We have this wonderful invention called two-way radio. (grin) Our repeater has an autopatch, so you can hold a conversation from any landline to the mobile unit in the field or vice versa. Its been real helpful, like when aligning microwave dishes.
At 18:04 6/21/02 -0400, you wrote: >We recently had a piece of equipment fail outside of Bronson, FL. This was >in a regeneration hut, 50 miles from almost anywhere useful. There is no >cellular service and no POTs in the HUT. The closest employee was a woman >who although bright was not very familiar with the equipment installed. >Because the management channel (IP) was still working to the site, an >engineer here in Quincy, MA was able to step her through fixing the problem >using nothing but IRC and two-way pager. It took her 35 minutes to correct >the issue. > >Harder than with a phone? Yes. Impossible? No. Without that IP channel >running? It would have taken closer to an hour and a half by my guess but >still doable. Smoke signals or semaphore? I won't hazard a guess. > >-vb Some sort of orderwire channel might be helpful in this situation as well, as long as the fiber is up, youll have a voice grade line to the NOC.
