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John’s at the controls for hike
Thursday August 07th 2008. Posted: 09:30
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John, right, at the controls of the Cheshire Hike
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Even though John Tabberer left Cheshire 13 years ago, he returns to the county every year to support the annual Cheshire Hike.
John had been with BT in the Cheshire area for 24 years until he was made redundant from his position as systems engineer for BT major voice volume. But just a couple of years later, after a spell with the National Australia Group (NAG), he came back to BT as part of BT Synchordia Solutions. And now he is on the voice systems team in Leeds - part of the NAG account technical team. Organised by Cheshire District Scouts, the Cheshire Hike is a weekend-long hike following a route around the county with different challenges for the different age groups. When John lived in Cheshire, his son Alan joined the 1st Moore beaver colony. Over the years he passed through the cubs and scouts before eventually becoming a venture scout. John was adopted as a non-uniformed leader and assisted with many activities, including numerous camps and organised events. In 1995 John was asked to help with the first Cheshire Hike - and has been helping out ever since organising and supporting the telephony services for the hike control centre. This year the route was based around Tatton Park and John was based at the control centre in Knutsford high school. There he provided a telephone system configured with seven telephones with access to four direct exchange lines - one with restricted access as an emergency line. All start point, checkpoint, overnight base camps and finish telephone numbers were pre programmed and identified to promote ease of use, and the call detail recording data was recorded and re-configured into an informal telephone bill which was used to refund the school for the call cost for which the Cheshire hike team were responsible. “Back in 1995 we used old style mobile phones which looked like an electronic car battery and weighed about 50 pounds - but worked OK,” said John. Now John uses a number of solutions to ensure the event runs smoothly. “The weekend is a challenge but whilst the hours are long and the tasks over the weekend are repetitive, I do get satisfaction out of supporting the scout organisation as they continue to give youngsters access to experiences they would not otherwise be able to participate in.” John’s been booked in to support the event again next year.
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Last updated:
08:56
