About Dan

Dan Stafford 2013

 
 
 
 
 
 I grew up expecting to see space colonies and explore the universe, with a love of technology and mechanics. “Be prepared, and keep your mind open to new knowledge.” I went into the U.S. Air Force at 17 years old, then took ten years to discover what the world was all about. After that education, I pursued Aircraft Electronics, and landed in long-distance communications. Along the way, I married a wonderful woman and have a stable relationship and lots of fun. 
 
 
 
In the communications industry, I started off in 1993 installing equipment on POTS lines in customer phone rooms around two-thirds of the State of Wisconsin. In 1995 I went to work at a TDM switch site with a DEX 400 and learned to test DS0, both analog and digital, DS1, and DS3, as well as how to turn services up on the switch, investigate routing/call translations problems, and work in a 1/0 DCS machine and on M13 multiplexers and T1 channel banks. In 1996, I was put in charge of working trouble tickets for the Milwaukee switch site. In 1997, I was asked by the manager  of the Chicago switch site to transfer to Chicago after spending a month in Chicago supporting migration of Minnesota traffic, both dedicated and Feature Group and IMT trunking, from the Milwaukee switch to the Chicago switch, a DSC 600E tandem. In 1998, I was tasked with migrating every bit of traffic from the Milwaukee switch into the Chicago switch. I went to night shift and grooms in 1999. I have moved entire LATA’s off old LEC mechanical switches onto new digital switches. In 2001, the separation between switch technicians and transport technicians was eliminated internally, and I began learning to test and troubleshoot optical circuits from OC3 to DWDM, while still working on switched voice services. I also had to do hardware upgrades and replacement in SONET nodes, both metro and long-haul, backbone and edge carrier network routers, long-haul fiber repeater huts, VOIP switches, conferencing equipment, 1/0 DCS, 12/3/1 DCS, and more. I am very familiar with Alcatel (Formerly DSC) 600E Megahub, SONUS GSX, Titan-5500/532L/532, Lucent WES command structure/user interfaces. I have a thorough hardware familiarity with all of the above devices, and also Lucent 800G OLS, Infinera, Lucent DMX, Pirelli DWDM, Hitachi OC192 and TMUX equipment, NEC DWDM and OC48 mux equipment, Juniper, Brocade, Foundry, and Cisco core and edge routers, and -48 VDC power plant equipment, Liebert 10/20/40 ton HVAC units and dry coolers, Caterpillar 1.5-2 MW diesel backup generators and fuel storage, and more.
 
I have cabled extensively; POTS lines, CAT-5 ethernet, DS1, DS3, and OC3-192 and DWDM optical circuits, and troubleshot them all. I am familiar with Tberd DS0/DS1/DS3/Optical test gear, including JDSU 3000/600/8000 test sets, ANT 10G test gear, and EXFO, as well as OTDR, power meter, and OSA Plot equipment.
 
My primary responsibility has been night-shift execution of grooms projects, hardware and software upgrades, and troubleshooting as the sole night technician in metro Chicago since 1999 for Frontier Communications, Global Crossing Communications, and Level 3 Communications across multiple POP sites and co-location sites. Secondary responsibilities have included annual audit and maintenance of site environmental alarms, quarterly power readings and audits, scheduled monthly emergency generator runs, and escort and supervision of customer co-location technicians, vendor repair and maintenance technicians, and visiting telecomm technicians from other LECs and long-distance carriers.
 
I have worked directly with customers, vendors, and technicians on numerous issues and projects during my course of working night shift in Chicago Operations.
 
I started in the industry in August, 1993 with a small company called Datanet/American Sharecom, who was bought in 1995 by Frontier Communications, who was bought in 1999 by Global Crossing Communications, who was bought in 2011 by Level 3 Communications. I have effectively not changed employers since 1993 while working for four different long distance telecommunications carriers.
 
Bragging rights
May 1993: Blackhawk technical college, Janesville, WI – Aircraft Electronics Vocational Diploma with 3.9 GPA and honors. 1993: FCC General Radiotelephone Operator license with Ship Radar endorsement. (This is a life-time license I still hold) 1995-1996: M ilwaukee School of Engineering – Algebra I, II, Trigonometry. 1998: DSC 600E ISDN manufacturer training course certification. 1999: DSC 600E Operations and Maintenance manufacturer training course certificate. 2000-2005: North Central College, Naperville, IL – Spanish I & II. Loyola University, Chicago – Visual Basic Programming, Java Programming I. 2009: Infinera Installations & Maintenance manufacturer training course certificate. (Multiple and various online training courses completed.
 
In early 2015, we left all that and moved to California to be near our granddaughters while they’re young enough to appreciate grandparents. I started Temecool Computer Repair and things are slowly building up. I love the work.
 
Poetry has been an outlet for me since about 2002. I’ve written over 1,700 poems. I love music, sci-fi, romance, new technology, bicycling, and martial arts.
 

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