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 |  I travel the country on business, sometimes the world. Come see where I've been. |
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Talk about perks, my job has one of the best ones I can think of! I travel in the course of business, delivering classes for my employer. I am a Senior Training Specialist for Motorola Solutions, and teach classes on a wide variety of subjects centered around 2 way radio communications. I'm qualified to deliver approximately 30 different classes, but about half of those are 'Legacy' classes, and are not in demand anymore. My students are technicians, those who maintain, program, calibrate, and repair large 2-way radio systems. Some of these systems are statewide, and use TCP-IP networking to allow sites to communicate with others. Some are small, traditional type radio sites. The size doesn't matter, in each case the systems must be kept operational at all times, since many of them are Public Safety Systems. So I get to travel, sometimes frequently, 3-4 weeks in a row.... where am I this week? This probably won't have daily entries, but I will make entries when I get to go somewhere, and keep an updated list of coming trips. My schedule changes faster than the weather, so don't be too surprised to see me list an upcoming class, only to remark later on that it is cancelled, or delayed. Delays are fine of course, but a later date might mean that someone else gets to go instead of me,,, Well, here we go with this, let's see where it takes us.  Best Cultural And Regional Honorable Mention |
| Teaching In Schaumburg & From Home Locale: Schaumburg & Bloomington, Illinois Week of: 7/25/22 This class is the one I delivered in Kansas just two weeks ago. While the students didn't exhibit the same enthusiasm that the Kansas studens did, things still went well, all things considered. All things considered? Yeah, Monday night was a tough night for me, I coughed most of the night and felt sorry for anyone in a room near me. Shades of early last year! The cough was that bad. I went to work Tuesday morning, and from there to Urgent Care. The students ended up having the day off because I was tested for COVID again, and was positive this time too. I'm still not sure if it was a carry-over from being in Kansas, or a new case. Either way, I was miserable. I was in Urrgent Care for about 3 hours, and was prescribed Paxlovid, the same anti-viral medicine our president has been taking. When I left Urgent Care, I went to my hotel, packed things up and checked out. Then of course, I had that 2-hour drive home. In some cases, I probably should not have been driving. The cough remained with me, and there were a couple of times that I felt the blood rush to my head, and the feeling I might pass out. But, having gone through this last year, I knew I wasn't close to the fainting point, but still..... I should not have been driving. With no other way to get home really, I had to drive. It wasn't that dangerous, but that might just be me downplaying things. My manager came in while I was in Urgent Care and explained what was going on. They were offered the chance to go home early, or continue the class as an online class. Believe me, when I got home, the last thing I wanted to do was teach on line the next day. When I woke Wednesday morning I sitll didn't feel like teaching on line. But I did begin the class, and as the day wore on I felt better. That cough is still with me though. I see my Primary Care doctor Tuesday morning, we'll see what comes of that. I made it through the week though, but have slept on a makeshift bed (cot), or on the love-seat (we don't have a couch), every night. I have a tough time lying down right now, when I lie down I start to cough. This cough is not a small, soft cough. It's loud, it's from deep in my chest, and can leave me breathless. I haven't passed out from it, but I've felt it coming on once again. I am not sure the cough is due to COVID, or if something else is going on that might be COVID related, which is causing the cough. I'm still here, alive and somewhat well, that's the good thing. Am I completety healthy? NO. Nor do I think I will ever be 100% again. If not COVID, if not the cough, I have some amount of pain every day. There's no getting away from it, so I grin and bear it. I am going to a back pain specialist this week, we'll see what he says. My schedule has been modified due to this past week, so I will not be in Schaumburg as originally scheduled. I will be home resting, sleeping, and recovering all I can. My Quarantine ends tonight, but I have the extra 5 days of isolation, and will wear a mask about everywhere I go. My manager wants me to have another COVID this week, and it has to come back negative. Otherwise I will not fly to LA on Sunday the 7th of August.  I have my fingers crossed.In Closing I am home next week, and as of now, I fly to LA as I said. We'll see what happens with the tests this week as to whether I go or not.. As of now, my schedule is full to the gills through the end of the year and into next year. I look for it to remain that way. Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE!  Jim Dorrell |
