gb wrote:

How many hours over the past year have you worked with middle or high
schools students volunteering your time? Donating materials, time or money
for educational programs targeted for the audience that will make a
difference?


I was a volunteer advisor for the Lake county Florida Vo-Tec
electronics program, till it was shut down. Right now I am trying to
find the money to finish repairs to my four car garage and convert it
into a 1200 sq ft electronics shop to teach basic electronics to the
kids who are still interested. Its not easy when you're 100% disabled
and living on a tiny pension, but I don't give up too easy.

--
Former professional electron wrangler.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

gb:

Nobel pursuit... in my case, I am more self-centered, I like the company
and people around...

Warmest regards,
John
--
When Viagra fails to work--you are DOOMED!!!

"Michael A. Terrell" wrote in message
...
| gb wrote:
|
| How many hours over the past year have you worked with middle or high
| schools students volunteering your time? Donating materials, time or
money
| for educational programs targeted for the audience that will make a
| difference?
|
|
| I was a volunteer advisor for the Lake county Florida Vo-Tec
| electronics program, till it was shut down. Right now I am trying to
| find the money to finish repairs to my four car garage and convert it
| into a 1200 sq ft electronics shop to teach basic electronics to the
| kids who are still interested. Its not easy when you're 100% disabled
| and living on a tiny pension, but I don't give up too easy.
|
| --
| Former professional electron wrangler.
|
| Michael A. Terrell
| Central Florida

Michael A. Terrell wrote:


I was a volunteer advisor for the Lake county Florida Vo-Tec
electronics program, till it was shut down. Right now I am trying to
find the money to finish repairs to my four car garage and convert it
into a 1200 sq ft electronics shop to teach basic electronics to the
kids who are still interested. Its not easy when you're 100% disabled
and living on a tiny pension, but I don't give up too easy.

Good luck with finding money for your garage. Sorry about Vo-tech
shutting down and your your disability and tiny pension.
Was there anything positive you wanted to say?

-Bill

-exray- wrote:

Michael A. Terrell wrote:


I was a volunteer advisor for the Lake county Florida Vo-Tec
electronics program, till it was shut down. Right now I am trying to
find the money to finish repairs to my four car garage and convert it
into a 1200 sq ft electronics shop to teach basic electronics to the
kids who are still interested. Its not easy when you're 100% disabled
and living on a tiny pension, but I don't give up too easy.

Good luck with finding money for your garage. Sorry about Vo-tech
shutting down and your your disability and tiny pension.
Was there anything positive you wanted to say?

-Bill

In case you missed it, I was saying that I don't let these things get
me down. I find something to keep me busy. I could be like a lot of
people I've met recently who throw up their hands and give up on
everything, but I'm not like that.

The diabilty stops me from climbing ladders or carrying anything
heavy so I bought a large cart to move things around the shop and house.

The small pension makes me consider what I want to spend money on
rather than just write a check while knowing that I had a wad of money
in the bank to cover it, so it didn't matter.

Life goes on, if you let it. :-)

--
Former professional electron wrangler.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

Michael,

If you don't mind my asking, what sort of professional electron wrangling did
you do prior to becoming disabled?

Good luck on converting your garage... I think there's a good chance you can
get a decent amount of equipment and supplies donated once it's clear (to the
outside world) that you're serious about what you're doing.

----Joel

Joel Kolstad wrote:

Michael,

If you don't mind my asking, what sort of professional electron wrangling did
you do prior to becoming disabled?

Good luck on converting your garage... I think there's a good chance you can
get a decent amount of equipment and supplies donated once it's clear (to the
outside world) that you're serious about what you're doing.

----Joel

I worked for L-3com/Microdyne at their Ocala plant as a production
and engineering tech. I also worked with purchasing to find and qualify
replacement sources for components, and the nasty job of removing long
time vendors from our approved list. I worked in every area of the
product line, built test fixtures, wrote test procedures and fought the
apathy of a couple older engineers to fix old design problems. I knew
more about our oldest products than anyone in engineering, so when a
problem cropped up they came running to my bench to ask questions rather
than take the time to research the old records. The last product I
worked on was their RCB-2000, a dual DSP based telemetry receiver, to
take it from the engineering prototypes to the production floor. I was
laid off when my health no longer let me work overtime, even though I
did more in an eight hour shift than any two other people on the line.
Suddenly, I was deemed "Not a team player" because I could barely walk
out the door after my shift. I was troubleshooting and testing the
signal processing boards under a stereo microscope and I did most of my
own rework rather than wait for it to go through the rework department.
I hand soldered 288 pin SMD chips under the microscope. After the
cleaning room was done, QC couldn't find my work on the PC boards. This
radio was introduced to the market at about $80,000. One of the VME
based boards in it cost about $8,000 to stuff, reflow and test. I miss
the work, but I doubt that I'll be able to do that kind of work again,
and the high tech companies have pretty well left this part of the
country.


--
Former professional electron wrangler.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

Well, whatever you did before, great!!

