Best Practice Bulletins

As technology evolves, standards are not keeping up. They can take 5 years (or more!) to develop! Many technicians in the field could benefit from easy access to information in a format that works well on a phone or tablet. Best Practice Bulletins (BPB) can help fill these gaps. BPBs are an easy to understand application-specific document that you can view in an easy to understand format. While training is always needed, a refresher on your phone could mean the difference between success or failure!

Check out the full Best Practices Bulltetins presentation by ETA Executive Board member Bill Woodward, FOD, for a more in-depth overview.

   
1/26/16 Cleaning MIL-DTL-38999 Connectors - courtesy of Brian Teague and Microcare
5/18/17 Maintaining Cleanliness of High Density Connectors - courtesy of Brian Teague and Microcare
8/28/18 3 major Issues with Duplex LC Connector style Cleaners - courtesy of Brian Teague and Microcare
8/31/18 Cleaning MPO Connectors With A Cassette Cleaner - courtesy of Brian Teague and Microcare
12/11/18 Best Practices for Maintaining & Cleaning Fiber Optic Connectors - courtesy of Brian Teague and Microcare
1/5/19 Best Practice for Visually Trouble Shooting Fiber Optic Connectors - courtesy of Brian Teague and Microcare
2/26/20 Best Practice for Cleaning FC/APC Connectors - courtesy of Brian Teague and Senko
2/26/20 Best Practice for Cleaning MIL ST and MIL PRF 29504/14 Terminus - courtesy of Brian Teague and Senko
4/30/20 Importance of Having a VFL (Visual Fault Locator) - courtesy of Brian Teague and Senko
6/5/20 Cleaning & Inspection Training - courtesy of Brian Teague and Senko

Careers

ETA's Career Resource Center - FREE job postings!
How do I become an Electronics Technician?
CareerOneStop - sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor
O*net - sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor

Education and/or Training

Fiber Optics

Telcom Corner Café Podcast:
  • Episode 1 - Optical Cable types; Optical Cable Designs; Cable environments; The demands that applications are putting on cables
  • Episode 2 - 4 types of cable designs; Distribution and Breakout styles used in the Premise/enterprise side of the industry and are commonly connectorized; Loose Tube and Uni-tube/central core cables used in the Outside Plant side of the industry which are commonly fusion spliced together and terminated by splicing pigtails on/to the fibers
  • Episode 3 - Wrapping up current Fiber Optic Cable Type Discussions; What component is use to and connects fiber strands to Passive or active component with Physical Infrastructures; Mechanical/splice-on connectors; A Traditional Connector assembly method/option; The 4 most commonly used connector style types; Connector quality variations causes; Opening discussion about Loss and reflectance effect and impact of and related to connectors; Connector Acronyms
  • Episode 4 - The continuation of Connector types; Expanding to connector grades, polishes and the application they are used in; The effects that the design differences have on networks and applications, as well and their impact, survivability and characteristics in the environments they are installed in; The use of connector adapters/bulkheads
  • Episode 5 - Wet and Dry-cleaning industry options, why it important and what the impacts are
  • Episode 6 - Inspection
  • Episode 7 - OTDR's from an entry level perspective
  • Episode 8 - Next level of OTDR feature function, why, purpose, and application needs and requirements
Fiber Optics Online Marketplace
Tektronix
A Day Made of Glass - Corning
See the Light® Webinars - Corning
Light Brigade
Laser Institute of America - laser applications and safety
FiberOpto Asia - fiber optics communications in Asia
Microcare Sticklers
Apex Optics
O-scope Testing Blog
Fiber Story by Larry Johnson

Information Technology

The Ethics of Cyber Security
Stop. Think. Connect. - Homeland Security
Foundations of Cybersecurity
Network Monitoring Tools
Cyber Aces - learn the fundamentals of cybersecurity
Top10 VPN - VPNs, encryption, wifi, privacy

Photonics and Precision Optics

Employment Resources
Reference & Training Materials
SPIE publications in their “Field Guide” series. They are mainly aimed at engineers, but they could be useful to technicians also:
SPIE open access self-study resources: Fundamentals of Photonics, 10 tutorial modules written by experts, part of a project funded by the Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD) and the Scientific and Technological Education in Optics and Photonics (STEP), and supported by SPIE and other organizations.
Optipedia, a collection of encyclopedic articles on key topics in optics and photonics. Text, equations, and graphs were originally published in SPIE Press books.

Wireless

Bandwidth conversion calculator
Convert Data Transfer Rate Units
How Wireless Works
Antenna Theory
Antenna Search - type your address, click blue arrows, shows map and lists (under map) two types of towers licensed in a 5 mile area: cellular and commercial “hidden” antennas, as well as new FCC applications
Enterprise Wireless Solutions Center - sponsored by Enterprise Wireless Alliance (EWA)
Tait Radio Academy - Learn everything there is to know about LMR radio communications from basic to advanced
NATE Climber Connection: PPE Inspection Safety Video
NICE Systems and The Evolving Public Safety Landscape
1.2 - From 1G to 4G & Towards 5G - Evolution Of Communication
What is First Net?
Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) - Repeater Store