----- Original Message ----- From: "Scottie Arnett" <sarn...@info-ed.com> To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> Sent: Monday, December 07, 2009 9:23 PM Subject: Re: [WISPA] One long @#$%& day!
> "One time, I had to borrow a friends bucket" > > I'll assume you meant bucket truck. The day we bought our bucket truck and > brought it home, I took a 3/8" drill bit to about 3 places in the bottom > of the bucket to let water out. That's not a good idea. You now give a place for electricity to run through your body if you happen to move between a ground source and an electrical line. I've thought of doing that to my truck, but it's really not hard to just dump the buckets. > > "The next time, the bucket was drained >>OK but the hydralics had a leak and would let me down" > > That sucks! We can bypass our generator ran hydraulics and use the battery > powered hydraulics, but your situation sucks. Yeah. I always worry about a total failure. > > "After waiting for help about an hour, I decided to jump to the >>rusty silo ladder about 5 feet away." > > I learned a lesson from my friends that work in bucket trucks at the local > telco and electric co's. Never go up in a bucket alone unless you have a > fully charged, working signal cellphone. I don't do bucket truck work alone. I almost always take another employee with me, one that knows how to run the truck from the ground. It's VERY rare that I don't. Also, I have my truck inspected at least every 2 years (that's only about 40 or 50 hours of use for me). Full checks. Accoustic, ultra sound, weight, electric, the whole thing. Stuff still breaks, especially on the older ones we tend to use, but good inspections are money well spent! marlon > > Scottie > > > ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- > From: RickG <rgunder...@gmail.com> > Reply-To: WISPA General List <wireless@wispa.org> > Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 14:52:29 -0500 > >>Praying for ya! I can identify as many here can and we feel your pain. >>Below >>freezing weather really sucks. I had several sessions like that last year. >>One time, I had to borrow a friends bucket and it was full of water and >>wouldnt drain. So I was in the ice cube filled bucket up to my knees for >>about 3 hours. Not sure how I made it. The next time, the bucket was >>drained >>OK but the hydralics had a leak and would let me down. Thats when the snow >>storm hit. After waiting for help about an hour, I decided to jump to the >>rusty silo ladder about 5 feet away. I vowed to prepare for this winter. >>Time will tell. Hang in there buddy! -RickG >> >>On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 6:49 AM, MDK <rea...@muddyfrogwater.us> wrote: >> >>> It's 2:30 AM... >>> >>> I just drove up to the house, and walked VERY fast inside. After all, >>> weather.com says that it's 12 degrees and an 8 MPH wind. In their >>> head, >>> maybe. Outside of the little valley I live in, the wind's more like >>> 25 >>> mph. There's no snow on the ground. >>> >>> I don't make a habit of staying up late, but last night, I was doing >>> one >>> of >>> those "let's just have some fun" looking around sessions on EBAY. Next >>> thing I knew, it was nearly 3AM. Without shutting anything down, I >>> just >>> crawled into bed. At 8:45 my cell phone rang... I didn't answer it, >>> but >>> I >>> did get up. Looked at my computer and Peer Monitor says... nothing is >>> connected. Now, I have had some issues with one of the dist points a >>> few >>> miles outside of town. It had randomly locked up 3 times last week. >>> Each time, I thought I had found the problem and not worried about it. >>> >>> The first time for instance, it was extremely dense fog, and I found the >>> ventilation fan running in the box. Thinking I had sucked in too much >>> damp, I just shut it off and rebooted. The locked up system is a >>> mini-itx >>> board and RB 14 adapter card W/4 radios... >>> >>> Obviously, I was wrong. Something was wrong. It had run since >>> Friday, >>> but now it's Sun AM and PM says I've been off for 3 hours. It's died 2 >>> other times since the fog incident, so... Houston, we have a problem... >>> >>> I quick yanked on some clothes and drove up the mountain to the