Now what are you doing? Finding out why nothing else can be done? Perhaps
this is why you are no longer working there...

Regards,
John
--
When Viagra fails to work--you are DOOMED!!!

"Michael A. Terrell" wrote in message
...
| Joel Kolstad wrote:
|
| Michael,
|
| If you don't mind my asking, what sort of professional electron
wrangling did
| you do prior to becoming disabled?
|
| Good luck on converting your garage... I think there's a good chance you
can
| get a decent amount of equipment and supplies donated once it's clear
(to the
| outside world) that you're serious about what you're doing.
|
| ----Joel
|
| I worked for L-3com/Microdyne at their Ocala plant as a production
| and engineering tech. I also worked with purchasing to find and qualify
| replacement sources for components, and the nasty job of removing long
| time vendors from our approved list. I worked in every area of the
| product line, built test fixtures, wrote test procedures and fought the
| apathy of a couple older engineers to fix old design problems. I knew
| more about our oldest products than anyone in engineering, so when a
| problem cropped up they came running to my bench to ask questions rather
| than take the time to research the old records. The last product I
| worked on was their RCB-2000, a dual DSP based telemetry receiver, to
| take it from the engineering prototypes to the production floor. I was
| laid off when my health no longer let me work overtime, even though I
| did more in an eight hour shift than any two other people on the line.
| Suddenly, I was deemed "Not a team player" because I could barely walk
| out the door after my shift. I was troubleshooting and testing the
| signal processing boards under a stereo microscope and I did most of my
| own rework rather than wait for it to go through the rework department.
| I hand soldered 288 pin SMD chips under the microscope. After the
| cleaning room was done, QC couldn't find my work on the PC boards. This
| radio was introduced to the market at about $80,000. One of the VME
| based boards in it cost about $8,000 to stuff, reflow and test. I miss
| the work, but I doubt that I'll be able to do that kind of work again,
| and the high tech companies have pretty well left this part of the
| country.
|
|
| --
| Former professional electron wrangler.
|
| Michael A. Terrell
| Central Florida

John Smith wrote:

Well, whatever you did before, great!!

Now what are you doing? Finding out why nothing else can be done? Perhaps
this is why you are no longer working there...

Regards,
John

Its obvious that you can not read as well as not understand
anything. R.I.P. your last live brain cell.

--
Former professional electron wrangler.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

Thanks Michael, that's a very colorful career you've had.

I was
laid off when my health no longer let me work overtime, even though I
did more in an eight hour shift than any two other people on the line.

If you still had some supervisors "on your side" who were willing to go to bat
for you, you might have had very good prospects with a lawsuit based on the
ADA? I'm sorry to hear your company ended up being run by folks who couldn't
see the forest for the trees (or even the broad side of a barn for their
sitting in the outhouse); it's an unfortunate trend in many companies
(especially as they become larger), and I tend to agree with people who
suggest it's often due to technical companies being run by business school
majors (without any engineering experience whatsoever).

---Joel

Joel Kolstad wrote:

Thanks Michael, that's a very colorful career you've had.

I was
laid off when my health no longer let me work overtime, even though I
did more in an eight hour shift than any two other people on the line.

If you still had some supervisors "on your side" who were willing to go to bat
for you, you might have had very good prospects with a lawsuit based on the
ADA? I'm sorry to hear your company ended up being run by folks who couldn't
see the forest for the trees (or even the broad side of a barn for their
sitting in the outhouse); it's an unfortunate trend in many companies
(especially as they become larger), and I tend to agree with people who
suggest it's often due to technical companies being run by business school
majors (without any engineering experience whatsoever).

---Joel


I wasn't legally declared disabled until January of this year, so I
couldn't sue under the ADA. It doesn't matter now, because the company
doesn't exist. It was adsorbed wholly by L-3Com. Several hundred
people lot their jobs, they dropped all but the RCB from the product
line and took less than a dozen people to their new plant up north.

I've also worked as a broadcast engineer, CATV engineering, and owned
an industrial electronics company that did commercial sound, CCTV, MATV,
and oddball systems used by local schools and factories. I built Ch 58
TV in Destin Florida from scratch, starting with a 1952 built TTU-25B
UHF transmitter. I'm in my 50s, and I never planned to retire, but its
being forced on me in several ways.

Still, I find ways to keep busy. I have a couple hundred databooks
in my library. I repair oddball equipment that strike my fancy. Two
current projects are a TS-382 audio generator and a National NC-183R
rack mount receiver. You can check out my personal web site from time
to time to see what I'm working on, and maybe find a manual or oddball
part you need. The link is on the "Organization" line of the message
headers. I am designing a receiver from scratch, but its slow going
because I have to budget carefully for the parts I don't have in stock.
The VA service office told me I'm allowed to make a little money from a
hobby, but they haven't been able to give me a dollar amount, so I'm
holding off trying to make a little extra money till I get their answer
in written form.

--
Former professional electron wrangler.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida