today's office

[Beth Carter]

got to work this morning at dark o'clock and was briefed on the plane crash that occurred last night, told to get a work truck and relieve the split shift at the mobile tmc located at the crash site. crap. but free coffee and donuts for the troops on scene is always a plus.

the pilot died and due to the investigation and respect for the family, i don't have any photos of the crash to share.

these are pics of the mobile tmc. taken while my partner was grabbing lunch, otherwise there isn't enough room to move around.

 

[Dave Moss]

I presume this is the crash in Dover Del (US) one very cramped office Beth

 

[Beth Carter]

I presume this is the crash in Dover Del (US) one very cramped office Beth

yea, that's the one. faa has taken the plane so tomorrow's business as usual, whatever that is . it's never the same day twice in this job. it was very cramped.

 

[Brian Moore]

Looks like its in the back of a truck. Very small! Sorry to hear about the plane crash; I never got to the news this morning.

 

[Beth Carter]

it was a small plane, doubt it made national news, but local and regional news crews were present.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Ooooo mobile command trailer - my company kits those out for first responders

Do you have satellite for network and voice connectivity Beth - or just 3G/4G?

 

[Beth Carter]

ours is a standard fifth wheel camper (or caravan for those of you across the pond), that was sold as a shell. the cabinets and counters were installed by our homeland security lesion..oops..liaison and the tech was done by our IT dept.

we use satellite for most of it as our primary comms (network connections, remote in for the signal system, etc), and 3/4g for some of the equipment that can only run on cdma (gps system for some reason, not sure why, and our mobile am radio station comms), but all primary comms are backed up by a cdma system. yes, i know it's a joke, but our napoleonic powermonger boss didn't know any better, our backup system is down more often than our primary. also have satellite tv (locked to news stations), and the 800ghz radio system, with the older 700ghz as a backup. the IT guy who layed out the plans for all of the tech in the trailer had a wonderful sense of humor, all of the cdmas were mounted in the compartment where the bathroom should have been. they're connected to a hoist antenna on the roof (toilet, sink and shower weren't installed, but the walls were).

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Nice work getting it done in house - that's a challenge for any IT dept

We typically hook all the RF into an IPICS unit, which converts them all to IP so they can go out over satellite, talk to IP phones, talk to each other even on different bands, etc etc

Fun stuff

We did some testing of HD Video Conferencing for Cisco a while back - worked well even with the Satellite delay

It's nice to see technology being used in the front line actually benefitting people - instead of being hidden away in buildings