On 2/9/07, Don Kupferschmidt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > For those who are inquiring minds and not up to all of the terminology, what > is a "golden screwdriver"?
The golden screwdriver is either: 1. The device used by a novice/idiot to "screw something up". 2. Sometimes also used as a reference to an award for doing same (e.g. "the Golden Screwdriver award for blowing up the power supply by wiring it up backwards goes to...")... In other words, if someone "golden screwdrivered" something -- they didn't know what they were doing and mis-tuned it, mis-aligned it, installed it wrong, or otherwise just totally screwed it up... sometimes beyond all hope, sometimes repairable. In this case, it sounds like someone who didn't know what they were doing was messing with a duplexer on-site, which led to the repeater owner/operator having to remove the system from service, take the duplexer to someone with proper test gear, and having it re-tuned properly for his frequencies. Some clubs go so far as to issue Golden Screwdriver awards each year: <http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/club/sscspot/2001/0321/index.html> And stuff like this makes it all the more fun to do that: <http://www.amazon.com/PB-Phillips-Tipped-Screwdriver-interchangeable/dp/B0002GF5XY> And in the workplace it goes hand in hand with the long-running joke between field support staff and engineers... "Never let the engineer touch/bring a screwdriver to the field! Nate WY0X
