[R-390] Anybody there?

[John KA1XC]

Sounds like a cool idea Bob, and it's a great conversation piece too.

However, depending on your actual work environment if  I were you I'd keep
mum on any mention of the friendly glowing meters, even if they are not of
the original slightly radioactive variety. The reason I mention this is
because of the inevitable presence of the "safety police".  Not to demean
actual trained safety personnel, I'm talking about the people are out there
who are technophobes, germaphobes, scientifically challenged,
non-commonsensical, or just plain negative-Nancy worriers that can make life
miserable if they sense something they don't like.

Here's a non-radio example I have personal experience with..... I used to
work at a small company that manufactured microwave radio communications
gear where there were the standard light assembly and soldering operations
taking place in a  large high-ceilinged well ventilated factory room. We
found we needed some compressed air for blowing debris out of small module
assemblies and decided that the best option was to buy/rent 5 ft cylinders
of compressed gas. (Our needs were small, only about a tank per month).

After talking with the local industrial gas supplier about our needs I
decided to purchase standard dry nitrogen because it was inert and a little
cheaper than the "dry air" mix which is actually a manufactured blend of
pure nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon-dioxide gasses. It was deemed perfectly
safe as atmospheric breathing air is 78% nitrogen anyway, so a few more
puffs of it in a big room makes NO difference.

All was well for a few weeks before one or more of the "ladies" started
complaining of feeling light headed, dizzy, etc and decided to investigate
the new nitrogen gas and read the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) for it
and also getting there non-employee husbands involved. Now if you've never
seen one of these, an MSDS of even the most commonly used household
compounds or chemicals can alarm or scare the crap out of someone. So when
they saw the phrase "can cause unconsciousness or death" in the nitrogen
MSDS that's all it took for some of them to begin complaining to management.

All attempts at reasoning with them failed, so in the end  I was asked to
buy the dry-air mix (which still is 78% nitrogen!) instead of the pure stuff
and everyone became happy.

John


> Been thinking about lugging the beast in to work so I can listen to the
> rants in a classy way.
>
> Must be what everybody else is doing, unless I've been dropped for
extended
> lurking.
>
> Bob Tetrault
> Portland, OR