At the Aircrew Base, many tasks could be assisted by highly automated machinery, which meant that manual labor was not needed in excess.
After all, compared to the cost of machinery, human labor is often quite expensive.
Especially high-educated individuals, university graduates these days are treated as precious commodities, and no one is willing to have them move bricks or carry heavy loads.
What Chen Fei had to do was simply to follow the manual, press some buttons, and pull a few levers, and he could easily get the job done.
Although these tasks were very basic and had no technical content, the logistics department's several teams just couldn't spare the energy to deal with them at this critical juncture, as everyone was working overtime to sort out container materials. It was the perfect opportunity to hand over the simple tasks to Chen Fei.
For a recent undergraduate university graduate, getting the hang of it had absolutely no difficulty, with just a little guidance, he could quickly become proficient.
In just a few minutes, Chen Fei had processed the accumulated days' worth of household and kitchen waste. The biodegradable agent automatically sprayed inside the reaction tank worked wonders. The pervasive stench began to quickly fade, and with a gust of wind, there was hardly any odd smell left.
Under the right temperature and humidity conditions, in no more than 24 hours, biological tissue and plastic components would be completely decomposed by various bacteria and active enzymes into a complex organic paste rich in elements like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. After being dehydrated and granulated, it became ready-to-use organic fertilizer.
Inorganic materials and metals that the biodegradable agent couldn't "digest" would be filtered out for further processing.
The real time-consuming work was dealing with the waste from various departments, especially the defunct aviation consumables and over-guaranteed spare parts from the maintenance team. There were all sorts of things, mostly made of metals, plastics, glass, and ceramics.
Like now, a "little pot" that had tumbled all the way down from the "small mountain" to Chen Fei's feet, which really had everything in it!
Bending over to pick up this "little pot" and examining it in his hands, Chen Fei felt an inexplicable craving, wanting to try taking a bite to taste it. He strongly suppressed this bizarre "pica" thought, which, like "Phantosmia," was a side effect of the magic potion. It probably couldn't be cured, so he had to constantly overcome it himself.
It turned out that this rectangular "pot" was neither a hotpot nor a pot for cooking, but a directional antenna pot for sending and receiving radio signals. Looking at the parameters printed on the back, it supported various frequency bands and could send radio signals as far as fifteen kilometers.
Apart from some minor deformations to the external metal parts, this thirty-centimeter diameter antenna pot seemed largely intact and perhaps could still be used.
Originally intending to give it a try, Chen Fei found more than a dozen wireless AP endpoints in the mountain-like pile of garbage. It seemed that the Aircrew Base was undergoing an old equipment change recently, directly retiring these old devices from their original positions and dumping them here to be decomposed and recycled.
After powering up the AP endpoints and connecting with a smartphone, to his surprise, they all worked fine and could be used normally.
This was simply too wasteful.
Those well-fed don't know the plight of the hungry; the Aircrew Base was recycling still-usable, old AP endpoints, while back in the village, Teacher Shen Fei had been living as if cut off from the world, without any communication.
If they could be put back into use...
An idea struck Chen Fei, and without much hesitation, he swiftly put it into action.
The pile of waste waiting to be processed was actually a small treasure trove, always yielding some surprisingly clever gadgets.
After some more digging, Chen Fei found eight more antenna pots, over a hundred AP endpoints of the same model, about ten AC controllers, several types of directional antennas with different specifications, more than a dozen omnidirectional universal antennas, several large rolls of fiber optics totaling over a kilometer, and high-speed copper core network cables.
Plus, he found about a dozen pairs of full-duplex photoelectric signal relays, switches replaced along with the AP endpoints, some solar panels, a few sets of chemical batteries still with 60% capacity, various specifications of DC converter modules, a few stainless-steel boxes, and even several book-sized mini computers.
It seemed to coincide with the Aircrew Base's batch upgrade of network equipment, which was why so many things were exchanged out.
Being a bona fide university graduate, even though he studied economics, Chen Fei had some understanding of what equipment was needed to set up a home wireless network. Not to mention, one could always "ask AI" about anything uncertain, and combined with a few bridging devices, a major project could be successfully accomplished.
The items scavenged from the trash heap, though they came from different places and were intended for various uses, could be patched together. By finding the corresponding support protocols, frequency bands, interfaces, and electrical standards, it was feasible to construct a segmental wireless communication relay network link, limited to civilian use and not too demanding.
The logistics department had no objections to Chen Fei's idea; on the contrary, they provided some assistance.
After all, Teacher Shen was a neighbor of the Aircrew Base, and there was frequent interaction between them. Helping a neighbor connect to the network was a simple task, especially since it was recycling waste without much additional cost.
It made sense to utilize these outdated devices rather than dismantle and scrap them, and the base was more than willing to do so.
With the high-precision contour maps borrowed from the control tower and the dedicated public network interface obtained from the communications team, Chen Fei, during his night shifts guarding the Target Low Temperature Nuclear Fusion Energy Tower, quickly planned out the wireless relay link points and assembled part of the equipment.
He planned to set up a signal relay every eight kilometers between the Aircrew Base and a mountainous area school, with two directional antenna dishes handling radio signal transmission and reception in different directions, communication access points converting and amplifying the signals, and solar power as the energy source.
Chemical batteries stored energy, with capacitor batteries as backup redundancy. Once fully charged, they could work for a week, enough to withstand extreme weather.
The entire network link's highest bandwidth could reach 6742 Mbps. Considering interference and loss, at least 40 to 50 percent stable bandwidth remained, with an acceptable signal delay. It was more than sufficient for use, even in rainy or snowy weather.
On a rare day off, Chen Fei started working on it himself.
He pulled out an outdoor fiber optic cable from the main gate of the Aircrew Base and drilled holes in rocks along the way to insert rock bolts to secure the fiber optic, extending the cable to a location five kilometers from the base where he used three regenerated metal pipes and foam cement to construct the first relay station.
The active antenna dish had a transmission power of 3W, providing plenty of redundancy for weather interference, with the access point's own WIFI antenna capable of covering network signals within a 500-meter outdoor radius.
The walking distance from the Aircrew Base to Teacher Shen Fei's school in the mountainous area was about 21 kilometers. Starting with a fiber optic cable saved five kilometers, leaving only 16 kilometers to be covered by three relay stations.
Building a relay station didn't take much time; it could be done in less than half an hour since Chen Fei had prepared much of the work during his spare time.
The most time-consuming part was transporting equipment along the mountain ridge.
After making two trips back and forth, it was only when the sun was slanting westward that Chen Fei, pushing a unicycle cart, arrived at the location of the last relay station.
Dogs barked incessantly in Teacher Shen Fei's schoolyard, with both "Ah Mao" and "Ah Hu" raising a ruckus.
As Chen Fei approached, the barking stopped abruptly, leaving the school in complete silence. Chen Fei shouted loudly, "Teacher Shen, it's me!"
He knew very well that the two dogs had started their insistent barking because he had disturbed them by projecting a positioning guidance laser beam from the second relay station toward the school's location.
Although dogs can only distinguish a few colors, they could still keenly sense unusual bright spots of light.
The relay station was closer to the school than planned, about 6.7 kilometers away, which meant that the signal would be stronger and more stable.
"Eh? Chen Fei, it's you! You really scared the life out of me. It's alright, students, nothing to worry about!"
Shen Fei's head popped up from behind the school wall, along with the muzzle of a gun, but when she saw it was Chen Fei, pushing a unicycle cart, she immediately relaxed.