Locality Switch

I always love it when someone new comes along and wants to get involved with the technical aspects of our radio station. My positions requires that I be the one doing the majority of training for new techies, which is good because I enjoy passing on my knowledge.

I want to share my experiences on training new techs. Sure, I’m only sixteen myself, and have been doing this for two years. Am I qualified to be training new people? I feel that even though I am only fairly new to the industry, I should be out there on the front line, helping enthusiastic young people to get a start in the industry. I don’t know everything, but what I do know, I want to share.

Firstly, let me make this clear: we are talking about training people with no background in radio. We’re talking about people who are enthusiastic to help out, and want to learn on the job. Also, the things which I mention in this article are very general – your training you do for the new-comers will vary wildly, depending on if they have past experience in related areas (such as IT, or telecommunications). For example, it would be unnecessary to teach a telephone technician how to use a Krone tool, or a system administrator how to use remote desktop to connect to a server.

When I am showing the ‘newbies’ how things run, I generally like to start with the grand tour and explain each piece of equipment, what it does, and how it helps us. This is their induction. I encourage heaps of question asking on their part. Sometimes I even get asked things which I don’t know, which is great, because we can then go and research it.

After they have been through this induction, I like to get them to look over my shoulder as I perform my day-to-day operational tasks. We’re talking about stuff such as file backups, computer updates, re-jumpering connections, updating wiring documentation, etc. All the grass-roots jobs which have to be performed on a regular basis.

It is even benificial to get them to perform some of these tasks after first seeing how it is done. Need some XLR connectors soldered, a hard-drive swapped or a standby transmitter tested? Your junior tech can do that, even if you still have to be there to provide advice. In fact, it is a good idea to always supervise your junior techs until they are confident (and responsible enough not to pull the station off air).

After a while, it’s time to give your junior tech a more permanent set of duties which will keep them involved. Potential duties are:

• Performing weekly computer backups
• Ensuring the asset register is up to date with new equipment
• Checking the faults log for any issues, and either fixing them, or reporting them back to you
• Weekly testing of the standby transmitter, standby STLs, and UPS batteries
• Checking internet usage, and reporting on potential issues
• Performing weekly checks on the status of free hard drive capacity

Those are just a few suggestions, some of which may not even be applicable to your station. Whatever duties your junior techs are assigned, it’s important that they are comfortable with them, but also feel happy. They need to be doing interesting things at least some of the time – if you give them boring tasks 100% of the time, they will probably leave.

It is also a good idea to get them involved with special events or projects, such as outside broadcasts or studio reconfigurations. You want to make sure they feel a part of the team, so make sure they are included on these things. Make sure that there is no discrimination because they are new.

By the way, if you have any suggestions about how to better train junior techs, please send me an email or share a message in the comments area.

Yesterday I briefly outlined the benefits of using an Active Directory, and explained some advantages of the features such as Group Policy and DFS Replication.

This is all very well and good, but by now I’m sure you’re wondering how you can get started with all of this. You have two options:

1. Hire someone with knowledge on the platform (like me!)
2. Start learning it all yourself

Option one is for anyone who really wants a top class network without too much hassle. I would recommend this option if you don’t want to spend hours upon hours of learning Windows Server, practicing, throwing it away and starting again, etc. It is the sensible option.

Option two is for people like me who love to learn something new, and can really commit themselves to learning all there is to learn about Windows Server. It’s not for the faint hearted, nor for those who don’t have the time. I also must say that you don’t want to learn about Windows Server if you don’t have any knowledge of computer networking concepts, etc.

How do you start learning Windows Server?

The first thing to do would to download the evaluation copy of Windows Server 2008, and install it on a spare PC, or a virtual machine. Have a play and fiddle around. It can be run for up to 120 days, and after that you can reinstall to keep playing with it.

Then, you really need to start going through a set of structured lessons which covers the platform, concepts, technologies, jargon, and so on. There’s heaps of people who will sell you video lessons on the subject matter. However, I suggest you take a look at the offerings from Train Signals. Train Signal offer an eight video set on Windows Server 2008, which takes you through all the basics, and then some of the more advanced stuff. It is all downloadable, and costs nothing!

After you have completed their series, you will then have the knowledge to go through all of the other roles in Windows Server, and learn it yourself, with the aid of the internet.

If you want other some website to read with articles on Windows Server, I suggest you look at Windows Networking, Windows IT Pro and Techrepublic. They’re all usually a great read.

I wish you well with your quest to learn about Windows Server. Remember, don’t apply anything to a real live network until you are confident you know what you are doing. If in doubt, consult someone with some experience in the matter.