Today more and more people are taking the risk of living their dreams, seeking to achieve happiness in simple, everyday activities. On one occasion, someone asked Steve Jobs, creator of Apple, about the key to his success, to which he replied: "Nobody told me I couldn't do it or that it would be difficult, they only suggested that I do what I found right."
We must respect our challenges, rise to them, dare to work hard, have the confidence to believe in our decisions and ourselves, and have the mental strength to not let ourselves be beaten. It is not easy, but it is not difficult either. "I joined the Electricity Company as a reader-collector, and after three years working in that specialty, I had the opportunity to pass the Specialized Electrical Lineman course."
"Subsequently, some co-workers told me about the position of a tower operator, and what caught my attention was to be working at heights. When they opened the course, we spent seven months in Bayamo, then we did four months of practice in Las Tunas with RadioCuba personnel, who also evaluated each activity. Finally, we spent three more months taking exams at the Training School in Bayamo", that is how Ernesto Castillo Ramírez's path to the heights began.
FUNCTIONS OF A TOWER OPERATOR
"In the case of the Electricity Company, the tower operator has, among other functions, the maintenance of the towers, we are in charge of changing the windings, that is to say, the tensors that support them, for example, that depends on the weather conditions, in the area near the coasts they are changed more frequently.
We give maintenance to the antennas, we sand them, we polish them, and we change the connectors due to deterioration, mainly due to electrical discharges."
"These activities are only done by us, we must attend to the eight municipalities of the province, we also install and offer service to Camagüey because they do not have the personnel to perform this profession; it is a specialty that takes at least one year of training in theoretical knowledge."
STUDY AND PREPARATION COME FIRST
To develop this profession, basic knowledge of electricity, electronics, and automation is required, especially in the operation of instrumentation and control systems.
"Among the subjects that are addressed are the Construction and Maintenance of Towers, what is frequency modulation (FM), what bandwidth is transmitted by it, its particularities and the calculations associated with the distance that this travels, and what should a repeater transmit?"
"We also teach subjects to know the transmission and reception of waves, we are trained to work bandwidth in Cuba, and we gave calculations for the construction of towers, the types of towers. In Cuba, the best known and most used are the Mac 300 and Mac 400, in the case of the latter, they are mounted on a piece of porcelain that has cutting balls and emit such intense heat that no animal can live near or on them. Imagine how much more effort is required to work in a place like that."
MY ASPIRATIONS ARE ALWAYS IN THE HEIGHTS
"When I work, I take pictures of what I do, I show my children what I did, I take advantage of it and explain my profession to them. I have three children, and although it is difficult to balance showing them what I do comforts me, sometimes I arrive very exhausted and they are the ones who call me and make me show them, and I even have to explain to them everything it took to do that job."
"I like what I do, I feel good, but I would like them to study a little more, maybe get to engineering, because it is certainly a dangerous job. I would like them to study what they like and be good professionals," with a paternal look he pauses, looks at his photos, and proudly shows his little ones imitating the lathe operator, in recent days Ernesto comments.
EQUIPMENT REPAIR...
"The devices to perform telecommunications must be diagnosed by us. Our work team is made up of automatizing and electrical engineers, computer technicians, and a communications specialist.
"After several years working, one dominates the technical equipment, it is like an experienced doctor, and you know the difficulties they present. For example, Rolando Arévalo López makes the diagnoses and, in general, depending on how the equipment behaves. He can determine what the problem is, and he is rarely wrong, he already knows what the radio is doing, or what the repeater is doing, and what problem is affecting the signal, we exchange doubts and we determine if it is a diode, or if we have to pass the wattmeter, or if it is the power."
"For us, the wattmeter is like the multimeter for electricians, because it is the one that tells if the radio is delivering the signal with all the power it should and tells us if the antennas are in perfect condition if they are transmitting. In the antenna when you put the wattmeter it tells you if it is reflecting the signal, if it reflects it does not transmit communications, then we determine through the calculations that we already know taking into account also the type of antenna."
"Our brigade is mainly composed of the on-call technician who is another key piece in our work because he is the one who is in charge once the work is finished of lifting the system to restore communications in the Dispatch and the National System."
You never succeed unless you love what you do. Not limiting ourselves to achieving the dreams we have can turn life into a routine or an adventure worth living. This young man's daily actions demonstrate how far you can go, holding on to the idea that, if what you believe in, you can achieve. "First and foremost, preparation is the key to success," Ernesto concludes, closes the door, and prepares to leave for one of the towers.
