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Each member of the committee will be working on a variety of activities including training, public relations, and marketing (both within the club as well as the communities we serve).
Everyone is invited to get involved with the committee and/or it's activities. This is a long term commitment by the club and needs everyone's support.
Meetings will be open. The next meeting on January 7th will be at 7:30 pm on AOL Instant Messaging Chat. Email Steve ([email protected]) if you are interested in joining the group.
Name Tags for FARA Members
By Bob, W1RH
Thanks to Steve (AA1IZ) and Bev (N1LOO), we hope to have name badges for everyone in the next month or two. These will be nice, color, clip-on
badges with your first name and call sign, along with the FARA logo. Badges
will be supplied to all FARA members free of charge.
What we need to know is what you want your name to be on the badge. Unless
I hear otherwise, I will assume the name on the membership list is correct.
If you prefer something other than what is on the membership list, for
instance, "Bob" instead of "Robert" or "Dick" instead of "Richard", etc.,
let me know (or let me know if you don't want no stinkin' badges!).
Sand Blasting 101
Submitted by Bob, W1RH
As mentioned in the December Circuit, Barry, K1BTF, donated a tower, and other items to FARA this month, including a real, live, stock, Rohn gin pole. This REALLY got Peter, KA1AXY, excited because we always have to borrow a gin pole when we do a tower project - and our crack FARA tower crew does several tower projects every year. The only rub, however, is that the gin pole had been left on the tower and had be
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come hopelessly rusted over the years to the point of being unusable. Peter suggested to me that Ed, KB1CQI, who seems to always have the answers in these situations, might just have a sand blaster. Ed told Peter to bring it over. Peter brought it over to Ed's place and wrote me an email informing me that the job was done. When I asked him to describe the sand blaster, this was Pete's reply:
Here's a picture for your mind:
Imagine an old barn. Really old, like 1800's. Dim, lots of cars, piles of carefully sorted stuff, and that "barn" smell...a combination of aged horse pee soaked into the floor boards, bird droppings, mold, old cars and dust. LOTS of dust. Got the smell?
Now, I said dim, but there are spots of fluorescent light, and, towards the back...careful...step over that axle, a four foot high box, sitting on a concrete base, with a plywood door, two hand holes and a Plexiglas window. Home made, by Ed, about 20 years ago. Open the door, and there sits the world's cleanest wire-frame milk crate. In a sandbox. With a light bulb and a piece of 8" duct sticking through the top of the box.
We put the clamp on the milk crate, shoveled some of the sand into the blaster (which is a 3' high can, outside the wooden box), Ed fired up the compressor, and I grabbed the hose. 1-1/2" dia, with a mean looking ceramic nozzle on the end. You put the hose and your hand through the hole, close the door, start the exhaust fan (woefully underpowered, that), and Ed starts the sand flow.
First, I have to say that the sand bouncing off the gin pole clamp HURTS. This is after it's lost most of its energy. You know how it is on the beach, when the wind picks up? Doesn't even compare. Not even to what happens when a helicopter stirs up some sand. However, it does RIP the rust right off. Sparks fly.
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VERY impressive. The biggest problem is the sandstorm it generates inside the box. You can hardly see what you're doing, as all the sand is being blown around.
Anyway...what you end up with, is fresh, clean, gray steel. Ready to paint. One pass with the nozzle over the rust and it's gone. Don't know where, because it's blasted into particles so small they become sand-like. The sand didn't even change color.
Ed's painting it. It looks beautiful.
Job Opportunity
This client is an R&D company known as a leader in the development of technologies for wireless long range digital communications, precision radio location and laboratory test systems for wireless communications.
Seeking individuals with a strong background in RF and Analog electronics. Digital experience is a plus. The ideal candidate would have experience with Radio receivers, Direction / Location finding receivers with signal intelligence applications. Cellular telephone base station experience would be a valuable asset for the candidate.
Primary responsibilities will be the design, prototype/bread boarding and
test of evolving RF designs. Must be able to work independently as well as
function as a key member of an R&D team. This individual will participate in
projects from inception through finished product. Additional tasks will
include component specification, vendor surveys, test procedure documentation as well as assisting in all aspects of our R&D efforts. This position is for a self-motivated hands on person who is creative, flexible and versatile.
Jim Schipelliti (skip-a-let-ee)
Eliassen Group Inc, [email protected]
781-246-1600, 800-428-9073
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