On Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:11:13 -0700, Richard Clark
wrote:

...and the parade of roses systems control. That
photo was a blast. Did you actually have to cross your feet as part
of the control heuristics?


I'm slightly bow legged so crossing my feet is a more natural resting
position. The resting position was very important at the start of the
Rose Parade. The floats, horses, cars, etc all start getting
organized at about 4AM. The parade starts at 8AM. The floats are
never totally completed by New Year's day, so frantic last minute work
at the starting point was normal. At this point, none of those
involved have had more than one or two hours sleep, so a functional
sleeping position is a basic requirement. I installed padding on top
of the control panel for my feet.

I think I only managed to get about 30 minutes of sleep before the
unexpected happened. In 1968, we were behind an equestrian unit.
After standing in essentially the same spot for about 3 hours, the
horses deposited quite a pile of droppings on the pavement. There was
a false start somewhat before 8AM. All the floats and horses lurched
forward a few feet, placing our float directly over the pile. Besides
the smell, the real worry was what would happen if the leaky hydraulic
coupling mixed hot hydraulic fluid with horse dung. I was ready with
a large fire extinguisher. Fortunately, nothing happened but we all
nearly vomited from the stench.

If you look a the photo:
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/pics/jeffl/slides/RoseFloat01.html
you'll notice a large hinge point directly above my sleeping form.
Part of the animation was a young boy, sleeping in bed, who raises up
and scratches his eyes, when he sees the toys at the foot of the bed
come alive. The kid was huge, thus the giant hinge. It worked fairly
well throughout the parade. However, when drove the float back to
Pomona for disassembly, it was discovered that all the 5/8"(???) bolts
holding the boy to the hinge frame had halfway sheared through.

This is the current animation system:
http://cpprosefloat.org/site/page.php?23
In 1968, it was several partly insane students, flipping switches and
toggling valves by hand. Cal Poly tended to win the animation prizes.

To bring things back to ham radio antennas, we had a Motorola
Breakie-Backie "portable" radio in the float on 2 meters. Tubes,
vibrators, wet cells, and muscle. It sorta worked, but the chicken
wire covering the float made a very effective shield. The antenna
ended up hanging under the float as we didn't want it visible on top.
Someone saw the "loose wire" and clipped it off just before the start
of the parade. I made a replacement out of some baling wire. It
worked, but about half way through the parade, the vibrator power
supply quit. Oh well.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558