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 |  I travel the country on business, sometimes the world. Come see where I've been. |
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Talk about perks, my job has one of the best ones I can think of! I travel in the course of business, delivering classes for my employer. I am a Senior Training Specialist for Motorola Solutions, and teach classes on a wide variety of subjects centered around 2 way radio communications. I'm qualified to deliver approximately 30 different classes, but about half of those are 'Legacy' classes, and are not in demand anymore. My students are technicians, those who maintain, program, calibrate, and repair large 2-way radio systems. Some of these systems are statewide, and use TCP-IP networking to allow sites to communicate with others. Some are small, traditional type radio sites. The size doesn't matter, in each case the systems must be kept operational at all times, since many of them are Public Safety Systems. So I get to travel, sometimes frequently, 3-4 weeks in a row.... where am I this week? This probably won't have daily entries, but I will make entries when I get to go somewhere, and keep an updated list of coming trips. My schedule changes faster than the weather, so don't be too surprised to see me list an upcoming class, only to remark later on that it is cancelled, or delayed. Delays are fine of course, but a later date might mean that someone else gets to go instead of me,,, Well, here we go with this, let's see where it takes us.  Best Cultural And Regional Honorable Mention |
| Locale: Los Angeles (Montebello/Alhambra actually), California Week of: 8/21/2023 The week of 8/21 found me back in the Los Angeles area again. The customer this week is the same one that I've delivered seven other classes to already. They scheduled 38 weeks of training this year, which is a phenomenal amount of training! I will complete 'my shift' if you will, in September when I deliver my final session for them. This class was a bit atypical for this subject, with one small exception that I will discuss in a minute. First though, this class is really two classes. The first one covered our current radio repeater used in Conventional Radio Systems, and everything installed at the site. Yeah, I know this makes a lot of sense to you all, but rather than explain it here I will say that I will answer any questions should anyone want a better/more in-depth explanation. It's funny how I never get asked those questions. I don't blame you, it would still be Greek to you all. The second class covered our small Analog Comparator. A Comparator, or voter does exactly what you might think when you read the word voter. It can be sent multiple received radio signals and determine which signal has the best audio quality. So yeah, it votes the best signal, and then sends that back to the base radios to be repeated. Now what happened to make this week different? First, the customer couldn't provide the necessary equipment for the class, so we had to access the training system in Schaumburg. This made everything more show-n-tell, which is not the best way to deliver a class that covers a technical subject. But, it was all we had to work with. I've done this several times before from sites around the world, so no big deal, right? Right. Unless you get careless, which I did on Thursday. We were going through how to load a configuration to a network switch, and I sent the wrong configuration to the switch I was accessing. This gave the switch a different IP address, which meant I could no longer access it remotely. It would have to be accessed locally so the correct configuration could be loaded.  Since I was in Los Angeles and it was in Schaumburg, I needed help. I got it of course, the correct configuration was loaded by a teammate Friday morning. Still.... needless to say, this is not something you want to do in front of students! At the same time, all's well that ends well, and they saw first-hand what you shouldn't do. I stress this in every networking class I teach too. Next week I will be in Washington DC to deliver a class there. It's a kind of strange month for me really, because in August I had a week off, then delivered a class in Schaumburg. That was followed by a week in Los Angeles and a week in Washington DC. In September I will have a week off (after being in DC), then deliver a class in Schaumburg, followed by delivering classes in LA and DC to the same customer I delivered classes to in August. Same customer, same classes. The only difference is the classes delivered in Schaumburg. A little different in some ways. I think that's about it for now. Until my next post, be good to those you love, spoil them, and write!  Jim Dorrell |
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is better than suspended upside down in the 'void'. 
