school advice

[LococatorinTraining]

I know this has been answered before ,but for the life of me I can not find the posts-brainfart- so if ya'll don't mind please give me a run down on best making it through the next 4 weeks, It has been a looonnngggg time since I was in school. I myself learn better hands on.I start Monday.
Thanks
I loved the evolution of a locator post.

[yahoo]

good luck with new job!!!

[yahoo]

it is not a job for everyone but if you like the outdoors then try to focus on that! .....let the mistakes you( will) make .....make you a really good locater!! it is a great job if you can keep your mind off production (their favorite word) and on the great outdoors (your favorite word) .....Godspeed on your journey!!!!!!

[headcipher]

What works for me in class is coffee, thermos, and atomic fireballs.

[ProfessionalLocator]

You are going to spend a lot of time in the classroom and they are going to try and pound a lot of information into your head in a short time. For most people the result is a lot of confusion. I have a few suggestions.

First make sure all the material they give you goes into a good, solid binder. You will keep this as reference book that you will later keep in your truck.

Put aside at least one hour a night, more on weekends, to study the material they gave you. You are in school so you do have homework. Do two hours a night if you can.

Start making pocket notes for later use in the truck, bringing out the big reference binder will be awkward in the cab of the truck. Make a small booklet that will fit into your shirt pocket where all the most important notes will go. You will not know what the most important notes will be at this time but this is a start. By making these notes you are also reviewing the material they give you. People remember a lot more from where they transcribe material into notes than by just reading it.

Depending on the utilities you have to learn about there will be a number of symbols and abbreviations you will need to learn. Use the transcription method to help learn these, just hand copy them onto a regular sheet of paper. This by rote learning will stick with you.

Let’s say you are learning electric and see a solid line _______________________ and above the line it says 3#2acsr 1#4 - . This could mean ; since the line is solid it is an overhead cable. Perhaps in your area a dotted lien is for underground cable - - - - - - - . Since the writing is above the line it means that all the wires noted are primary electric, maybe 15,000 volts phase to phase. So the 3#2acsr 1#4 - means that there are 3 separate number 2 conductors that are composed of acsr - aluminum cable steel reinforced. (aluminum can be too weak to carry it’s own weight and some steel conductors are added to increase the strength). The 1#4- means there is one number 4 cable serving as the neutral. In this example the abbreviations below the line would be for secondary cables that are like the 120/240 volt buses and services for homes.

Let’s say the utility is underground and just for example they use a dotted line. Lets say they put the date of the cable installation on the drawing. If all the cables are dated the same, say 9/75 ; September 75, and this matches what the subdivision looks like it was built they are in the original utility trench. If you see a cable with a later date between two pedestals, manholes or transformers then this was installed later, perhaps the original failed and was replaced, and will be outside the original trench indicated a second run of cable some distance away from the others. This was probable installed by directional bore so you will not see a depression in the ground from a trench line for this new cable. But you can expect to see small depressions near the two points it was run between where the bore stopped and they hand dug over to the ped or transformer. This is why you really need to learn what all those different symbols and abbreviations mean.

Another way to tell in the above example is that there are not dates but in this electric installation the appreciations change. For example in this old subdivision all the primary cables are #2a/c, number 2 aluminum conductor with a concentric neutral. Back then the neutral on primary was a bare conductor wrapped around the outside of the cable. Then between two transformers you se #2a/j which si a number 2 aluminum conductor with a jacketed neutral. The jacketed neutral was introduced later because the bare neutral would corrode away. So her you would know that a new cable has been installed and it is outside the original trench line.

Those examples I used above may not apply to how the utility companies you are going to mark for did theirs. There seems to be no complete standards on how the various companies do this.

If you do electric, CATV or phone you need to be able to tell on the drawings what is overhead and what is under the ground.

All utilities have their abbreviations and symbols and I have found it faster to learn them by just transcribing them onto a throwaway sheet of paper.

The more you understand this part of the job the faster you will be in the field. For people starting looking up and interpreting those records slows them down a lot.
Plus the better yyou can understand what those drawings say the better job you can do and nto miss marking lines and then damage out.

How was my classroom training?
I was in three training classes and only “completed” one of them.

The first class was one week in the class and the next week in the field with an experienced, mentor rated locator for a period of eight weeks. Since I had previous fault locating experience I caught on fairly well. They were short on help and took me out of training after the second week of classroom training and put me to work as a locator. So that training was never completed.