site, >>> used >>> the step ladder to get to the box lid and looked in. Restarted and >>> everything went off just fine. But, it's now done this several >>> times. >>> And that's not good or right. I look in the van. Spare mini-ITX >>> board, >>> licensed. Spare RB14, 2 spare radios, including an XR5, just like >>> what's >>> up there. Anyway, morning zips by, and I have an appointment in the >>> afternoon to switch a family friend's computer out for her. So, I go >>> to >>> do >>> that and she's not home. That's odd. I could have sworn she said >>> she'd >>> be >>> there at 2... I wanted to be home, nice and warm and setting up the >>> new >>> board so I could change in in daylight tomorrow. >>> >>> So, I go to the workshop and do some stuff I've been putting off and ... >>> fall asleep, waiting for an OS install to finish. When I wake up, it's >>> after 5. Must have slept at least 15 min... Sheesh. So, I get up, >>> drive >>> over to house, start the project. 30 min later, my phone beeps. Text >>> message... Site's down. ARRRGGH. >>> >>> 25 minute drive to the site and I reboot it. Go home, pull out the >>> parts >>> and start to assemble the whole thing. It goes down again . Drive >>> back >>> up, restart. This time, nothing will coax it into running. Finally, >>> I >>> pull everything out, and take it home. Now the phone's going nuts. I >>> just >>> put 60 customers down. I take it home, cause it's COLD out there on >>> the >>> hillside... and everything runs flawlessly. Just to be judicious, I >>> grab >>> a >>> config backup off of it, 'cause it's changed lately and my last backup >>> is a >>> few weeks old. >>> >>> I haul it up the mountain, put it back in place... No run. >>> So, I go home, grab the spare mini-itx, use the backup config and haul >>> it >>> up >>> the mountain. >>> >>> Won't boot. Doesn't even beep. Power comes on, but no beep. >>> >>> Haul it down the mountain, back home (this is .7 miles of rocky pasture >>> I >>> drive through at idle in 1st gear, then 5 miles of paved road. Takes 20 >>> min >>> round trip) with all the parts. Runs flawlessly. Haul it back up >>> the >>> mountain, plug it in, boots, but locks 5 to 60 seconds after booting. >>> >>> Inspect EVERYTHING (it's dark, so had to do it all by flashlight) again. >>> I >>> see nothing. So, I grab the spare RB14, switch the radios over and >>> plug >>> it >>> in. Boots. Lights flash. Fire up the laptop and no. It's not >>> working. >>> log in through ethernet port... NO RADIOS DETECTED. >>> >>> Put old RB14 back in, change one radio. Boots up. Logs in. all >>> radios >>> detect, data flowing to customers. >>> >>> Drive home. Try to thaw out. The wind up there is 25 mph and it cuts >>> like a knife through you. Log in from home and watch everything, >>> suddenly >>> noticed one of the ap radios has no clients. Odd. Look at config, >>> looks >>> ok, reset radio, clients begin to associate. As they slowly hop on, >>> I'm >>> sitting there wondering why this... and just then, PM suddenly starts >>> popping up red. Sure enough. System locked. >>> >>> Drive up the mountain, put in second spare radio in place of XR5 and >>> boot. >>> (Spare XR5, was used for 2 weeks in temp site). System boots and runs >>> and >>> ... No link to the XR5. Try new pigtail. Dead. How strange. >>> It >>> worked fine just 9 days ago, and it's been stored in the ALIX board it >>> was >>> installed and working in all this time. >>> >>> As I'm sitting and watching while sitting in the van, trying to stop >>> shivering with the heat on full blast, It locks up again. I reboot. >>> Everything comes up, I had put the old XR5 in, and everything starts >>> working - apparently it wasn't the pigtail, just the replacement XR5 >>> that >>> had no output. Waited 15 min, still running. Go home. Look at Peer >>> Monitor. All Green. Suddenly, a bunch of stuff goes red, and it's >>> all >>> far away. Call partner. He's a whole state away, forgot he wasn't >>> coming >>> back from his relatives until Mon night... But the red stuff's near >>> him. >>> As is the workshop. >>> >>> It's now almost 11 pm. The van has almost no gas left, the nearest >>> open >>> gas station is 23 miles away. So, I drive to the workshop, to find >>> out >>> why on