Batboard

if a customer approached you and asked you to program 70 portable radios in 35 different buildings within town, how long would you tell him it's gonna take? this is assuming that ONE person was going around to do all the programming, there are two radios in each building, you'd be dealing with congested urban traffic, and not all radios were the same model. ...could be either EX500's, 600's, PR400's or SP50's. possibly even an ht750 or two. you'd be carrying your own bags and cases in and out of the buildings. setting up shop somewhere and then packing up and moving to the next building. over and over. same basic channel layout would go into each radio except for the PTT ID. the radios are already programmed with everything except for one additional channel needs to be added.

i'd like to hear from a shop that's used to quoting on jobs like this how many man-hours this would take. The powers-that-be over here seem to think all they have to do is say it's an "emergency" and somehow i'll do it in two days (in addition to doing a dozen other things).

how long would YOU tell them it would take?

signed,
frustrated in nj

if you are doing this via laptop, and you're only doing 2 @ each bldg, i'd leave the laptop in your personal conveyance, and just bring the 2 offending radios out to the curbside...whack them with a codeplug, and then send them on their merry way.

i would be safe and "QUOTE" them 1 hour per bldg, which pads each w/ travel time.

It really depends on a couple variables.. Do you work weekends? Are you willing to work on the weekend or after hours to fill this customers service order? Is the customer willing to pay the extra for service outside normal business hours?

Lets break it down.. 70 portables in 35 buildings

You could leisurely do 3 buildings a day (6 radios) and allocate 1.5 hours per building for programming and travel time to next job site. That's 4.5 hours per day on one customer. It would take 12 work days to complete the service request.

You could work 6 hours in a day and get 4 buildings done (8 radios) at 1.5hours per building for programming and travel time to the next site. It would take 9 days to complete the request.

You could work 9 hours a day (I don't work 9 hours a day programming portables at my normal pay rate) and get 6 buildings done (12 radios) at 1.5 hours per building for programming and travel time to next job site. It would take 6 days to complete the service request.

If you have multiple techs with ribs and laptops it wouldn't take quite as long to get it done. Honestly if it were me I'd probably end up doing it all myself and would probably go with the 6 hours in a day (8 radios/day) and tell the customer that it's going to take 9 work days. But then again I'd also explain to them that with the expedited work schedule comes an increased service charge and that it would probably take me 14-16 days to do the work if I were doing it around other work orders on my own time.

Ric, NB2E

The big factor, not specified, is whether the program in all the radios is the same. If there are CDM ("Professional") portables, with no MDC IDs or other unique characteristics to be programmed, the the big variable is travel time in your locale, something I'd have no basis for making a judgment about.

I periodically have to update programming in small town FDs. Usually about 4-8 mobiles and three times as many portables, in 3-4 locations. I usually figure it will kill the day, not so much for programming or driving time, but because you can't avoid a little socializing along the way.

On the other hand, you can blow a common codeplug into 25 HT1000s, even with MDC IDs, in less than an hour if all the portables are on your bench and no one is standing around to bother you.

In NJ. Add nother hour just for traffic!

I would probably quote 3 full 8-hour days to do the job, but could likely do it in 2, depending on variables such as how close some of the buildings are to one another (walking between them might be quicker than driving at times), and how quickly they can get the radios to me. Save a codeplug for each model as you go along & the cloning will make things quicker as you go on. Bank on 3 days.

Todd

Of course, it goes without saying that you should map out the buildings and plan a route that's the most efficient for the given time of day (don't want to be downtown at 4:59pm... you'd want to be in the suburbs or close to home).

If the buildings weren't too scattered and the radios readily accessible (walk in, say "gimme", plug in, and go), I would probably figure on 1 hour per building here in Dallas.

You might consider doing the work evenings/overnight if the buildings are accessible... far less traffic, far less people.

Unless there is some strong demanding reason, I would ask the customer to bring all the radios to a central location. That way the radios can be reprogrammed in a minimum amount of time. Your not running all over the place. Let the customer come to you and let them spend their time traveling. The cost to the customer would be far lower than you doing all the running around.

Jim

eboe wrote:if a customer approached you and asked you to program 70 portable radios in 35 different buildings within town, how long would you tell him it's gonna take?

signed,
frustrated in nj

Leaving the puter in the car and takign the radios out to the puter would be a good idea, but not where he is. He's lucky HE doesn't get stolen out of the car there.