The second time I was in training was similar, out after the first week and put to work on the recommendation of an experienced locator that I spent a day with locating.

The third time was when the client company checked and found no documentation that I had completed a training program so there I went for the whole thing. Still it was much shorter than the usual training program.

So expect everything and expect nothing, just roll with whatever happens.

[LococatorinTraining]

You are going to spend a lot of time in the classroom and they are going to try and pound a lot of information into your head in a short time. For most people the result is a lot of confusion. I have a few suggestions.

First make sure all the material they give you goes into a good, solid binder. You will keep this as reference book that you will later keep in your truck.

Put aside at least one hour a night, more on weekends, to study the material they gave you. You are in school so you do have homework. Do two hours a night if you can.

Start making pocket notes for later use in the truck, bringing out the big reference binder will be awkward in the cab of the truck. Make a small booklet that will fit into your shirt pocket where all the most important notes will go. You will not know what the most important notes will be at this time but this is a start. By making these notes you are also reviewing the material they give you. People remember a lot more from where they transcribe material into notes than by just reading it.

Depending on the utilities you have to learn about there will be a number of symbols and abbreviations you will need to learn. Use the transcription method to help learn these, just hand copy them onto a regular sheet of paper. This by rote learning will stick with you.

Let’s say you are learning electric and see a solid line _______________________ and above the line it says 3#2acsr 1#4 - . This could mean ; since the line is solid it is an overhead cable. Perhaps in your area a dotted lien is for underground cable - - - - - - - . Since the writing is above the line it means that all the wires noted are primary electric, maybe 15,000 volts phase to phase. So the 3#2acsr 1#4 - means that there are 3 separate number 2 conductors that are composed of acsr - aluminum cable steel reinforced. (aluminum can be too weak to carry it’s own weight and some steel conductors are added to increase the strength). The 1#4- means there is one number 4 cable serving as the neutral. In this example the abbreviations below the line would be for secondary cables that are like the 120/240 volt buses and services for homes.

Let’s say the utility is underground and just for example they use a dotted line. Lets say they put the date of the cable installation on the drawing. If all the cables are dated the same, say 9/75 ; September 75, and this matches what the subdivision looks like it was built they are in the original utility trench. If you see a cable with a later date between two pedestals, manholes or transformers then this was installed later, perhaps the original failed and was replaced, and will be outside the original trench indicated a second run of cable some distance away from the others. This was probable installed by directional bore so you will not see a depression in the ground from a trench line for this new cable. But you can expect to see small depressions near the two points it was run between where the bore stopped and they hand dug over to the ped or transformer. This is why you really need to learn what all those different symbols and abbreviations mean.

Another way to tell in the above example is that there are not dates but in this electric installation the appreciations change. For example in this old subdivision all the primary cables are #2a/c, number 2 aluminum conductor with a concentric neutral. Back then the neutral on primary was a bare conductor wrapped around the outside of the cable. Then between two transformers you se #2a/j which si a number 2 aluminum conductor with a jacketed neutral. The jacketed neutral was introduced later because the bare neutral would corrode away. So her you would know that a new cable has been installed and it is outside the original trench line.

Those examples I used above may not apply to how the utility companies you are going to mark for did theirs. There seems to be no complete standards on how the various companies do this.

If you do electric, CATV or phone you need to be able to tell on the drawings what is overhead and what is under the ground.

All utilities have their abbreviations and symbols and I have found it faster to learn them by just transcribing them onto a throwaway sheet of paper.

The more you understand this part of the job the faster you will be in the field. For people starting looking up and interpreting those records slows them down a lot.
Plus the better yyou can understand what those drawings say the better job you can do and nto miss marking lines and then damage out.

How was my classroom training?
I was in three training classes and only “completed” one of them.

The first class was one week in the class and the next week in the field with an experienced, mentor rated locator for a period of eight weeks. Since I had previous fault locating experience I caught on fairly well. They were short on help and took me out of training after the second week of classroom training and put me to work as a locator. So that training was never completed.

The second time I was in training was similar, out after the first week and put to work on the recommendation of an experienced locator that I spent a day with locating.

The third time was when the client company checked and found no documentation that I had completed a training program so there I went for the whole thing. Still it was much shorter than the usual training program.

