There is a local newsletter e-mailed to people who subscribe (for free). Some of it has q/a type entries, others are selling and giving away things, and still others advertise commercially. I subscribe and it's interesting to see what the neighbors are bitching about sometimes. A few days ago somebody posted a note that they found a large drone on their property. He gave some contact information for anyone who can call and identify it. This made me wonder what the hell is a drone doing flying around O'Fallon. I guess anybody with an interest can have one, but I don't see any useful purpose. You, on the other hand, who no longer can climb hills to view what's on the other side, might find owning and operating a drone to be a great pastime; assuming you had time to pass. LOL
I think it's pretty interesting that your neighbor needs to have paperwork to hang a wire on a utility pole. I only had to deal with public utilities once when I build our last house. For some reason or another we had to get permission from the county to connect to the sewer system. They, in turn, are connected to the Chicago Metro Sanitary system so that might have something to do with it. Anyway, My connecting to the sewer system was allowed only if I maintained it. It was explained to me that the county would actually do any work that needed to be done, but it was nonetheless my sewer and my responsibility. I just wanted to build the house so I agreed. Hopefully nothing ever goes wrong there because I am sure they would track me down if any charges were due.
5G vs Visible Light
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Re: 5G vs Visible Light
Yes, we get a neighborhood newsletter also, via e-mail, and we belong to the neighborhood website too. We get an update in the e-mail nearly every day over a lost dog or some crooks roaming the neighborhood. I rarely read the whole thing, since we get the notices which also appear in the newsletter.
In most places, you OWN and maintain your sewer lateral, and pay for the connection to the line on your street.
I've had to replace a couple that were over 15 feet down which really ups the price, hi hi.
Now electric is usually provided to your Weatherhead, so you don't own the wires to the pole.
Cable TV or Internet is where it gets more confusing.
Normally they work like the electric company and provide a cable up to a box on your house, and often the box too.
But when I lived in an area that used Twin Cable wiring, if we wanted Twin Cable we had to pay for the wire from the pole to the house, so we owned the wire. Trying to remember the name of the company, ah yes QUBE Cable, who offered Interactive Cable TV Service. This was from 1980 to around 1984 we had them.
You know how some TV programs you can call in a vote using your cell phone now.
On QUBE Cable you could do that right from your remote control.
Also order things from local stores to be delivered or have ready when you go to pick them up.
Some of the stores we used that way dropped out of the service for one reason or another, and after the novelty wore off, we opted to go back to single cable TV. They still used our Twin Wire Cable rather than install a new cable, but we no longer had the Interactive remote or those capabilities.
It was right after that when I moved up north to Creve Coeur.
My Uncle owned the Utility Pole next to my mom and dads house that brought electric and phone back to his house.
However, I was not allowed to mount an antenna up on top of that pole due to a restriction by the electric company.
I argued with them that the pole was privately owned. Don't matter, you cannot do anything above fifteen feet on that pole, below that you can do anything you want.
But then they surprised me with an option. They would come out and install a pole at the corner of dads lot for 250 bucks and transfer services over to it, leaving the old pole that belonged to my Uncle to use for anything we want.
The best part is, they would own the pole and Uncle wouldn't have to pay to replace it should it go bad.
So he agreed as long as I paid for the pole installation fee.
Compared to what a radio tower cost, for me it was a deal, so I did so gladly.
My next trick was to install a mount on the top of the pole, which was pretty rough and weathered.
My uncle Andy to the rescue. He had a better idea, one that meant I would never have to climb the pole, which made dad happy. He had or local welding shop, Mr. Probst, make a band iron cage for the top of the pole with a long sleeve on it. I watched unc put it up there, but still didn't know how that would help me, and I was anxious to get my antennas up.
I got home from school and there was this heavy band iron box with a long tube pointing both up and down from it, and a flat plate up on another tube out of the middle of the box. I didn't know what to think of it or how it would be used until unc came by again after work.
That day he added bolts to the cage on top of the pole, and four pulleys with ropes, which had nothing to do with my ground plane antenna, and a large pulley on the side of the cage that had the long pipe under it.
I should note at this time that the bottom of that long pipe had a flare at the bottom so it looked almost like a small upside down funnel up there.
Now the top of the pole on the side of the metal box sitting on dads garage floor had the top of the pipe tapered inward a little, not much though and was still open.
I had my antenna, a normal ground plane all assembled and sitting in the back yard.
Unc brought the box out and mounted my antenna to the pipe in the center of the box, then took the rope that went over the big top pulley and pushed it through the pipe on the side of the box on the ground and tied it to a steel ring also welded to the box.
It wasn't until just then that I could see how this was going to work, except for one thing, the antenna was tall which meant it would be top heavy. But unc is always full of surprises.
The second pipe that stuck downward about 2 feet, had pipe caps on it at both ends.
He went to his car and came back with 3 small canisters, each one must have weighed ten pounds.
He poured these little lead pellets into the lower pipe and when it was full, took 2-1/2 of those canisters to fill it, He put the pipe cap back on. As we hoisted it up on the pole, I did notice a small hole in the bottom pipe cap. He said that was for sweat to leak out. OK.
That added weight was enough to keep the antenna upright although it did swing around and he had to stop hoisting when it got too close to the pole. But after it was up near the top, the pipe slid inside the other pipe on the cage like it was supposed, then everything straightened up and became stable.
Unc looked at it with a smile that lasted all of about 5 seconds before he said Oh Crap.
Now I never heard my uncle cuss before, not even a mild expletive.
He started lowering the antenna back down again.
Told me, go to the garage and get your Coax. We forgot to connect the antenna before hoisting it up.
It was almost two years later when I learned what the other pulleys and ropes were for.
I passed my Novice test and they were used to pull up a pair of sloper dipoles so I could get on the air.
Later they were used to get other antenna wires up. One of them being a vertical with a halo for six-meters.
It all came down in 1966 after dad sold the house and we moved to Ballwin.
Which brings up another hour long dissertation of what all went on out there with the HOA's and the reason I no longer belong to the ARRL. I'll touch on that some time in the future.
In most places, you OWN and maintain your sewer lateral, and pay for the connection to the line on your street.
I've had to replace a couple that were over 15 feet down which really ups the price, hi hi.
Now electric is usually provided to your Weatherhead, so you don't own the wires to the pole.
Cable TV or Internet is where it gets more confusing.
Normally they work like the electric company and provide a cable up to a box on your house, and often the box too.
But when I lived in an area that used Twin Cable wiring, if we wanted Twin Cable we had to pay for the wire from the pole to the house, so we owned the wire. Trying to remember the name of the company, ah yes QUBE Cable, who offered Interactive Cable TV Service. This was from 1980 to around 1984 we had them.
You know how some TV programs you can call in a vote using your cell phone now.
On QUBE Cable you could do that right from your remote control.
Also order things from local stores to be delivered or have ready when you go to pick them up.
Some of the stores we used that way dropped out of the service for one reason or another, and after the novelty wore off, we opted to go back to single cable TV. They still used our Twin Wire Cable rather than install a new cable, but we no longer had the Interactive remote or those capabilities.
It was right after that when I moved up north to Creve Coeur.
My Uncle owned the Utility Pole next to my mom and dads house that brought electric and phone back to his house.
However, I was not allowed to mount an antenna up on top of that pole due to a restriction by the electric company.
I argued with them that the pole was privately owned. Don't matter, you cannot do anything above fifteen feet on that pole, below that you can do anything you want.
But then they surprised me with an option. They would come out and install a pole at the corner of dads lot for 250 bucks and transfer services over to it, leaving the old pole that belonged to my Uncle to use for anything we want.
The best part is, they would own the pole and Uncle wouldn't have to pay to replace it should it go bad.
So he agreed as long as I paid for the pole installation fee.
Compared to what a radio tower cost, for me it was a deal, so I did so gladly.
My next trick was to install a mount on the top of the pole, which was pretty rough and weathered.
My uncle Andy to the rescue. He had a better idea, one that meant I would never have to climb the pole, which made dad happy. He had or local welding shop, Mr. Probst, make a band iron cage for the top of the pole with a long sleeve on it. I watched unc put it up there, but still didn't know how that would help me, and I was anxious to get my antennas up.
I got home from school and there was this heavy band iron box with a long tube pointing both up and down from it, and a flat plate up on another tube out of the middle of the box. I didn't know what to think of it or how it would be used until unc came by again after work.
That day he added bolts to the cage on top of the pole, and four pulleys with ropes, which had nothing to do with my ground plane antenna, and a large pulley on the side of the cage that had the long pipe under it.
I should note at this time that the bottom of that long pipe had a flare at the bottom so it looked almost like a small upside down funnel up there.
Now the top of the pole on the side of the metal box sitting on dads garage floor had the top of the pipe tapered inward a little, not much though and was still open.
I had my antenna, a normal ground plane all assembled and sitting in the back yard.
Unc brought the box out and mounted my antenna to the pipe in the center of the box, then took the rope that went over the big top pulley and pushed it through the pipe on the side of the box on the ground and tied it to a steel ring also welded to the box.
