then my body into the door.  It beeped and complaind, but I popped out into the platform.  The train pulled away.  I held my phone up in my hand to look at my next direction, my hand was shaking with adrenaline.  I nice long walk to Carlo’s in the brisk Paduan air sorted me out.

Carlo wrote again “Don’t worry, we will survive” his app translated, he didn’t speak much English, which is so refreshing.  I finally arrived at his beautiful, well furnished apartment.  Carlo an elderly scholar with a beautiful home.  I thanked him profusely for staying up to greet me.  He was warm and kind.  I showered off, and fell into a wonderful deep sleep.

The next morning I woke early and headed out to find coffee.  The only shop open was a tiny hole in the stone wall, but like every real espresso shop in Italy, the coffee is always amazing. The owner/barista seemed annoyed, but also begrudgingly pleased when I praised his espresso. I also believe the Italian’s, always for one-upmanship, may have perfected the croissant by injecting it with apricot jam. I enjoyed my little cappuccino and apricot jam croissant, the only tourist up and about in Padua: magical.

I knew that besides the romantic hijinks and double entendres, poorly done disguises and bawdy quips of Petruchio and Katherine taking place in Padua, it was also where Galileo Galilei first built his 20x telescope and gazed at the heavens. While a professor of mathematics at the oldest university in the world, he developed the scientific method, he observed the rings of Saturn and the craters of the Moon, and challenged the world view of the Catholic Church in 1610, publishing the whimsically titled, Sidereus Nuncius (Starry Messenger). His apartment, now private, was at 15 Via dei Vignali (now Via Galileo Galilei), just 1 block away.

I found his modest apartment, white-stucko exterior, and marveled at how such an unseeming abode was home to one of the most miraculous discoveries and leaps of understanding in all of mankind’s history.  As Galileo assembled the last pieces of his telescope, fashioned under false purpose from some of the finest glass makers in padua, the sense of adventure, the sense of discover and he pointed his invention towards the heavens and peared through his eyepiece.  Wait, why was it all blurry, dammit! A missed calculation.  Several days later he tries again, and this time… it’s perfect.  He stares at the beauty , the crystalline perfection of our sister the moon, then outwards, to where he calculated Saturn would be at this time of year.  What was this, two lobes on an otherwise perfect sphere? Is it possible, a lens aberration! Surely not, what are these small blurry dots around Jupiter?  All through elementary school and high school, the planets have been presented to us in absolute clarity, facts of the universe, but nothing could have matched that sense of awe and power as he realized those were not aberrations, but rings.  Not specs of light, but moons.  The immediacy of that distant light hitting Galilieo’s retina continues to inspire me.

3.0 Summary-Conclusions-Implications-Repercussions-Blunt Trauma Remediation-Song Suggestions

2025 was a busy year and 2026 will be busier yet! I’ve instructed our production team to “Work, Think, Eat, and Speak Twice as fast!” in order to meet your expectations and deliver the best possible service to Fathom Customers. We’ll continue to innovate and create, support and communicate, but we strongly encourage you to sign up for WIT-Pro and WIT-Pro+ to keep our shared interests thriving and fend off the encroaching darkness. It’s like Craig Nistor always said, “It’s dark outside, give me your light,” and I gave him my light. Well, he said it once, or maybe it was somebody else. Point is, let’s continue to shine the light of truth on the unknown and scare of the beasts in the darkness.

I’d encourage you to check out my latest Swedish Jazz Album fixation,  Jazz på svenska and read our latest Resonance Post featuring new music from Fathomland Studios, a Christmas Hymn based on the Frederick Forsythe story The Shepherd. Watch for then next EGU 2026 Flow Regatta and Schnitzel Toss in Vienna, May 3-8 2026. Until next time, take the path less traveled, watch out for large wolfs, and subscribe to WIT Pro.

Ciao Bella/o,
Gabe