[GreenKeys] Rumination > Lab Wars

[tony.podrasky]

Good Evening All;

I worked for a company that built stuff for the military.

We built and tested the MD-522 Diversity MODEMS.

When trouble-shooting the modules, we'd mark the bad component
and send the module over to the soldering department to R/R
the component. They'd return the module plus the bad component.
The bad components were then thrown into a box.

Now, the guy who built our test fixtures was a wizard when it
came to breadboarding something from a schematic: the finished
breadboard looked EXACTLY like the schematic! He'd use flea clips
at all the junctions and instead of hook-up wire he'd use left
over leads from previously used components. His projects were
a work of art.

Now, he was also one of the bigger "clowns"...

He decided to build a breadboarded radio using bad components:
The 9 volt + and - each had an electrolytic capacitor in series
(shorted caps). And it had a coil across the + and - (open).
To keep things from blowing up if the power was applied to the
wrong terminals, there was a diode in series (marked backwards).

When it was finished, and tested, he showed the schematic to
the lead engineer (who was a little squirrelly). He L-E looked
at the schematic for, like, 5 seconds and threw it back at him,
saying it was all <insert words here> up.

The Tech said: but I think it will work. As the argument escalated,
bets were placed. The Tech said: I'll build one and show you (not
telling the L-E that he already built it). A few days later we
go in to see the L-E. We give him the schematic and put the breadboard
project down in front of him (again - remember: the breadboard looked
EXACTLY like the schematic). The L-E grimaced. Bob connected the 9-v
battery and flipped the switch. Music came out of the speaker. The
L-E almost fell out of his chair. By now, the other Engineers had
come over to see what was going on. Bob says: "I won the bet - where's
my money?". The L-E was still shaking his head. One of the engineers
caught on to us and said: "HEY - you A-H's made that out of bad
components! We starting rolling on the floor laughing. The engineers
were laughing and the L-E was cursing us out - which made everyone
laugh that much harder!

We weren't paid well in those days - but going to work was an
adventure - and I received a world-class education from the
engineers.

UE,
K2EAA - TONY
NNNN
ZCZC

On 08/28/2015 07:47 PM, Dave Horsfall wrote:
> On Sun, 23 Aug 2015, Richard Knoppow wrote:
>
> First set I built, I proudly presented to my Science teacher.
>
> He asked: where's the diode?
>
> I pointed towards the 1N914.
>
> It's motor-boating!  Where's the coil?
>
> Err, it was a huge lump of wire that I threw together...  It was thus that
> I learned this "resonance" thing.
>
> One over two pi root LC, equals resonant frequency.
>
> Thank you, Mr Philips, wherever you are.
>

-- 
Great truths about life that little children have learned:

  "Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time"