Tom Edwards uses an optical meter to check some of the electronic equipment at the Sparta Central Office of SkyLine Telephone. Edwards advice on using the Fluke Scopemeter was rencently printed in a world-wide magazine.

Edwards’ advice on scopemeter printed in world-wide magazine

When Tom Edwards goes to work, it’s usually not the kind of work most of us would recognize. His job involves miles and miles of wires, computer boards, electronic switches, testing equipment and giant batteries.

While it may sound like an exotic laboratory, Edwards actually watches over the local telephone company’s service in Alleghany County as a central office technician. He also is responsible for telephone equipment at all three of the SkyLine Membership Corpor-ation’s central exchanges in the county, which include Scott-ville, Glade Creek and Sparta, not to mention Alleghany County’s 29 remote locations. The remote locations are marked by small buildings along roadsides that the company uses to house telephone equipment, including the batteries that keep the telephone service working, even if electrical service is interrupted. Depending on the amount of usage, most of the batteries will keep phones working for 12 to 18 hours with no electricity, but some lesser-used ones can keep phones working for up to three days. Even after the batteries are exhausted, generators may be taken to the buildings to help keep the phone system working.

Larger standby batteries are located in each of the central office locations.

Edwards’ work in what he calls “predictive maintenance” landed him a spot in a worldwide magazine earlier this year. That magazine is Fluke Electronics News, published by the Fluke Company, a producer of electronic testing equipment. Edwards is featured for his use of a Fluke Scopemeter, which he uses to diagnose battery performance and predict how they will react to stresses over time.

In describing predictive maintenance, he said it is like preventive maintenance; only he uses previously recorded data to figure out what will mostly likely fail next and takes corrective action before a service outage can occur.

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