ZBM2 please.

[Crai]

Last we left our intrepid hero….

So back in 2007 I was out in Africa working for the Guberment, we were based out of Djibouti and I was working in Ethiopia. Nice place beautiful Women Coffee to kill for. Ohh man the Coffee….. Anyways we were running an HSWAN system and a 117 Radio as backup. Now the HSWAN system would lose its SAT shot every time it rained.

One day we see Rain Clouds gathering and a storm is about to break. We watch as the sky’s start dumping water about 20 miles out and its moving towards us. So we call up Command on the HSWAN phone and let them know we are about to lose all phones and network connectivity due to rain. They reply and tell us they will mark it in the log and thanks.

Rain hits system drops. About 5 minutes later my 117 starts squawking this is the conversation.

Store Front: Store Keeper 98 this is Store Front come in please.
Me: SF this is SK98 go ahead.
SF: SK98 we are seeing a loss of connectivity on you HSWAN please investigate.
Me: SF no investigation needed it’s raining here.
SF: SK98 why did you not notify of expected system loss?
Me: SF I called you 5 minutes ago and spoke to you.
SF: SK98 that was you that called?
Me: SF must have slipped your mind.
SF: SK98 please send us a detailed Email about the weather and when you expect the rain to end.
Me:….. SF just how would you like me to send that email with no HSWAN, or know when the rain gods will stop dumping as I am not a meteorologist?
SF: um you um….
Me: SF Please ZBM2!
SF: SK98 have a good day out.

For those that don’t know ZBM2 means put a competent Operator on this Circuit.

[Nunavut Pants]

...I'm guessing that most of us are fairly lost by your acronyms.

I can guess that the WAN part of HSWAN means "Wide-Area Network", but that's just a guess. And that SAT means a satellite data-type link, but again it's a guess.

I never would have figured out ZBM2!

[Jay 2K Winger]

...I'm guessing that most of us are fairly lost by your acronyms.

Not me. I thought in context it made sense, even if I didn't specifically know what the acronyms meant.

[Aria]

Not me. I thought in context it made sense, even if I didn't specifically know what the acronyms meant.

I figured most of it out too, but it probably helps that I'm very familiar with satellite links and the downsides of them.

[Crai]

Apologizes to the readers I will attempt to not use as many acronyms. The .mil IT crowd usually roll on the floor with how funny that one is.

ZBM2 is whats called a Z code, it is used by radio operators to short speak. Think of it like a court room stenographer short hand, or for the younger crowd net speak just verbal.

HSWAN High Speed Wide Area Network.

SAT Shot: Satellite Shot the up / down link path to a .mil satellite.

[BearLeeBadenaugh]

I used to work with a retired military IT guy, selling and installing point of sales systems for grocery and convenience stores. He often said he'd rather go back to Iraq than deal with some of our customers. As such, we made a good pair for installs. I'd install the wiring, racking etc, while he set up the office hardware and a training station, then he'd get the rest of the hardware set up while I trained the store employees.

Just about the time I was finally able to stop asking him to explain all the acronyms and shorthand, he left us for a government contractor.

[csquared]

ZBM2 is whats called a Z code, it is used by radio operators to short speak. Think of it like a court room stenographer short hand, or for the younger crowd net speak just verbal.

The fact that they would create just such a code, speak volumes. And what it says is not very nice.

[EricKei]

Kinda like ID10T and PEBCAK errors to tech support guys ^_^