On 03/04/2017 12:24 PM, Gene Heskett wrote: >> >> Heh, speak for yerself. While it was fairly mild this past February, >> I had the snow blower out again yesterday morning. We got a wee bit >> more snow up here in Northern Michigan than you got there in West By >> God Virginny. ;-) >> >> >> Mark > Well off topic folks, its story time! > > I'd imagine so from looking at the weather radar. You got pounded, > several times. > > Where are you from Iron Mountain? I've been there several times as Russ > had bought a tv station from a bankrupt preacher, and if it was off the > air for more than X amount of time the commission would lift the > license, so I was up there to make it make some kind of noise as cheaply > as I could. All this after I had officially retired June 30, 2002, even > one late spring, smack in the middle of the worst tick season I've ever > lived thru, about 6 weeks with the 8 bay superturnstile antenna laying > on big crossed x gizmo's I had built to hold it about 5 feet off the > ground, while I leak checked and replaced 11 feedlines that had been > worn plumb thru by the wind flexing it. The preacher had put, on the top > light platform designed to hold the usual pair of 660 watt top beacons, > two 20 foot sticks of 4" square tubeing so it stuck up another 20 feet, > the 2nd 20 footer being cut in 4ths and welded to the vertical stick so > it formed a huge, painted white cross, and then hung 2, 1 kilowatt > halogen floodlamps on top of that to light up the cross and blind all > the folks fishing in the lakes that Iron Mountain was built on. He had > no clue about the wind loading that created. I saw those lamps doing 15 > foot figure 8's in the wind several times, so when the leaks got so bad > that even a dry air compressor couldn't keep rain out of it, I got a guy > and a big L10-11 crane to go up and take the cross off and throw it down > in the weeds, then pull the antenna out of its socket and lay it on my > supports while I looked for and fixed most of the leaks. That I did, but > didn't have the gear to re-tune it for channel 8, so the VSWR was up > some when it was re-installed in the tower, but it at least stayed on > the air. > > Unfunny, very sad thing, the gent whole did the take down work on top of > the tower, hiking that several tons of antenna an extra inch because the > crane was at its peak limit of just inches over 200 feet, he grabbed it > and bounced and shoved it across the towertop to get it clear so it > could be brought down. He was the electrical guy at one of the local > foundries, doubling as a crane operator at $dayjob, went in to work the > next Monday morning, grabbed the pendent of one of the trolleys and > found is was 500 volts ac hot, I never heard why, and could not let go. > I went to his funeral up in Crystal Springs. Walter Dooer. Good man, > well endowed with the patience of the biblical Job. His wife who was > well into oldtimers prematurely, was un-console-able as he was her lord > and master as the mentality went to hell. Sad. I understand she died a > few weeks later, but by then I was home, and its a 1000 mile one way > drive. > > Another time I needed a weekend off from converting it to digital, and > drove over to Ray Henry's place and had a couple pork chops off his > lakeside grill for dinner. Ray had retired, and had a business built up > selling basswood blocks for carving to places like A.C.Moore craft > chain. We talked some about what was still emc, and I described what I > was doing with it. He seemed genuinely pleased to hear that I thought it > was in good hands. > > I visited his "shop" the next day, just over the MI/WI state line, and he > sold me a big pile of butternut that I loaded into the big ford van and > brought home. Since put some of it as replacement panel inserts in all > my kitchen cabinet doors. Nice. I still have a goodly amount of it left, > waiting for the ideal project to make out of it. Too soft for tabletops > though. So I can say I've met the legendary Ray Henry! > > As for WDHS-TV8, Russ owned it for much of the 18 years I worked for him, > and it never aired a paid commercial except the 18 months or so when it > broadcast the non-stop commercial programming from Guthie-Rinker for one > of the women who had an extensive beauty product line. One of the former > Charlies Angels I think. And WDHS was a "bonus" deal, we got the > programming for nothing, and weren't paid any spiff for the sales > generated. > > When they wanted their sat receiver back instead of renewing the > contract, it was said that in that 18 months, it had generated one phone > order for less than 50 bucks worth of her products. Cable penetration > in Iron Mountain was 100% as there wasn't any real "on air" tv for a > hundred miles around. Tough market to get any traction in. > > Now back to your regularly scheduled programming. ;-) > > Cheers, Gene Heskett
Iron Mountain be home of Yoopers, eh? I'm a Troll, I live below the Bridge (Mackinac Bridge). A little over an hour south of the Bridge in a town by the name of Grayling MI. Mark ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
