When I was first getting active into ham radio in the summer of 1974, a friend of mine who was also a ham told me a story. It had to have been an old story when he told it to me, and when I told Mark the same story a few years later in California he said he had heard that too. The story goes as follows.
There was this guy who owned a house, and his next door neighbor was a radio station. He got the idea that if he were to set up a bunch of coils in his backyard, he could run his house off of the electricity induced into the coils by the signal of the radio station, so he did just that. He set up a collection of these huge coils in his back yard, and set them up so that he was getting his electric power for his house from those coils. It was all well and good until the radio station figured out what he was doing with those coils, and they didn't like it one bit.
The radio station took him to court. They argued that what this guy was doing was not right. He was stealing electricity from the station, and not paying for it like other people were doing. The court carefully considered the argument, but ruled against the radio station. The court ruling said that the airwaves were part of the public domain, and that the public had the right to capture the airwves.. In other words, it was the radio station paying to put those airwaves out there for public use, and that they could not expect the consumer to be hit with a bill or any other charge for using those airwaves.
Needless to say, the radio station didn't like this ruling. Here they are, broadcasting a signal for people to listen to, and this guy next door to them is using them to power his house. That stuck in their craw, and there was nothing that they could do about it since the court ruled against them. Or was there?
It is said that the radio station then decided to teach this guy a lesson. They turned up their power for a few minutes, and then turned it back down. The result? The guy's house burned down to the ground.
I remembered this story during a lecture about electrical induction into a coil during one of my physics classes, so I asked my instructor if he knew about the story, which I then went on to tell him. He said no, what really happened was the that Navy was transmitting radio signals and beaming them northward. Someone nearby didn't like it, so he set up a bunch of coils to trap that signal. The Navy's receiving station wasn't getting the expected signal strength, so they investigated and found this out.
And then I've heard another explanation. It was the Army doing the transmitting, from a station in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and some guy had a bunch of coils in his attic since he didn't like what the Army was doing. Recollection gets fuzzy here as that the person that told me this might have said that this was when World War II was going on, and the guy with the coils was trying to help the Nazis.
And there's one more explanation. In the early 1980s I asked a longtime ham radio operator that I was talking to about this. He had been active since the mid-1930s, and maybe he would know. He suggested that it may have originated from when WLW of Cincinnati was using a 500 kilowatt transmitter (the maximum allowable stateside has been 50 kW for several years though WLW was grandfathered), and that the WLW signal was overpowering their neighbors and causing some strange things........which did happen by the way.
I also seem to recall reading that the military had an Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) station in northern Michigan, which would be remote enough for the antenna length needed for that kind of frequency band. I'll have to do some research, but I think this transmitter is still active, and sending messages to submerged submarines for low data (short) messages that the subs can receive without having to surface.
No matter where this comes from, it's an urban legend, and the version that I heard can not be true.
One, electric current can be induced in a coil from a radio station. That's what pocket transistors and older tube type superheterodyne receivers have done for years. If you're next door to a radio station, you get a much stronger signal and your receiver might overload, but it won't catch fire.
Two, the current will be miniscule. We're talking microvolts here with a current of microamperes. You can use a transformer to step up the voltage, but the tradeoff here is that you step down the current and you simply will not have enough juice to run your house. Now I'm sure that lights next door to WLW during the 1930s would glow, but again, not to the point of catching the house on fire.
Three. If, and I said "if", the radio station had turned up their power and burned the guy's house down, what do you think would have happened? They would have been sued, and they would have lost.
I haven't heard this story for quite some time, but it is one of those fun urban legends to kick around. I have tried running this down some and found chatter about people setting up coils next to high voltage towers to steal electricity, but nothing conclusive. That may have come from the guy next to the radio station, or maybe the story went in the other direction and morphed into someone doing this while living next door to a radio station.
Whatever, it's fun story, even if it is a contrived work of fiction that may or may not have been generated from a military experiment.
Sunday, March 12, 2017
Sunday, February 26, 2017
So What Are They Really Trying to Do Here?
Over in our neighboring state of California, often derisively referred to as "the People's Republic of California", legislation of a kind that I've never heard of before is being introduced. Senate Bill 464, as introduced by state senator Jerry Hill, will mandate increased security at gun stores throughout the state. If you read the article linked below, what we have here is legislation inspired by the brainchild of Anthony Lazarus of Redwood City as a result of a gun theft which the article implies occurred not too far from where he lives.
Of course, Senator Hill and Mr. Lazarus want to make it harder for criminals to get access to guns. Having once been the victim of a gun crime myself many years ago, I don't want criminals to have access to guns either. I'm going to go on record as supporting that one part of the Gun Control Act of 1968 which says that a felon cannot have a gun. I don't personally think that provision is going to make Joe Criminal go down to the police station to turn his gun in, but I want it there.......and I want it enforced. Hold that thought on enforcement because we'll get to that later. Let's get back to SB 464 for a moment.
Now no sane person wants a gun store to totally lack security. But do we really want to make this a law? Let's look at this in another light.
Do you think it might be in the interests of the owner(s) of the gun store to have theft deterrent measures in place as a matter of business practice? Do jewelry store owners, pawn shop owners, auto stereo store owners, and computer store owners practice what you would call lax security? Do these other business owners really need a law to tell them to lock their stuff up at night and secure the premises?
