ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades Iraq Wiring

Why? That just gives the install a nice touch of bohéme...

Did you notice the half-buried strip connector at the bottom right?
I also like the black and the blue wire TNT-spliced together. And the big 3ph breaker could have been put in a lot nicer.

saves time putting on an SWA gland...

LOL! Somebody watched me terminating an SWA cable the other day and remarked that the fittings made it look more like plumbing than wiring......

It bugs me the number of SWA cables I see installed with no glands and no earth on the armor.

O.K. Some of you might hate this! But speaking from a US Marine point of veiw, (where I picked up the Trade) early in conflict you'll find alot of this, or worse!

This stems from situations like this:
"Sir, we don't have the materials to wire the radios, and radar." Reply: "I don't care, make it happen!" And in those situations you "Mcguiver" it! And, when, or if the supplies catch up to you, fix it later. It comes from an "Over-come, and adapt" mentality. If I had pistures of what was used to parralle the generators for the first month in Mogadishu Airport for radar, you would loss your minds! 4 pieces of BARE 250mcm with SOJ cables tapped to them. But it was all we had! The power could never go down. Tap a new one on, and power up, connect in sync. Same in reverse to pull one off. Transfer switches showed up much later.

I also have doubt that any of this is hooked up to American Military equipment, as most is 120v, or 208 3 phase. There are very few transformers in the supply system that could be used to correct this. In the top pic is a 60kw generator in the backround, that probably is being used! As it's a policy not to use local power, due to voltage, freq, and reliability issues. This is probably being used by the locals.

Ah! We've caught a military electrican!

I can see your point. Who gives a damn if your wiring is safe when there are bullets flying? The risk of getting shot compared to the risk of getting electrocuted must be something like a 1000:1 in Iraq...

I won't let you go until you answered a few questions:

1.) Last year, there was talk of some very large military generators (3 MW) the Americans used for critical uses in Iraq. It made me wonder what such a thing looks like and how you connect it: Apart from different voltage levels from place to place, the frequency is different.

2.) What does the "usual" (if there is such a thing) wiring (your wiring, not the local) look like when you set up a base? (In theory you could do much of the "wiring" with pin and sleeve devices, but those aren't very common on your side of the Atlantic as I understand it.)

Yep, while in Somalia I did become a sniper target once, while wiring a Con box. We had stacks of them. They are portable buildings for the Aircraft Mech's. I was running a drop to it, when a bullet went by. I dropped off the side of it so guick, (30')I was later amazed I wasn't injured. The whole camp lit up on the guy. The Grunts got him 20 minutes later!(wounded, and scared)

The questions....
The Marines only have generators ranging from 30Kw to 500Kw. When we need more power, we'll set up "Generator Farms", in different locations around the camp, and parrallel them. Some groups just for equipment. Some for general power, and AC which shows up much later in the game. And as things progress, these seperate systems get linked with larger gennie farms, until you've got 2 or 3 farms. Then you have 4 500Kw's bussed together, with 2 balancing the load, 2 in maintance, or back-up. Most Equipment is dual rated 50/60Hz, but we run at 60Hz, if other countries ask to tap in, tough luck, they get 60Hz. Some for Com Equipment and Radar, some of which is 400hz, so thats a different system altogether, and right next to the equipment they supply.

The Army and Navy have larger gennies, most at 1500Kw, and are about the size of a 20' shipping container. And the ones you may be reffering to, are a full size shipping container size, 40'! They have a locomotive size engine, with output at 3000Kw / 4160V and step down transformers that get placed out in a grid. I've only seen these ones coming off the ships, never operational, as the Marines are leaving as the Army and Seabee's take-over. I got inside one, and WOW! They have a control room on one end, output on the other, as massive deisel engine direct linked to several generator windings through the rest. Quite a piece of equipment! From what I was told the parralel these!(I spotted a Sea Bee on another forum, I'm going to point him in this direction and see if he might have more information about these.)

As for the general wiring issue, the military has whats reffered to as MEPS gear now. The Army and Navy had it for some time. But the Marines didn't get this stuff until half way through my enlistment. And it consits of lots of Hard SOJ with pin and sleeve connectors for feeders, and twist lock connectors for branch connections. Dare I say it, it was very unreliable, and the twist locks had very poor connections, if not missing, or lost! Picture this stuff painted green.
http://www.hubbellcatalog.com/wiring/section-s-ss.asp?FAM=TPower

For most of my enlistment, we got regular Nema 3 panels, that we'd paint black, and green camo, rolls of #8 and #4 copper wire and insulator racks, with SER to Disconnects for distibtion in the air over the tents, on poles trees on buildings. Or Hard SOJ, and UF cable we'd lay on the ground, then eventually bury as things progressed. We didn't have AC units then, and most of the stuff we ran was large equipment like reverse osmosis machines for water, machine shops for truck and air-craft maintenace, and air-feild lighting. It was pretty primative, to say the least, but reliable. As the camp would settle more general power would be added to some tents by rank. Eventually, it would look like the distubution system of a small town in the 1930's.

[This message has been edited by e57 (edited 06-20-2004).]

All we "regular" guys have to cope with is things like hot attics, awkward customers, rodents, and so on, but trying to install temporary power for troops with no supply store nearby and snipers all around you must sure put all that into perspective.

I certainly don't envy you guys in that sort of situation, although you have my utmost respect for working in such difficult conditions on behalf of freedom-loving people everywhere.

In WWII Britain, there was a Heath Robinson, credited with all sorts of lash-ups and creative of ways of getting things to work with limited materials. Not exactly like Rube Goldberg, but kind of along similar lines.

The name still lives on here today, and you'll hear people refer to something jury-rigged together as a "Heath Robinson arrangement," even though most no longer realize where the name came from.

I know my father used to tell of all sorts of "Heath Robinson" set ups they had to use in the army to get things done.

"Heath Robinson" I assume that this is the person the "McQuiver" TV show was based on. A secret agent, who would rigg the oddest stuff up, most only barely believable. Here's a good example of this type of thing. No split bolts left - solder a western union tap splice with a road flare! Make-shift plow, on the back of a hummer to trench, the whole airport in Mogadishu was done like that in 3 days! With some of the gear now used, I think some of those skills (if you can call them that) will be lost.

As for "regular" guy, I am one now. My first op was Gulf war #1, which was short and easy. Then some training, then off to Somalia which was a mixed bag of freindly and only lightly hostile for the most part. But, without getting overly political, I have NO IDEA what they are going through now! The sniper incident I mentioned above was an isolated occurrance. I was the only person exposed that day, as the threat level was high, and expected an attack all day. I can imagine that that type of thing is a near regular occurrance now. I can also make an edjucated guess that certain pieces of electrical equipment are targeted in a higher degree than Somalia. Making the "Combat Electrical Trade" a little more dangerous.

Hehe, that sounds like what we call "Russian wiring". The Russian soldiers after WWII were known for extremely jury-rigged ways of doing things, and that term is still used, even though most people don't even realize the original meaning. SOmetimes you can still hear: "Boy, _that_'s Russian!". And the "Russian chandelier" (light socket, bulb and 2 pieces of wire) is still a widely used term.

Heath Robinson (1872-1944) was a cartoonist who drew wildly complex machines that achieved very little. He gain immortality in ~1912 by having an adjective named after him. The following sites have more information.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/robinson_william_heath.shtml

http://www.brinsmead.net/HeathRob.htm

I am a great fan of his work.




[This message has been edited by Hutch (edited 06-21-2004).]