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).]