First, Pete introduced the "UEN Hot Team" to address DNS issues.

Then Tony created the "UEN Lightning Team" to rapidly explore and address change management.

And Thursday I was part of the latest "Lightning" team at UEN. Let me introduce you to the other UEN Lightning Team:

Jeff Egly (Leader)
Jeff Short (Tower and Ground Support)
Scott Larson (Tower)
Dan Patterson (Tower, Ground Support & clean-up crew)
Jim Stewart (Ground Support & clean-up crew)

Okay, my contribution was limited to Thursday.

All last week this crew (minus yours truly) worked at the Cold Springs and Bald Mesa sites to install large and medium sized dishes on tall towers.

The task for Thursday was to get a 10 foot, 1500 pound dish 65 feet in the air and attached to one leg of an 80 foot tower. This was to be accomplished with the use of some hardware, a 7 foot pipe, two trucks with wenches, some ropes and a good dose of imagination.

One cable was strung through the middle of the tower, up to the top and down to a strap attached to the mounting bracket on the dish. The second cable was run from a truck parked well away from the tower and attached at the same point as the first. The cable on the tower was used to lift the dish. The second cable was used to keep the dish away from the tower.

Just as the team was preparing to move the dish up the tower clouds appeared in the sky. A good wind soon followed. It was a tough call, but we all agreed that it was better to stop and wait for the weather to improve. Scott had been on the tower, but we prevailed on him to get down. Right after Scott got to the ground we felt rain mixed with the wind.

Four of us stood on the northeast side of the building, right next to the tower. We were talking and laughing when a single bolt of lightning hit. I've never been any closer to lightning. There was a hissing sound, followed immediately by a big flash with a loud thunder clap an instant later. It was impressive.

Jeff Short was sitting in his truck and saw the whole thing. According to Jeff the lightning hit a tower about half a mile away. It felt much closer. Without any discussion we all ran into the building. The rain and lightning delay lasted for more than two hours. Finally, we had a break in the weather.

It took a little over an hour to get the dish in place, once the skies cleared. I was impressed. One of the major obstacles was to get our dish past an ITS dish that was lower on the tower. We turned our dish sideways until it cleared the lower dish. There wasn't much more than 6 inches of clearance. By 4:00 PM the dish was in place.

It was an impressive display of resourcefulness and ingenuity. I was glad to be a part of this process. Mostly, I was impressed. I work with very smart, capable, and amazing people. I'm proud to have played a small part in assisting this authentic "lightning" team.........
12:59:20 PM    comment []