From: hornetd.remove-this@gmail.com   
      
   On 2021-10-11 20:12, comp.dcom.telecom@googlegroups.com wrote:   
   > Bill Horne : Oct 11 06:09PM   
   >   
   > On Mon, Oct 11, 2021 at 06:01:04AM -0000, David Lesher wrote:   
   > > >There are VoIP adapters which are able to connect POTS instruments to   
   > > >a VoIP access. They're almost certain to cost less than a cellular   
   > adapter.   
   >   
   > > No broadband there. Hence the cellular request.   
   >   
   > Every time I read about cellular devices repacing copper pairs, I   
   > remember the job my brother had in South America: he was building   
   > solar-powered cell sites for a subsidiary of GE.   
   >   
   > He told me that every site was located on a mountaintop, accessible   
   > only by helicopter.   
      
      
   Bill   
      
   Your memory is a little off on that. Many of the sights were on   
   mountaintops were the only rapid way to access them is helicopter. Many   
   of those had very rough, hard traveling for days at a time, road access   
   but about a 1/3 did not. We also had to install them at every telephone   
   exchange in the southern part of the country because the system needed   
   access to the individual local telephone exchanges to put the calls onto   
   their POTS network. The existing connections between rural exchanges was   
   microwave and they said that they only had trouble with that very   
   rarely. I asked the Telefónica  Argentina project  manager why they were   
   insisting on steel equipment shelters for installations on ridges and   
   mountaintops, that were being built using helicopters which were real   
   beasts [S-64 Aircrane class birds], when they were allowing us to use   
   walk in refrigerator kits to make the shelters at the exchanges. He   
   chuckled and said, through pantomime, that the bored gauchos on the   
   pampas below were likely to shoot at the shelters with their 30/30 lever   
   action saddle carbines. The steel skinned shelters would stop the 30/30   
   bullets where aluminum shelters or the metal skinned Styrofoam panels of   
   the walk in refrigerator kits, which we had used so successfully in so   
   many other places, would not.   
      
   A side note on that project was that I carried an extra suitcase   
   everywhere that the crew went and I filled 2 20-Liter size water   
   carriers with fresh water at the start of each days driving between   
   the work sites. The suitcase was one of the monstrous roll along hard   
   shelled type that is almost always charged as overweight when flying.   
   Finally the crews curiosity got the better of them and they asked what   
   was in the suitcase after noticing that it's weight never changed and   
   they had never seen me open it. I just opened it for them because my   
   Spanish is so bad that the only phrase I knew was "Where is the   
   bathroom." They gawked at my large supply of freeze dried food,   
   international multi fuel stove, pots, & eating equipment for 8   
   people. They asked me what it was for and I pantomimed driving the   
   truck, the engine sputtering, and our coming to an unwanted stop. I   
   looked all around and shrugged my shoulders, talked on the satellite   
   phone without actually using it, indicated 2 days to them and began   
   the set up to cook. They asked "So Much?" I gestured 16 days for me or   
   2 days for all of us. I then repeated 2 days for all of us and showed   
   yes by the customary shake of the head recognized everywhere I've been   
   in the world. After that they went obviously out of their way to do   
   anything which I indicated needed to be done. I had obviously risen   
   very much higher in their esteem. I put a large duct tape stripe   
   across the suitcase and wrote out word by word, from my English <>   
   Spanish dictionary, My life long crew leading mantra. "Take care of   
   the people and they will take care of the work!" After that they   
   showed that suitcase to every one of the managers and overhead types   
   who came to the work sights like a show and tell. Many of them saw how   
   appreciative their construction people were of my looking out for them   
   and got the idea. I cannot believe that so many people in management   
   are total strangers to that concept.   
      
   It sometimes took days to drive from one town to the next and we stayed   
   at rural guest houses at ranches along the way. When Teleffónica   
   Argentina realized how much Westinghouse (not GE) was charging them for   
   my time they had another crew that would leap frog to every other   
   install and had me driven to an airport to fly to the next install. I   
   left the suitcase with the crew I started with and told them to just   
   leave it at the Buenos Aires office when they got back. A week later the   
   other crew had a much older but fully functional satellite phone, a   
   couple of crates of food, bottled water and a little gas stove on which   
   to cook. That crew looked at their boss like a Martian had landed. He   
   pointed at me and indicated that I was crazy and they only did it to   
   humor me. When he was gone each one of them shook my hand like I was a   
   long lost son. It really isn't rocket science. I taped the same mantra   
   onto those containers as well. "Take care of the people and they will   
   take care of the work!" We got a lot more shelters built and fitted out   
   in one month than anyone at Westinghouse thought we could. Gee I wonder   
   why?   
      
   --   
   Tom   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)