OK, some of you are saying that "gun stores are different!" Fair enough. They are. It would seem to me that they are alarmed with all sorts of high tech sensors to protect their inventory. Securing the inventory when they're closing up shop makes for good business sense. What I'm raising here, is the question of whether or not we actually need a law to tell them to do this, and to tell them how to do this. The how specified in this law isn't exactly timeless. Security technology advances over time, as that where there are measures there are also countermeasures, and the how of securing this inventory is going to have to be revisited eventually in order to counter the countermeasures. What I'm saying here, is that if you pass this law and it contains micromanagement of the how, then you're going to have to come back and amend it at some future point.
I have a suggestion as to addressing the concerns brought forth by Mr. Lazarus, but first let's get back to that thought on enforcement.
The Gun Control Act of 1968 is a federal law that among many other things, says that a felon can not legally possess a firearm. California has a law saying the same thing, as does Arizona, Nevada, and every other state. This might seem like a needless duplication of those state laws, and I can entertain that argument, but as I've stated I favor that provision at this point in time........with one proviso........that we enforce it.
Are there inmates in federal lockup right now serving time for violation of this part of the law? I wouldn't doubt that there are, but I'm unclear as to whether any of them are serving time for that kind of violation and no other violation of federal law. That's something that I should research some time.
I am aware of criminals being charged by local police for violating state laws prohibiting felons from having firearms. I look at the mugshot photos from time to time of those caught in southern Arizona, out of a curiosity as to what they were busted for. Some of them have multiple charges, and one of them that I see from time to time is having a firearm while being a "prohibited possessor". As to whether or not these are dropped in plea bargaining is also a good question, and the way I see it is that it might be.
Now for my suggestion as an alternative to what SB464 is setting out to do here.
Instead of placing the burden of mandating security at a gun store, what would be wrong with a mandatory additional five year sentence of stealing a firearm that is not subject to parole or any other kind of early release? Or how about an additional five years for driving a car through a storefront in order to steal any kind of merchandise? We already have sentencing enhancements for what they call "hate" crimes. Why not have them for stealing guns and smashing cars through storefronts? And why not have these sentencing enhancements mandatory, so that these criminals are kept off the streets?
There is no doubt in my mind of the sincerity in Mr. Lazarus wanting Redwood City to be safer. I'm with him on that. I have occasion to visit Redwood City once or twice a year to visit a good friend of mine, and as far as I know I'll be there again later this year.
The sincerity of the state senator is another matter. I don't think that keeping felons off the streets is one of his top priorities.
I think what he's really trying to do here, is to make it harder on the gun stores to remain in business, and this is one incremental step to drive them all out since he can't overturn the Supreme Court's Heller decision.
LINK
Of course, Senator Hill and Mr. Lazarus want to make it harder for criminals to get access to guns. Having once been the victim of a gun crime myself many years ago, I don't want criminals to have access to guns either. I'm going to go on record as supporting that one part of the Gun Control Act of 1968 which says that a felon cannot have a gun. I don't personally think that provision is going to make Joe Criminal go down to the police station to turn his gun in, but I want it there.......and I want it enforced. Hold that thought on enforcement because we'll get to that later. Let's get back to SB 464 for a moment.
Now no sane person wants a gun store to totally lack security. But do we really want to make this a law? Let's look at this in another light.
Do you think it might be in the interests of the owner(s) of the gun store to have theft deterrent measures in place as a matter of business practice? Do jewelry store owners, pawn shop owners, auto stereo store owners, and computer store owners practice what you would call lax security? Do these other business owners really need a law to tell them to lock their stuff up at night and secure the premises?
OK, some of you are saying that "gun stores are different!" Fair enough. They are. It would seem to me that they are alarmed with all sorts of high tech sensors to protect their inventory. Securing the inventory when they're closing up shop makes for good business sense. What I'm raising here, is the question of whether or not we actually need a law to tell them to do this, and to tell them how to do this. The how specified in this law isn't exactly timeless. Security technology advances over time, as that where there are measures there are also countermeasures, and the how of securing this inventory is going to have to be revisited eventually in order to counter the countermeasures. What I'm saying here, is that if you pass this law and it contains micromanagement of the how, then you're going to have to come back and amend it at some future point.
I have a suggestion as to addressing the concerns brought forth by Mr. Lazarus, but first let's get back to that thought on enforcement.
The Gun Control Act of 1968 is a federal law that among many other things, says that a felon can not legally possess a firearm. California has a law saying the same thing, as does Arizona, Nevada, and every other state. This might seem like a needless duplication of those state laws, and I can entertain that argument, but as I've stated I favor that provision at this point in time........with one proviso........that we enforce it.
Are there inmates in federal lockup right now serving time for violation of this part of the law? I wouldn't doubt that there are, but I'm unclear as to whether any of them are serving time for that kind of violation and no other violation of federal law. That's something that I should research some time.
I am aware of criminals being charged by local police for violating state laws prohibiting felons from having firearms. I look at the mugshot photos from time to time of those caught in southern Arizona, out of a curiosity as to what they were busted for. Some of them have multiple charges, and one of them that I see from time to time is having a firearm while being a "prohibited possessor". As to whether or not these are dropped in plea bargaining is also a good question, and the way I see it is that it might be.
Now for my suggestion as an alternative to what SB464 is setting out to do here.
Instead of placing the burden of mandating security at a gun store, what would be wrong with a mandatory additional five year sentence of stealing a firearm that is not subject to parole or any other kind of early release? Or how about an additional five years for driving a car through a storefront in order to steal any kind of merchandise? We already have sentencing enhancements for what they call "hate" crimes. Why not have them for stealing guns and smashing cars through storefronts? And why not have these sentencing enhancements mandatory, so that these criminals are kept off the streets?
