That is the way is works with most all equipment. The electrican makes the hookup to the service from the machine (you got to watch them though, they like to hook up 220 machines to 480) and beyond that they are over their head. I have had to fix more than one CNC that was wired incorrectly. At the local votec school they rewired the power sheer when it was moved. After that it didn't work. They spend hours trying to fix it. Changed the solonoid for the clutch and it still didn't work. I guess they thought 220 was as good as 480 for running the machine. Why bother changing the taps on the control transformer.
I know what you mean. I had three school systems under contract for all their electronic repairs. I got a panic call one Friday morning that their new electronic scoreboard in the gym was dead, and the company that installed it couldn't get there for two weeks and would I "Pretty please, with sugar on it" (Man, did that secretary have a NICE voice!) take a look at it. I said Ok, and headed to the school. As soon as I walked into the gym I spotted the problem. The outlet directly under the scoreboard, and near the floor was brand new, and had a new cover. It was the wrong type and brand that school system used. (The hallways and other public areas used a combo 120/240 volt outlets so the janitors could use 240 V floor buffers.) Someone had replaced that outlet with a cheap duplex 120 V outlet and didn't remove the link when they hooked the two phases to it. When they flipped the 2 pole breaker back on, it died from the overcurrent. Both halves were open, even though the lever still worked. I removed the link from the new outlet and connected the side feeding the scoreboard to a spare 120 V breaker, then had the secretary call the head of their maintenance department to get the right breaker and outlet. (I had to have an excuse to go to the office!) Metal content: The outlet and breaker boxes, and the skull of whoever put in the wrong outlet. If I had found out who did it, their ass would have been full of lead shot.
As disgruntled as they were, any mention of fire would probably have set them off, looking for things to burn on the second floor, where engineering and the corporate offices were. BTW, this was a Crosley Corp. machine shop built during WW II. Later it was used by AVCO, then Cincinnati Electronics, although most of the workers called it Chickenshit Electric.
I just walked away from broadcast work until the FCC did away with the first phone, and made the station responsible for their own operation. there was no local office, so it was going to cost me over $1000 in travel costs, hotel room and lost business for a piece of paper I didn't need at the time. You didn't need the ticket to cionsult with stations, anyway. Even without the paper I was offer the Cheif engineer's job at Ch 45, WRGT in Dayton Ohio, and at later at Ch 13 in Tampa, Fl.
The security guards at the defense plant were union, too. One of them accused me of stealing a GRC-106 by carrying it out in my shirt pocket. The next day when i got to work i was rushed to the head of security's office. When he told me why, I couldn't stop laughing. He was yelling, "This is a serious charge, and you could go to federal prison!" When i could talk again I asked if he had ANY idea of what I was being accused of stealing. He gave me a stupid look so I explained that it took a forklift to move each skid of two radios. Withe the accessories the skid was over 1000 pounds,and I was accused of walking out with it in a shirt pocket. I asked who made the phoney charge and was told they couldn't tell me. I said, it had to be one of the guards, and the fatman was on rounds last night while I was working. He gave me a bunch of crap becasue he has a crush on one of the old ladies and she had walke dover to ask me how to replace the plug on her TV set without taking it to a shop when he spotted us talking. The guy turned bright red. I got up and walked out of his office, and clocked in so i wouldn't be late. Some union! They didn't do a thing to him. The next time I saw him I told him that if he ever tried that again, I would see him in court.
I have seven that I'm kind of fond of, but I don't want any more! ;-)
On Fri, 25 May 2007 20:01:08 GMT, with neither quill nor qualm, "Michael A. Terrell" quickly quoth:
I wonder if we're getting hung up on the military here. Southcom didn't build for the U.S. Gov't, they built radios going to Pakistan and other warring countries back then. They were bought out by Loral Corp. just before I left. I like corporations as much as I like unions. AAMOF, that's how I got to be self-employed 17 years ago. Palomar Technology was bought by SKF and I said goodbye to them, too.
We 'Murricans love our companies, don't we?
I almost felt the same way recently, but went ahead and got my contractor's license for Oregon. I couldn't even go into a person's home and squirt some graphite on their door hinge without one. Feh!
Cool.
But what you meant was that you'd introduce him to the Devil, right?
