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I travel the country on business, sometimes the world. Come see where I've been. |
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. |
Locale: Bloomington, IL. I will be home this week after all. I was originally scheduled to deliver an online class to the Los Angeles World Airport, but that was changed last Monday night. Instead, I was now going to visit High Point NC again. That all changed (again) on Thursday. The manager of the radio shop I was going to be at, has a family member who tested positive for COVID-19. So, it's cancelled of course. Now, I'll be here at home working on preparing to deliver a tailored class next month. The class last week ended up well it seems. Their radio system is unique as I mentioned in my last entry. One of the things their system supports, is the use of cell phones interfacing with the radios. Cell phones are really radios that operate in what's called 'Full Duplex'. The difference between a cell phone and a radio? Full Duplex means one can transmit and receive at the same time. Radios are half duplex, meaning they can do one or the other, not at the same time. Plus, cell phones operate at different frequencies than radios, so that may make you wonder some. And of course, there's an answer for that too. As I've mentioned several times in other entries, our radio system uses the same kind of devices that the internet does for wide area communication. It's all 'IP' based (Digital, 1's and 0's, not a frequency). So, we use IP devices to interface between the cell phone network, and our radio network. The drive home was something else, and very tiring. Once class was done Thursday (about 2:30), I drove to Virginia Beach to visit a friend of ours. I arrived there about 6:30, and while there, I picked up an Akita puppy she had from a recent litter. I was there almost an hour before heading out. I drove another 3-4 hours, and finally stopped in Charlottesville for the night. (Sorry Robert Waltz ![]() In West Virginia, there's a toll road near Beckley, and a previous driver had set the GPS to avoid toll roads. When the GPS directed me off the Interstate, I thought it was a shorter, faster route. That wasn't the case at all. Because I was on state/county highways now, there were a lot of hairpin turns and slow downs. As a result of all this, I lost at least 1.5-2 hours of time. To top it all off, as I was leaving Huntington WV, just on the west side, traffic came to a stop. MAJOR accident about a quarter mile in front of me! Thank God I wasn't near it or involved in it. But, traffic was at a dead stop for at least an hour. So, I lost three hours of driving all together that day. That was nothing compared to those in that accident. I don't know if anyone was killed in that accident, I never heard any news, never saw the wreckage. By the time traffic moved again, everything was cleaned up, except for minor debris. As a result of those two delays, I didn't get home Friday night until a bit after 10. Another long day. I've decided to drive on my next trip also. Sarasota Florida. I'll leave about noon on Friday, visit a co-worker from Motorola who retired in January (lives in Tennessee), and avoid Atlanta. This means I will most likely drive through Alabama, north to south along I-65. In Closing I will spend the weekend and next week at home before heading off to Florida. Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE! |