About LinemanLoadout
Who I am: Alan Cristoffer, Lead Lineman
I'm Alan, and I've worked for small municipal utility departments for over 20 years. I got my start in the cable television industry as an installer, which is where I first learned how to climb. I wanted something more, so I moved into municipal utility work and worked my way up.
I started as a meter reader back when meter reading was done manually: walking routes, reading and entering electric, water and natural gas meters. After two years I was offered an apprenticeship slot in the lineman program run through the MPUA, back when it was still the Merchant Lineman program. After four years of hard work, I earned my Journeyman certificate through the MPUA and the State of Missouri.
Since then I've worked maintenance and construction on both overhead and underground distribution systems, led initiatives to update substation controls and reclosers, troubleshooting equipment like fault indicators, automated callout systems and AMR systems. I also do underground electric locating, GIS mapping and trouble calls.
I also served four years in the Army in a communications MOS during the late '90s; at the time it was 31R ("31 Romeo"), Multichannel Radio Operator. I was in the 123rd Communications Battalion with the 3rd Infantry Division, stationed at Fort Stewart, Georgia. While there, I helped in the effort to combine two separate communication vehicles, the LEN/SEN shelter and the radio shelter, into a single unit. That cut our LOS communication team's footprint from three vehicles with two generators and a supply trailer down to two vehicles, one generator and a supply trailer, with a spare generator and shelter in reserve if the main communication shelter went down.
Today I'm a Lead Lineman. I help oversee the maintenance team and train apprentices, along with GIS mapping, locating, and leading initiatives to modernize our outage management capabilities and our system overall. My goal is to share information with other linemen, especially new journeymen and apprentices.
How we pick and review gear
- Recommendations come from hands-on use, crew feedback, and manufacturer documentation, and each guide says which.
- We don't publish specs we can't source. If a spec isn't published by the manufacturer, we say so.
- Safety claims are checked against the cited OSHA and ASTM standards and reviewed by a working lineman before the "safety review pending" flag comes off.
- Your employer's rules, your JATC tool list, and the manufacturer's instructions always win over anything here.
How the site is produced
Drafting and site maintenance are AI-assisted. Every gear recommendation and every safety statement is reviewed by the lineman named above before it's marked reviewed.