[BC] Re: Design Engineer TE-1 & VP50

[Phil Alexander]

On 18 May 2005 at 15:03, Thomas G. Osenkowsky wrote:

> Many of the early designers are long past. Before casting stones upon
> them let's just step back and wonder who may be doing the same to us
> in fifty years. Bear in mind this is coming from someone who has dealt
> with the arrays and equipment mentioned herein.

Recognition of the practical is what sets great designers apart from
the herd. There were two at Harris/Gates in the late '60's who had
quite the opposite "talent" of producing field IMpracticality. It
wasn't hindsight, they received their verbal brickbats contemporaneously,
and in quantity, from those of us who had to deal with the results of
their "innovations." Fortunately, there were others who could and did
design products that worked in the field as well as in the lab.

What was especially amusing was writing service bulletins to fix the
problems that resulted. When reviewed and edited by engineering,
bulletins for a few select products would come back virtually 
unrecognizable, both in terms of the defect that had been rendered
verbally non-existent, and a correction that had been so mangled as
to be useless. The first time or two, I vented my frustrations to
my boss who chuckled and told me not to worry. Sure enough, a couple
of weeks later the original bulletins miraculously reappeared with
only a very few my words changed here or there to make them more easily
readable. What I didn't know until sometime later was that Larry
Cervone, then VP Operations for Gates/Harris, and the same Larry
Cervone who later put BE on the map, read every edit of every service
and did the final edit and review before publication himself. He seemed
to have no need to obscure the reasons for field fixes, or of how to do
them in words anyone in the field would understand. He was a true
gentleman of the old school with no need or use for doublespeak and
cover-up.

Phil Alexander, CSRE, AMD
Broadcast Engineering Services and Technology 
(a Div. of Advanced Parts Corporation) 
Ph. (317) 335-2065   FAX (317) 335-9037




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