Re: Riding after heavy manual labor

On Fri, 31 May 2024 16:40:06 GMT, Tom Kunich <cyclintom@yahoo.com>
wrote:
 

On Thu May 30 14:17:37 2024 Jeff Liebermann  wrote:

Time to wash the Subaru for the first time in about 4 years.

 Actually, it was more the first car wash in 7 years.  It didn't work
well.  When I wiped off the soap, the car was left with a white (clear
coat oxides) and brown (7 years of pollen) on all the painted
surfaces.  Household cleaners removed the pollen but not the oxides. I
had to stop when the night insects and mosquitoes started to attack.
I'll see what alcohol can do later today.  If that works, Meguiar's
Cleaning Wax to follow.  I'll announce the results on Tues and the
next few days are a mixture of paying work, charity work, home repair
and damage control.
 

1.what position did you hold as an EE.

 I think I've posted the story at least twice.  I held a variety of
titles, most of which were something like "RF Engineer".  I got stuck
with "Junior Engineer" because HR looked up my salary and used the
corresponding title from the WEMA (western electronic manufactures
association) pay scale.  I think I used the box of business cards for
scratch paper, magneto shims and staring my wood burner fire.
 I'll post a link to scans of whatever old business cards I can find.
 

2. Why could you not find another job in electronics in the
hottest job market in the whole world?

 I also answered that at least twice.
 My 2nd to last job was something like "RF Engineer" at Intech Inc
ended in June 1981.  Intech was private labeling and selling HF SSB
marine radios that were made in Seattle.  In order to force a price
reduction from the vendor, someone in management decided that Intech
should clone the radio to convince the vendor that Intech could
produce the product without outsourcing.  I was stuck with the project
mostly because nobody else wanted it.  The problem was that the radio
didn't work quite right and needed some redesign.  Instead of fixing
the problems, I was told to copy the original exactly including using
the same disreputable parts sources.  I didn't like it, but I followed
instructions.
 About 3 or 4 months later, we had our first prototype which was called
the Mariner 1600.  Sorry, I couldn't find any photos.  Predictably, my
clone had exactly the same problems as the original radio.  Also
predictably, I was blamed for it not working.  After a few days to
consider my options, I quit and starting interviewing for a similar
position at Granger Assoc where I worked for 2 years on a 900 MHz
electric utility SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition)
radio:
<http://www.learnbydestroying.com/jeffl/Granger%20Assoc/Granger%20RADAC%206710/>
Granger Assoc laid me off because I irritated the engineering
department head.  (Details later, if you want them).  Someone had to
go and I was the obvious choice.  That was in June 1983:
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-liebermann-151823/details/experience/>
 After the layoff, I went back to my previous job at Intech Inc working
on 500 watt and kilowatt transmitters, 40 watt driver board cleanup, a
1 kiloWatt PEP VMOS power FET design, and a very low IMD
(intermodulation distortion) 40 watt driver for an NMR (nuclear
magnetic resonance) power amplifier for Diasonics.  I have a few
photos of all those, but no scans.
 That lasted for 7 months when I finally decided that I didn't want to
commute an hour (one way) every day.  I had accumulated enough stock
and options to take a few months vacation.  Instead, I took on some
consulting work and dived into the computer business, which was deemed
to be the next big thing.  That eventually turned into a full time
computer consulting and repair business from which I finally retired
in Dec 2020 (36 years).
 Back to washing the oxides and pollen off the Subaru.