You have seven unions in your head? You poor, conflicted soul!
(OK, I trust you meant ears, eyes, mouth, trachea, and esophagus?)
"affectionately" known to those of us who had to hump one in the bush..as the Prick 77. Humping one in areas where putting on the long antenna was considered a death sentence.....
Gunner
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Back in the late 50's the Motorola AN/PRC-4 were available in the surplus market. The batteries were expensive since they were tube sets. I set up a bunch of them on the 80 meter ham band.
No, not that time. She was in her '60s, but I would say she was probably a real beauty when she was younger. On the other hand, some of the secretaries at other schools sounded just as sweet on the phone, and they were real eye candy in their tight miniskirts and five inch heels. Most of them had only been out of high school a couple years.
The big problem I had was that most of the high schools had a volunteer teenage girl at the counter to get out of study hall, and a lot of them LOVED to flirt. I was behind a intercom console one morning and felt fingers in my hair. I looked up to see the sexy 17 year old girl standing there. I hated to, but I had to tell her to stop. If anyone saw her, it would have cost me a lot of work, and maybe more. Man, was she a beautiful little flirt! If she had only been a year older...
Indeed. The CO and the RTO are usually an inseparable pair in combat. When shit is flying..smart folks always look for the antenna..and then kill everyone around it. Plus the antenna calls the Spitballs of God down from the heavens.
See an antenna...kill it quick.
Gunner
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Cincinnati Electronics sent several techs to Pakistan to set up a production line for the PRC-77. It was considered a NATO radio, so almost anyone who could find a customer could build them.
I owned a Commercial Sound and Industrial Electronics Repair business for years, till I got to the point that I couldn't climb ladders and haul some of the heavy equipment around. I moved to Florida and started repairing computers, in a shop building in my back yard. When that market fell apart I went to Microdyne for four years.
Some are ok, for a while. Others were created by political spin doctors, and were glimpses of hell from the day they were incorporated.
My first full time job was in a TV shop. The owner's son was always hanging around, trying to run a business he didn't own, or even work for. One day he got in my face and yelled, "I should fire you!" i couldn't help it, I burst into laughter. He was yelling, "I demand your respect!" When I could talk, I told him that "My respect had to be earned. Daily."
If you saw the shoddy fly by night losers that flocked to Florida after the hurricanes, you would have a different attitude. I swear, some of them must have found an old hammer in the road and hitchhiked down here. Others were in old, beat up trucks with no names, yet claimed to have "Forgot" to bring a copy of their contractor's license with them.
The station in Dayton bragged about being built, "Under Budget" and had already been through a couple engineers. Then they wanted me on call
24/7, and to move so that i was no more than 10 minutes from the studio and transmitter sites. I turned and walked out the door. The tampa station's chief was planning to retire, then changed his mind at the last minute. That was fine with me, because I didn't want to move to the gulf. I'd already built one TV station in Destin. They thought that I was crazy to put everything on six inch wood platforms, but the site is still in use.
I think he already knew the Devil by his first name. Why else would a 70 year old be working security at midnight?
Waitress! No more laughing gas for my friend here! He's already had too too much!
I think it was RCA that started the PRC-77 design, but ran into troubles. Some of the military radios had multiple companies design to the spec, then one design was chosen. Multiple contracts were given, to reduce the chances of supply problems.
Actually, Microdyne was great, until L3-Com bought them out and destroyed the company. How many places do you get to build one of a kind KU band radios for the ISS?
I was "Banned" from going into the engineering department at Microdyne for a while. All I had to do was walk in with a blank sheet of paper and a pissed off look on my face, and all 30+ people disappeared out the other end. :-) The "ban" was lifted a few days later when they realized they NEEDED my help, and that whenever I went to them I had not only found a problem, but the solution, as well. Then I was transferred to Engineering to get their RCB & DR 200 series digital receivers ready for the production floor.
Take no shit, and no prisoners!
was a joke. Nothing worked right, lots of bad, unmarked cabling, and i"m sure they were underbudget becasue they bought used equipment and let unskilled labor wire the place.
No, they were in case of flooding, to give an extra six inches of clearance.
Im aware of one first louie that had the RTO put a pendant on the antenna, so that in combat the platoon would know where he was at. Worked too well as I recall. RIP
Gunner
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