There is no doubt in my mind of the sincerity in Mr. Lazarus wanting Redwood City to be safer. I'm with him on that. I have occasion to visit Redwood City once or twice a year to visit a good friend of mine, and as far as I know I'll be there again later this year.
The sincerity of the state senator is another matter. I don't think that keeping felons off the streets is one of his top priorities.
I think what he's really trying to do here, is to make it harder on the gun stores to remain in business, and this is one incremental step to drive them all out since he can't overturn the Supreme Court's Heller decision.
LINK
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Valentine's Day 2017
This evening marks the fifth Valentine's Day I've had with Sheila. We're going to formally celebrate it tomorrow for two reasons. One, her oldest daughter is out with her boyfriend, and two, it gives me one more day to rest up from this awful cold that a lot of us have been having.
At my end, I could complain about my situation, but from what I know of some others, it's not like I have a right to. I've always known that yes, there are others out there who have it worse than I do, but it remains on the back shelf of your mind until you get a phone call or you hear of one of those other situations, at which point I realize that I shouldn't be grousing about anything. Yes, I'm frustrated that I haven't gotten a start date yet from my new employer, and that is dependent on a background check that I have no way of knowing how far along it is.
And after another visit to San Jose and back, I'm really ready to end this sabbatical and to get back to doing some work. I didn't have a lot of time for "fun" in San Jose as that I was helping out with a situation there, and when I could get out of the house there was inclement weather or bad traffic or both. Usually bad traffic all of the time. Inclement weather only some of the time.
While I was there, I thought about posting from San Jose about San Jose, but it might have been a depressing post. A lot of people I knew there have since moved to other states.
One thing I really enjoyed about this trip was taking a different way back to Tucson. I reprised my passing thru of some small towns. Gasoline in Los Banos was significantly cheaper than the truck stop at Santa Nella, and I wandered around the supermarket in Firebaugh since going in there was like going back in time.
I took the left turn in Mendota, and continued on to state highway 99. I saw the Voice of America towers in Delano (my next time there I really need to get off the highway and take some pictures of it before they tear it down). Bakersfield wasn't the most pleasant place but tanking up in Delano meant not having to stop for gas there.
The stretch of highway 58 that has you drive thru Tehachapi is my most favorite part of the trip. I-10 between Coachella and San Berdoo is my least favorite part of the trip.
Now that I'm back home, I've been catching up on things and have found some time to tune the radio spectrum at night. KMOX was coming in at local 7:00 PM two nights ago (I did hear them again the next night after I posted about them). Omaha was also coming in, and although I had a signal on 870 kHz I didn't know if it was really WWL in New Orleans. I'd really like to get that one logged, as well as one of the Chicago stations.
There's not much on the shortwave bands. I am thinking of putting up a long wire antenna to see if that will help. I've also thought of constructing a home brew antenna for the medium wave stations, though if I'm getting KMOX then that portable is sensitive enough for the AM broadcast band.
And that is it for now.
At my end, I could complain about my situation, but from what I know of some others, it's not like I have a right to. I've always known that yes, there are others out there who have it worse than I do, but it remains on the back shelf of your mind until you get a phone call or you hear of one of those other situations, at which point I realize that I shouldn't be grousing about anything. Yes, I'm frustrated that I haven't gotten a start date yet from my new employer, and that is dependent on a background check that I have no way of knowing how far along it is.
And after another visit to San Jose and back, I'm really ready to end this sabbatical and to get back to doing some work. I didn't have a lot of time for "fun" in San Jose as that I was helping out with a situation there, and when I could get out of the house there was inclement weather or bad traffic or both. Usually bad traffic all of the time. Inclement weather only some of the time.
While I was there, I thought about posting from San Jose about San Jose, but it might have been a depressing post. A lot of people I knew there have since moved to other states.
* * * * * * *
One thing I really enjoyed about this trip was taking a different way back to Tucson. I reprised my passing thru of some small towns. Gasoline in Los Banos was significantly cheaper than the truck stop at Santa Nella, and I wandered around the supermarket in Firebaugh since going in there was like going back in time.
I took the left turn in Mendota, and continued on to state highway 99. I saw the Voice of America towers in Delano (my next time there I really need to get off the highway and take some pictures of it before they tear it down). Bakersfield wasn't the most pleasant place but tanking up in Delano meant not having to stop for gas there.
The stretch of highway 58 that has you drive thru Tehachapi is my most favorite part of the trip. I-10 between Coachella and San Berdoo is my least favorite part of the trip.
* * * * * * *
Now that I'm back home, I've been catching up on things and have found some time to tune the radio spectrum at night. KMOX was coming in at local 7:00 PM two nights ago (I did hear them again the next night after I posted about them). Omaha was also coming in, and although I had a signal on 870 kHz I didn't know if it was really WWL in New Orleans. I'd really like to get that one logged, as well as one of the Chicago stations.
There's not much on the shortwave bands. I am thinking of putting up a long wire antenna to see if that will help. I've also thought of constructing a home brew antenna for the medium wave stations, though if I'm getting KMOX then that portable is sensitive enough for the AM broadcast band.
* * * * * * *
And that is it for now.
Monday, January 30, 2017
The Trump Express? The Trump Cannonball?
