A day in the life of our Installation and Service Technicians, Taylor Gideon and Luke Kinnikin is never the same when it comes to work, and that’s exactly what these two enjoy about the job – every day brings something new. The rundown is simple: “ensure the installation and proper working conditions for infrastructure, troubleshoot equipment, and perform maintenance as needed,” Taylor shared. But as anyone who works with Taylor and Luke knows, there’s more to it than that.

Today, I had the opportunity to watch them install a new AMI repeater unit in the City of Rockdale. This installation was a bit different than usual because neither Taylor nor Luke needed to climb up. The tower was owned by a private entity, and they had their own climbers. Taylor and Luke, however, were responsible for setting up the infrastructure – antenna, mount, and handling work on the ground. Once they had the antenna and mount in place, they connected the “brains” and set the coax (the cable that sends information from the antenna to the repeater box). While the tower climber worked on their end, Project Manager James Obermeyer programmed the new antenna to the Rockdale frequency, ensuring it would start receiving meter readings from a nearby neighborhood.

With the installation in Rockdale complete, Taylor and Luke packed up and headed south to Schertz, Texas. The City of Schertz had recently been hit by a rainstorm, and their base station antenna had stopped reading meters. James had shared with Taylor and Luke that this morning the system was reading at 92% and dropping fast. With the end of the month approaching, it was crucial to get the system back to 100%

Upon arrival in Schertz, the team first suspected that the modem had been disrupted by the storm. However, after flying a drone to assess the situation, they discovered the issue was with the base station. Unfortunately, a new base station wasn’t in their van, ready to go. Not wanting to waste any time, Taylor and Luke made the call to pack up and return the following day to install the new base station, ensuring the system would be fully functional before the critical meter reads were due.

True to form, the next morning, Taylor and Luke were back at it, installing the new base station and getting the system up to speed. By the end of the day, Schertz was back to 100% meter readings and the team had once again saved the day. Another day, another challenge overcome. For Taylor and Luke, it’s all in a day’s work – and they wouldn’t have it any other way.