Bill Buchan presented on worst practices in wireless internet service provision to underline best practices. Some examples included: a wireless site container that tipped over during a storm due to incorrect wind loading calculations; overloading an inverter powering multiple radios and cameras; a cable that was damaged by rust allowing water ingress; an antenna mounted upside down allowing water to fill it; fiber cables being chewed by mice; and safety issues like working at heights without harnesses or falling tools. The presentation emphasized planning, maintenance, equipment siting and securing cables and gear to avoid outages and hazards.

1. Bill Buchan, WISPA Edinburgh, 2022
Worst Practices
We can all do better than this

2. Introduction
•Bill Buchan,WISP since 2013, Marykirk.com Owner (and
sometimes operator)
•This presentation is intended to
• Underline best practices
• By showing you some worst practices
• Not all were committed by us

3. How Windy was it?
•During Storm Malik, one of our main repeater sites went
of
fl
ine
•We tried to restart things remotely, and scanned for any
equipment from other locations to see if we can get to any of
the 15+ antenna.
•No joy
•Site survey:

4. How Windy was it?

5. How Windy was it?

6. How Windy was it?

7. How Windy was it?
•We had not calculated our
wind loading correctly.
•The 2 tonne container had tipped over
•The farmer had a solution - loading
another 2 tonnes of concrete.
•The camera recording:
https://youtu.be/2B3WZFYO7ZI
•36 hours to completely resume service.
We were lucky. A nearby station
recorded a wind speed of 104 knots.

8. MOAR POWER!
•This transmission site is big
• Spread over two physical locations 350m apart, lots
of radios
• Some licensed link SIAE and Siklu radios had been
added over time
• And a CCTV system.
•Come the winter, as usual, the power
fl
ickers
and…
• The site goes down…
•Despite aVictron MultiPlus inverter, 4x110AH
batteries, etc…

9. MOAR POWER!
•We had overloaded the inverter
• Rated at 400w, we were running 550w through it
• Main offenders:
• Licensed Links at 50w each
• CCTV cameras at 24w each
• Reduced load in the short term, and swapped the unit at 1am later in the
week
• Keep an eye on loadings. Review them when you add kit.

10. Good old rusty
•Customer complained that their service was intermittent.
•And that their router was ‘Rusty’.
•This, we gotta see…
•Got to site, and discovered yes, the RJ45 socket that our
antenna cable plugged into was, indeed, rusty.As was the RJ45
plug on the antenna cable…

11. Good old rusty
•The cable had got damaged - by rubbing against the wall - and
a small nick had formed on the outer sheath.
•When water ran down the outside of the cable, it was sucked
into the sheath, and ran down the inside of the cable over
time.
•When we cut the plug off the end, water literally ran out of
the cable.

12. Good old rusty
•Moral:
• Always secure the outdoor cable,
• Always put in a drain loop (this might have slowed the water ingress to
the house and the router)

13. The Upside Down
•Customer called up - service intermittent, then failed.
•Customer restart failed to get the service running
•We drove through the rain and found…

14. The Upside Down
•Site visit found a Ubiquiti NanoStation dangling from its cable
• The installer had not used UV Proof cable ties for this install
• Even in Scotland, these will degrade over time
• The antenna had popped off it’s pole, and was dangling upside down
• When it rained, the water ran down the cable, and
fi
lled up the
NanoStation

15. The Upside Down
•Moral:
• Always use UV proof cable ties. Or stainless steel ones
•Always mount the correct way up
• We once mounted a nanobeam upside down, and the drain hole quickly became
the
fi
ller hole…

16. More Cheese, Vicar?
•Major site at Docks
•Two separate
fi
bre leased lines
•Both die within minutes of each other
•Investigation:
• Power
fi
ne
• Network… Oh….

17. More Cheese, Vicar
•The
fi
bre cable running between
cabinets (in a duct) had been eaten
•Clearly, mice like eating cheese
coloured things..
•4 hour wait for OpenReach engineer
to get there with a splicer
•Moral. Always put
fi
bre in an
armoured sheath, or Copex, if
it’s not in a data centre

18. Shorties

19. One Step Beyond
•Engineer up a very very tall ladder
•Mobile phone went off.
•He answered it, got distracted, turned round to walk away.
•Air Ambulance trip to Emergency
•Lucky to be alive.
•Moral: Focus on the job.Training.Wear a harness.And don’t
let this idiot up a ladder again.

20. Driller Killer
•Drilled from inside a customers house
•Drilled through a gas pipe
•Evacuated the street, Fire engines, etc
•Moral: Always know what you’re drilling through

21. Lumberjacking at speed…
•A tree fell on the van, whilst it was
doing 40mph
•Ripped off the roof bars
•No-one hurt.
•Underpants replacement.
•Police:‘Buy a lottery ticket’
•Moral: Be aware of surroundings,
don’t insult small Irish fellas.

22. Stubborn
•Developer: BT - can you move
this pole?
•BT: Sure. £££
•Developer: Sod that
•Moral: Buy Cheap, Pay Dear.

23. The Long Way Down
•Always
• Walk through the job on the ground
• Work out which tools, supplies, etc, you
need before you set foot on a ladder
• Tie your tools on. Dropping one on
your co-worker isn’t good.
•Moral: Plan in advance, or get
very
fi
t climbing ladders

24. Tips

25. Generators
•Always get generators with run-time
indicators on the panels
•Practice
fi
lling them whilst they’re running, for
those 7 day power outages…
•Make sure they’re serviced and ready to go at
all times.
•Keep a gerry can or two of fuel around.
Sometimes Petrol Stations are not open.
•Stick some tracking device on them:
• During the storms, we forgot where we’d placed
one…

26. Site Etiquette
•Caught short at the top of a church tower?
• Check that the roof drains have gutters before making use of them.
• If they don't, make sure your van isn't underneath
•Do not ever have more than a single engineer/person climbing a spiral staircase at a time
• the only place the loose stuff in their toolbelt is going - is straight down
•When working in rickety old buildings, always spend an extra two minutes checking
where the hidden pigeon's location is
• inevitably it's always where your ladder is going and the shite will only identify himself noisily when
you are alongside with said ladder
• Also apply logic above to bees and wasps nests

27. Check your tech
•When crowing
about how good
your government is
in providing
broadband, don’t
have your
broadband go
down.