Whatever you wish to name the Trump Train, we are seeing a train like no others in our lifetime. Upon listening to talk radio, there are some talk radio hosts and TV cable hosts who are now finding show preparation much more difficult as that Trump is steamrolling the Establishment like no one has ever seen. From what I can tell he is already doing what he said he was going to do all along, a momentum of which continues to amaze me in spite of the fact that he's been in office for not even a fortnight.
The inauguration itself caught my interest. I had not watched a swearing in since 2001, I think I watched one in 1981 and I definitely remember watching the one in 1973. Some media eck-spurts must have watched a different inaugural address than the one that I watched once I heard their take on it. I myself was encouraged and like Sean Hannity I'm thinking, Mr. President, keep your promises.
Already we are seeing Executive Orders being fired out of the cannon, one after another. The first steps in dismantling Obamacare have been taken. We've had one issued to cut down on regulations (which I read today where Canada had to institute a similar process). And the most controversial one so far, a temporary ban on refugees from seven countries while the vetting process is reviewed and fixed.
With all that, and the meltdown from the snowflakes (not to mention female malcontents stating publicly their desire to blow up the White House) has me at the point to where I want to sit down with a bowl of popcorn before I watch the news. Some eck-spurts are maintaining that the Constitution is being violated by these orders, but they don't tell us what part of the Constitution is being violated. Others are predicting an impeachment within the year, and although all of their previous Trump predictions have failed I'm well aware of Trump being sabotaged by members of his own party. The Democrats are not taking this well since they're used to the girly-men Republicans caving in, and they are more frustrated as that Trump isn't going to turn tail on them like they are used to.
And breaking just few hours ago, a leftover Obama appointee was fired for refusing to comply the travel ban, giving the left another hissy fit that's coming before they have had the time to process the hissy fit that they didn't have the chance to finish, There's an entertainment factor here, and this time it's not the kind you get from watching a squirrel short out a transformer on a power pole. I don't know what to compare it to.
There's more to digest here than what I've mentioned, and when time permits I want to look at another subcommunity that I've been thinking about commenting on here but haven't as of yet. I want to put some more thought into that along with the research I intend to do before I post.
However, the way the events are going, that too may be overcome by events.
Stay tuned, as that this is much better than Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.
The inauguration itself caught my interest. I had not watched a swearing in since 2001, I think I watched one in 1981 and I definitely remember watching the one in 1973. Some media eck-spurts must have watched a different inaugural address than the one that I watched once I heard their take on it. I myself was encouraged and like Sean Hannity I'm thinking, Mr. President, keep your promises.
Already we are seeing Executive Orders being fired out of the cannon, one after another. The first steps in dismantling Obamacare have been taken. We've had one issued to cut down on regulations (which I read today where Canada had to institute a similar process). And the most controversial one so far, a temporary ban on refugees from seven countries while the vetting process is reviewed and fixed.
With all that, and the meltdown from the snowflakes (not to mention female malcontents stating publicly their desire to blow up the White House) has me at the point to where I want to sit down with a bowl of popcorn before I watch the news. Some eck-spurts are maintaining that the Constitution is being violated by these orders, but they don't tell us what part of the Constitution is being violated. Others are predicting an impeachment within the year, and although all of their previous Trump predictions have failed I'm well aware of Trump being sabotaged by members of his own party. The Democrats are not taking this well since they're used to the girly-men Republicans caving in, and they are more frustrated as that Trump isn't going to turn tail on them like they are used to.
And breaking just few hours ago, a leftover Obama appointee was fired for refusing to comply the travel ban, giving the left another hissy fit that's coming before they have had the time to process the hissy fit that they didn't have the chance to finish, There's an entertainment factor here, and this time it's not the kind you get from watching a squirrel short out a transformer on a power pole. I don't know what to compare it to.
There's more to digest here than what I've mentioned, and when time permits I want to look at another subcommunity that I've been thinking about commenting on here but haven't as of yet. I want to put some more thought into that along with the research I intend to do before I post.
However, the way the events are going, that too may be overcome by events.
Stay tuned, as that this is much better than Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.
Wednesday, January 4, 2017
Why Do They Want to Hire Foreign Workers?
(The story you are about to read is true, as far as I've been able to determine. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.)
Alfred B. Martensite is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Strumdum Industries, Inc.. He has been in this position for five years or so. Strumdum Industries got their start in a Milwaukee garage in 1977, when an electronics experimenter developed a design for a low powered FM transmitter that went on to fill a niche need for government and military customers. The original founder did not fall into the paradigm that Strumdum was a transmitter company, but instead that Strumdum was a communications company. Although the founder is no longer with them, he hired Mr. Martensite in the early days, and Alfred B. Martensite provided oversight for the development of relays and routers as part of the Internet infrastructure.
Alfred B. Martensite is a rare breed of CEO. He is technically brilliant, a shrewd businessman with a strong sense of ethics, and has an empathy with his employees that far surpasses that of other CEOs. Morale is high, his employees are allowed a work/life balance that enables them to spend time with their families, and benefits are excellent. He runs the company this way since he wants to see Strumdum Industries expand. He wants to grow the business. He thinks long-term; he's more interested in where Strumdum will be in five years rather than where Strumdum will be in the next quarter. He's donated a lot of money to his alma mater. He visits his alma mater to meet with the Chairman of the Electrical Engineering department once or twice a year.
On these visits, Mr. Martensite is accompanied by two other Strumdum executives. Their names are Dr. Norman Fishbinder, who is the Vice President of Research & Development, and Dr. Chin McGarrett, who is the Vice President of Engineering and Chief Engineer. They visit the University of Dallas, which has not only produced Alfred B. Martensite, but also graduates engineers that Strumdum is very much interested in. Strumdum is headquartered in Roosevelt Park, Texas, about forty-five minutes from the University of Big D, as the locals refer to it, and Strumdum believes in hiring local talent.
