APRIL 1998 SAN FRANCISCO Roy Trumbull - Editor roy547@netcom.com Bill Dempster - Artist |
Zack Electronics - (800) 998-3947 Advanced Marketing - Frank A. Santucci - (650) 365-3944 Riggins Electronics Sales - George Riggins - (662) 598-7007 Orban - Rick Sawyer - (360) 715-1913 MARCOM - Martin Jackson - (408) 768-8668 William F. Ruck, Jr. Broadcast Engineer - (415) 995-6969 Communications Law Center - Philip M. Kane - (650) 369-7373 RF Specialties of California - Bill Newbrough - (888) 737-7321 Hammett & Edison, Inc. - Dane E. Ericksen, P.E. - (707) 996-5200 LeBLANC - David A. Hill - (650) 574-4600 Pacific Research & Engineering Corp. - William Hopkins - (760) 438-3911 Keith Davidson & Company - Keith Davidson, CSBE - (707) 648-0412 Improbable Missions Fource - Mike Schweizer - (888) 4-ISDN4U Svetlana Electron Devices - George Badger - (800) 578-3852 TFT Inc. - Jesse J. Piatte, Jr. - (408) 727-7272 x504 Audio Accessories - Rosie Alexander - (510) 787-3335 Brill Electronics - Marcie Mearns / Field Sales - (510) 308-1248 Brill Electronics - Larry Shore / Inside Sales - (510) 834-5888 Scala - Michael Wm. Bach - (541) 779-6500 Scala - Everett E. Helm, CPBE - (541) 779-6500 Harris - Ed Longcrier - (800) 315-7285 Anixter - Judy Conner - (510) 489-7430 |
BABES/SBE LUNCHEON ON WEDNESDAY
APR 29TH DTV was still 2 pints short of a quart when it came to everyday bread and
butter pieces. I don't know what the receiver makers are going to do, but the
sets need an on-screen signal strength meter so the antenna can be pointed at
the sweet spot with the best carrier to noise ratio. That came to mind when we
saw pictures of the cart with a test indoor antenna on the top shelf and a
spectrum analyzer on the bottom shelf.
As usual our luncheon will be at Sinbad's. Sinbad's is just south of the
Ferry Building on the Embarcadero near the foot of Mission Street. Please
RSVP to Karen Prasek at Zack's: 408-324-0551 x126 as we've been running out of
tables and chairs. We meet at 11:30 and are seated at 12:30.
We are back from "The Springs" (a.k.a. Las Vegas) and
will spend this meeting parsing the smoke from the mirrors.
(1929 - 1998)
Bill Ruck, Bill Newbrough, and myself went up to the memorial service in Sacramento on April 16th. Richard Rudman, the state Vice Chair of EAS, came up from LA and was one of speakers. The church was adjacent to a shopping center so it was hard to find from the street. But once you spotted all the vehicles with multiple antennas (porcupine syndrome), you were home free.
Stan was a DJ at KSAN in San Francisco in the early 50s. In those days the call letters belonged to an AM station whose antenna was on the Furniture Mart at 9th and Market and whose studios were above a storefront a few blocks away. It was what was known as a "race station" back then. That meant it played undiluted Black music. It influenced many white kids who went onto to do rock and roll, rhythm & blues, and jazz. KSAN started up the first UHF TV station in the Bay Area on channel 32 and Stan was its newscaster. It was the sort of operation where everyone raced to the bank on payday to cash their checks before the money dried up. (I worked for the same outfit years later and deposited my first check but after that I just sent it into the bank's collection department. -RT )
Stan went into Public Safety after that and was 20 years in Hawaii and another 10 in Bakersfield before taking the job with OES in Sacramento.
While in Hawaii he moonlighted on a radio station and created his alter ego Dr. Delmar U. Davis Ph & D, who was a self-anointed expert on everything. DJs would call Stan for the Davis view on all the issues of the day. Stan would oblige with stuffed shirt Delmar double talk.
Stan's Sacramento suite was a tiny office shared with others. There wasn't even room to pile the document overflow on the floor. They would slowly rise to great heights on his desk until he became invisible behind them.
Stan traveled all over the state talking to broadcasters and used his powers of persuasion and his humor to make EAS work. I can't say that the required monthly coordinated test in EAS was Stan's idea, but in Hawaii he put in place a weekly coordinated test. I suspect his fingerprints were all over the RMT.
Stan was a tireless foot soldier in the endless struggle to give the public the best information possible in times of disaster. Many of those who came to the memorial service were the individuals, far from the limelight, who just make things work.
Just about the time we think we can make both ends meet, somebody moves the ends. - Dr. Delmar U. Davis, PH&D