Radio, Cellular, and Tower Equipment Installers and Repairer Repair, install, or maintain mobile or stationary radio transmitting, broadcasting, and receiving equipment, and two-way radio communications systems used in cellular telecommunications, mobile broadband, ship-to-shore, aircraft-to-ground communications, and radio equipment in service and emergency vehicles. May test and analyze network coverage.
Radio, Cellular, and Tower Equipment Installers and Repairer is Also Know as
In different settings, Radio, Cellular, and Tower Equipment Installers and Repairer is titled as
- Avionics Technician (Avionics Tech)
- Communications Systems Technician
- Field Service Technician (Field Service Tech)
- Field Technician (Field Tech)
- Installation Technician (Installation Tech)
- Radio Frequency Technician (RF Tech)
- Radio Repairman
- Radio Technician (Radio Tech)
- Tower Technician (Tower Tech)
- Two-Way Radio Technician (Two-Way Radio Tech)
Education and Training of Radio, Cellular, and Tower Equipment Installers and Repairer
Radio, Cellular, and Tower Equipment Installers and Repairer is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed
Experience Required for Radio, Cellular, and Tower Equipment Installers and Repairer
Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.
Education Required for Radio, Cellular, and Tower Equipment Installers and Repairer
Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
Degrees Related to Radio, Cellular, and Tower Equipment Installers and Repairer
- Bachelor in Communications Systems Installation and Repair Tec
- Associate Degree Courses in Communications Systems Installation and Repair Tec
- Masters Degree Courses in Communications Systems Installation and Repair Tec
Training Required for Radio, Cellular, and Tower Equipment Installers and Repairer
Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
Related Ocuupations
Some Ocuupations related to Radio, Cellular, and Tower Equipment Installers and Repairer in different industries are
- Telecommunications Equipment Installers and Repairers, Except Line Installers
- Audiovisual Equipment Installers and Repairers
- Electrical and Electronics Repairers, Commercial and Industrial Equipment
- Radio Frequency Identification Device Specialists
- Avionics Technicians
- Telecommunications Line Installers and Repairers
- Electrical and Electronics Installers and Repairers, Transportation Equipment
- Electronic Equipment Installers and Repairers, Motor Vehicles
- Broadcast Technicians
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Electronics Engineers, Except Computer
- Power Distributors and Dispatchers
- Telecommunications Engineering Specialists
- Signal and Track Switch Repairers
- Security and Fire Alarm Systems Installers
- Lighting Technicians
- Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technologists and Technicians
- Electrical and Electronics Repairers, Powerhouse, Substation, and Relay
- Electromechanical Equipment Assemblers
- Robotics Technicians
What Do Radio, Cellular, and Tower Equipment Installers and Repairer do?
- Bolt equipment into place, using hand or power tools.
- Check antenna positioning to ensure specified azimuths or mechanical tilts and adjust as necessary.
- Climb communication towers to install, replace, or repair antennas or auxiliary equipment used to transmit and receive radio waves.
- Inspect completed work to ensure all hardware is tight, antennas are level, hangers are properly fastened, proper support is in place, or adequate weather proofing has been installed.
- Install all necessary transmission equipment components, including antennas or antenna mounts, surge arrestors, transmission lines, connectors, or tower-mounted amplifiers (TMAs).
- Install or repair tower lighting components, including strobes, beacons, or lighting controllers.
- Install, connect, or test underground or aboveground grounding systems.
- Lift equipment into position, using cranes and rigging tools or equipment, such as gin poles.
- Perform maintenance or repair work on existing tower equipment, using hand or power tools.
- Read work orders, blueprints, plans, datasheets or site drawings to determine work to be done.
- Replace existing antennas with new antennas as directed.
- Run appropriate power, ground, or coaxial cables.
- Test operation of tower transmission components, using sweep testing tools or software.
- Climb towers to access components, using safety equipment, such as full-body harnesses.
- Complete reports related to project status, progress, or other work details, using computer software.
- Locate tower sites where work is to be performed, using mapping software.
- Take site survey photos or photos of work performed, using digital cameras.
- Transport equipment to work sites, using utility trucks and equipment trailers.
- Calibrate and align components, using scales, gauges, and other measuring instruments.
- Examine malfunctioning radio equipment to locate defects such as loose connections, broken wires, or burned-out components, using schematic diagrams and test equipment.
- Insert plugs into receptacles and bolt or screw leads to terminals to connect equipment to power sources, using hand tools.
- Install, adjust, and repair stationary and mobile radio transmitting and receiving equipment and two-way radio communication systems.
- Monitor radio range stations to detect transmission flaws and adjust controls to eliminate flaws.
- Mount equipment on transmission towers and in vehicles such as ships or ambulances.
