As an entrepreneur, I have many egos (or different roles as per the unique responsibilities of each contract.) One of those is as a valiant deliverer of internet to businesses and residences in my home town. Makes for some neat pictures from atop a ladder and the occasional funny story.
It occurs to me that it has been a long winter and that I have not posted a ladders picture in 4 months! since that time, spring has sprung and we have had 3 months of lock down. The company for whom I do the installation has been in hibernation mode and doing next to no sales (and zero marketing as usual) so there have not been many opportunities to get atop my ladder.
People still need internet, probably now more than ever, so I expect an increase in ladder adventures as business opens again. In the meantime, here as a few shots to show you I was active in the last 4 months.
This is vantage point from the antenna I install that grabs the wireless internet connection. This is a nice old house in one of the original downtown neighbourhoods. Great big old houses and plenty of mature tees make for challenging wireless internet installation but excellent pictures to share.
This was in March right as the lock down was announced and I remember the technicians hesitantly asking me if I was still in business and available to help customers. I didn't hesitate to say yes as I knew how important internet would be to keep people entertained and productive.
You see some neat things from the top of a ladder occasionally. Not only is it a rare perspective, but you catch a view of things you wouldn't see from the ground. I have seen marijuana crops, and all sorts of back yards from fantastic to bordering on hoarder.
This one was kinda cool as you can see a male and female mallard using this winterized pool as their own private pond. I asked the owner if he minded and he said he actually enjoyed the sight. He did hope that they found a more permanent home when the cover comes off, cleaning is completed, and the warm weather is back.
This one is another Covid story as I scheduled an onsite to help one of our nurses. You can see the trees are showing no sign of leaves but the grass has maintained its green throughout a winter with not that much snow. This is only a few hundred meters from the first picture but you can see the change in house style to standard 2-storeys and bungalows.
These are 2 shots from pretty much the same vantage point a week apart. Funny how the blue sky and sunlight make for such drastically different shades of the same thing. Across the street is the fanciest hotel in town which was recently built a few years ago. I find it entertaining that old houses on the main street in town have gravel driveways and right across the street is opulence and luxury.
Most are here for the pictures from roof tops but I bet there are a few technical people wondering about the technology. The network is a mix of the older Motorola Access Points and these newer Aruba ones shown on the right side of the pole. They broadcast the wireless signal out to homes and businesses in the direct area (preferably with line of sight to the AP.) On the left of the pole, there is a device the technicians call Nanobeams. They help the access points talk to each other directly as some have fiber optic cable connecting them to the internet, while others are repeaters (getting their signal from another AP)
This is a close-up shot of the Access Point the technicians needed to read a serial number. You can see how close they are to the power lines and why I avoid getting close to them at all costs.
This is one of the old school Ubiquiti Nanostation antennas we installed for customers so that they could connect wirelessly to the access points and provide internet for the home/business. There are lights on the back which give you a rough idea of the signal strength but we do most of our diagnostics from computer applications.
There are newer antennas we are installing nowadays and I will have to get a shot of one for the next ladders post.
If you fast forward a couple months to this past weekend, you can see the trees have leaves, foliage has perked up, and the Dairy Queen is open for business. Way up on the left is where the panoramic shots were taken and the fancy hotel is on the left behind the trees. I made a special arrangement to install this one on the weekend (rather than the standard weekday schedule) because this was a young dad with kids visiting. He wanted to make sure they were entertained between playing in the yard and grabbing ice cream conveniently from the neighbour.
This final shot was yesterday where you can see the weather was fabulous. When the clouds cleared, they completely vanished and temperature got up to around 21 Celsius. The trees have almost filled out completely and gardens are full of seedlings hardening and growing nicely. People are carefully getting outside though maintaining their distance to be safe.
You can see the access point in the middle of the pole and this proximity and direct line of sight made for a strong signal and most likely what will be a very happy customer.
