Azed
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2020
- Messages
- 207
It has definitely been a leap. Used to working inside with AC and heat. Now I am outside working in rain and snow, through heat waves and 20F degree days.
Went from a supervisor/manager being a handful of feet away to a supervisor that I may see once a week. Went from working with other technicians and pharmacists to doing every job solo. I worked 1:00PM to 9:00PM when I worked pharmacy. The only times I worked past 9:00PM were when we were super behind which only occurred a handful of times when our pharmacy transferred ownership. We couldn't order any scheduled prescriptions for like two months it was terrible that coupled with working with a completely different computer system and POS system. Fun times.
When I first started my current job it was 12:00PM to 9:00PM, the only caveat being that you don't leave until the job is complete. Back in November I switched teams and schedules. So my new schedule was 10:00AM to 7:00PM with a new supervisor. That brings us to last night.
I arrived at 5:45PM. The rain and snow was finally beginning to stop, but the temperatures remained in the 20s. One tech previously out in the last 90 days that referred the job over to our maintenance department. I check their modem's signal levels and they are trash they also had two STBs (cable boxes). It's already pitch black out so I turn my strobes on and grab my 28" ladder and head for the pole. Their drop (cable running from the house to the tap) was trash. Had both electrical and radio ingress/interference. So had to run a new aerial drop to the house. And of course, the previous drop utilized a mid-span, so I had too as well. So had to take my ladder down off the pole where it was secured. Then move it to the area in-between the two poles and where I have no tie off. I can't pull the new drop over the tree branches without a struggle. My ladder is being pulled back towards the pole/tap on the slick mainline strand. Finally, I finesse the cable over the branches and head for the house. Take the ladder down and set it back up on the house.
The interference was gone, but the customers node (the node is organizationally the next level beyond taps and normally encompasses multiple neighborhoods/areas) was in pieces and they had a reverse tilt of 9dBmV tilt at the tap. (Ideally you want your levels/channels/frequencies to have minimal variation between each other. The "tilt" is the range between the highest and lowest levels. A "reverse tilt" means that the lower frequencies are higher than the upper frequencies.) The higher frequencies are primarily responsible for internet traffic. So the customers TVs that utilize the lower frequency weren't having issues, but there internet was. Not fun. Finished all that around 10:00PM.
Was my previous job easier? Without a doubt, yes. Was it as rewarding? Absolutely not. As good as it feels to save your patients some money by switching from their paid for insurance to a discount card it doesn't feel quite as rewarding as fixing someones intermittent internet connection, TV pixelation/tiling, no dial-tone.