It wasn't until just then that I could see how this was going to work, except for one thing, the antenna was tall which meant it would be top heavy. But unc is always full of surprises.
The second pipe that stuck downward about 2 feet, had pipe caps on it at both ends.
He went to his car and came back with 3 small canisters, each one must have weighed ten pounds.
He poured these little lead pellets into the lower pipe and when it was full, took 2-1/2 of those canisters to fill it, He put the pipe cap back on. As we hoisted it up on the pole, I did notice a small hole in the bottom pipe cap. He said that was for sweat to leak out. OK.
That added weight was enough to keep the antenna upright although it did swing around and he had to stop hoisting when it got too close to the pole. But after it was up near the top, the pipe slid inside the other pipe on the cage like it was supposed, then everything straightened up and became stable.
Unc looked at it with a smile that lasted all of about 5 seconds before he said Oh Crap.
Now I never heard my uncle cuss before, not even a mild expletive.
He started lowering the antenna back down again.
Told me, go to the garage and get your Coax. We forgot to connect the antenna before hoisting it up.
It was almost two years later when I learned what the other pulleys and ropes were for.
I passed my Novice test and they were used to pull up a pair of sloper dipoles so I could get on the air.
Later they were used to get other antenna wires up. One of them being a vertical with a halo for six-meters.
It all came down in 1966 after dad sold the house and we moved to Ballwin.
Which brings up another hour long dissertation of what all went on out there with the HOA's and the reason I no longer belong to the ARRL. I'll touch on that some time in the future.
Re: 5G vs Visible Light
Sometimes it reads like you are making up all these stories. But, I had a very creative uncle too who came up with more than a few unique ideas about how to do things. He was an artist, however, and not a mechanical engineer. Like your uncle mine could do anything if you can imagine it.
One of the more interesting parts of your story is about the electric company. I can understand why they don't want your antenna above their wires, and I can understand them being willing to install a pole that belongs to them. I don't get why they would keep your antenna mast and also promise to maintain it. Other than the good will it might generate for a single customer, I find it hard to understand why a utility company would do all that.
I had to read your description twice and I'm still not certain I have a good picture in my mind. I can imagine one pipe slipping into another. All that makes sense. If I were doing the project I might consider hoisting the antenna like a flag. It could be mounted to a sleeve around the pole and raised quite easily if there were a pulley at the top of the pole. Getting that top pulley in place would be the problem. LOL
Anyway it's marvelous that your relatives took an interest in your hobbies. I'm guessing they figured you would kill yourself if left to your own devices, so it was better all around for them to help out. Given your experience at changing light bulbs on antenna towers, I did expect the story to turn out differently. Then again, you didn't gain that antenna climbing experience until later.
One of the more interesting parts of your story is about the electric company. I can understand why they don't want your antenna above their wires, and I can understand them being willing to install a pole that belongs to them. I don't get why they would keep your antenna mast and also promise to maintain it. Other than the good will it might generate for a single customer, I find it hard to understand why a utility company would do all that.
I had to read your description twice and I'm still not certain I have a good picture in my mind. I can imagine one pipe slipping into another. All that makes sense. If I were doing the project I might consider hoisting the antenna like a flag. It could be mounted to a sleeve around the pole and raised quite easily if there were a pulley at the top of the pole. Getting that top pulley in place would be the problem. LOL
Anyway it's marvelous that your relatives took an interest in your hobbies. I'm guessing they figured you would kill yourself if left to your own devices, so it was better all around for them to help out. Given your experience at changing light bulbs on antenna towers, I did expect the story to turn out differently. Then again, you didn't gain that antenna climbing experience until later.
Re: 5G vs Visible Light
No no, perhaps I said it wrong.
Picture a square divided into four square lots.
1 - 2
3 - 4
In square #1 was an old two story farmhouse, built around 1890.
In square #4 was a house built in 1916, and added onto in 1935, and again in 1949.
South of lots 3 & 4 was Market Street, which was later renamed Manchester Road.
When electric came down the Manchester Road, Route 66 at that time, around 1920 give or take.
Uncle Leonard installed a Cypress Pole about 25 feet in from the northeast corner of lot #3.
When my dad built his house in 1949, his electric came directly off the Utility Pole along the Road.
Also at this time, a new driveway was built on the new subdivided property line.
Because it was now a subdivision, this new driveway was named Cacky Lane.
One of the Utility Poles was only like 5 feet west of Cacky Lane.
The wire to Uncle Leonard's house now ran from that pole diagonally across dads lot to Leonard's Pole, then on to Leonard's house.
The Utility Pole I paid to have put in which belonged to the Electric Company, was placed 5 feet west of Cacky Lane on the property line between lots #1 and #3. The electric to uncle Leonard's house was MOVED from His Cypress Pole on dads lot to the new UE owned pole. This now freed up the privately owned Cypress Pole for me to use to put my antenna on. So now the new electric power wire to uncle Leonard's house ran parallel to Cacky Lane down to the new pole, then angled over to his house. Looked nicer that way too! At least along dad's house anyhow.
Not that it has anything to do with the above, but the original really old UE owned pole along the road about 15 to 20 feet away from the new pole was removed and the wires then stretched to a pole closer to the west end of lot #3.
My uncle Andy was like my Mentor. Yes he did everything. His profession was as a Stone Mason, but laid brick most of the time. He too had some interesting jobs, like breaking out old brick that turned to glass and installing new brick under launch pads at Cape Canaveral. He's also who got me into Ham Radio, taught me archery and shooting. Helped me work on cars, taught me how to do bodywork with lead and later Bondo, you name it, he could do it.
All of our relatives used him as a handyman or contractor when they needed something done.
And yours truly more or less got called to do the same things as he did as I got older.
I was born in 1947, got the first CB license issued in Missouri in 1957, my CB call at that time was 17Q.
The second person in Missouri was 17Q1, and the third 17Q2, etc.
My uncle gave me a CB radio that held 4 crystals, and I bought a ground plane. Which I first set up in the back yard to a pipe clamped to a swing set, and the antenna was above that. This was about the time I got more involved with my uncle Andy and learning more about radio and electronics.
I got my Ham Novice License in 1959, and a week later before my license arrived, passed my Technician Test and my call was KØVCH and with my uncles help, we (mainly him) built a little 40/80 meter home brew transmitter for CW so I could do some Novice work, he previously gave me a super old Hallicrafters receiver, long before we put together a Heathkit Sixer. But that was all it took for me to get hooked on Heathkits. Over the years I built nearly every kit they made, including their large console color TV.
Here is what my Ham Radio Shack looked like in 1982 to 1984.
Scroll down to the first image in the link and you'll see many of the Heathkit Items I built.
Also, the original 40/80 meter transmitter on the top shelf, and to the far right the Hallicrafters Receiver.
Not pictured is another desk with some of the equipment I built, like the HR-98k receiver.
Sold all of the Heathkit equipment to a collector a year or two before I had to move.
https://stonebrokemanor.classichauslimi ... radio.html
The box that held my CB ground plane, maybe if I explained it this way.
In the center of this metal box, was a vertical pipe going only upwards about a foot.
This is the pipe the antenna got clamped to.
On the left edge of the box was a pipe about 2 feet tall, slightly tapered inward at the tip, like a sharpened pencil sorta, or maybe a bull nose.
Also on the left edge of the box was another larger diameter pipe. It went about 2 inches above the side of the box, and about 3 feet below the bottom of the box. This is the pipe he filled with lead pellets.
An eye hook was also in the side of the box under the pipe that went upward.
A rope came down from the pipe on top of the telephone pole, passed through the pipe and was connected to the eye bolt.
The pipe welded to the box, which was actually only made from open band iron, was probably only a 3/4 inch diameter pipe, while the pipe at the top of the pole was a 1 inch diameter pipe, also steel or black iron.
The rope that came over the large pulley at the top, went down through this top pipe and down to the ground where it then passed through the pipe welded to the box.
I raised and lowered that antenna a few times and it worked perfectly every time.
The only problem was, after uncle put up a couple of sloper dipoles for me, I had to take them down first in order to lower the antenna back down. It wasn't too long later, when I added a ten meter vertical to the side, and slowly added more antenna's.
A lot happened in a few short years there too. I was graduating from high school in 1966, mom and dad were moving to Ballwin a few months before I graduated, so everything had to come down. I stayed at grandma's house next door until graduation, then moved out to mom n dads new house. Was only their about a year before my cousin and I got an apartment in Brentwood, closer to where we both worked, and out of our parents home.
My uncle Andy, yep the same one, is who conned me into doing the lights on TV Towers. As a bricklayer, they did not do much work in the winter, so he took some interesting odd jobs, one of those working on TV Tower antennas. YES, he WAS CRAZY! But you know me, If my uncle did it, I had to do it too, hi hi.
Ironic, today, I cannot climb a 6 foot step ladder without freezing to it.
Older and Wiser No Doubt, hi hi.
