What is your occupation?
- Thread starter G7Trader
- Start date
Worried Man
Super Member
I'm prior service, myself. USAF officer.
Vintage999
Active Member
Was a CNC machinist for a number of years. Wanted to do better, so I went to law school and then started my own practice. I should have stayed with the Millicron lathes...
Retire next month after 28 years of Army / Air Force service. Need to get a real job now.
Marine0811
I love it loud!
Medically retired from Marine Corps. Then certified fire door inspector. Currently couch to floor clamp
Todd Dodds
Super Member
Light bulb changer on cell and broadcast towers..
Actually there aren't a whole lot of 120vac incandescent lights anymore. Most of what I work on are 500-800vdc xenon flashtubes, but they're now being replaced by LED systems. I've slacked off climbing in the past year, and spend more time sitting in the truck with a walkie-talkie telling my son to hurry up.
It's been a great job, with decent pay, and little interaction with customers and the public...just peace and quiet travelling the backroads of the southeastern US. No real schedule or time pressures, so we can always squeeze in some sightseeing or checking out junk shops, thrifts, etc for audio gear.
Actually there aren't a whole lot of 120vac incandescent lights anymore. Most of what I work on are 500-800vdc xenon flashtubes, but they're now being replaced by LED systems. I've slacked off climbing in the past year, and spend more time sitting in the truck with a walkie-talkie telling my son to hurry up.
It's been a great job, with decent pay, and little interaction with customers and the public...just peace and quiet travelling the backroads of the southeastern US. No real schedule or time pressures, so we can always squeeze in some sightseeing or checking out junk shops, thrifts, etc for audio gear.
Todd Dodds, are you familiar with the LORAN towers near the Wilmington area? Those are the tallest I have ever seen.
Todd Dodds
Super Member
Only seen them, never worked on them, thankfully!
Scares me just to imagine climbing one!
mmickk
What!!??....Wasnt me!
My first years (11) were working as a lineman for a power company in Michigan. Most of my working life was in electronic and electrical maintenance and the last half was in IT as a Technical Analyst. My favorite though was for about three years after moving down to Texas I hired on with an Oil field engineering firm. My job was doing stress testing on large valves and other equipment that was used in the large refineries and chemical plants around the south Texas region. That often involved explosives, what more could you ask for in a job?!
Danny Reeves
New Member
Emergency Department RN. Its an awesome job, exciting every single night!
I am a U.S.Treasury broker, specifically Long Bonds and TIPS, i.e. Treasury Inflation Protection Securities, a treasury derivative linked to the inflation index. Been on Wall Street my whole career, started in operations at Manufacturers Hanover Trust in 1983. Moved to sales of commercial paper, money markets, treasuries. Got promoted to the trading desk, got to have fun with the banks money. Got laid off in a merger and have been brokering treasuries since 1992. Never made any big money, but enough to get by.
My end of the business is continually becoming more automated, when I started at my current firm 20 years ago there were 180 employees, we are down to 50 or so in my department. The young traders are more comfortable with machines and I find them to be awkward on either the phone or in person. They still need us when they screw up a trade and need to get out of a position.
The biggest trade problem I was involved in was when a guy opened his newspaper and hit the BUY button on his keyboard. He traded up $1,000,000,000 (with a "B"), of the "5 year Roll". (Buying the new 5 year issue and selling the outstanding treasury on swap) My customer had a hidden order and sold $500M on the flash, I didin't need my phone to hear him screaming from midtown when I had to tell him it was an "error" trade and he hadn't sold anything. I think that trade took two years off my life. It took a few hours to get out of that one. I could have killed the guy next to me.
My end of the business is continually becoming more automated, when I started at my current firm 20 years ago there were 180 employees, we are down to 50 or so in my department. The young traders are more comfortable with machines and I find them to be awkward on either the phone or in person. They still need us when they screw up a trade and need to get out of a position.
The biggest trade problem I was involved in was when a guy opened his newspaper and hit the BUY button on his keyboard. He traded up $1,000,000,000 (with a "B"), of the "5 year Roll". (Buying the new 5 year issue and selling the outstanding treasury on swap) My customer had a hidden order and sold $500M on the flash, I didin't need my phone to hear him screaming from midtown when I had to tell him it was an "error" trade and he hadn't sold anything. I think that trade took two years off my life. It took a few hours to get out of that one. I could have killed the guy next to me.
Tower climbers have my deep admiration. That's tough work, and the people who do it walk a fine line between being very aware of safety and a kind of studied nonchalance.
s.
I missed your reply. The old Seagull course was one of the 12 or so we leased back in the day. Small world indeed.
Tell me about the conditions when these things go from blinking 'white' xenon to the red lights.
I swear it's random...not time of day or weather.
Todd Dodds
Super Member
They're supposed to be a steady, fast flash of white in daylight, at high enough intensity for a pilot to see. A photocell switches 'em to a less intense, slower red flash at night. Sometimes a tower may be all white, at day and night intensities for various reasons. The idea behind the slower red night mode is that it doesn't really disturb neighbors coming through their bedroom window, but is still clearly visible.
The randomness you see is usually just the different sensitivies of different photocells changing modes on different towers, or something (photocell, relay, etc) is busted. Some towers may also have 3 modes; day, twilight, and night.
On any tower with more than one level of beacons, if just one red light konks out, it switches to a softer "white night", and all the other beacons on the tower have to follow suit (can't have both red and white at the same time, per FAA). But it doesn't always work that way, and hopefully that will help pay for my new speakers.
PS...Driving at night, you may also see a lot of lights that are more of a pink, or peachy color.
That's the result of one manufacturer who solved the 2-color issue by using just one flashtube, and a red plastic sleeve filter that an actuator would raise and lower around the tube as necessary. Over the years, the red plastic filter would fade, then eventually start falling apart.
The whole idea of an Erector Set actuator 500 feet in the air exposed to the elements probably wasn't the ideal solution. But there's still thousands of them out there.
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mrz80
I guess it's in my blood
Network engineer for a large, football-obsessed southern University. Been at it for significantly longer than I like to think about. 
We also run a statewide optical net for Universities and school systems and other research type entities; our backbone's 100gbps on DWDM, and we're looking to upgrade that. Our approach to QoS and congestion is "throw bandwidth at the problem". The job keeps me on the road fairly often, but I have plenty of music on hand and the radio on which to yak when I get bored.
We also run a statewide optical net for Universities and school systems and other research type entities; our backbone's 100gbps on DWDM, and we're looking to upgrade that. Our approach to QoS and congestion is "throw bandwidth at the problem". The job keeps me on the road fairly often, but I have plenty of music on hand and the radio on which to yak when I get bored.
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