[Radio Wrangler]

Not strictly a link fault callout. HP went into the modem market with some rather expensive thoroughly engineered (the boards were bought in!) modems. Various PTTs bought them to link to remote test equipment in remote places.

One modem sold to one rather large PTT (they thought they were the only one on the planet) couldn't train and come up at all. So an Engineer (Capital letter 'E', BSc and two MScs) - one of the designers, was sent out to investigate.... From Scotland to Hawaii. It turned out the guy at the Hawaii end hadn't checked what settings the manual said to use for the system config at his end, and had phoned the guy at the US mainland end and asked him how his switches were set. Oddly, it didn't work, so he called it in as a fault and it was escalated. With new type equipment, it quickly escalated very high indeed. This served to get someone out there very quickly, but it also made sure the goof was known in all the highest strata of the Bell empire. Wonder if they refunded HP the cost?

The chap involved did say he'd enjoyed the trip.

David