| This should really have a different title, but this title hit me, and I'm stickin with it. Locale: Saline, Kansas Week of: 7/11/22 This past week was spent in Saline Kansas. Don't say Say-leen like I do. Instead it's Say-line. Whatever. The class started out very strong. There were six students, each with a bit of RF background, each looking to bolster their knowledge and learn more about a Trunked RF System. Monday was excellent, one of the Senior Engineers commented that he was learning a lot already. That comment was special because it seemed the others looked to him for guidance and advice. Back at my hotel Monday evening, I received a call from the Motorola Project Manager. Someitmes this can be a bad sign, and I wondered what might have prompted the call. As we talked, he said one of the students had called him immediately after the class ended and raved about it, saying, "This is exactly what we need to learn!" What a compliment to recieve on day one.  The rest of the week was just as good as day one.What I really love in delivering a class is receiving a lot of questions from the students. There are two reason for loving questions on my part. First, it shows they're interested, and want to know more about topics I haven't covered and may not cover. Two, if I don't know the answer I look it up, and in the process, I also learn. There were no unanswered questions durin this class though. This class is particularly suited to many questions and answers, we took full advantage of every opportunnity there. During breaks, it was hard to get out long enough for a restroom call, letalone relax a little. I didn't mind, but I did excuse myself on occasion to take that restroom break. Other than that, I remained in the room answering questions. On Wednesdaty I developed a minor cough. With my coughing experience from last year pretty fresh in my mind, I figured it was due to new pollens in Kansas that I had not been around before, and that the coughing was due to allergies. Or was it wishful thinking on my part? Yep, as you might know now, I contracted COVID, verifed by a test completed Saturday with results coming in on Sunday. I had a very mild case of it though. I only had the cough, a little bit of 'going to the bathroom frequently' (trying to keep it clean here), and a bit of fatigue. I've spent all my time staying home since this, and did not go to Fort Lauderdale as planned Monday. I was relegated banished to the living room per the CDC guidelines. We don't have an extra bathroom, so that was shared. Anything I ate was placed on a small table at the living room entry and I carried it from there to my small TV tray in front of the love seat. Yep, small house, and small living room. I slept on the love seat three nights (and days at times), which is not long enough to accomodate my body. It was cramped, but livable and doable. Once the weekend passed, I seemed to get better quickly, but am still not 100%. It might take a while to get there. In Closing I am in Schaumburg next week for 5 days, and will spend the weekend home. As of now, my schedule is full to the gills through the end of the year. I look for it to remain that way. Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE! Jim Dorrell |
| Locale: Bloomington, Illinois Week of: 7/4/22 Though this is considered an off week (no delivery because of the July 4th holiday), I still had work to do. We all do, but mine was an organized type of work. The content manager blocked my schedule for this week so I could spend it working with one of our technical writers. We were to work on a course that is a prerequisite for a course that I am the Subject Matter Expert (SME) for. We had a one-hour meeting using Google Meet Tuesday-Friday, with a goal of covering all 12 modules in the course. We achieved our goal and then some. She shared the Course Storyboard with me so I could mark it up as needed, delete inaccurate text, and arrange things so it flowed smoothly. Let me backtrack a little, and explain a little bit about this course. Being a prerequisite course, it was divided into two separate paths. One path is for what we call the M Core/L Core. These are both Cores used mainly with Trunked Systems. I'm not going to go into what a Trunked system is vs a Conventional System, which often uses the K Core. It's the K Core that I am the SME for. Some of the slides are identical, some have minor or major differences. The problem with this course is that Trunked data/graphics/demonstrations were used at times in the K Core portion. Plus, the flow was not consistent, often we'd see a subject covered in detail, only to come back to that subject later in the course. When that subject was covered later, it may or may not match what had been covered earlier. Another thing that's being done with this edit, is to create a new prerequisite course that applies to the K Core only. So, I deleted any slide that was used in the M/L Core content only. As a result, we lowered the modules from twelve to about six or seven. The next step is for the writer to rework everything with custom animations. She'll send it to me for review and suggestions. Corrections will be made by her (yes, corrections will be necessary), and I'll review it all again. She wants this completed by mid-August. I don't have a free week until late August, I am delivering classes for the next six weeks. That doesn't matter to me, I'll do the reviews during an evening or on weekends. I told her to give me a deadline each time, and I will get it done. I like deadlines, believe it or not. I think I work better with one, because I will front load the work so it's completed early, then spend some reviewing the suggestions. