BoatBanter.com - View Single Post - FT-857 vs 706 MkII ?

Larry

Bruce in Alaska wrote in news:bruceg-
:

All the Inspectors that I had
"trained" to do SOLAS Inspections, out of the Seattle Field Office,
then
got to "train" me, in doing SOLAS Inspections from the Regulatory side
of the house. We had Great fun.

Oh, sorry. Thanks for the clarification....

Speaking of FCC inspectors, an old friend of mine was chief engineer at
WDIX ("in Dixie") a 5KW, 2 tower directional AM on 1150 and 100KW FM
rocker on 101-something in Orangeburg, SC. DIX is long gone, now, after
a suspicious fire consumed the building and the old 5KW Gates beast fell
into the basement. They covered the station over with bulldozers and
made a mall on top of it. You can still hear the Gates under your feet
if you stand in just the right place on top of it....."we" can, that
is...(c;

Anyways, FCC fun, the Atlanta office sent this nice, young,
inexperienced-but-well-educated engineer over to see JD Black at WDIX.
He had his new shiny AM field strength meter with a fresh cal sticker and
all to check the AM pattern and strength. JD, an old goat who could
remember when the AM transmitters didn't have shields and side panels on
them, complied with this FCC newbies request to accompany him to the
various test points. JD carried his own FS meter. Might as well check
it if we gotta drive out in the country, a little earlier than normal.

According to this young guy, DIX's pattern and power were way, way off
and he had NALs in his mind to be a big hero back at the office. Well,
now it was JDs turn to ask this nice young man how many times he'd used
that FS meter and asked him to show JD how to properly set it up for the
test. ....er, ah..."set it up?".... I suppose the boys at HQ were all
being smartasses turning all the setup stuff to full left, requiring him
to cal the receiver before doing the measurements.

After a bit of instruction on how to do it, JD made a new FCC friend and
demonstrated WDIX to be well within all tolerance levels, just like it
always was all those decades before. That little gleam in his eyes every
time he told me that story took 20 years off his weathered old face.

He and DIX are gone, but I can still see him praying there'd be a little
static discharge to the AM tower my electronic students were standing
inside the doghouse under...just waiting to see them come hauling out of
there when the discharge balls lit up the doghouse....I miss him awful.

Larry