New Tools

[Highplains Drifter]

How many of your are using Google Earth to check out a pole line. You can use the GPS coordinates or an address if the pole is at that residence. You can basically see how that pole is framed. Also if you can have your weeks or days location in a file on your computer. I then go to Garmin Connect. com and connect my Garmin to my computer. I can transfer 20 to 30 locations for a week to my Garmin instead of inserting them one at a time. Another thing you can do is transfer them to a SD memory card and inserting the card into your Garmin. I am just wondering what some of you others are doing with the new technology to make your job easier.

[Smitty57]

I like to throw it against the door when it doesn’t get a signal or tells me that the street that I am parked on doesn’t exist... No really, GPS is very helpful. The addresses in Utah are laid out on a grid system, Center and Main streets being zero, then 100 North 200 North and so on for each direction until you reach a neighboring city. It is very easy to get find an address anywhere, except when a named street is thrown in or a county address, where zero is at city of the county seat. A street could have a city # of 800 north and the customers address in our system is 9300 west, a county address, but the same street. It can be confusing. GPS is priceless in these instances; it saves me a lot of time.

[gwolf001]

that sounds cool! how do you zoom in to see the pole on my google earth when i zoom in real close the pitcure becomes blurred, that i can't tell what the framing is

[Highplains Drifter]

that sounds cool! how do you zoom in to see the pole on my google earth when i zoom in real close the pitcure becomes blurred, that i can't tell what the framing is

Google Street Viewer will allow you to look 360 degrees. Use the little man icon to zoom, rotate the view ( right or left arrow)until you come upon a pole. You then can look up or down (up or down arrow). Here is an address you can put in Google maps and look at poles.......1435 NE 54th Avenue Des Moines IA 50313

[nslineman]

We are using the Garmin GPS units in our trucks. The company has gone out and plotted all of our transformers, switches, reclosures, etc. in to a program compatible with Garmin. Now for trouble calls we simply insert the device number and it will take us to the location. It will also tell us on route what feeder it is on, voltage and size of device. It is great

[spark and bark]

We use isage at our co-op. all poles transformers reclosers substations and even secondary urd lines are gps'd and mapped. all our one tons have lap tops, so all we have to do is type in the map location number, and it gives us all you need to know. span length, wire size, transformer size and type, urd or overhead, normal open and closed switches, ct'd services, and all with lat and long coordinates. has 2 views- topo map or one line. Works great, and helps on outages. The office can ping customers meters to see if they are on, so it helps us figure out if an ocr is locked out, or burned in the clear, etc.

[BillyMac]

All our poles/assets have a unique # attatched and we can search that number on google earth. Lots of info then available pole size,conductor type, even linked to our Schematics, only problem is no gps provided to us! If really lost can print to A4 for future reference.

Amazes me that with Smart Phone technology companies don't utilise it more. We are supposedly "World Class" and we have one laptop in the Depot! With a smart phone could recieve work orders in the field, refer to Saftey manuals online and with portable printers save a hell of a lot of time hand writing emergency switching sheets or tripping back to a fax.

Bit of a sore point with me, very frustrating

[hotwiretamer]

All our poles/assets have a unique # attatched and we can search that number on google earth. Lots of info then available pole size,conductor type, even linked to our Schematics, only problem is no gps provided to us! If really lost can print to A4 for future reference.

Amazes me that with Smart Phone technology companies don't utilise it more. We are supposedly "World Class" and we have one laptop in the Depot! With a smart phone could recieve work orders in the field, refer to Saftey manuals online and with portable printers save a hell of a lot of time hand writing emergency switching sheets or tripping back to a fax.

Bit of a sore point with me, very frustrating

What program is it that allows you to put pole#, etc. into Google Earth? We have a piece of crap software system called R&R Sytec that is rediculous. I've have been asking for years for a laptop with our mapping system in it and the best they could do is a read only version on one laptop that is used when you are on call. It is very hard to use, as the locations are set up with township and range, not addresses! One street can be on four or five grids sometimes.
It would be great to know how to use google earth, heck I would start a mapping system of my own that I would put fuse locations, and GOABs on to start with.

[doug]

We have use it working trouble by trying to find were the trees,creeks,etc are.

[BigClive]

that sounds cool! how do you zoom in to see the pole on my google earth when i zoom in real close the pitcure becomes blurred, that i can't tell what the framing is

The quality of satellite images varies from area to area. As time goes on it will get better. Some areas have maps that have been enhanced by aerial photography which Google finds and slots in to increase the resolution.

I live next to a stadium called Hampden and the aerial images are very high resolution because it's a landmark.

When I got my first Tom Tom sat-nav it made finding jobs so much easier. Now it's in my phone it's even better.

I'm sure the companies will catch on as the technology improves. You can bet the companies that provide work related sat nav software are charging a fortune for it. Get them to buy you a defibrillator first.