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Thread ID: 125049 2012-06-03 06:06:00 What Do you do for a living? pctek (84) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
1279476 2012-06-05 04:18:00 Really? Husband started in 1964. Worked in ZCX in Airedale St, Wellesley St, various of the suburbs, Hsn, Mt Roskill, Red Beach all over. He alternated between maintenace at them for a while, then back on installs.
He put the first NEAX stuff in with the Americans.


There's a small chance we crossed paths at some point, I was hired as part of a large trainee intake used as labour to install Neax's. My first few years were mainly installing and cabling Neax's around the waikato, we cut over a large part of the region in one night which was fairly dramatic due to a bit of sabotage I don't think I can discuss. I never worked in auckland though and didn't start til '85.

Scary stuff to think all that gear is still running the phone network today.
dugimodo (138)
1279477 2012-06-05 04:25:00 I'm a building designer......
So am I.
Currently working on a new direction and spending more than I have.:horrified
notechyet (4479)
1279478 2012-06-05 04:36:00 Yeah - you haven't lived until you've played with 3kg of molten sugar/glucose with your bare hands on a polished steel table and strecthed and pulled it over a hook mounted on the wall...

Hah, now that was a leap in confidence to do that, because you couldn't do it with gloves, and you had to have the lolly hot and pliable....It was a big thing when I was 12!

How bazaar to find someone else on the boreds who did confectionery...we are quite rare you know!
SolMiester (139)
1279479 2012-06-05 04:57:00 You downy-cheeked youngsters! My first Compuserve account was on a 2400 modem. I'd have killed for 33.6..

Yeah our first one was a 14.4k modem, but it never went very fast. Learned after using it for several months that we'd set the serial port to 600 baud. No wonder... :$
Chilling_Silence (9)
1279480 2012-06-05 05:22:00 Scary stuff to think all that gear is still running the phone network today.

It isn't. Way back then they ripped it all out and replaced it with the new modern stuff, they still do. NEAX then and what it is now isn't the same.
pctek (84)
1279481 2012-06-05 06:13:00 It isn't. Way back then they ripped it all out and replaced it with the new modern stuff, they still do. NEAX then and what it is now isn't the same.

I hate to tell you this but the NEAX's are very much still in service, maybe not the original few but the stuff I installed in the 80's is still going strong. The "S" and "K" versions are mostly gone but the "61E" is as new as it got, There have been no new exchanges installed since Telecom was sold. They are only just now looking at using the ADSL gear to also supply phone services and did it in Christchurch as a solution when the earthquakes took out some cabinets and exchange equipment. There are some technical hurdles but eventually the broadband gear will probably take over the phone service. Apparently the Neax offers a lot of useful services that are difficult to implement with newer Adsl based equipment or VOIP.

They have kept this stuff in service so long the capacitors in power supply cards have largely dried out and have a very high failure rate if powered down(which is rare) so the repair guys have had to source new components to repair them because the manufacturer no longer makes much in the way of spare parts. They really have proven very reliable with over 20 years service on the average exchange.
dugimodo (138)
1279482 2012-06-05 06:19:00 & what was your favourate area? K_Road?

PJ
Poppa John (284)
1279483 2012-06-05 08:57:00 Do you like the job?

It's not bad. It's my first real professional job so I don't have much to compare it to, but it can be quite interesting work and pays enough so I'm happy.
george12 (7)
1279484 2012-06-05 09:11:00 Was a trade lagger until beginning of the year, now product operations manager for a company that manufactures/exports glow in the dark emergency signage and step nosings. Also started doing there extrusion drawings and renders with a little bit of graphic design for brochures etc. Hoping to talk them into a new website to :clap hueybot3000 (3646)
1279485 2012-06-05 09:49:00 Well done Sam! :clap WalOne (4202)
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