[BC] Re:CATV and RCA BTF-10D

[Paul Christensen]

>I didn't know you spent time there Paul. When were you working there?

>From 1980 through 1983 when I finished at NIU.  Jerry Cerny was a great boss 
to report to.  He allowed me to work as much as I wanted, whenever I wanted 
and insisted that work at his stations shouldn't affect school work.  He's 
was one in a million.  I last spoke with Jerry about two years ago and he 
was still in good health as he neared 90 years of age.

The other memorable moment was living through the great Kishwaukee River 
flood during the summer of '83.  Jeff Glass will remember that one as he was 
working at WNIU just down the road.  The WLBK and WDEK studios were 
completely flooded with waist-high water.  After the river receded, we spent 
a week washing all the equipment, drying it, and placing it back in service.

Back at Jeff's studio on College Avenue, they shared a portion of the 
building with the university's art department.  The art department had 
several commercial-grade ovens for use with various art and sculpture 
projects.  We used those ovens at a low temperature to bake the moisture out 
of a lot of equipment.  In the end, I believe we were able to breathe life 
back into all affected equipment.  The river water literally came within 1-2 
inches from filling Jeff's studio.

The WDEK transmitter site was used as a temporary studio for about a week 
during the flood.  No bathrooms of course, and at the time, there was 
nothing on that section of the highway to use with the exception of the 
Com-Ed payment center across the street.  They were accommodating but the 
staff had to make a mad rush to use their facilities and get back all within 
the duration of a long song!

The air filtering system at the site was awful.  Glad to hear they recently 
added HVAC as well as the Harris TX.  The amount of dust created by the 
local farmer tilling the soil behind the building contributed to a lot to 
the premature equipment demise.

Paul

====================================
Paul Christensen, CPBE, CBNT
LAW OFFICE OF PAUL B. CHRISTENSEN, P.A.
3749 Southern Hills,  Jacksonville, Florida 32225
Office: (904) 379-7802    Facsimile: (904) 212-0050
pchristensen at ieee.org