Spring Radio Training
If there’s one guarantee with my new telecommunications job, it’s that I am - and will always - be learning. Most of the time, that learning takes place on the job: programming subscriber radios, troubleshooting television and FM radio transmitter issues and fusion splicing fiberoptic cable to name a few. Sometimes I’m learning from an online course or tech blog post. This spring however, I was back in the classroom for all things Motorola radio.
Since moving to the Roaring Fork Valley, I had sworn off flying out of Aspen Airport (ASE) during winter months due to the passenger volume and seemingly endless weather impacts. Couple that with planes only being able to take off to the North and land to the South and that’s a recipe for headaches. Surprisingly, I was able to fly out of Aspen under clear skies.
After a quick connection in Denver (DEN) I arrived at Motorola Headquarters in Schaumburg, Illinois. Don’t be fooled by the blue skies. This was taken in late January on the only sunny day that week.
The first round of training focused on configuring all the networking components that make a Motorola radio repeater site function. From routers and switches to T-1’s, ethernet and fiber optic cables, repeaters and more, it was hardcore, nerdy, super-techy training. I LOVED it!
When it comes to switches, we had to configure ports and tagging of VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) traffic for different devices and functions.
Thankfully for our department, the State Office of Information Technology does most of the device configuration while we do the installs. However, for system troubleshooting and general computer networking this is important to know!
The software-focused part of training was all about configuring the radio system and all the components. This part involved branches upon branches of tree menus, multiple programs and checking/double checking your inputs to make sure things were as they should be. Motorola even has a radio system lab that we were able to build and test our subscriber radio and dispatch console configurations on!
Naturally, I had to stop and smell the tires and browse the power tools at a Midwest staple: Farm & Fleet.
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As a lover of all things craft beer, I did do some sampling during my travels. My absolute favorite was Phase Three Brewing Company. They absolutely crush the New England IPA game!
From the awesome interactions I had with staff, to the quality and presentation of their product, I look forward to visiting them again.
From start to finish, I’m so grateful to work with a boss and a team who are supportive
of my growth and learning as p
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