Sunday, February 27, 2011

Heritage Classic Revisited

One especially nice network segment was a fiber link between
HITS and Scoreboard Control...
(I send them score info, they give me clock data.)

HITS was up in the press box and scoreboard control was down at the field level, in a tent at the foot of the old scoreboard.

So, to get data back and forth we were allowed to re-task some existing fiber.
The fiber termination in the press box was easy- just get the building guy to open the room and BANG - Bob's yer uncle- fiber transceiver installed -thankewberrymuch...

The other end, however...

That involved a locked door too- and a 60' climb made for itty-bitty sign monkeys, and a crawlspace that would give a cockroach claustrophobia.

Door:


Then the ladder:

Yeah- that's 60' to the top.
And it's kinda hard to tell- but the space is very narrow.
So narrow in fact that I couldn't fit through the level partitions with my jacket and sweater on... I had to go up just wearing my shirt and jeans...
And even then it was pretty tight. And bloody f@#*ing cold. I was worried I'd need a shoehorn to get my ass back down to ground level when I was finished.

Top floor: Find the Fiber Cross-connect Box

It's down at the far side of the structure-
I thought the ladder plenum was tight...
This was worse.

Ok. Transceiver installed, network connection made, let's get out of this icebox and into a hot toddy.

Time to go down the ladder.

By this time the cold has set in; I'm shaking like a dog trying to pass a peach pit, my fingers are cramping up from the cold and I'm having a problem hanging onto the rungs of the ladder, but I made it.

I had one thought to console me after the Scoreboard Ordeal...

That, at 9:00pm or later on Sunday night, I'd have to climb back in that beast, remove my transceiver and re-set the original fiber connections...

My life is a carnival.

TBG- ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒE

1 comment:

Bug said...

hmm, I know another network geek that woulda been able to help you out with that kind of environment.