So expect everything and expect nothing, just roll with whatever happens.

THANK YOU that is exactly what I was looking for

[sprayandpray]

Make sure you know how to read prints before you get out of class

[ProfessionalLocator]

Make sure you know how to read prints before you get out of class

Great advise, learn to read those prints now and you will do better in field and those prints will save your butt.

Two things about prints;

Number one, ALWAYS read the prints when you pull up on a job!

There is a tendency to pull up on a job, look around and think we know what’s under the ground based on how we have seen other places. This will get your fired for damages!

Let’s say you pull up to a house where for several blocks there are no roads taking off from the other side and no houses. One thinks that hey, the utilities run in trench ine along the front so these houses from ped / transformer / gas valve to another such point. In such a situation I have seen utilities tap off those mains in the front yard and go through the back yard to feed a street behind those houses. Also subdivisions are often made up of land that belonged to a previous owner and an original house, maybe built in the 1800s, is now being fed underground trough one of those yards. Sometimes when they put in the original cable they run live “stubs” for the planned later construction of another phase of the subdivision and one of these stubs may cross to the opposite side of the road. Do not assume that a subdivision is fed it’s mains from the main road, which is the most common, as I have seen a subdivision fed from the tower line behind it, six phases of electric primary ran through some guys back yard and out to the front. I have seen houses fed with gas from the front and have a gas transmission line in the back yard. The list goes on.

What I an stressing is that in class you are going to be told to read the prints every time because it is company policy. People tend to shrug off policy as just some time waster someone thought up, in this case the policy is there for a very good reason.


Second thing about prints is this, they are often wrong. Do not rely entirely on the prints. Look around and “sweep” the area with your locate equipment. Search for road crossings or whatever else may be there and not on the drawings. This si also like to be told to you in class.

Do these two things and keeping your job suddenly becomes more likely. A lot of newbies wash out due to damages and not doing what I wrote about is a major cause.

What are you really learning form this? To have the right attitude. Go out with the right attitude and you will do a much better job, have a more secure job and the job will be easier to do.

[alamo]

Know They Will Not Teach You Everything In Class...it's Hands On

[LococatorinTraining]

Great advise, learn to read those prints now and you will do better in field and those prints will save your butt.

Two things about prints;

Number one, ALWAYS read the prints when you pull up on a job!

There is a tendency to pull up on a job, look around and think we know what’s under the ground based on how we have seen other places. This will get your fired for damages!

Let’s say you pull up to a house where for several blocks there are no roads taking off from the other side and no houses. One thinks that hey, the utilities run in trench ine along the front so these houses from ped / transformer / gas valve to another such point. In such a situation I have seen utilities tap off those mains in the front yard and go through the back yard to feed a street behind those houses. Also subdivisions are often made up of land that belonged to a previous owner and an original house, maybe built in the 1800s, is now being fed underground trough one of those yards. Sometimes when they put in the original cable they run live “stubs” for the planned later construction of another phase of the subdivision and one of these stubs may cross to the opposite side of the road. Do not assume that a subdivision is fed it’s mains from the main road, which is the most common, as I have seen a subdivision fed from the tower line behind it, six phases of electric primary ran through some guys back yard and out to the front. I have seen houses fed with gas from the front and have a gas transmission line in the back yard. The list goes on.

What I an stressing is that in class you are going to be told to read the prints every time because it is company policy. People tend to shrug off policy as just some time waster someone thought up, in this case the policy is there for a very good reason.


Second thing about prints is this, they are often wrong. Do not rely entirely on the prints. Look around and “sweep” the area with your locate equipment. Search for road crossings or whatever else may be there and not on the drawings. This si also like to be told to you in class.

Do these two things and keeping your job suddenly becomes more likely. A lot of newbies wash out due to damages and not doing what I wrote about is a major cause.

What are you really learning form this? To have the right attitude. Go out with the right attitude and you will do a much better job, have a more secure job and the job will be easier to do.

You guys are awesome .I really appreciate the info,one thing I've been around long enough on this planet to have learned never assume anything, and the area I'll be in is full of 1800's farms surrounded by subdivisions, My farm is a perfect example of what you were saying. I do believe I have the right attitude minus the ego-ego can get you in trouble. I have my binder and pocket note pad. Again Thank you,