Week 4 of Training: HF Radios!

Monday morning my classmates and I were happy to be back at FSI for week three of training. This week we tackled High Frequency (HF) Radios, yet another topic I knew nothing about before starting the class. I can now honestly say, radios are WAY cooler than I ever knew. Example: I never knew radios could use ionosphere propagation to broadcast past line of sight.

Our instructor was a huge amateur radio enthusiast and had many decades of work experience, so he was readily able to answer any and every question we had. The class covered everything from theory, to installation, operation and maintenance of HF radios. Although the class was definitely interesting, it was also one of those things you want to know how to use, but then hope to never need to use. In the current day and age, radios aren't really used for primary communication while at post (since we have the internet, satellites, and other direct lines), but can be invaluable for emergency situations. Especially in situations like Cario 2013, when the Egyptian government cut the phone and internet lines throughout the country.

Week 3 of Training: How to Commute!

Ostensibly the second week of training (for my quarter of the cohort) was about communication systems. It was taught by DTS-PO, and I'll let you read about what they do, if you so desire. The training was good, albeit a little lengthy for the amount of material being covered. We were learning about a system that none of the six of us have ever used, so it was definitely worth while, but...

For me, week two was a valuable lesson in how awful commuting can make my life. The traini
ng was not held at FSI, but rather at an offsite location even further from my house. Class started at 8, so I was fortunate enough to miss most of the morning traffic, leaving myself only an hour and a half drive. I was not so fortunate on the way home. My best day was just over two hours, and my worst was almost three and a half. Fortunately, the weather did me a favor and provided our THIRD snow day of the year on Monday. I'll be honest though, it was hard to feel too lucky on Wednesday when I was passing the 5 hour mark of 'commute time' for the day. <start rant> I was also a little bitter because they wouldn't give me mileage for the extra drive distance because it should be covered by the per diem that I don't get as a local hire! <end rant>

Week 1 of Training: IRM Tradecraft

This week was the first week of our specialty-specific training. The week was labeled as the "Information Resource Management (IRM) Tradecraft." IRM is the name of the Bureau that IMS and Information Management Technical Specialists (IMTS) fall under when stationed in Washington.

The week started off with a bang... also known as a snow day. It continued with a two hour delayed start on Tuesday, making the coordinator of our session scramble to reschedule speakers. He ended up getting in almost all of the sessions, by abbreviating most of them by a few minutes. Although this week was technically our first week of 'training,' I think it's more accurate to call it 'Orientation Week Four.' It consisted of a bunch of briefings shallowly touching on subjects only important to IMS (and IMTS). For example, we went over topics like crisis management, hiring locally employed staff (LES), IRM career development, and the remote support structure available to us while overseas.

All in all it wasn't the most exciting week so far, but for our last session they handed out our schedules for the next 13 weeks! Many people have told us that the IMS training is comprehensive, and we'll be ready to do everything on day one... I thought I had a pretty good handle on things going in, but this training includes a bunch of stuff I've never really had to deal with before. Time to learn more about phones, satellites, and radios than I ever expected to!

First Snow Day

Snow Day! I've been working in and around government facilities for years, and have built up no small amount of animosity to all the snow days they've gotten when my company was open and expecting me to show up. Of course... now that I'm on the winning side of that arrangement, I have to say: "Snow days are awesome!" Especially because there's no way I would have been able to make it in to work, had I wanted to. My area got 15 to 21 inches (according to the weather channel, looked like less to me, but still!) which really had me wondering if I'd woken up back in Syracuse. 

Keep at it, buddy.

This morning found me shoveling my driveway, with my delighted son running around on the newly exposed concrete and occasionally taking his turn with the shovel. He's more cute than he is helpful, but that's ok. Anyway, snow turned to rain through the day and later into a 20 minute hail storm! This was the largest hail I've ever seen, probably a 3rd of an inch in diameter, and just tons of them. 

More importantly, this impromptu day off provided my wife and I with an ample amount of time to chew our way through the post list that I'd received on Tuesday. After several hours of nit-picking our decisions and preconceptions, with the help of the Overseas Briefing Center's website and my wife's awesome decision analysis, we can confidently say we have the first draft of our bid list! Huzzah! Tomorrow I meet with my Career Development Officer, during which I assume she will gently guide me into realizing that my last pick is actually my first pick... but we'll see!