Picture a square divided into four square lots.
1 - 2
3 - 4
In square #1 was an old two story farmhouse, built around 1890.
In square #4 was a house built in 1916, and added onto in 1935, and again in 1949.
South of lots 3 & 4 was Market Street, which was later renamed Manchester Road.
When electric came down the Manchester Road, Route 66 at that time, around 1920 give or take.
Uncle Leonard installed a Cypress Pole about 25 feet in from the northeast corner of lot #3.
When my dad built his house in 1949, his electric came directly off the Utility Pole along the Road.
Also at this time, a new driveway was built on the new subdivided property line.
Because it was now a subdivision, this new driveway was named Cacky Lane.
One of the Utility Poles was only like 5 feet west of Cacky Lane.
The wire to Uncle Leonard's house now ran from that pole diagonally across dads lot to Leonard's Pole, then on to Leonard's house.
The Utility Pole I paid to have put in which belonged to the Electric Company, was placed 5 feet west of Cacky Lane on the property line between lots #1 and #3. The electric to uncle Leonard's house was MOVED from His Cypress Pole on dads lot to the new UE owned pole. This now freed up the privately owned Cypress Pole for me to use to put my antenna on. So now the new electric power wire to uncle Leonard's house ran parallel to Cacky Lane down to the new pole, then angled over to his house. Looked nicer that way too! At least along dad's house anyhow.
Not that it has anything to do with the above, but the original really old UE owned pole along the road about 15 to 20 feet away from the new pole was removed and the wires then stretched to a pole closer to the west end of lot #3.
My uncle Andy was like my Mentor. Yes he did everything. His profession was as a Stone Mason, but laid brick most of the time. He too had some interesting jobs, like breaking out old brick that turned to glass and installing new brick under launch pads at Cape Canaveral. He's also who got me into Ham Radio, taught me archery and shooting. Helped me work on cars, taught me how to do bodywork with lead and later Bondo, you name it, he could do it.
All of our relatives used him as a handyman or contractor when they needed something done.
And yours truly more or less got called to do the same things as he did as I got older.
I was born in 1947, got the first CB license issued in Missouri in 1957, my CB call at that time was 17Q.
The second person in Missouri was 17Q1, and the third 17Q2, etc.
My uncle gave me a CB radio that held 4 crystals, and I bought a ground plane. Which I first set up in the back yard to a pipe clamped to a swing set, and the antenna was above that. This was about the time I got more involved with my uncle Andy and learning more about radio and electronics.
I got my Ham Novice License in 1959, and a week later before my license arrived, passed my Technician Test and my call was KØVCH and with my uncles help, we (mainly him) built a little 40/80 meter home brew transmitter for CW so I could do some Novice work, he previously gave me a super old Hallicrafters receiver, long before we put together a Heathkit Sixer. But that was all it took for me to get hooked on Heathkits. Over the years I built nearly every kit they made, including their large console color TV.
Here is what my Ham Radio Shack looked like in 1982 to 1984.
Scroll down to the first image in the link and you'll see many of the Heathkit Items I built.
Also, the original 40/80 meter transmitter on the top shelf, and to the far right the Hallicrafters Receiver.
Not pictured is another desk with some of the equipment I built, like the HR-98k receiver.
Sold all of the Heathkit equipment to a collector a year or two before I had to move.
https://stonebrokemanor.classichauslimi ... radio.html
The box that held my CB ground plane, maybe if I explained it this way.
In the center of this metal box, was a vertical pipe going only upwards about a foot.
This is the pipe the antenna got clamped to.
On the left edge of the box was a pipe about 2 feet tall, slightly tapered inward at the tip, like a sharpened pencil sorta, or maybe a bull nose.
Also on the left edge of the box was another larger diameter pipe. It went about 2 inches above the side of the box, and about 3 feet below the bottom of the box. This is the pipe he filled with lead pellets.
An eye hook was also in the side of the box under the pipe that went upward.
A rope came down from the pipe on top of the telephone pole, passed through the pipe and was connected to the eye bolt.
The pipe welded to the box, which was actually only made from open band iron, was probably only a 3/4 inch diameter pipe, while the pipe at the top of the pole was a 1 inch diameter pipe, also steel or black iron.
The rope that came over the large pulley at the top, went down through this top pipe and down to the ground where it then passed through the pipe welded to the box.
I raised and lowered that antenna a few times and it worked perfectly every time.
The only problem was, after uncle put up a couple of sloper dipoles for me, I had to take them down first in order to lower the antenna back down. It wasn't too long later, when I added a ten meter vertical to the side, and slowly added more antenna's.
A lot happened in a few short years there too. I was graduating from high school in 1966, mom and dad were moving to Ballwin a few months before I graduated, so everything had to come down. I stayed at grandma's house next door until graduation, then moved out to mom n dads new house. Was only their about a year before my cousin and I got an apartment in Brentwood, closer to where we both worked, and out of our parents home.
My uncle Andy, yep the same one, is who conned me into doing the lights on TV Towers. As a bricklayer, they did not do much work in the winter, so he took some interesting odd jobs, one of those working on TV Tower antennas. YES, he WAS CRAZY! But you know me, If my uncle did it, I had to do it too, hi hi.
Ironic, today, I cannot climb a 6 foot step ladder without freezing to it.
Older and Wiser No Doubt, hi hi.
Re: 5G vs Visible Light
That's quite an impressive ham shack; the kind stereotypes are made of. LOL I guess Heathkits were OK, but by the time I got around to setting up a station they were not the preferred way to go. It didn't stop me from building a few kits, however. It's hard to tell from the picture but all that equipment jammed into such a compact space must have lacked air circulation. Those old vacuum tube units got pretty hot and could even be a fire hazard when set up the way I see them in the picture. I doubt it was all going at the same time, but even a 75 watt XMTR could make toast if left on long enough. LOL
I know I remarked about it before, but the diversity of the pursuits in your life is truly admirable. All the things you wrote about just in these forums would take up two or three lifetimes of a normal individual. But then, what is normal? I don't know how you can fit so much experience and knowledge into one brain.
I know I remarked about it before, but the diversity of the pursuits in your life is truly admirable. All the things you wrote about just in these forums would take up two or three lifetimes of a normal individual. But then, what is normal? I don't know how you can fit so much experience and knowledge into one brain.
Re: 5G vs Visible Light
Our electric went out last night while we were eating dinner.
The frau said it came back on around 11:30 pm for about an hour or so, then was back out again until around 5 am.
I usually don't go to bed until around midnight, but with no lights and no heat, I got under the covers around 10 pm.
There was no electric on when I got up for a tinkle break around 2:45 am. Thank goodness for all the LED emergency lights we have. They are all small, not much more than nightlights, but enough to light the hallway and throne room, hi hi.
We also have a few portable solar powered LED lights that are fairly bright.
On my little ham shack, it's a fooler for sure. What you cannot see is the air handling system. It's more than just a closet. When I renovated our kitchen, I put a wall oven and microwave built-in. But I boxed the area leaving two open boxes to the left of the closet but opening inside the closet. This room was at one time the original kitchen and had one of those wall mounted exhaust fans to outdoors. It worked when you opened the cover. However, I modified it using a draft damper installed backwards, so it opened when the fan turned on, and I used a non-adjustable thermostat so if the temp in that top box got to 80 degrees the fan would automatically come on.
In the floor inside the bottom box open to the closet was an A/C vent I added, but not part of the house heating system.
I had almost separate heating and A/C although it used the same duct work, except for two A/C only ducts I added. One in that office box, and one on the frau's side of the bed to keep her cooler.
I didn't use the HW101 very often after I got the Kenwood TS-830S which was on the lower shelf on the right, and the Six-Meter Kenwood above it. No back on the desk in those two areas just so they did get a lot of air flowing through. Nearly everything else was solid state or did not create heat.
I did have to add a baffle to keep the cold air from A/C from hitting my legs under the desk, which forced it up behind the desk and in some holes and out the other.
Heck, I used that set-up the way you see it for close to 15 years. It was in a different room before I built the new kitchen.
My computer desks, the same ones I have here, were in front of the ham shack. I could work at my desk, spin around in my office chair and be at my ham shack. I also had a few things from the ham shack connected to my computer as well.
Other than the Heathkit stuff I sold, and some things I discarded, I have most of the newer equipment here, still packed in boxes. I figure it probably all went bad if the capacitors dried out. Shame I never got it set back up again.
I think my poor brain went Meshugenah a long time ago.
Don't forget, one side of my brain gets reformatted every 5 years, which adds more recording space inside, hi hi.
I did have an interesting life and had my fingers into many diverse fields. No complaints! Just lucky I guess.
I'm no Sheldon for sure, but what is sad, when I talk to folks, I really expect them to know about stuff and most of them have no clue at all. How can one get through life without knowing how to patch a tire, or sweat a pipe, or fix a leaking faucet, or replace a defective light switch or outlet. Heck, some don't even know how to patch a hole in drywall.
I guess that all happened after they got rid of shop class in the schools.
