Starting in August of 1996 I spent approximately a year and a half working at the new airport built at Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong. Hughes Aircraft had won the contract for the installation and integration of a large portion of the network and computer system that would be used in operations. Part of contract included the installation of a GPS time distribution system for synchronizing the airport's clocks, computer systems, and databases.

In late September I assumed the lead engineering role for the Time of Day Clock System (TODC). The subsystem included GPS receivers, serial time code generators, signal distribution hubs, and a variety of analog and digital clocks.

A large portion of my responsibilites in the first several months centered around managing our subcontractor who was providing the system components. After spending a week in England in late October to witness subsystem testing, we transported the equipment back to Hong Kong to stage the delivery into our testbed. In the picture at right you can see my system components being prepared for installation into our racks and network environment.

Following delivery we performed several months of integration and formal testing with our customer the Hong Kong Airport Authority. In the first few months of 1997 we began preparations for the installation and formal sell-off of the TODC system into the airport facility.

My last months in Hong Kong wrapped up the majority of installation and testing efforts for the time distribution system. Too many late nights were spent crimping RJ45 cables and dressing them into racks (I never will forget the color code for the pairs in a network cable again...)

Unfortuneately, I left before the large analog clocks got installed in the passenger terminal building. The Binnacle shown at right is one of the structures designed to hold these things. My best friend assumed my job once I left and got the pleasure of actually installing these. I hope one day to swing back through Hong Kong and get to see the final work.