Their most recent visit, shortly after the election, was quite telling in addition to being productive. The meeting between the executives and the Department Chair went very well, as they usually do. The Department Chair took them on a tour. The tour included the engineering laboratories of the University, which the executives have seen on previous visits, but the executives want to meet the graduate students and press the flesh, because these executives know that their competition will also be interested upon acquiring the talents of these students upon their graduation. Quite a few of the students are from China, India, Malaysia, and Korea. Yes, there are some Americans in there, as well as some Germans. Last I heard, there's also an Egyptian and a New Zealander there too.
After the tour, there's always a discussion in a conference room with the Department Chairman and most of the available professors. Strumdum is quite interested in the curricula that the University of Dallas offers their students, as that Stumdum has some niche specialties and they want to make sure that there are future engineers in the pipeline. Lunch is served in that conference room, which Mr. Martensite has arranged to be catered, because Mr. Martensite is very interested in his business relationship with the Department Chair, and the Department Chair of course, is interested as well, as that Strumdum's been known to frequently award consulting contracts to professors as well as scholarships to those students they deem promising.
The meeting ends, and it's time for the Strumdum executives to return to Roosevelt Park. It's nearing two in the afternoon, and they want to be ahead of the rush hour traffic known to plague the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. It's a beautiful day in Texas as they leave the building, to walk to where they are parked.
On their way out, they notice a spectacle. As I've said in one of the preceding paragraphs, this was shortly after the election. The spectacle that draws their attention are a group of students protesting the election of Donald Trump. He's not their President. They don't like him. They want him stopped. They want him stopped, but their demands do not stop there.
Dr. McGarrett notices that the students all appear to be white affluent Americans. Dr. Fishbinder notices that too, and so does Mr. Martensite. They stop to read the signs.
The students want free birth control. Those who are female and those who want to be female want free tampons. They want free tuition. They want to be excused from the final exams as that they're very traumatized about how the election went. They want their safe spaces, and many of them possess coloring books and Playdoh. Some are into the aromatherapy thing. Othes are not. But there's one thing in common with all of them: all of them are angry, and all of them don't want to attend class anymore.
As these executives look at this, they are pondering. What's up with these snowflakes? they ask themselves. They look at this for five, maybe ten minutes, after which they start their return to their offices in Roosevelt Park as that there's work to be done at Strumdum.
On the drive back, they ask themselves. What's happening to our country? What's wrong with their parents? Hey, did you notice that the lab we saw had a much higher proportion of foreign students than we saw last year?
Later on this year, actually next month to be specific, Strumdum will be sending out their recruiters to college campuses around the country. The University of Dallas will of course, be one of those campuses. The snowflakes will be there in their safe spaces, and many of those foreign students will show up at the on-campus interviews wearing suits and discussing in detail their senior projects since they want to work for Strumdum.
Who do you think Strumdum Industries will want to hire?
Alfred B. Martensite is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Strumdum Industries, Inc.. He has been in this position for five years or so. Strumdum Industries got their start in a Milwaukee garage in 1977, when an electronics experimenter developed a design for a low powered FM transmitter that went on to fill a niche need for government and military customers. The original founder did not fall into the paradigm that Strumdum was a transmitter company, but instead that Strumdum was a communications company. Although the founder is no longer with them, he hired Mr. Martensite in the early days, and Alfred B. Martensite provided oversight for the development of relays and routers as part of the Internet infrastructure.
Alfred B. Martensite is a rare breed of CEO. He is technically brilliant, a shrewd businessman with a strong sense of ethics, and has an empathy with his employees that far surpasses that of other CEOs. Morale is high, his employees are allowed a work/life balance that enables them to spend time with their families, and benefits are excellent. He runs the company this way since he wants to see Strumdum Industries expand. He wants to grow the business. He thinks long-term; he's more interested in where Strumdum will be in five years rather than where Strumdum will be in the next quarter. He's donated a lot of money to his alma mater. He visits his alma mater to meet with the Chairman of the Electrical Engineering department once or twice a year.
On these visits, Mr. Martensite is accompanied by two other Strumdum executives. Their names are Dr. Norman Fishbinder, who is the Vice President of Research & Development, and Dr. Chin McGarrett, who is the Vice President of Engineering and Chief Engineer. They visit the University of Dallas, which has not only produced Alfred B. Martensite, but also graduates engineers that Strumdum is very much interested in. Strumdum is headquartered in Roosevelt Park, Texas, about forty-five minutes from the University of Big D, as the locals refer to it, and Strumdum believes in hiring local talent.
Their most recent visit, shortly after the election, was quite telling in addition to being productive. The meeting between the executives and the Department Chair went very well, as they usually do. The Department Chair took them on a tour. The tour included the engineering laboratories of the University, which the executives have seen on previous visits, but the executives want to meet the graduate students and press the flesh, because these executives know that their competition will also be interested upon acquiring the talents of these students upon their graduation. Quite a few of the students are from China, India, Malaysia, and Korea. Yes, there are some Americans in there, as well as some Germans. Last I heard, there's also an Egyptian and a New Zealander there too.
