SBE CHAPTER 40 NEWSLETTER
APRIL 1998
SAN FRANCISCO
Roy Trumbull - Editor roy547@netcom.com
Bill Dempster - Artist
Advertisers for this month's newsletter are:
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
We are back from "The Springs" (a.k.a. Las Vegas) and will spend this meeting parsing the smoke from the mirrors.

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.

STAN HARTER DIES

(1929 - 1998)

We got word that Stan Harter, the broadcaster's contact with the State Office of Emergency Services, had died of a massive heart attack the evening of April 2nd. His family has directed that those wishing to make contributions in his memory should send them to The Yosemite Fund, 155 Montgomery St. #1104, San Francisco, CA 94104.

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

RECEIVING ANTENNAS OK
On our web site at http://www.lns.com/sbe/antenna_mounts.html is posted a piece I did on a persons legal right to mount a receiving antenna regardless of local ordinances and any homeowner's agreement that may have been signed. Please check it out.

EMAIL ADDRESS
If you have an email address, please contact Warren Reese at radions@jps.net. Warren is in charge of our email list, which we use when we need to notify members when something has happened between newsletters.