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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: New York City (Queens) Week of: 5/8/2023 This past week I was in Queens NY delivering a networking class to the Mass Transit Authority, Long Island Railroad (MTA-LIRR). This was a unique class in that as far as their radio system is concerned, the radios are on one Subnet, so no routing is done. That's an understatement because obviously routing is done, but it's done outside the portion of the system they'll maintain. This required a lot of editing on my part, because I didn't want to cover anything associated with routers, routing, and our ASTRO systems. Let me explain. ASTRO is our term for a radio system that meets the APCO 25 standard. MTA-LIRR is not P25 compliant for many reasons. The biggest is that they are Analog only, meaning their radios do not use the Digital side of things at all. Plus, their IP address scheme is not per the Motorola Solutions standard. Yes, we have a standard IP address scheme for our systems, but since they are not Digital, do not have a core of any type, and other reasons we don't need to go into here, their IP plan is different. This meant I removed at least a day and a half of course material from this session, yet it was still scheduled for 5 days, the same as any other networking course. I still managed to deliver this over 5-days, mainly because of the student background, and because MTA-LIRR had asked that the class last no more than 6 hours/day, instead of 8 hours/day. The class went well overall, but on Wednesday morning one student complained/moaned confessed that he wasn't learning much, and was pissed off that it had been all Powerpoint slides thus far. He said he learned best doing hands-on type of exercises. I explained that not everyone learns like that, and the Powerpoint slides were used to stress the theory of operation of a network, and the concepts of TCP/IP. We started doing the hands-on exercises, I wanted to keep everyone together doing the same labs at about the same time (keep it simple for me really, it's very hard to monitor three groups of people who are performing different hands-on activities). That didn't work too well though, because the groups would complete things at different times. We ended up with the groups starting out on the same hands-on activity, then doing their own thing (using the software to explore the configuration, do things they will never be able to do after the class, etc) while the slower groups caught up. By Friday, the dissatisfied student was quite happy. In Closing I am home right now, and was home last week instead of being in Brooklyn for a 2-day class. I was home because this old body decided it would rebel against things. In a nutshell, I was exhausted due to a medical condition, one caused by my Chemo Drug. It's a common reaction to this drug, but it's not something I've experienced, until last week. As a result, I slept Sunday and Monday almost all day, and half of Tuesday. Nor was I eating much. I ended up losing almost 15 pounds, but you couldn't tell it by looking at me. I've now gained 10 of those pounds back. This week I'm back on schedule, which is being home for the week. Next week I will be in Schaumburg for a couple of days before returning to Schaumburg the following week for a resident class. Until next time, be good to those you love, spoil them, and write! Jim Dorrell  Jim Dorrell |
| Locale: Frankfort, Ky, Little Rock Arkansas, and Gretna Louisiana Week of: 4/24 & 5/1/2023 Wow, I missed posting about mt last week in Frankfort? I guess this post will cover the last two weeks. The week of 4/24 was a busy week for me. I was in Frankfort once again for the third and final time. I've been with the Kentucky Emergency Management team all three weeks, but the group is really a small one made up of the Kentucky National Guard. All three classes went well, the Chief of the National Guard retired on Friday, so we finished class on Thursday to accommodate their schedule. This worked well because I was able to get home Thursday afternoon and pick up Mama and our young Akita so we could get to Jackson Tennessee for a 'Fast Cat' run. Fast Cat is where your dog runs 100 yards and is timed. Points are earned for each run, the dog earns a ribbon at prescribed point values. Our young Akita Buddy has earned one ribbon, and is about half way to the next one. The week of May 1st I was in two locations delivering a one day class. It's a new class, and there wasn't that much new to it really. The materials were edited to allow the topic to be delivered in one day. Still, it would have been nice to receive the files earlier than 4 am on Monday 5/1. There was no way I could review the stuff, so I delivered that class 'Cold Turkey'. The only problem I had was scheduling my time so the class didn't seem 'Out of Kilter' to the students. It wasn't bad, but it could have been better. I delivered that one-day class in Little Rock Monday, and never got to meet LegendaryMask❤️  . I know she's having some issues right now, so maybe it was for the best. Still, after all this time, it would have been nice to meet her finally. Tuesday I drove from Little Rock to New Orleans. Well, actually Gretna, very close where I was in 2005 the week after Hurricane Katrina. That class (the same as the one I delivered on Monday) went a lot smoother, mainly because I knew the flow now, knew what to do when if you will. Thursday I drove from the New Orleans area to our home in Bloomington Illinois. We left about 8 am, and arrived home at 11 pm. It was a very tiring day, but I had Friday to get a little R&R before this week's class. Right now I am in New York City (Queens) delivering a class, and will be back here in a month. Like I said in a Newsfeed post though, life is good.In Closing I will fly to Brooklyn Monday for a 2-day class, then have a week and a half off before meeting with co-workers the week of Memorial Day. Until next time, be good to those you love, spoil them, and write! Jim Dorrell Jim Dorrell |
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