SBE Certification

SBE-banner

I am toying around with the idea of reinstating my SBE certifications. At one time, I was certified as a Senior Radio Engineer.  That certification lapsed several years ago for a variety of reasons.  First and foremost was my desire to find another career outside of radio.  At the time, I was working for a giant flaming asshole who prided himself in causing his subordinates health problems; things like strokes and heart attacks.  The sign over his desk read “The floggings will continue until morale improves.” I was also busy at home with a new, very young child and an old, broken-down house.  There was not enough time to come up with enough professional points to re-certify or study for a test.  So, it went by the wayside.

Lately, however, I am beginning to see some advantages of having an SBE certification:

  • It comes in handy as a skills benchmark for potential clients and others
  • It lends some amount of credibility among fellow broadcast engineers
  • There is a support network for job searches

Thus, when I went to the SBE website and found the Jubilee Project, I was intrigued.  The SBE is offering to reinstate those former members with lapsed certifications until April 2014 provided the applicant can supply enough recertification points.  I am also contemplating taking the Certified Broadcast Networking Engineer test for much the same reasons listed above.  I will let you know how it goes.

Incidentally, my ability to deal with giant flaming assholes as increased in the intervening years.  What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

Installing new computers? Need Applications? Ninite.com

This came up in one of my earlier computer classes. When installing new systems, often we are required to download applications such as web browsers, media tools, runtimes, etc individually. Ninite.com allows an IT person to create a custom installer with all of the freeware applications desired.  Once created and downloaded, this installer can be used on multiple machines across a network.

ninite

If one were using Windows Server with active directory, this installer could be either published or installed with the computer node at first boot up.

Goodbye, Radiodiscussions.com

The popular discussion board, which was started in the mid-1990s has been terminated by its current owners, Streamline Digital. It seems that the site was not making any money and thus the plug was pulled.

radiodiscussions

There are other engineering-type discussion boards such as The Virtual Engineer and… Hmm, Anybody?

Where a vacuum exists, nature abhors it.  The question is, will anyone step up and fill the void?

Troubleshooting the 18 KVA UPS

One of our clients has or rather had a BEST FERUPS 18 KVA UPS. It has stopped working and I was given the following report:

Radio guy: The power went out, the generator started, then I heard a bang.

Myself: You heard a bang?

RG: Yeah, a big BANG!

Myself: You heard a big bang.

And so he did:

Best FERUPS 18 KVA control board.
Best FERUPS 18 KVA control board.
Best FE18KVA control board, MOV destruction
Best FE18KVA control board, MOV destruction

The primary damage is around two MOV’s mounted on the other side of the board. This is the power sense (voltage sample) input to the board. We have attempted to repair it, but alas, it is not repairable. A replacement board runs over $1,400.00 from Eaton Powerware. Since this unit also needs a new set of batteries, it is likely best to replace the entire unit.