After the tour, there's always a discussion in a conference room with the Department Chairman and most of the available professors. Strumdum is quite interested in the curricula that the University of Dallas offers their students, as that Stumdum has some niche specialties and they want to make sure that there are future engineers in the pipeline. Lunch is served in that conference room, which Mr. Martensite has arranged to be catered, because Mr. Martensite is very interested in his business relationship with the Department Chair, and the Department Chair of course, is interested as well, as that Strumdum's been known to frequently award consulting contracts to professors as well as scholarships to those students they deem promising.
The meeting ends, and it's time for the Strumdum executives to return to Roosevelt Park. It's nearing two in the afternoon, and they want to be ahead of the rush hour traffic known to plague the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. It's a beautiful day in Texas as they leave the building, to walk to where they are parked.
On their way out, they notice a spectacle. As I've said in one of the preceding paragraphs, this was shortly after the election. The spectacle that draws their attention are a group of students protesting the election of Donald Trump. He's not their President. They don't like him. They want him stopped. They want him stopped, but their demands do not stop there.
Dr. McGarrett notices that the students all appear to be white affluent Americans. Dr. Fishbinder notices that too, and so does Mr. Martensite. They stop to read the signs.
The students want free birth control. Those who are female and those who want to be female want free tampons. They want free tuition. They want to be excused from the final exams as that they're very traumatized about how the election went. They want their safe spaces, and many of them possess coloring books and Playdoh. Some are into the aromatherapy thing. Othes are not. But there's one thing in common with all of them: all of them are angry, and all of them don't want to attend class anymore.
As these executives look at this, they are pondering. What's up with these snowflakes? they ask themselves. They look at this for five, maybe ten minutes, after which they start their return to their offices in Roosevelt Park as that there's work to be done at Strumdum.
On the drive back, they ask themselves. What's happening to our country? What's wrong with their parents? Hey, did you notice that the lab we saw had a much higher proportion of foreign students than we saw last year?
Later on this year, actually next month to be specific, Strumdum will be sending out their recruiters to college campuses around the country. The University of Dallas will of course, be one of those campuses. The snowflakes will be there in their safe spaces, and many of those foreign students will show up at the on-campus interviews wearing suits and discussing in detail their senior projects since they want to work for Strumdum.
Who do you think Strumdum Industries will want to hire?
Saturday, December 31, 2016
A Look Back, and a Look Forward
Here we are at the end of year that has proven tumultuous for myself as well as for a lot of other people, if you take into account the play that was on the world stage. As for what's gone on in that side of things; I've commented on it enough over the course of the past year, and will instead in this posting take a look back at what happened for me, and where it looks like I'm going.
One year ago today I was still employed by that private spaceflight firm in North Las Vegas. The future for the enterprise looked promising as that it had been less than two weeks earlier that we were going to expand. Sixteen new hires were reporting for work on the 4th of January, that first Monday back from Christmas vacation. This was mainly to staff up a newly created department that our Test team was going to help out. I had re-established a friendship with the Propulsion Manager who was one of the first friends I had made down here in Arizona in early 1999. As much as I hated living in Las Vegas, there was something to look forward to, even if at that time I was planning on finding work in Arizona so that I could return home.
Well, things turned out differently. Fourteen or fifteen out of those sixteen were laid off one hour after reporting for work. The owner decided not to expand the Propulsion department, and the buzz going around was that things were going to get worse. The next day at 4:30, forty of us were rounded up and laid off since "not enough money was coming into the company", which no one bought since the owner was financing it out of money he made from another business. Ron and I later on went out to the Fiesta Station to talk about this over iced tea at the food court that they had. We were not happy about it, but the upshot that he was going home to his wife in Florida and I was going home to Sheila. There was the matter of setting up unemployment from the State of Nevada, which both of us qualified for the full benefit since we had worked there for one year.
Before I even had a chance to digest all of this, I received a call from a medical device firm here in Tucson who needed a test engineer. The phone interview went well and I was brought in for one afternoon. I felt I had done well, and one of the managers, as she was walking me out, told me "by the way, don't wear that suit on your first day here. We wear jeans." That told me that her panel vote was going to be in favor of making an offer, and that must have been the way the rest of them felt as that I got the phone call the very next day.
That meant for one last trip up to Nevada to get my things, which was at that time the nicest problem that I could have, and Sheila and I drove up for that last one. The apartment was emptied out, and we stayed that last night at Fiesta Station, after which the next morning we had the final walk-through by the apartment management. Not one nickel was withheld from my security deposit. It was given back to them in the same state that it had been given to me. It was then the drive home, and the frantic process of getting an Arizona license plate back on my truck.
The work at the medical device firm went well. I didn't think about what I had gotten myself into and if I was in over my head or not. I dove right into it, took over a project in its infancy, and went from there. Things fell into place as I discovered some innovations as I was developing my process for how I was going to help get this one over the goal line. When it came time to test, we were ahead of schedule. Yes, I padded the test time somewhat, but by 20% so that we had margin in case of equipment failure or issues, which did arise.
After that I was done, and I started my sabbatical, thinking that I would be back early next year when they had another round of upgrades. I was told in a phone call that budgets have been frozen, and that they weren't bringing in contractors next year. This forced me to look more seriously. I mean, I was looking just in case, but I amped that up some after that phone call.
Well, I can now report that I accepted an offer of employment earlier this month. This is a test position very similar to what I was doing with medical devices, but this time around it's with radio transmitters running the spectrum from HF (high frequency) to satellite uplinks. It's a great job for a ham radio licensee with a degree in electrical engineering, and it's going to pay me well too. The past few weeks have been spent filling out paperwork to get this set up. A background check has been started on me. It's unclear if it will take a few weeks or a few months.