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my job? I'm not being sarcastic in saying that either. In Closing I fly to Kansas on Sunday, and and have about a 70 minute drive to Salina from Wichita. I may visit Marquette Kansas on my drive. It one of those towns where you can get property for free! The catch of course is that you have a fixed amount of time biuild a house. Yes, I would not mind one bit living in Kansas. The following week will be spent in Fort Lauderdale for a four day hands-on only class. Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE! Jim Dorrell |
| Locale: Bloomington, Illinois Week of: 6/20/22 For the first time in a while, I delivered back to back classes of the same course. This is one of the things I love about being qualified in the courses I am. I rarely deliver the same course two weeks in a row. But here I am doing just that, and that's fine. Once in a while. This week's class was a Federal Customer, and since it is the Fourth of July weekend, Friday was a holiday for them. This necessitated a slight change in the schedule. Instead of delivering the class in five 3-hour days, I would deliver it in four 4-hour days. It changes things quite a bit really. You might wonder why, so I'll explain. I know where I want to be at the end of a given day for every class I teach. So, teaching five 3-hour days is different than teaching four 4-hour days. You stop at different places in the curriculum. For some it's no big deal, they sort of 'wing' each delivery, teaching each delivery of the same class differently. I was trained to follow a different approach due to my background in Nuclear Power. You follow the Instructor Guide, and personalize the delivery with your knowledge. For most others, personalizing means deliver the class in whatever order you wish, no need to follow a guide. I lost that fight long ago, and though I haven't given up, I realize I'll never change their minds. It would take management involvement to change the way classes are delivered. Oh well.... maybe some day, long after I'm gone. I know I've mentioned this before, but Fleetmapping is all about configuring the system (in particular, a server at the Core called the 'Provisioning Manager') and the radios to maximize their capabilities. I teach radio programming also, making this class a bit easier to learn initially. In every class of radio programming, I tell the students that configuring a field value in CPS (the software used to program radios) only gives the radio the ability to perform that function. The system in this case, is that server called the Provisioning Manager. Here's an easy example. Suppose I configure the radio with CPS to send a voice call using encryption? I have to log on to the Provisioning Manager (PM), create/edit that 'radio object', and configure the radio in the PM to grant it permission to make that kind of call. Now imagine that your company, county, city, state, or whatever your agency is, has spent over 100 million dollars on this new radio system, and the radios you want to be able to send Encrypted Calls can't because they have not been configured correctly in the PM. You start to see the value of Fleetmapping. I was given a copy of their Fleetmap, which is in the preliminary stage. They have a long way to go, and a lot to learn. The class was good, everything went well. I could almost see their eyes becoming less confused as the class progressed, even though I never saw their faces. (No one turns on their Webcams for class). This group did a good job in asking questions and discussing topics they didn't understand well. Only time will tell how much they learned as they build their Fleetmap. In Closing I am home this week, and will spend it working with a curriculum developer on modifying an online prerequisite dourse. My session with military members was a complete flop since no one showed up. Since they are still in the Military, they had Friday off also, so I'm not surprised. My next trip will start Sunday when I fly to Kansas to visit Dorothy, and the town of Salina. After that, it's back to Fort Lauderdale for a four day hands-on only class. Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE! Jim Dorrell |
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I then went to Taiwan for two weeks; but, although that was nice, it wasn't 'home'. 