60 seconds with Tait Communications EMEA's John Gardener

How do you spend your time at work?

Generally it is split between researching different technologies or products, writing up documents such as proposals, specifications or designs and helping out colleagues and customers with technical questions.

What’s the one gadget you can’t live without?

Sad to say, my phone. It is all my gadgets in one device – diary, camera, pedometer, timepiece, calculator, satnav, pocket encyclopaedia… sometimes I even take calls on it.

Describe your most unforgettable project.

One that sticks in my mind was a large (120-site) trunked radio migration project that had to be completed on a very tight timeline under severe penalties, and which used a newly developed gateway to support calls between our network and the legacy network. There was major pressure from high-level stakeholders, but it taught me the power of collaborative working.

What’s the most unusual thing you’ve seen while working in the radio sector?

Not so much unusual as enlightening. On my first field trip, seeing proof that lightning protection works. This was in the soot marks around the halo ground in a shelter in Brunei. The equipment was still working despite what must have been a massive lightning strike.