earth the shop and some other stuff was red, and everything's >>> fine >>> when I get there. Finally decided that I must have removed a routing >>> statement earlier that I needed instead of the right one. Started >>> going >>> up >>> the chain, looking at all the routing. No routing errors located, but >>> the >>> very last device before the backhaul to the site that feeds my town.... >>> shows no link. I call home, son verifies... Site's down again. >>> >>> Said a few angry outbursts... Looked around found another new RB14, >>> put >>> ALL new radios in it. Determine the new RB14 doesn't look anything like >>> the >>> old one. Determined which slots are numbered which, so I can know >>> which >>> pigtails go where... Go to gas station, get gas. Stop at Walmart on >>> the >>> way back, get REALLY WARM HAT for the head, and drive back to the >>> mountain. >>> Somewhere in there I stopped and got junk food to eat too. Hadn't had >>> food >>> since 1:30 PM. Was feeling faint. That took over an hour. >>> >>> Drive back up the mountain, remove old RB14 and old radios, put in new. >>> System wont' start now. >>> >>> Pull board and everyting, look at it in the light. See no problem. >>> Put >>> it back in, plug everything in, then I found I had bumped the "off" >>> switch >>> on the #$%&^ power strip. Flip switch, plug in PS, lights come on. >>> >>> Since no XR9 is in use now, a pigtail is wrong, so I get a new piggy and >>> replace the old one with a UFL/NFBulkhead... Piggy is cold and it takes >>> about 30 tries to get the UFL connector on, even tried "warming" it with >>> my >>> hands. Err, my hand shaped chunks of ice. It takes 3 sessions to >>> get >>> the pigtail in place on the bulkhead end. It took several to get the UFL >>> end >>> on. I was able to stand outside just long enough to push the threaded >>> end >>> through the hole. Go sit in van. Get out, get nut properly threaded. >>> Get back in van. Tighten nut with fingers. Can't find tools I had >>> earlier. Get in van. Finally, get out of van with gloves on, and >>> hand >>> tighten the n connector. Get back in van. Can't feel my hand touch >>> my >>> face. My hand can't feel the difference betwene inside the glove, in >>> front >>> of the incredibly hot air coming out of the heater, or touching the cold >>> glass window beside me. I could not even get 2 minutes outside before >>> pain >>> so intense from the cold wind drove me back inside. Drive home. >>> >>> EVERYTHING IS UP. Oh, wait. Several sites are going >>> yellow/red/yellow/green/yellow/red repeat adnauseum... >>> >>> So, I start looking. Finally, discover that the 3.65 backhaul has 120 >>> to >>> 400 ms ping times across it. Even though it's passing just 40 to 100KB >>> of >>> data. Restart both ends. No help. Then, I noticed that quality >>> on >>> end is zilch, but the other end is running 18 to 36 speed, instead of >>> 54. >>> Lock back faster end to 36 and pings drop to 2-8 ms. Great. Another >>> bad >>> XR3... This one's up on a pole, about 18 feet off the ground, on top >>> of a >>> hill at a wind powered site. I think it'll wait until tomorrow. >>> >>> Oh, wait... I ##$%%^ forgot to close the danged gate, so I drove back up >>> the >>> mountain. Closed gate. Wind is 5 mph stronger AT LEAST and 2-4 >>> degrees >>> COLDER than it was last time I was up there. The moon is pretty. >>> Stars >>> are awesome. I can't stand outside to admire them. >>> >>> Ok, the system's been up for long enough. I'm going to bed. Now it's >>> 3:30 and I can't keep my eyes open. I hope I'm forgiven if I turn off >>> the >>> cell phone and hope to sleep in.... And I still DON"T KNOW WHICH >>> PARTS >>> ARE GOOD OR BAD!!!!!!! >>> >>> I'm going to have nightmares. >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> WISPA Wants You! Join today! >>> http://signup.wispa.org/ >>> >>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> >>> WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org >>> >>> Subscribe/Unsubscribe: >>> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless >>> >>> Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ >>> >> >> >>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>WISPA Wants You! 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