In that event, the nature of the offer does allow me to pursue contract work while I'm waiting. I don't know if that will happen. Through some other sources, there is reliable information that this should be done by the end of next month. And at that time I'll be ready. I've already got some ideas on how to streamline things.
On the personal front, I have been extremely grateful these past few weeks to have been home.....meaning that I'm extremely grateful that I'm not waking up in an apartment in North Las Vegas......that I'm instead waking up in my own bed, next to Sheila. I've told some friends recently and I'll tell you this here........I will never again take being or living at home for granted. My exile lasted over a year. Of all the blessings that the good Lord has allowed me to enjoy, the blessing of home, family and marriage is the one that I've been appreciating the most lately.
One year ago today I was still employed by that private spaceflight firm in North Las Vegas. The future for the enterprise looked promising as that it had been less than two weeks earlier that we were going to expand. Sixteen new hires were reporting for work on the 4th of January, that first Monday back from Christmas vacation. This was mainly to staff up a newly created department that our Test team was going to help out. I had re-established a friendship with the Propulsion Manager who was one of the first friends I had made down here in Arizona in early 1999. As much as I hated living in Las Vegas, there was something to look forward to, even if at that time I was planning on finding work in Arizona so that I could return home.
Well, things turned out differently. Fourteen or fifteen out of those sixteen were laid off one hour after reporting for work. The owner decided not to expand the Propulsion department, and the buzz going around was that things were going to get worse. The next day at 4:30, forty of us were rounded up and laid off since "not enough money was coming into the company", which no one bought since the owner was financing it out of money he made from another business. Ron and I later on went out to the Fiesta Station to talk about this over iced tea at the food court that they had. We were not happy about it, but the upshot that he was going home to his wife in Florida and I was going home to Sheila. There was the matter of setting up unemployment from the State of Nevada, which both of us qualified for the full benefit since we had worked there for one year.
Before I even had a chance to digest all of this, I received a call from a medical device firm here in Tucson who needed a test engineer. The phone interview went well and I was brought in for one afternoon. I felt I had done well, and one of the managers, as she was walking me out, told me "by the way, don't wear that suit on your first day here. We wear jeans." That told me that her panel vote was going to be in favor of making an offer, and that must have been the way the rest of them felt as that I got the phone call the very next day.
That meant for one last trip up to Nevada to get my things, which was at that time the nicest problem that I could have, and Sheila and I drove up for that last one. The apartment was emptied out, and we stayed that last night at Fiesta Station, after which the next morning we had the final walk-through by the apartment management. Not one nickel was withheld from my security deposit. It was given back to them in the same state that it had been given to me. It was then the drive home, and the frantic process of getting an Arizona license plate back on my truck.
The work at the medical device firm went well. I didn't think about what I had gotten myself into and if I was in over my head or not. I dove right into it, took over a project in its infancy, and went from there. Things fell into place as I discovered some innovations as I was developing my process for how I was going to help get this one over the goal line. When it came time to test, we were ahead of schedule. Yes, I padded the test time somewhat, but by 20% so that we had margin in case of equipment failure or issues, which did arise.
After that I was done, and I started my sabbatical, thinking that I would be back early next year when they had another round of upgrades. I was told in a phone call that budgets have been frozen, and that they weren't bringing in contractors next year. This forced me to look more seriously. I mean, I was looking just in case, but I amped that up some after that phone call.
Well, I can now report that I accepted an offer of employment earlier this month. This is a test position very similar to what I was doing with medical devices, but this time around it's with radio transmitters running the spectrum from HF (high frequency) to satellite uplinks. It's a great job for a ham radio licensee with a degree in electrical engineering, and it's going to pay me well too. The past few weeks have been spent filling out paperwork to get this set up. A background check has been started on me. It's unclear if it will take a few weeks or a few months.
In that event, the nature of the offer does allow me to pursue contract work while I'm waiting. I don't know if that will happen. Through some other sources, there is reliable information that this should be done by the end of next month. And at that time I'll be ready. I've already got some ideas on how to streamline things.
On the personal front, I have been extremely grateful these past few weeks to have been home.....meaning that I'm extremely grateful that I'm not waking up in an apartment in North Las Vegas......that I'm instead waking up in my own bed, next to Sheila. I've told some friends recently and I'll tell you this here........I will never again take being or living at home for granted. My exile lasted over a year. Of all the blessings that the good Lord has allowed me to enjoy, the blessing of home, family and marriage is the one that I've been appreciating the most lately.
Sunday, December 11, 2016
Electronic Kitbuilding and Experimentation
Years ago when I was living in California I was active in a ham radio club. We met monthly, and after the club business was taken care of there was a guest speaker. (I was a guest speaker one month, but that's not what this entry will be about). One guest speaker was a YL, ham radio slang for "young lady", and most ham radio operations who are OMs (OM means "old man", regardless of your age) will tell you that the hobby needs more YLs. (XYL is "ex-young lady", which means "wife").
Well that speaker was technically an XYL, but we'll regard her as a YL in this post. Her talk was on QRP, which means "low power (operation)", and about how she built her own transmitters and experimented with QRP, and her experiences with using it.
QRP is one of those niche interests, among several, that can be found in ham radio. A longtime friend of mine was into it, and me, for all those years I was active I would run with an input power of 100 watts, which is definitely not QRP. I remember talking to one ham who was only using one watt of power, and his signal was surprisingly good. It wasn't pegging my meter or anything like that, but I had 100% copy of him on the 40 meter band. He was in the L.A. area and I was in San Jose, and he was hearing me as good as I was hearing him.
