SBE CHAPTER 40 NEWSLETTER
JANUARY 2003
San Francisco
Roy Trumbull - Editor roy547@msn.com
Bill Dempster - Artist
Advertisers for this month's newsletter are:

Projection Systems Inc. - Marci Mearns - (510) 259-2469
Santucci Video Systems - Sandra Santucci - (818) 704-6324
Belden - Steve Lampen - (415) 440-8393
Orban - custserv@orban.com - (510) 351-3500
MARCOM - Martin Jackson - (408) 768-8668
William F. Ruck, Jr. Broadcast Engineer - (415) 564-1450
Ross Marketing Associates - Kevin Frost - (408) 988-8111
Kathrein (Scala Division) - Michael Wm. Bach - (541) 779-6500
Hammett & Edison, Inc. - Dane E. Ericksen, P.E. - (707) 996-5200
LeBLANC - David A. Hill - (650) 574-4600
Econco - George Badger - 650-327-7599
Improbable Missions Fource - Mike Schweizer - (888) 4-ISDN4U
Digi-Gear/Cancomm - Eric B. Lane - (818) 980-9188
RF Specialties of California - Bill Newbrough - (888) 737-7321
Pacific Radio Electronics - Sam Mao - (510) 636-0308
West Penn Wire/CDT - Michael J. La Porte - (650) 652-9080
Axcera - Russ Erickson - (877) 440-7877
Microwave Radio Communications - Clark W. Rhoads - (909) 246-1602

Babes/SBE Luncheon on Wednesday Jan 29th

Our speaker this month will be Steve Lampen of Belden. Steve's topic will be all the various methods for delivering digital audio, such as: twisted pair, coax and Cat 5.

As usual, our luncheon will be at Sinbad's just south of the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero near the foot of Mission St. We meet at 11:30 and are seated at 12:30. To make reservations call Paul Black at 925-827-9511 and leave a message on his machine.

Dave Hill Dies
Dave Hill, a longtime BABEs participant and rep for Larcan, died Saturday December 21, 2002 at the age of 64. . A Memorial Service will be held at 11:00 A.M., Saturday, Jan 25, 2003 at 1205 Tartan Trail Road in Hillsborough, CA. Memorials to public TV or radio - KCSM, KQED, the National Brain Tumor Foundation or Mills-Peninsula Hospitals Foundation.

Dave was very pleasant and well read and could carry on an intelligent conversation about nearly anything. He found joy in music, reading, and fine dining. He truly enjoyed his work and would go to great labors to rectify problems for his customers.

From the initial diagnosis of a brain tumor until the time of his death was just 8 weeks. He leaves a daughter, Anita, who is an RN. He looked forward to what special treat she would bring him each afternoon during his therapy.

Walt Stewart Dies
Walt was the dean of courtroom artists for the networks and others. Listing the famous trials he didn't cover would probably be easier than listing the ones he did.

Walt would sketch the image and then fill it in using his bag of marker pens. TV resolution is quite poor so Walt used a number of tricks with detail and contrast for the best results on camera.

I think everyone who knew Walt had a favorite story about him. He was quite colorful. Back in the days when alcohol was part of his life he would hold an annual Easter egg hunt at his place in Bolinas. Everyone showed up including sheriffs and judges. The eggs were filled with booze.

Walt had a parrot that rode around town on his shoulder. One morning, Walt got up and it was missing. Everyone asked him about it but Walt didn't know why the bird was gone.

A local tavern keeper, upon opening up his joint that morning, found the parrot by the door. It had gone to a place that was home for all intents and purposes.

Walt died Nov 27th, 2002 of chronic lung disease. He was 71. He made arrangements for his art to be donated to the Bancroft Library.

Bylaw Vote This Month
Back in October, copies of the proposed bylaws were distributed at the meeting and posted on the website. This month we will call for a vote to adopt them. This is the final part of the process leading up to applying for tax exempt status with the State of California. When that has been granted we will apply for federal tax exempt status.

In our present state of affairs it doesn't mean much, but in the future it will facilitate raising money for conferences and technical training sessions. We've done little of that in recent years. With tax exempt status it will be easier for companies to make donations to us with some assurance that they can be written off for tax purposes.

RF Safety
RF shielded safety suits are available from:

Art Leberman came across a useful RF Safety site with a lot of links: http://www.rfsafetysolutions.com/

Are you a RR Freak?
Many years ago we had a BBQ outing at the Railroad Museum in the delta. They specialize in electric trains. This rather distinguished fellow in a conductors uniform approached me and suddenly I realized it was Fred Krock from KQED-FM. Trains were his hobby.

I just got a note from Linc Reed-Nickerson who has done what every RR freak dreams of doing. He's bought his own railroad. It's the Lewis and Clark Railroad up in Oregon. The identifier is LINC. Check out: http://yardlimit.railfan.net/archive/lp/lc81.jpg

Eat your hearts out folks.

Subscribe to the online version of the newsletter
The electronic copy version of this newsletter is now availible via a mailling list. You can subscribe by going to http://www.lns.com/mailman/listinfo/sbe-announce and filling out the form there.

Web Page
Webmeister Tim Pozar has the current newsletter plus newsletters all the way back to 1996 at: http://www.lns.com/sbe

Roy also posts the current newsletter at home.earthlink.net/~rhtrumbull but the posting is without links.