Tech Notes from the Field

I am going to attempt weekly updates with detailed posts on those things of interest.  As most weeks are pretty mundane, weekly recaps seem to be the best.  This week is no exception with the added twist of politics and a day with LTE.

The daily grind stuff is like an ATS (automatic transfer switch) service at the transmitter site.  I discovered that it was not switching back to commercial power once restored.  I sent the model number and pictures to the company that does the service; they send a tech who did not know the model number or device he was to work on until he saw it.  He determined it is a bad timing relay, and of course it needs to be ordered.  Part two of the service comes when the part comes in.

The FUN, yes capitalized, was our day with Verizon (lunch), and the USB LTE (4G to those who like buzz words and terms) device and prototype LTE router.  After we got back from lunch we jumped on the test bench and connected our Tieline Field Unit to the router.  We ran wirelessly at 192kbps!  With 3G we were only capable of 33.6 to 38kbps reliably.  Now that is an improvement.  The item I noticed right off was the latency when locked in was 60ms!  With 3G we saw a wandering latency from 500ms to over 1sec!  We saw upload speeds approaching 5Mbps and downloads at 12Mbps.  Now I must add that no one is really on the LTE network, but we were impressed.  The one thing we did notice as we were testing within the confines of the building that as I moved near the antenna of the device we experienced some data hits.  So, the speeds are there, you just need reliable reception to maintain.  I bet outside without any interfering factors will make this thing fly real well.  With a little tweaking of the pre-correction, I foresee some good times.  Tieline:  Create a way to connect this device directly to a USB port and you have a winner right now.

The political game of business is always fun.  I do not take kindly to threats; yet, the third-party company is known to play this way.  I kissed and made up with the part that is actually doing the work.  It involves and STL move/change.  I am wary of the 5dBm margin calculated by Comsearch.  If they are a true engineering company this would concern them, too, but I suspect anything that comes under 0dBm of interference passes in their book.  I do have the word that the installing party will correct any issues, so we are all playing nice.  In our crowded microwave market, and whose isn’t, we try to play as nice as possible.

Next week a little trenching and routine work.  Soon some Nautel NV modifications (with full reports) and maybe some thoughts on processing.  Have a great weekend!