On Thursday 16 November 2017 21:33:59 Jon Elson wrote: > On 11/16/2017 02:59 PM, Gene Heskett wrote: > > Ahh, I see, and see why it didn't ring bells, I have my own > > "makerspace", so no interest in that. > > Yes, and exactly the same here. If it was relatively cheap, > I could possibly have been interested. But, at $1000+ per > year, it would be REAL hard to justify. > > Now, we had a LinuxCNC code fest at Tx/Rx labs in Houston, > and THAT place was a total blast. 10,000 times better than > Tech Shop! They had an amazing electronics lab, that even > had a pick and place machine. They had a gourmet kitchen, > too, and we had some great breakfasts there. Instead of > all-new machines, they had a mixture of surplus machines in > various stages of retrofit, and we tinkered a bit with them > while down there. Totally cool! > > Jon > And of course you got to show off just a wee bit in front of the "frogs".
I've been known to do that in my broadcast engineering hat. Grins are awfully hard to suppress when such a scenario comes together and you leave 4 of the best engineers the state has with jaws hanging open like they were watching a magic show, and who have been telling you it won't work for hours when you push the final button and it does work. Simply put, those guys, none of them, had a clue how the physics inside a $150,000 klystron amplifier actually worked. I did and do to the extent I'd suspect one of them cranking on a magnet adjustment is why the previous klystron was full of water. They looked awfully nervous when my hands went for those knobs. So a mechanically bent klystron was not a showstopper problem to me. Hungry work though, no kitchen to speak of at the Public Broadcasting transmitter site on Chestnut Ridge. Fridge, hot plate and a Mr. Coffee we kept going all night after I sent one of them out to get a can of coffee. One of my better memories, that. I've no doubt we all have similar stories to tell though. Cheers, Gene Heskett -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
