Re: How did you become a broadcast engineer?

"Michael A. Terrell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
>    I have been away from broadcast work for a number of years now. I
> worked for Microdyne, who built a lot of C-band equipment used by TV
> stations and in CATV headends.
> 
>    I worked on telemetry equipment at Microdyne, and we built a lot of
> equipment for NASA, and the aerospace industry. One special receiver we
> built is aboard the International Space Station for private video and
> broadband data uplinks. We also built a complete turnkey system for the
> Italy's new space research program, and a NOAA receiving station for
> Wallops Island. We installed some new equipment at their other
> locations, as well. When your local station displays the satellite
> weather photos, there is a 95% chance that it was received by one of the
> LEO Sat receivers we built. Now, due to poor health, i am unable to
> handle the work. Poor vision, and problems walking mean my days in the
> business are probably over for good.

:) Hats off to you Michael! I am very familiar with your Microdyne
Systems, it was used a lot, was well designed, and IMO, ahead of it's
time. We used it up till about 7 years ago when some parts went out in
the receiver. So I just slapped up a c/ku consumer receiver (Cheyenne)
in the receiver slot of the same handy rack for the tuning, and still
used the positioner for many more years. I liked the serial print port
for the Data, thought that was cool! Any changes in sat positions
could be updated and posted. One thing about the brains, it was always
dead on, once set I don't ever recall anyone having to rock anything
in. Just so you know, we converted the drive on the dish, yea, still
there and working, and still use the handy rack case for now 2
complete sat systems. along with some archive recorders. Just a little
south of you...there's a few fellows from the Ocala area who make
annual visits to our facility's for tune-up's, check out's and
updating. I still take a peak at the manuals from time to time, just
remembering your system, also I think we have a training tape around
somewhere too! Now, we have about nine receive systems, a mix of
digital and analog systems. I hope you are feeling better soon, and
thank you for sharing your time with us.

--Rick