- Remove and replace defective components and parts such as conductors, resistors, semiconductors, and integrated circuits, using soldering irons, wire cutters, and hand tools.
- Repair circuits, wiring, and soldering, using soldering irons and hand tools to install parts and adjust connections.
- Test batteries, using hydrometers and ammeters, and charge batteries as necessary.
- Test emergency transmitters to ensure their readiness for immediate use.
- Test equipment functions such as signal strength and quality, transmission capacity, interference, and signal delay, using equipment such as oscilloscopes, circuit analyzers, frequency meters, and wattmeters.
- Turn setscrews to adjust receivers for maximum sensitivity and transmitters for maximum output.
Qualities of Good Radio, Cellular, and Tower Equipment Installers and Repairer
- Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- 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 that there is a problem.
- Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- 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).
- Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
- Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- 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.
- 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.
- Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
- Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
- Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
- Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
- Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
- Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
- Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
- Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
- Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
- Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
- Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
- Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
- Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
- Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
- Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
- Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
- Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
- Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
- Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
- Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
- Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
- Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
- Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
- Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
- Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
- Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
- Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
- Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
- Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
Tools Used by Radio, Cellular, and Tower Equipment Installers and Repairer
- Adjustable hand wrenches
- Alignment tools
- All-purpose snips
- Analog ohmmeters
- Antenna analyzers
- Antenna socket sets
- Backhoes
- Ball peen hammers
- Bench ammeters
- Bench scales
- Bench voltmeters
- Bucket trucks
- Butane soldering irons
- Cabinet-tip screwdrivers
- Cable cutters
- Cable locators
- Cable winches
- Chain saws
- Circuit analyzers
- Clamp ammeters
- Clamp voltmeters
- Claw hammers
- Coaxial cable stripping tools
- Coaxial cable testers
- Component test sets
- Concrete mixers
- Concrete pumpers
- Conduit-fitting and reaming screwdrivers
- Cordless soldering irons
- Curved tweezers
- Desolder pumps
- Diagonal cutting pliers
- Diagonal-cutting pliers
- Digital ammeters
- Digital cameras
- Digital multimeters
- Digital ohmmeters
- Digital oscilloscopes
- Digital spectrum analyzers
- Directional compasses
- Directional radio frequency RF power meters
- Distortion meters
- Double end socket can wrenches
- Double ended screwdrivers
- Electric manlifts
- Electric soldering irons
- Electricians' knives
- Electricians' scissors
- Equipment trailers
- Extension ladders
- Fall arrest systems
- Forklifts
- Frequency counters
- Frequency meters
- Full body harnesses
- Gin poles
- Groove-joint pliers
- Guy wire tension gauges
- Hacksaws
- Hand reamers
- Heavy duty longnose pliers
- Hex key sets
- Hydraulic cranes
- Hydraulic wire crimpers
- Ignition pliers
- In-line modular adapters
- Inspection mirrors
- Insulated nutdrivers
- Insulated pliers
- Insulated wire cutters
- Insulation resistance testers
- Keystone-tip screwdrivers
- L-wrench sets
- LED voltage testers
- Lifting slings
- Locking jaw pliers
- Long nose electrical pliers
- Longnosed pliers
- Magnetic pickup tools
- Measuring tapes
- Modulation meters
- Multifunction digital multimeters
- Neon voltage testers
- Nibbling tools
- Nut wrenches
- Personal computers
- Phillips head screwdrivers
- Phone outlet testers
- Plumb lines
- Power drillls
- Probe pick spudgers
- Pump pliers
- Punchdown tools
- Radio frequency RF monitors
- Radio signal testers
- Receptacle testers
- Return loss measuring equipment
- Rigging equipment
- Round cable cutters
- Safety glasses
- Safety goggles
- Safety lanyards
- Scalar network analyzers
- Screw starters
- Series solenoid voltage testers
- Side cutting pliers
- Signal probe kits
- Single-cut mill saw files
- Slip joint pliers
- Spring-loaded side cutters
- Square-recess tip screwdrivers
- Straight screwdrivers
- Sweep testing tools
- Tablet computers
- Torpedo levels
- Trimming potentiometers
- Utility knives
- Utility trucks
- Vector network analyzers
- Vise grip pliers
- Volt-ammeters
- Voltmeters
- Watt meters
- Wattmeters
- Wire crimpers
- Wire strippers
- Wire wrap guns
Technology Skills required for Radio, Cellular, and Tower Equipment Installers and Repairer
- AERONET calculator
- Caliper Maptitude
- Computerized maintenance management system CMMS
- Location mapping software
- Maintenance documentation software
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Office software
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Project
- Microsoft Windows
- Microsoft Word
- Sweep analysis software
- Zoho WebNMS Cell Tower Manager