So now they roam around the auto part store looking for 710 Fluid and Blinker Fluid.
I've made more folks mad when I told them it was an ID-Ten-T error. What's that? Write it on paper and use the numeral.
They couldn't do it in their head, hi hi.
Hey here is one for you: Do you know how to cover up a hole? Namely the word hole written on a piece of paper.
Go ahead, write "hole" on a piece of paper, all in lower case.
Now, on the letter "l" turn it into a lower case letter "t"
Draw a diagonal line starting at the node on the letter "h" where the right half of the letter meets the vertical line of the letter, and draw it from this point at about a 30 to 40 degree angle to the height of the letter.
It should look like the capital letter "K" now.
At the end of the word, print the letter "x".
And that is how you cover up a hole!
GROAN!
The frau said it came back on around 11:30 pm for about an hour or so, then was back out again until around 5 am.
I usually don't go to bed until around midnight, but with no lights and no heat, I got under the covers around 10 pm.
There was no electric on when I got up for a tinkle break around 2:45 am. Thank goodness for all the LED emergency lights we have. They are all small, not much more than nightlights, but enough to light the hallway and throne room, hi hi.
We also have a few portable solar powered LED lights that are fairly bright.
On my little ham shack, it's a fooler for sure. What you cannot see is the air handling system. It's more than just a closet. When I renovated our kitchen, I put a wall oven and microwave built-in. But I boxed the area leaving two open boxes to the left of the closet but opening inside the closet. This room was at one time the original kitchen and had one of those wall mounted exhaust fans to outdoors. It worked when you opened the cover. However, I modified it using a draft damper installed backwards, so it opened when the fan turned on, and I used a non-adjustable thermostat so if the temp in that top box got to 80 degrees the fan would automatically come on.
In the floor inside the bottom box open to the closet was an A/C vent I added, but not part of the house heating system.
I had almost separate heating and A/C although it used the same duct work, except for two A/C only ducts I added. One in that office box, and one on the frau's side of the bed to keep her cooler.
I didn't use the HW101 very often after I got the Kenwood TS-830S which was on the lower shelf on the right, and the Six-Meter Kenwood above it. No back on the desk in those two areas just so they did get a lot of air flowing through. Nearly everything else was solid state or did not create heat.
I did have to add a baffle to keep the cold air from A/C from hitting my legs under the desk, which forced it up behind the desk and in some holes and out the other.
Heck, I used that set-up the way you see it for close to 15 years. It was in a different room before I built the new kitchen.
My computer desks, the same ones I have here, were in front of the ham shack. I could work at my desk, spin around in my office chair and be at my ham shack. I also had a few things from the ham shack connected to my computer as well.
Other than the Heathkit stuff I sold, and some things I discarded, I have most of the newer equipment here, still packed in boxes. I figure it probably all went bad if the capacitors dried out. Shame I never got it set back up again.
I think my poor brain went Meshugenah a long time ago.
Don't forget, one side of my brain gets reformatted every 5 years, which adds more recording space inside, hi hi.
I did have an interesting life and had my fingers into many diverse fields. No complaints! Just lucky I guess.
I'm no Sheldon for sure, but what is sad, when I talk to folks, I really expect them to know about stuff and most of them have no clue at all. How can one get through life without knowing how to patch a tire, or sweat a pipe, or fix a leaking faucet, or replace a defective light switch or outlet. Heck, some don't even know how to patch a hole in drywall.
I guess that all happened after they got rid of shop class in the schools.
So now they roam around the auto part store looking for 710 Fluid and Blinker Fluid.
I've made more folks mad when I told them it was an ID-Ten-T error. What's that? Write it on paper and use the numeral.
They couldn't do it in their head, hi hi.
Hey here is one for you: Do you know how to cover up a hole? Namely the word hole written on a piece of paper.
Go ahead, write "hole" on a piece of paper, all in lower case.
Now, on the letter "l" turn it into a lower case letter "t"
Draw a diagonal line starting at the node on the letter "h" where the right half of the letter meets the vertical line of the letter, and draw it from this point at about a 30 to 40 degree angle to the height of the letter.
It should look like the capital letter "K" now.
At the end of the word, print the letter "x".
And that is how you cover up a hole!
GROAN!
Re: 5G vs Visible Light
It would have been uncharacteristic of you to not take care of the heat produced by your amateur radio station. Thank you for the explanation of what is not seen in that picture.
There are a multitude of reasons why clueless people exist in this world. A lot of it has to do with mental deficiencies and not just a lack of attitude or training. Some people simply can't understand mechanical things through no fault of their own. They simply are not wired to solve problems in every day life. They often find creative alternatives. For example, they may not be able to patch a hole in the wall, but they are clever enough to hang a picture over it. Now you and I would think that's not a solution, but to the mentally deficient one it solves the immediate problem. Either way the hole is invisible.
Speaking of holes ... that was a terrible attempt at humor regarding covering up holes. Because it was so bad, that is what made it funny. I know you are not serious all the time, but you outdid yourself with that DIY joke.
And, taking a turn totally off topic I will tell you that my Windows Insider Preview operating system has not missed a single weekly update during this pandemic. My understanding is that non-essential businesses are closed, especially in the state of Washington where Micorsoft has its HQ. They have indeed halted regular updates for the standard Windows, but this beta version doesn't seem to be affected by viruses of any kind. My only guess is that the people who work on this project are doing it from home. If anybody has the technology to stay in business with empty offices, I'd suppose Micorsoft has it.
There are a multitude of reasons why clueless people exist in this world. A lot of it has to do with mental deficiencies and not just a lack of attitude or training. Some people simply can't understand mechanical things through no fault of their own. They simply are not wired to solve problems in every day life. They often find creative alternatives. For example, they may not be able to patch a hole in the wall, but they are clever enough to hang a picture over it. Now you and I would think that's not a solution, but to the mentally deficient one it solves the immediate problem. Either way the hole is invisible.
Speaking of holes ... that was a terrible attempt at humor regarding covering up holes. Because it was so bad, that is what made it funny. I know you are not serious all the time, but you outdid yourself with that DIY joke.
And, taking a turn totally off topic I will tell you that my Windows Insider Preview operating system has not missed a single weekly update during this pandemic. My understanding is that non-essential businesses are closed, especially in the state of Washington where Micorsoft has its HQ. They have indeed halted regular updates for the standard Windows, but this beta version doesn't seem to be affected by viruses of any kind. My only guess is that the people who work on this project are doing it from home. If anybody has the technology to stay in business with empty offices, I'd suppose Micorsoft has it.
Re: 5G vs Visible Light
FYI: Getting this again this morning with every connect, and change of forum.
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I actually built those areas the way I did for fear of how hot a self-cleaning wall mounted oven got. It was designed to keep the oven box cool. Then not to waste space I made cubbyholes for storage at first. This was before I added the closet sized computer desk area for the shack. It's one of those deals where one thing led to another and Jerry Rigged Solutions to take care of possible problems.
I guess I was just raised with relatives and friends who had to learn everything in order to run a farm or fend for themselves. I guess I'm just lucky to be mechanically inclined. However, I think a lot of it had to do with my curiosity as a child more than anything else. I had to take nearly everything I owned apart to see how it worked. I could put most of them back together again and they still worked. I also modified a few things to make them work better.
When I was growing up, most toys you wound up to make them work.
When my kids came on the scene, nearly everything was battery powered, and as cheap as batteries were back then, I hated buying them by the case.
So, every battery powered toy they had I modified to use a Capacitor and a jack the battery box I made plugged into.
3 minutes of charge time usually gave them 1 minute of running time, and I didn't have to buy so many batteries. I also didn't have to worry about dead batteries leaking in their toy boxes.
I thought about selling my little idea by making it the size of a battery, but then I had to still have a place for the jack.
For most folks, they couldn't modify the toy to install a jack.
I did come up with one the size of D and C batteries with the jack built into the battery, but for most toys it would have taken two of them, and back then there was often a screw in the battery box lid. So I shelved the idea.
One thing I did make and sell a lot of was an adapter the size of a 9 volt battery with a wall wart and wire. This way you could power 9 volt stationary items from a wall plug. It was not rechargeable, just an adapter is all.
Back then Walter Ashe (which later became Allied and Radio Shack), carried 9 volt jacks and 9 volt plugs, both with wires. A cosmetics company had a plastic box a little longer than a 9 volt battery I could cut down and glue the 9 volt jack to. They sold me a case of 144 of those plastic boxes without their label on them for like just shy of 20 bucks.
The only thing that cost me was the 9 volt DC wall warts, which were like 2 bucks each in lots of 120.
I could make about 20 to 30 of these a day, averaged out based on the number of completed. However, I didn't work that way. I did all the cutting of the boxes one day, drilling a hole for the wire the next, cut the plug off the wall warts the next day, fed the wire through the hole and soldered them to the 9 volt jack, this took two days, then spent about 3 days, (a couple hours after my normal work day, not whole days) gluing the jack to the box, and another day adding a cheap label to each. On the first several I made, I had a gold or silver tape I wrapped around the top as decoration.
I took a dozen of them to each of the places I thought might take them on consignment. The hobby shop, the variety store who sold a lot of radios, even had a box of them at the barber shop. Some guy bought the whole box of them from the barber shop and I found out it was the Insurance Office in that same building. Left another box at the barber shop and they bought that one too. So I went and talked to them, and they took two more boxes, but that was all they needed. They never said what they were using them for.
The hobby shop only sold like four of them is all, which surprised me, I thought that was the best place for them. But the variety store sold about 2 to 6 per day until I finally ran out of them. They sold for 9.99 by the stores, and I charged 5.00 for each one, so they made 4.99 which I usually rounded to 5 bucks and I made 4.99 gross. Take off the 3 bucks in materials and labor I had into them, I profited only 2 bucks on each. If you consider I only had about 6 hours into making them, and perhaps an hour running around to stores. It means I made like 250 bucks that week, during a time when I normally only earned like 125 bucks a week at my full time job. I did not make any more after I sold that batch, found something else to make and sell instead.
WELL, I did put GROAN after my little hole covering, hi hi.
Debi's aunt works for a company that has been closed ever since the lock down. She had hoped her boss would let her work at home for years now, and kept telling her no, she needs to be in the office.
Well guess what, every morning since they closed, a FedEx driver drops off a large envelope of copies of paperwork. I think it is product orders, whatever, she is handling all the same stuff she did at work, but now from home.
She knows her boss is in his office, and she thinks two or three warehouse workers are there.
In any case, he made a comment about how much more efficient things are running.
Then about a week later, he went out and bought a scanner to scan instead of copy the paperwork she needed, and sends it to her as an e-mail attachment. She didn't really like this at first, because with only one computer and one monitor she had to keep flipping back and forth. He son showed her how to tile both documents on the screen while he went to get her a second monitor, and then went to buy a video card since she only had one monitor port, hi hi.
If her boss lets her keep working from home after this pandemic is over, her son will get her a newer computer that can handle 2 monitors and which will run faster than her now 8 or 9 year old computer.
Debi is going stir crazy, sneaks out to go to the store more often than she should.
She's planning on going back to work on May 1st. Where she works, Ace Hardware, they never closed.
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I actually built those areas the way I did for fear of how hot a self-cleaning wall mounted oven got. It was designed to keep the oven box cool. Then not to waste space I made cubbyholes for storage at first. This was before I added the closet sized computer desk area for the shack. It's one of those deals where one thing led to another and Jerry Rigged Solutions to take care of possible problems.
I guess I was just raised with relatives and friends who had to learn everything in order to run a farm or fend for themselves. I guess I'm just lucky to be mechanically inclined. However, I think a lot of it had to do with my curiosity as a child more than anything else. I had to take nearly everything I owned apart to see how it worked. I could put most of them back together again and they still worked. I also modified a few things to make them work better.
When I was growing up, most toys you wound up to make them work.
When my kids came on the scene, nearly everything was battery powered, and as cheap as batteries were back then, I hated buying them by the case.
So, every battery powered toy they had I modified to use a Capacitor and a jack the battery box I made plugged into.
3 minutes of charge time usually gave them 1 minute of running time, and I didn't have to buy so many batteries. I also didn't have to worry about dead batteries leaking in their toy boxes.
I thought about selling my little idea by making it the size of a battery, but then I had to still have a place for the jack.
For most folks, they couldn't modify the toy to install a jack.
I did come up with one the size of D and C batteries with the jack built into the battery, but for most toys it would have taken two of them, and back then there was often a screw in the battery box lid. So I shelved the idea.
One thing I did make and sell a lot of was an adapter the size of a 9 volt battery with a wall wart and wire. This way you could power 9 volt stationary items from a wall plug. It was not rechargeable, just an adapter is all.
Back then Walter Ashe (which later became Allied and Radio Shack), carried 9 volt jacks and 9 volt plugs, both with wires. A cosmetics company had a plastic box a little longer than a 9 volt battery I could cut down and glue the 9 volt jack to. They sold me a case of 144 of those plastic boxes without their label on them for like just shy of 20 bucks.
The only thing that cost me was the 9 volt DC wall warts, which were like 2 bucks each in lots of 120.
I could make about 20 to 30 of these a day, averaged out based on the number of completed. However, I didn't work that way. I did all the cutting of the boxes one day, drilling a hole for the wire the next, cut the plug off the wall warts the next day, fed the wire through the hole and soldered them to the 9 volt jack, this took two days, then spent about 3 days, (a couple hours after my normal work day, not whole days) gluing the jack to the box, and another day adding a cheap label to each. On the first several I made, I had a gold or silver tape I wrapped around the top as decoration.
I took a dozen of them to each of the places I thought might take them on consignment. The hobby shop, the variety store who sold a lot of radios, even had a box of them at the barber shop. Some guy bought the whole box of them from the barber shop and I found out it was the Insurance Office in that same building. Left another box at the barber shop and they bought that one too. So I went and talked to them, and they took two more boxes, but that was all they needed. They never said what they were using them for.
The hobby shop only sold like four of them is all, which surprised me, I thought that was the best place for them. But the variety store sold about 2 to 6 per day until I finally ran out of them. They sold for 9.99 by the stores, and I charged 5.00 for each one, so they made 4.99 which I usually rounded to 5 bucks and I made 4.99 gross. Take off the 3 bucks in materials and labor I had into them, I profited only 2 bucks on each. If you consider I only had about 6 hours into making them, and perhaps an hour running around to stores. It means I made like 250 bucks that week, during a time when I normally only earned like 125 bucks a week at my full time job. I did not make any more after I sold that batch, found something else to make and sell instead.
WELL, I did put GROAN after my little hole covering, hi hi.
Debi's aunt works for a company that has been closed ever since the lock down. She had hoped her boss would let her work at home for years now, and kept telling her no, she needs to be in the office.
Well guess what, every morning since they closed, a FedEx driver drops off a large envelope of copies of paperwork. I think it is product orders, whatever, she is handling all the same stuff she did at work, but now from home.
She knows her boss is in his office, and she thinks two or three warehouse workers are there.
In any case, he made a comment about how much more efficient things are running.
Then about a week later, he went out and bought a scanner to scan instead of copy the paperwork she needed, and sends it to her as an e-mail attachment. She didn't really like this at first, because with only one computer and one monitor she had to keep flipping back and forth. He son showed her how to tile both documents on the screen while he went to get her a second monitor, and then went to buy a video card since she only had one monitor port, hi hi.
If her boss lets her keep working from home after this pandemic is over, her son will get her a newer computer that can handle 2 monitors and which will run faster than her now 8 or 9 year old computer.
Debi is going stir crazy, sneaks out to go to the store more often than she should.
She's planning on going back to work on May 1st. Where she works, Ace Hardware, they never closed.
Re: 5G vs Visible Light
Your scheme to replace a battery with a capacitor is an interesting idea. Most capacitors the physical size of a battery won't hold a charge for very long and the one minute you cite seems about right. The attention span of a kid doesn't go much beyond that. However, the capacitor you need to use for even that one minute run time must be an electrolytic which will leak over time - unless you had access to tantalum capacitors in those days. Those 9 volt wall warts you bought were pretty cheap. A lot of devices these days use them. Heck, I can even run my flip phone off of one if I wanted to. The battery shaped adapter was also a brilliant thought. As you point out it didn't take any effort for the user to make it work.
Back at Motorola a lot of the engineering work could have been done from home. Certainly most of the clerical work could have happened that way too. Some folks actually did it, but the company was reluctant to institute it widely. The notion there too was that the employee should be in the office to do the same exact work. The only reason I can think of for that notion is for the boss to see the employee is actually working. At home no such supervision is possible. But, a lot of the work at home people were salaried so that it didn't matter. I did a little of it myself when I was paid hourly. Things have changed considerably since the time that I was gainfully employed. I'd think a good portion of that office work could be done at home easily. The only consideration would be the security of the computer network. Motorola had it's own VPN so that it wasn't a problem. Most small businesses don't have that luxury.
I suppose a hardware store could be considered essential. In fact I was surprised to see that the local hardware store at my end of town never closed. It looks like an ACE, but it apparently is privately owned and of course does not have the ACE brand. I've never seen the place crowded and often wonder why they are still in business. Their prices are not competitive, but they most certainly are convenient. The alternative is Home Depot a few miles down the road, but it's impossible to buy 5 lbs of 10 penny nails at the Depot. LOL Now that I think about it, I doubt 10 penny nails are used for anything these days with pneumatic nail shooters.
Thanks for the input about the server errors. I've not seen any of those lately, but there are times when the refresh lags considerably. Maybe I'll jiggle the chains at the host's help desk and see what happens. I suspect nothing, but it's always fun to see how they explain their shortage of resources so that it looks like the problem is on my end and not theirs.
Back at Motorola a lot of the engineering work could have been done from home. Certainly most of the clerical work could have happened that way too. Some folks actually did it, but the company was reluctant to institute it widely. The notion there too was that the employee should be in the office to do the same exact work. The only reason I can think of for that notion is for the boss to see the employee is actually working. At home no such supervision is possible. But, a lot of the work at home people were salaried so that it didn't matter. I did a little of it myself when I was paid hourly. Things have changed considerably since the time that I was gainfully employed. I'd think a good portion of that office work could be done at home easily. The only consideration would be the security of the computer network. Motorola had it's own VPN so that it wasn't a problem. Most small businesses don't have that luxury.
I suppose a hardware store could be considered essential. In fact I was surprised to see that the local hardware store at my end of town never closed. It looks like an ACE, but it apparently is privately owned and of course does not have the ACE brand. I've never seen the place crowded and often wonder why they are still in business. Their prices are not competitive, but they most certainly are convenient. The alternative is Home Depot a few miles down the road, but it's impossible to buy 5 lbs of 10 penny nails at the Depot. LOL Now that I think about it, I doubt 10 penny nails are used for anything these days with pneumatic nail shooters.
Thanks for the input about the server errors. I've not seen any of those lately, but there are times when the refresh lags considerably. Maybe I'll jiggle the chains at the host's help desk and see what happens. I suspect nothing, but it's always fun to see how they explain their shortage of resources so that it looks like the problem is on my end and not theirs.
Re: 5G vs Visible Light
Trouble ticket opened, and here is the response:
I have researched the issue and found that the server entry process was reached the quota which was causing the error "Resource Limit Is Reached". I have killed a few long-running PHP processes to resolve the issue.
Now, the website bfchat.brainformation.com loading fine. Please monitor the website for a couple of hours and let us know if you are still experiencing any issues.
Re: 5G vs Visible Light
That might be why I could not get in yesterday. I tried several times in the morning, and then again in the afternoon. Didn't have time after dinner. I did not get the original message I was getting earlier, this time it just said something about closed for maintenance.
The type of capacitor I was using didn't become available until around the time my son was born.
They were fairly expensive and called ultra-capacitors or Boss Capacitors.
Even better capacitors for the purpose I was using them, came out after my kids outgrew the toys stage.
Because of security risks, my late wife Ruth's job as a medical transcriptionist had to be done in-house.
But they did let her do some at home after she was wheelchair bound, but she had to buy a tank to do so. Then after that she got both large and small cassette transcription machines. I still have those, but the tank went back to where she worked soon after. They bought it back for the same price she paid for it, so I think it was actually a deposit on it.
I did a lot of transcription work for her myself, from her own non-medical accounts. This is how I ended up doing transcription for some famous authors like Jessica Steele, Penny Jordan, and others.
All Ace Hardware Stores are either independently owned, or Franchised, always have been.
And, from what I understand, all of their stuff is made in the U.S.A. too.
Elder's Ace Hardware is the local one here, and he owns several across the state.
The parent Ace Hardware is the supplier and do not directly own a store, except on a temporary basis if a franchise owner wants out and has not found a buyer.
Don't kid yourself about their sales though. I always thought they looked empty most of the time too.
However, the one my wife works at averages 12 grand per say in sales at the register.
This does not count the contractor sales and bulk sales picked up at the loading dock at the store or at one of their specialized warehouses. Elder's has warehouses of drywall and sheet goods, and another warehouse of lumber. But you wouldn't know it going into a store, because commercial sales are handled only through the offices from what I understand.
We had a Brahm's Ace Hardware in Des Peres, one of the places I did saw and tool sharpening for.
They too had commercial pick-up warehouses for lumber and drywall and large size items like buckets of mud, and concrete, etc. The drywall warehouse was off the 270 outer road before you got up to Page.
But back then, I used a big box hardware named Builders Square for most of my supplies, because contractors got a 10% discount, and certain deals throughout the year. I also bought from Contractors Home Supply, but they only sold things like doors and windows, staircases, railings, and trim lumber, no 2x4s or larger and no plywood or drywall.
A lot of big box hardware stores opened, and most of them went out of business fairly fast too.
I'm actually surprised Lowe's has made it this long.
Areas with no hardware stores for years, if a Walmart was moving in, Home Depot would move in first, and they leased the Walmart building to Walmart. And every place a Home Depot opened, within a year or two there would be a Lowe's open up nearby.
To me, that's like cutting your nose off to spite your face.
If the area could not support a large hardware store, and Home Depot figured the density was now large enough to sustain a hardware store of their size. For another one to move in right after them makes little sense.
By leasing a store to Walmart, Home Depot was assured higher traffic volume when they first opened.
Sam Wall had the right idea. All of the WalMart stores he opened, he did so in Rural Areas after the population density reached a certain point for a widespread area. Being the only large store within a 50 mile radius insured his success.
Then over the years he began cutting that radius down to 30, then 20, and finally started building stores just outside the urban fringe, and of course now he is in every major city.
Unfortunately, the quality of their products went drastically downhill after he died, and they started selling more imported goods than American made goods. And their prices kept going up and up and up.
I don't know about elsewhere, but Walmart prices here are no deal on most things they carry.
Even Kroger which is also a national chain has many items cheaper than Walmart.
Plus, almost all of our mom n pop stores buy through a major co-op who can buy in large bulk quantities like Walmart, so they too can offer many mainline items cheaper than Walmart now. AND have them in stock too!
The type of capacitor I was using didn't become available until around the time my son was born.
They were fairly expensive and called ultra-capacitors or Boss Capacitors.
Even better capacitors for the purpose I was using them, came out after my kids outgrew the toys stage.
Because of security risks, my late wife Ruth's job as a medical transcriptionist had to be done in-house.
But they did let her do some at home after she was wheelchair bound, but she had to buy a tank to do so. Then after that she got both large and small cassette transcription machines. I still have those, but the tank went back to where she worked soon after. They bought it back for the same price she paid for it, so I think it was actually a deposit on it.
I did a lot of transcription work for her myself, from her own non-medical accounts. This is how I ended up doing transcription for some famous authors like Jessica Steele, Penny Jordan, and others.
All Ace Hardware Stores are either independently owned, or Franchised, always have been.
And, from what I understand, all of their stuff is made in the U.S.A. too.
Elder's Ace Hardware is the local one here, and he owns several across the state.
The parent Ace Hardware is the supplier and do not directly own a store, except on a temporary basis if a franchise owner wants out and has not found a buyer.
Don't kid yourself about their sales though. I always thought they looked empty most of the time too.
However, the one my wife works at averages 12 grand per say in sales at the register.
This does not count the contractor sales and bulk sales picked up at the loading dock at the store or at one of their specialized warehouses. Elder's has warehouses of drywall and sheet goods, and another warehouse of lumber. But you wouldn't know it going into a store, because commercial sales are handled only through the offices from what I understand.
We had a Brahm's Ace Hardware in Des Peres, one of the places I did saw and tool sharpening for.
They too had commercial pick-up warehouses for lumber and drywall and large size items like buckets of mud, and concrete, etc. The drywall warehouse was off the 270 outer road before you got up to Page.
But back then, I used a big box hardware named Builders Square for most of my supplies, because contractors got a 10% discount, and certain deals throughout the year. I also bought from Contractors Home Supply, but they only sold things like doors and windows, staircases, railings, and trim lumber, no 2x4s or larger and no plywood or drywall.
A lot of big box hardware stores opened, and most of them went out of business fairly fast too.
I'm actually surprised Lowe's has made it this long.
Areas with no hardware stores for years, if a Walmart was moving in, Home Depot would move in first, and they leased the Walmart building to Walmart. And every place a Home Depot opened, within a year or two there would be a Lowe's open up nearby.
To me, that's like cutting your nose off to spite your face.
If the area could not support a large hardware store, and Home Depot figured the density was now large enough to sustain a hardware store of their size. For another one to move in right after them makes little sense.
By leasing a store to Walmart, Home Depot was assured higher traffic volume when they first opened.
Sam Wall had the right idea. All of the WalMart stores he opened, he did so in Rural Areas after the population density reached a certain point for a widespread area. Being the only large store within a 50 mile radius insured his success.
Then over the years he began cutting that radius down to 30, then 20, and finally started building stores just outside the urban fringe, and of course now he is in every major city.
Unfortunately, the quality of their products went drastically downhill after he died, and they started selling more imported goods than American made goods. And their prices kept going up and up and up.
I don't know about elsewhere, but Walmart prices here are no deal on most things they carry.
Even Kroger which is also a national chain has many items cheaper than Walmart.
Plus, almost all of our mom n pop stores buy through a major co-op who can buy in large bulk quantities like Walmart, so they too can offer many mainline items cheaper than Walmart now. AND have them in stock too!
Re: 5G vs Visible Light
Jumped back in to say I'm still getting the Resource Limit Reached Error!