Anyway, what the YL said was that some hams didn't want to waste their time talking to her. A lot of hams are into DX, that is, "distance", which means that you want to hams who are very far away, and yes, working DX is quite the thrill. But the seed that she planted in my mind then, was to get into experimenting with electronics, and a few days after her talk I was at one of the surplus electronic parts stores in Silicon Valley (All-Tronics? Haltek?) getting integrated circuits to experiment with on a breadboard. I also realized that I would need a power supply, so I visited a Radio Shack, bought a book on how to build power supplies, and I spent a week or so in the garage building one of my own.
I'm going to backtrack a little bit here as that I wasn't new to building things. I built my first radio in 1974, a very simple crystal set that could only receive one station. I built a second one later on that year, as part of a class in high school. It was finished in January 1975, and to my amazement it worked, and using the instructions I was able to align the IF (intermediate frequency) cans to where it worked fine. I still have it, it's in the garage, and probably what I ought to do sometime is build another one that's similar to it.
But let's get back to the later years. I built that power supply, and used it for experimenting with some simple computer circuits, and that went on until some life changing events that visited me during the last few months of 1998. The power supply moved with me to Arizona in early 1999, and it is still with me as that I figured that it would be useful in some future endeavor. Earlier this evening, I went out to the garage to look at it, after finding a notebook that I started to document my projects and experiments.
So why is this now happening?
I've been thinking a lot about getting back into shortwave listening these past few weeks, and I'm also thinking of resuming my ham radio hobby. Right now the house is a little on the crowded side, but eventually one of the stepdaughters is going to move out, and that will give me a chance to reclaim one of the bedrooms as my "radio room". Until then, I might be able to operate out of the master bedroom, which although is a little cramped, I think I can set up a table and get one of my transceivers back into commission.
And, I'm now thinking, maybe it's time I build a QRP transmitter, and see what I can do with it.
I've been spending the past few days visiting websites about transmitter design. Eventually I would like to homebrew my own transmitter, but existing QRP kits can be had for $40 or so, and I'm thinking that I should purchase one of these kits and have some fun with it. Of course, my intention is to build one of my own, and to see what I can do with that.
Next month, I might be in San Jose again, and if that happens I plan on visiting my favorite surplus stores with a list of parts to look for. In the meantime, I'll be combing thru some boxes of parts that I already have, to see if I can jury rig a small transmitter, just for the fun of it.
Well that speaker was technically an XYL, but we'll regard her as a YL in this post. Her talk was on QRP, which means "low power (operation)", and about how she built her own transmitters and experimented with QRP, and her experiences with using it.
QRP is one of those niche interests, among several, that can be found in ham radio. A longtime friend of mine was into it, and me, for all those years I was active I would run with an input power of 100 watts, which is definitely not QRP. I remember talking to one ham who was only using one watt of power, and his signal was surprisingly good. It wasn't pegging my meter or anything like that, but I had 100% copy of him on the 40 meter band. He was in the L.A. area and I was in San Jose, and he was hearing me as good as I was hearing him.
Anyway, what the YL said was that some hams didn't want to waste their time talking to her. A lot of hams are into DX, that is, "distance", which means that you want to hams who are very far away, and yes, working DX is quite the thrill. But the seed that she planted in my mind then, was to get into experimenting with electronics, and a few days after her talk I was at one of the surplus electronic parts stores in Silicon Valley (All-Tronics? Haltek?) getting integrated circuits to experiment with on a breadboard. I also realized that I would need a power supply, so I visited a Radio Shack, bought a book on how to build power supplies, and I spent a week or so in the garage building one of my own.
I'm going to backtrack a little bit here as that I wasn't new to building things. I built my first radio in 1974, a very simple crystal set that could only receive one station. I built a second one later on that year, as part of a class in high school. It was finished in January 1975, and to my amazement it worked, and using the instructions I was able to align the IF (intermediate frequency) cans to where it worked fine. I still have it, it's in the garage, and probably what I ought to do sometime is build another one that's similar to it.
But let's get back to the later years. I built that power supply, and used it for experimenting with some simple computer circuits, and that went on until some life changing events that visited me during the last few months of 1998. The power supply moved with me to Arizona in early 1999, and it is still with me as that I figured that it would be useful in some future endeavor. Earlier this evening, I went out to the garage to look at it, after finding a notebook that I started to document my projects and experiments.
So why is this now happening?
I've been thinking a lot about getting back into shortwave listening these past few weeks, and I'm also thinking of resuming my ham radio hobby. Right now the house is a little on the crowded side, but eventually one of the stepdaughters is going to move out, and that will give me a chance to reclaim one of the bedrooms as my "radio room". Until then, I might be able to operate out of the master bedroom, which although is a little cramped, I think I can set up a table and get one of my transceivers back into commission.
And, I'm now thinking, maybe it's time I build a QRP transmitter, and see what I can do with it.
I've been spending the past few days visiting websites about transmitter design. Eventually I would like to homebrew my own transmitter, but existing QRP kits can be had for $40 or so, and I'm thinking that I should purchase one of these kits and have some fun with it. Of course, my intention is to build one of my own, and to see what I can do with that.
Next month, I might be in San Jose again, and if that happens I plan on visiting my favorite surplus stores with a list of parts to look for. In the meantime, I'll be combing thru some boxes of parts that I already have, to see if I can jury rig a small transmitter, just for the fun of it.
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