[Collins] Unbelievable

[Adam Farson]

 Hi Jerry,

To quote: 

"But engineers weren't allowed to type...or to use a desk calculator..." It
is amazing how things have changed in the business world over the decades.
Managers today could never get away with the arbitrary "idée fixe" their
forerunners exercised in the past. The resulting litigation would bring a
company to its knees - or drive it offshore.

Whilst working at Racal in South Africa in the 1960's, I designed and
prototyped a 30 ~ 75 MHz log-periodic antenna for a tactical military radio
system. Using the design procedure in "Antennas" by Jasik, I ran the
calculations on an Olivetti electromechanical multi-function calculator; the
beast even had a memory of sorts. After clunking away for 15 minutes on each
run, the machine disgorged a paper tape containing number of elements,
element lengths and inter-element spacings. I was able to borrow the
calculator from our accounts department for the duration of the project.

Measurements on an old Rohde & Schwarz SWOB Polyskop (ever seen one of
those?) showed that the VSWR excursion fell within the design limits over
the required frequency range.

We did not type, however. We wrote our notes out in longhand and sent them
down to the typing pool by internal courier. Our chief engineer had a
dictum: "Engineers design things, and typists type." Political correctness
was unknown in those days. Oh yes, our courier did double duty as
tea-wallah.

Cheers for now, 73,
Adam VA7OJ/AB4OJ
Retired RF and telecom engineer




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