Re: 5G vs Visible Light
I noticed your absence yesterday and checked in often to see if you posted anything. There was some lag at times but I never saw a maintenance or a server limit error. Well, that was yesterday. Today the first thing was a 508 error which prompted me to head on over to the help desk and complain. All I can say for now is that the last time we experienced this kind of problem they could not fix it. They moved us to a different server instead. That worked fine for a few years, but it looks like history is repeating itself. I'll keep you posted about what is going on. For the time being we will just have to bear with it.
Walmart's appeal was their pricing. Everything they sold was supposedly cheaper than the competition. This could not be done unless they imported a lot of goods because it was and still is too damned expensive to make things in this country. The automobile industry got it right. They import high quality automobiles and sell them at reasonable prices. Walmart shops the world for the best prices, but the quality is obviously not what you would get elsewhere. Thus the price you pay for cheap merchandise is lower quality. They are still in business today because a lot of their customers don't care about the quality. And you can get good stuff there once in a while.
Here in O'Fallon the Walmart, the Lowes, Target, and the Home Depot are all within 2 miles of each other. They were all here before I moved in so that I don't know who came in first. But, it is interesting to note the logistics. The hardware store of which I speak is less than half the distance it is to Walmart. If they are an Ace franchise they are doing a marvelous job of hiding the fact. There is no ACE logo out front and I don't think there is any ACE merchandise on their shelves. There might be but I've only been in the store a couple times and really don't know what they offer. I do know they didn't have what I wanted the last time and the substitute was twice the price.
Walmart's appeal was their pricing. Everything they sold was supposedly cheaper than the competition. This could not be done unless they imported a lot of goods because it was and still is too damned expensive to make things in this country. The automobile industry got it right. They import high quality automobiles and sell them at reasonable prices. Walmart shops the world for the best prices, but the quality is obviously not what you would get elsewhere. Thus the price you pay for cheap merchandise is lower quality. They are still in business today because a lot of their customers don't care about the quality. And you can get good stuff there once in a while.
Here in O'Fallon the Walmart, the Lowes, Target, and the Home Depot are all within 2 miles of each other. They were all here before I moved in so that I don't know who came in first. But, it is interesting to note the logistics. The hardware store of which I speak is less than half the distance it is to Walmart. If they are an Ace franchise they are doing a marvelous job of hiding the fact. There is no ACE logo out front and I don't think there is any ACE merchandise on their shelves. There might be but I've only been in the store a couple times and really don't know what they offer. I do know they didn't have what I wanted the last time and the substitute was twice the price.
Re: 5G vs Visible Light
I tried to get in several times yesterday morning, but didn't have time in the afternoon.
Had to get the back yard mowed, take ice out of the bottom of the fridge, clean the bird cage, and help make the beds.
That pretty much wiped out my afternoon, and then when I did get back to my office, I was late on everything else I had to do.
Although Comcast didn't do it, and I don't know about this website host since I never checked. But all the time I was with Inlink, and Galileo/Galilei I could look at a log and see every hit to my websites and it gave the IP number, and often another helpful bit of info. There were about three that hit my site every single day, sometimes more than once per day. I don't remember the IP address shown, but do remember one was NSC which sorta scared me. I thought it might mean National Security Council. Sometimes it was NSA with a near match on the IP address. I later found it was a Netscape web crawler so stopped my worrying, hi hi. Knowing the IP for everyone else was no real help because it only gave their host's IP number. Seems like you could pay to subscribe to something to get deeper than that, which didn't interest me at the time.
Heck, nowadays I think websites not only know your IP address, but also what browser version you are on. And probably your location, age, spouse, kids, type of cars, house style, and even what brand of water heater you have, hi hi.
WalMart is drastically different than Walmart. Meaning the old original WalMart run by Sam Wall operated a whole lot differently than the Walmart of today where nearly everything is custom made for them the cheapest way possible and anywhere they can get it made cheaper.
I worked part-time at Watling Ladder Company in Valley Park, MO, while my cousin was in the hospital, basically to keep his job position open until he returned.
I learned one heck of a lot about how a quality wooden ladders were constructed, versus the cheaper versions for the discount hardware stores, vs the really cheap and dangerous modified ones made for Walmart. Watling would not put their name on the ones they made for Walmart for fear of a lawsuit!
I normally only ran the machine that put the screw threads on the ends of the rods, and even those were different for the Walmart ladders. Actually, almost everything about those ladders were different, and with many parts missing too!
One of my uncles worked for Knapp-Monarch small appliances. They made high-quality appliances, but were a fairly small operation. So it was a surprise they managed to land an order from WalMart, back when everything was USA made.
But after the first couple of orders, WalMart started dictating how they are made. Use this type of part instead of that type, leave off these two parts, use thinner steel, etc. Trouble is, the big shots liked the big orders so made some of the changes to appears WalMart's buyer, but not all the changes they wanted.
My uncle didn't know exactly what happened, but suddenly they started making everything to WalMart specs, dropping their own line of products, and hiring many more people to get the orders out.
Then suddenly, WalMart decided to buy somewhere else, and it caused them to go bankrupt overnight.
That was the end of Knapp-Monarch!
We had a hardware store named Colonial Hardware. It only closed down about a year or two ago after being in business for over 50 years. They too had high prices, but usually had the odd things you may have needed, sorta like Empire Hardware in Maplewood, MO. Some of the products on their store shelves did have the Ace Hardware brand on them, so were probably bought through closeouts or overruns. But they also had brands normally only found in Home Depot, Lowe's and other places, and interestingly enough they sold both Sears and Craftsman tools. They would replace a Craftsman tool that broke also, usually easier than a Craftsman store or Sears. If you wanted to buy a new Craftsman tool, you were better off going to Sears to get it cheaper.
Had to get the back yard mowed, take ice out of the bottom of the fridge, clean the bird cage, and help make the beds.
That pretty much wiped out my afternoon, and then when I did get back to my office, I was late on everything else I had to do.
Although Comcast didn't do it, and I don't know about this website host since I never checked. But all the time I was with Inlink, and Galileo/Galilei I could look at a log and see every hit to my websites and it gave the IP number, and often another helpful bit of info. There were about three that hit my site every single day, sometimes more than once per day. I don't remember the IP address shown, but do remember one was NSC which sorta scared me. I thought it might mean National Security Council. Sometimes it was NSA with a near match on the IP address. I later found it was a Netscape web crawler so stopped my worrying, hi hi. Knowing the IP for everyone else was no real help because it only gave their host's IP number. Seems like you could pay to subscribe to something to get deeper than that, which didn't interest me at the time.
Heck, nowadays I think websites not only know your IP address, but also what browser version you are on. And probably your location, age, spouse, kids, type of cars, house style, and even what brand of water heater you have, hi hi.
WalMart is drastically different than Walmart. Meaning the old original WalMart run by Sam Wall operated a whole lot differently than the Walmart of today where nearly everything is custom made for them the cheapest way possible and anywhere they can get it made cheaper.
I worked part-time at Watling Ladder Company in Valley Park, MO, while my cousin was in the hospital, basically to keep his job position open until he returned.
I learned one heck of a lot about how a quality wooden ladders were constructed, versus the cheaper versions for the discount hardware stores, vs the really cheap and dangerous modified ones made for Walmart. Watling would not put their name on the ones they made for Walmart for fear of a lawsuit!
I normally only ran the machine that put the screw threads on the ends of the rods, and even those were different for the Walmart ladders. Actually, almost everything about those ladders were different, and with many parts missing too!
One of my uncles worked for Knapp-Monarch small appliances. They made high-quality appliances, but were a fairly small operation. So it was a surprise they managed to land an order from WalMart, back when everything was USA made.
But after the first couple of orders, WalMart started dictating how they are made. Use this type of part instead of that type, leave off these two parts, use thinner steel, etc. Trouble is, the big shots liked the big orders so made some of the changes to appears WalMart's buyer, but not all the changes they wanted.
My uncle didn't know exactly what happened, but suddenly they started making everything to WalMart specs, dropping their own line of products, and hiring many more people to get the orders out.
Then suddenly, WalMart decided to buy somewhere else, and it caused them to go bankrupt overnight.
That was the end of Knapp-Monarch!
We had a hardware store named Colonial Hardware. It only closed down about a year or two ago after being in business for over 50 years. They too had high prices, but usually had the odd things you may have needed, sorta like Empire Hardware in Maplewood, MO. Some of the products on their store shelves did have the Ace Hardware brand on them, so were probably bought through closeouts or overruns. But they also had brands normally only found in Home Depot, Lowe's and other places, and interestingly enough they sold both Sears and Craftsman tools. They would replace a Craftsman tool that broke also, usually easier than a Craftsman store or Sears. If you wanted to buy a new Craftsman tool, you were better off going to Sears to get it cheaper.
Re: 5G vs Visible Light
Some of the shops operate like a flea market but are housed inside a building so that they can operate year around. The store buyer will scrounge the world for the cheapest possible deals, such as buying the inventory from a company that burned down; a fire sale. Then there are places like Home Depot that buy rejects that are not contractor quality but good enough for home users, such as a toilet bowl that is ever so slightly out of round. I don't think WalMart buys into those quality reject markets. As you point out they simply are made cheap from the get go. All those big box stores have only one attraction, and that is the price. The fact that they all are still in business tells how little the buyers are concerned about quality.
