TELECOMMUNICATIONS LINE INSTALLER AND REPAIRER

Job Definition:

Job Description:

• String and repair telephone and television cable, including fiber optics and other equipment for transmitting messages or television programming.

Duties and Tasks:

• 1) Access specific areas to string lines and install terminal boxes, auxiliary equipment, and appliances, using bucket trucks, or by climbing poles and ladders or entering tunnels, trenches, or crawl spaces.
• 2) Inspect and test lines and cables, recording and analyzing test results, to assess transmission characteristics and locate faults and malfunctions.
• 3) Install equipment such as amplifiers and repeaters in order to maintain the strength of communications transmissions.
• 4) Lay underground cable directly in trenches, or string it through conduits running through trenches.
• 5) Measure signal strength at utility poles, using electronic test equipment.
• 6) Place insulation over conductors, and seal splices with
• moisture-proof covering.
• 7) Pull up cable by hand from large reels mounted on trucks; then pull lines through ducts by hand or with winches.
• 8) Set up service for customers, installing, connecting, testing, and adjusting equipment.
• 9) Splice cables, using hand tools, epoxy, or mechanical equipment.
• 10) String cables between structures and lines from poles, towers, or trenches and pull lines to proper tension.
• 11) Travel to customers’ premises to install, maintain, and repair audio and visual electronic reception equipment and accessories.
• 12) Use a variety of construction equipment to complete installations, including digger derricks, trenchers, and cable plows.
• 13) Clean and maintain tools and test equipment.
• 14) Compute impedance of wires from poles to houses in order to determine additional resistance needed for reducing signals to desired levels.
• 15) Dig holes for power poles, using power augers or shovels, set poles in place with cranes, and hoist poles upright, using winches.
• 16) Dig trenches for underground wires and cables.
• 17) Explain cable service to subscribers after installation, and collect any installation fees that are due.
• 18) Fill and tamp holes, using cement, earth, and tamping devices.
• 19) Participate in the construction and removal of telecommunication towers and associated support structures.

Activities:

• 1) Repairing and Maintaining Electronic Equipment — Servicing, repairing, calibrating, regulating, fine-tuning, or testing machines, devices, and equipment that operate primarily on the basis of electrical or electronic (not mechanical) principles.
• 2) Performing General Physical Activities — Performing physical activities that require considerable use of your arms and legs and moving your whole body, such as climbing, lifting, balancing, walking, stooping, and handling of materials.
• 3) Getting Information — Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
• 4) Handling and Moving Objects — Using hands and arms in handling, installing, positioning, and moving materials, and manipulating things.
• 5) Controlling Machines and Processes — Using either control mechanisms or direct physical activity to operate machines or processes (not including computers or vehicles).

Abilities:

• 1) Manual Dexterity — The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
• 2) Control Precision — The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
• 3) Oral Comprehension — The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• 4) Oral Expression — The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• 5) Deductive Reasoning — The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• 6) Information Ordering — The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
• 7) Near Vision — The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• 8) Finger Dexterity — The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
• 9) Problem Sensitivity — The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.

Knowledge:

• Telecommunications — Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.