IBMWatson autobiographythoughts on 784

Well...I can't speak for RCA broadcast transmitters, but when my PPOE bought a new GE television transmitter in 1965 it came in crates, we (the station engineering staff) put it together, and the first time I heard of a GE engineer showing up was when they signed off on the quality of the work before the first time it was turned on. (The signoff was required for warranty purposes.)

That inspection didn't do much...when power was applied the (solid-state) rectifiers for the video final tube filaments blew because of a miswiring at the factory that (a) we didn't disturb, and (b) the GE engineer didn't catch. Replacing the rectifiers required partial disbuttembly of the final cabinet and lots of cusswords...which could have been avoided by better customer support.

I may have mentioned this transmitter in postings here several years ago as an example of a bungled user interface. The power switches for the various stages (drivers, audio final filaments, audio final B+, video final filaments, video final B+) were implemented as two pushbuttons. When each function was OFF, the *red* ON button was lit; punch that button to energize the circuit and the *green* OFF button lit up. Sort of like clicking START to shut down your Windows system, only more likely to kill someone.

Joe Morris