I know that "buy American" is making a huge resurgence in popularity. It's very patriotic to do so and there might be some strategic advantages as well. Unfortunately the people in America are accustomed to a high standard of living which translates into high wages compared to the rest of the world. Since the cost of labor is a given, that means the only way American made can be competitive is to cut corners and reduce material costs. The problem there is that labor costs far outweigh material costs and you can only cut so much out of a product before it becomes unusable. There are only two ways an American company can reduce it's costs of operations: increase productivity, i.e., get more work out of the same workforce, or reduce the workforce size. You can only beat a horse so much to work harder so that automation and outright reduction of the workforce is how many companies survive.
The story of Knapp-Monarch is a sad one, but not atypical. Either the management was incredibly naive about how businesses operate or somebody made a killing on that big one-time contract. I have an idea which one it was.
I know that "buy American" is making a huge resurgence in popularity. It's very patriotic to do so and there might be some strategic advantages as well. Unfortunately the people in America are accustomed to a high standard of living which translates into high wages compared to the rest of the world. Since the cost of labor is a given, that means the only way American made can be competitive is to cut corners and reduce material costs. The problem there is that labor costs far outweigh material costs and you can only cut so much out of a product before it becomes unusable. There are only two ways an American company can reduce it's costs of operations: increase productivity, i.e., get more work out of the same workforce, or reduce the workforce size. You can only beat a horse so much to work harder so that automation and outright reduction of the workforce is how many companies survive.
The story of Knapp-Monarch is a sad one, but not atypical. Either the management was incredibly naive about how businesses operate or somebody made a killing on that big one-time contract. I have an idea which one it was.
Re: 5G vs Visible Light
I always look at imported goods as a two edge sword. On one side we are helping their economy while hurting our own. But on the other side we are providing lower cost goods so more people can afford them.
Most of the complaints you hear about us taking advantage of the low wages is not really based on sound principles.
More often than not, when an American company sets up a factory in a foreign country, they do so often in the poorer areas where yes labor is cheap and unemployment super high. They are paying to train these workers at a profession which they can use to better themselves and move to a more affluent and higher paying area.
However, if the average income for the working class families is already only equivalent to lets say two dollars an hour as converted to our money, but half of the population of that area is working for less due to no full-time jobs available.
Building a factory, training the employees, and paying them the going rate or slightly above is a BOON for their economy.
The state of our economic level should have no bearing on the matter whatsoever.
While the do gooders will complain that we make 15 bucks an hour and only pay them 2 bucks an hour, actually makes no sense since the economies are so much different.
Albeit, many of the companies who do build overseas are in fact overpricing their goods as compared to locally made products of the same type. People will still pay their high prices to get that brand name.
FWIW: Hill Brothers Shoes, 2 for 5 were all American Made Shoes, but then too, they were mass produced using lower grade materials, often by younger entry level workers, who would soon move on to the much bigger and higher paying Brown Shoe Company who made most of the shoes sold in the area and surrounding states for decades.
No matter what name was on the shoe, most were made by Brown Shoe Company or one of their subsidiaries.
You wouldn't believe the number of companies Brown Show owned that made the different components of a shoe, right down to the shoe laces and aglets from yet another company they owned. They also owned Potter and Sons Weaving Company who made the liners used in many of the shoes. I went to school with two of the Potter family boys, and a couple of the Brown family boys and girls, although not directly part of the family in the shoe making business, they were still relatives.
Most of the complaints you hear about us taking advantage of the low wages is not really based on sound principles.
More often than not, when an American company sets up a factory in a foreign country, they do so often in the poorer areas where yes labor is cheap and unemployment super high. They are paying to train these workers at a profession which they can use to better themselves and move to a more affluent and higher paying area.
However, if the average income for the working class families is already only equivalent to lets say two dollars an hour as converted to our money, but half of the population of that area is working for less due to no full-time jobs available.
Building a factory, training the employees, and paying them the going rate or slightly above is a BOON for their economy.
The state of our economic level should have no bearing on the matter whatsoever.
While the do gooders will complain that we make 15 bucks an hour and only pay them 2 bucks an hour, actually makes no sense since the economies are so much different.
Albeit, many of the companies who do build overseas are in fact overpricing their goods as compared to locally made products of the same type. People will still pay their high prices to get that brand name.
FWIW: Hill Brothers Shoes, 2 for 5 were all American Made Shoes, but then too, they were mass produced using lower grade materials, often by younger entry level workers, who would soon move on to the much bigger and higher paying Brown Shoe Company who made most of the shoes sold in the area and surrounding states for decades.
No matter what name was on the shoe, most were made by Brown Shoe Company or one of their subsidiaries.
You wouldn't believe the number of companies Brown Show owned that made the different components of a shoe, right down to the shoe laces and aglets from yet another company they owned. They also owned Potter and Sons Weaving Company who made the liners used in many of the shoes. I went to school with two of the Potter family boys, and a couple of the Brown family boys and girls, although not directly part of the family in the shoe making business, they were still relatives.
Re: 5G vs Visible Light
One of the arguments protagonist of globalism offer is that outsourcing overseas make those countries more economically dependent upon our business and less likely to be aggressive. I'm convinced that is the main reason China has not totally annihilated us yet. But, as you suggest, politics should not be an economic motivation. The outsourcing phenomena has overwhelmingly benefited the American consumer in that quality goods can be had at affordable prices. You might point to Apple Computer as the exception because their brand is typically overpriced in spite of it being made in China. The reason that can happen is because their product has snob appeal. People will pay the high price just because they can look better among their peers. In that case the only benefit is to Apple computer which makes an outrageous profit from that situation. The bottom line is that Apple is American owned so that helping the Chinese economy helps America as well.
The inevitable result of outsourcing is that the poorer countries increase their standard of living. When this increase is allowed to continue long enough, the pay differential between here and there disappears. I doubt that all the countries of the world will achieve an equal standard of living. Some are simply more efficient than others, much like the situation internal to this country. The more creative and hard working among us tend to be affluent while the rest live off that prosperity. The affluent, of course, have the power. In political terms that power means bargaining strength. In social terms it means class separation and discontent. It's this vast gap between the rich and the poor that critics of democracy cite as its failure.
The inevitable result of outsourcing is that the poorer countries increase their standard of living. When this increase is allowed to continue long enough, the pay differential between here and there disappears. I doubt that all the countries of the world will achieve an equal standard of living. Some are simply more efficient than others, much like the situation internal to this country. The more creative and hard working among us tend to be affluent while the rest live off that prosperity. The affluent, of course, have the power. In political terms that power means bargaining strength. In social terms it means class separation and discontent. It's this vast gap between the rich and the poor that critics of democracy cite as its failure.
Re: 5G vs Visible Light
If it were not for the rich building the factories, the poor would not have a place to work.
It is possible to start at the bottom and slowly build up a business, and technically anyone can do it, no matter how poor they started out as. Although circumstances can pull the slats out from under you quite easily. One can usually recover over time.
Some businesses reach a point where they no longer grow any larger, but end up staying the size and in the same family sometimes for generations. While others decide to diversify, open more outlets, and/or sell franchises.
Since you mentioned Apple, he started in a garage making only a motherboard. I know, I bought one!
I was hooked on Apple products for a long time after that. It was my client base that forced me to change to PCs.
Even so, when I opened Wonder Plants I did so using Mac computers and the Tops network.
I knew they could do what PCs could not yet do, and it was a wise decision at the time.
My mistake was trusting an accounting attorney who robbed us blind and took in investors I knew nothing about.
Plus the SOB mortgaged my paid for in full building on top of it.
There are about 20 items I could add to my aquaria products line-up. I just don't have the desire to do so. And now with my health going downhill fast. It makes it super hard to even get that one product out when I do get an order.
If I could, I would continue to grow again!
It is possible to start at the bottom and slowly build up a business, and technically anyone can do it, no matter how poor they started out as. Although circumstances can pull the slats out from under you quite easily. One can usually recover over time.
Some businesses reach a point where they no longer grow any larger, but end up staying the size and in the same family sometimes for generations. While others decide to diversify, open more outlets, and/or sell franchises.
Since you mentioned Apple, he started in a garage making only a motherboard. I know, I bought one!
I was hooked on Apple products for a long time after that. It was my client base that forced me to change to PCs.
Even so, when I opened Wonder Plants I did so using Mac computers and the Tops network.
I knew they could do what PCs could not yet do, and it was a wise decision at the time.
My mistake was trusting an accounting attorney who robbed us blind and took in investors I knew nothing about.
Plus the SOB mortgaged my paid for in full building on top of it.
There are about 20 items I could add to my aquaria products line-up. I just don't have the desire to do so. And now with my health going downhill fast. It makes it super hard to even get that one product out when I do get an order.
If I could, I would continue to grow again!