[R-390] More Ballast Tube Noise

Fri Feb 11 08:29:51 EST 2005

Hi

Remember - you asked how many people it would take to do this ....

Well the radios are pretty heavy. If they came out on the market today 
they would be marked "heavy two person lift". Most of the gear over 40 
pounds shows up with labels like that on it. Just to be safe we 
probably should have at least three people to lift each radio. That way 
you would be sure that you were below 40 pounds each even if there was 
a sudden gravity fluctuation.

Obviously you would not want to plug just any ballast tube into your 
"good" R-390. It would need to be burned in first. Your "test" R-390 
would be the only reasonable thing to do this in.

In order to make the evaluation reasonable you have to assume that both 
radios are conventionally mounted in racks. It is not reasonable to 
assume that they start out on the test bench. So far we need three 
people each for the lifting (why make two trips ...) and a screw driver 
operator .  Each wold have to be properly trained and state certified 
for the task. Here in Fairfield County CT screwdriver operators don't 
come cheap.

Once on the bench you probably could use the same screwdriver operator 
to remove the top cover. Of course state regulations in your area may 
not be as liberal as those in CT. It is doubtful that the same 
certification would cover the actual transfer of the ballast tube from 
one radio to the other. I would propose that most states would allow a 
radio checkout operator to make the tube transfer.

So far we have roughly eight "direct labor" associates (must be PC on 
our terms ...) on the job.

Unfortunately we have totally ignored the requirements to properly 
*control* the situation. With recent changes in the law an out of 
control ballast tube transfer could result in the CEO of the Boat 
anchor Basement answering embarrassing questions on 60 minutes. The 
next step after that would be meeting the CEO of HP for brunch at the 
unemployment office.

We would need proper documentation on the appropriate forms for:

	Removal of the test radio from the rack
	Removal of the good radio from the rack
	Transport of the test radio
	Transport of the good radio
	Removal of the covers
	Removal and replacement of the tube
	Radio checkout
	Documents reversing the process ..

There would also have to be a project plan to insure that all of these 
documents were generated on time and coordinated. Daily four hour 
meetings would be an appropriate method of executing the control of the 
process. Appropriate documentation for each meeting showing progress on 
the project since the last meeting would need to be generated for each 
meeting. Based on extensive research the generation of this 
documentation showing progress on the documentation should take about 
the same amount of time to generate as the meeting it's self.

If we assume that each document is assigned to an individual process 
engineer at the Boatanchor Basement Engineering Center then we have 
roughly 14 process engineers working on the project. When it is noticed 
that after two weeks of work very little is getting done other than the 
meetings to monitor the progress the team size would be doubled so that 
both the meetings and the documentation could be worked on.

After another few weeks of very little progress a new engineering 
center in India would be tasked with the job. Of course the 
communication process would degrade slightly. This would roughly double 
the size of the team again.

Once the documentation was drafted it would have to be reviewed by the 
appropriate departments. This of course would require that the legal, 
safety, quality, finance, production, security, and human resources 
departments all participate. Of course this would involve at least one 
individual from each department for each specification. This would add 
another 96 people to the documentation process. Each department 
reasonably would request an appropriately trained  representative be 
present at each end of the transfer process. Of course the training 
would need to be properly documented ...

Of course a project of this scope requires management. We are talking 
about hundreds of people here. You simply can't expect them to do their 
jobs without the assistance of a crack management team. Since the 
Boatanchor Basement is a bit short on staff a team would have to be 
recruited. Since management with experience in the specific area is not 
readily available it obviously is not a requirement. The management 
team from a failed dot com would be brought in from their current 
positions at the local Burger Palace.

If we assign at least one manager, two assistants, and a "data 
technician"  to each area that adds roughly another 48 people to the 
project. It is unreasonable to have a group of 48 managers all report 
to one person. Span of control that wide simply is not feasible. 
Without a lot of analysis  let's just say that the superstructure of a 
typical dot com adds another 48 people to the mix.

Now this is a bit more than the payroll department of the Boatanchor 
Basement can handle. Fortunately that can be outsourced to some very 
competent firms like ADP. Also the dot com managers are quite good at 
getting venture capital to fund projects like this. Selling stock in a 
venture like this makes a lot more sense than most of the dot com 
business plans did. The only problem might be that we don't propose to 
continue loosing money for several years ...

Of course all these people have to work some were. Minor adjustments to 
the structure of the Boatanchor Basement probably would be required. 
Anybody who has ever dealt with architects and contractors on a ten 
story structure being built on a quarter acre residential lot knows 
that this will take time. That should reasonably take care of the need 
to loose money over a number of years.

Since each step in the process adds to the complexity of the process 
it's pretty hard to see just how many people would eventually be 
involved. ISO compliance and the entire audit process would need to be 
carefully evaluated.

Obviously this could run into a thousand people or more. Then there are 
the franchise possibilities. We could reasonably expect to sell  
Boatanchor Basement franchises. Lucky buyers could set up a ballast 
tube replacement facility anywhere ballast tubes need to be replaced. 
There are thousands of R390's with ballast tubes in them out there. If 
we sell a few hundred franchises for say $250,000 each that would give 
us revenue  of thirty or forty million a year. "It' not a bad 
opportunity if you get in on the ground floor. A couple dozen part time 
employes, no store front, ballast tubes wear out in 2000 hours (Amperex 
data). People spend $35 just on the tube without the instal. Then there 
are the opportunities to sell them other services...."

Maybe the VC guys who bankrolled this thing for four years weren't so 
dumb after all .....

We could be bigger than the drain cleaner business in no time !!!

A little work on our stock, get the market cap up to say $200 Billion 
and then we could merge with General Motors.

Where's my check book. Gotta get in on this one right now ....

	Enjoy!

		Bob Camp
		KB8TQ

On Feb 10, 2005, at 11:53 PM, Barry wrote:

> Uh-oh, it looks like we're going down the "how many R390A owners does 
> it
> take to change a 3TF7?" pathway.  This should get interesting...
>
> Barry(III) - N4BUQ
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jim Shorney" <jshorney at inebraska.com>
> To: "R-390" <R-390 at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2005 10:40 PM
> Subject: Re: [R-390] More Ballast Tube Noise
>
>
>>
>> You guys are all missing the point. To change a tube radio, first the
>> radio has to _WANT_ to change.
>
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