Work entertainment

[Jherrith]

Well, I find out that the other installer who was supposed to be in, called in because the daughter was sick all night long.

So I wound up going out there and moved the remote myself, and once I got back to the office sent the installer that did show up back out there and had him finish all of the grounding and strapping the antenna lines to the wall in the comm room.

Now to really stir the pot, got an email today from them saying "you can't use fence posts to support the antenna lines on the roof" ... methinks these people are idiots ... I do not use "fence posts" I use rated sleepers to support and manage the cabling on the roof.

Besides I have been using them for years, as in at Seminole and Orange county, plus I already have used them at all of their other hospital sites.

So please do not tell me that I can't use them, when I have been using them for years and they happen to be the approved method of support on a roof.

I think this is more a case of someone calling them by an incorrect name then anything else. Mainly since the GC for the project had no objections when I explained the 5 W's of how it would look when I was done.

[Jherrith]

Went on a different site walk today, one more for the university.

Man, I tell you I walk entirely to much each day ... have a step counter app on the phone ... just for fun and logged at over 4-1/4 miles today.

Anyway the new university job is going to be a doozy, another three channel site, but at least it is being built on the standard install pattern. So will not be to bad, except for the time frame that everyone wants us to meet.

 

[Jherrith]

There seems to be a decided disconnect in regards to how many people are in the shop and how many projects are going on simultaneously ... was just asked about the status of six projects.

That are all in various stages of installation. There are not enough people to go around and regrettably the other installers do not have the requisite knowledge to work on their own and get it right the first time. Which would mean another trip by me to verify the install.

And let us not forget the real wrench throwing one, Flagler county that wants 12 racks and three pallets delivered next week.

Also found out that a salesman is asking about the status of six site walks that I am supposed to fit in somehow ... really .... when am I supposed to fit this in

Then guess what, we finally got in new light fixtures for the tech center. So I am supposed to install these when ....

[rrkknight3]

...

Then guess what, we finally got in new light fixtures for the tech center. So I am supposed to install these when ....

Ooh.  Ooh.  I know the answer to this one: "In your copious spare time."   

[Jherrith]

Ooh.  Ooh.  I know the answer to this one: "In your copious spare time."   

 

Still trying to find this spare time that they think I have ....
Any clues or help you can provide would be nice ...

[rrkknight3]

I use a kanban board to record all of my current projects.  When the boss shows up at the door with a sheet of paper in his hand (an inevitable sign that he wants to give me work), I open the board.  When he says "This should be done soon," I ask which of the other "should be done soon" projects should be delayed to do this one soon.  He either leaves to find someone more cooperative or says "Well, when you get to it."

[Jherrith]

I need one of those ... the distressing part is that technically I am not a project supervisor ...  but what else is new in the business world ... right

[Jherrith]

Well, something is amiss went to work on Friday and I swear someone must have decided to not tell me it was cancelled due to lack of interest ... four people all gone for the day and another only worked half a day.

 

Must be nice, I guess the plus side is that I got another hospital MedCom project started in the staging rack, still missing four devices so how is that going to work "Mister when can you get it started salesman"?

In my mind not very well, then got notice from NASA that I have a mandatory training class I have to take .. 2 hours ... must be that copious spare time I have is when that is to be done ... the plus side is that I do not have to do it all at once so I got one module done.

Then got more new radios for the hospital that needed to be logged, tagged and programmed. At the rate they are adding radios I am thinking that we will reach the magic number 1000 subscriber radios very soon.

At any rate I did complete the inventory for the trip to the other county with the 12 racks and so forth, even got another six done since the racks followed a standard format and I was able to do mostly a copy and paste of the general information then change serial numbers and MAC address's and call it good.

The real surprise was that I got started on switching out the light fixtures in the tech center. Going to need sunglasses in there now, the plus side is you can now see and we have proper lighting at last.

The caveat to that is that one of the lights to be changed had a whip to it that is against code and I will have to make a new one for as it is entirely to short to reach the new fixture.

Oh haven't mentioned those details. They are 2 x 4 lay in LED fixtures. They as multi voltage so they can take either 120v or 277v so that is a nice feature, they are extremely light weight and here is the real bonus, they are no more them a couple inches thick. I put the first one in the ceiling grid and it is no thicker then the grid itself.
 

The downside is they are subject to shipping damage, as two out of the ten ordered were no good. Literally bent in on itself.

Almost forgot the other bonus they are dimmable which would work for those folks that think they are to bright, I don't think are so I am just pleased to have proper lighting at long last since the ones I were pulling out were in several states of not working worth a damn. Which basically means all have been straining their eyes daily.

The bad news is at end of day I get an email stating that my certification is about to expire in 30 days for installation of the public safety equipment. I have to retake the exam to be good for another year. Specific vendor requirement, for one to be able to commission a site you have to be certified.

What I find annoying is that the email says take it at least 60 days prior to the expiration, so when do I get it, if you guessed it is only 30 days before it expires, move to the head of the class.

The first time I took this, it was a difficult test to say the least as most of the material is all the fiddly computations for bandwidth, frequency and signal levels. I did pass it but it was a barely thing in my mind. As I do not do "engineering" tasks. I put it together, and have had little exposure to commissioning any system. So definitely felt like a fish out of the water.

Granted we have completed one install successfully, but again I did not do all of the commission of the levels so that did me no good to feel comfortable that I know what the heck I am doing. Would have liked to have got a second one done before having to do this test. With me pushing all the buttons.

But, now I have to take another exam to renew. At least they will provide access to review material and although it is a 50 question test, there is no time limit and I can start and stop as often as desired, the caveat that has me concerned is that I must pass it with at least an 80%

[rrkknight3]

I need one of those ... the distressing part is that technically I am not a project supervisor ...  but what else is new in the business world ... right

So, I did this before I managed other people as I kept getting projects, but they were more "projects" because while they weren't official, they had to be done.  There's some web software that works a lot like those boards.  Actually, there are several of them, but the one that I use is:

https://trello.com/en

[Jherrith]

Sounds like what the Smartsheet on line app does, I use that more for inventory purposes however it can do all that Trello showed in the link.

I just had not considered using it to track projects I will have to consider setting it up for all general shop projects and not just the DAS projects.