Well, I'm descended from one Archibald Bassham/Basham, no one knows for sure, born 1761 Fairfax County Virginia from whom nearly all Bassham's in this country are descended from. So my folks may have been some of the malcontents in that little dustup with England in the late 16th century.

I've been making my living with a soldering iron since I was in Tech School in the late 60's. I worked for a Magnavox Dealer/Music Store in the 70's as a Tech where I serviced just about anything that came in the door from TV's to Electronic Organs. We sold Fender/Kustom/Ampeg amplifiers along with Kimball and Baldwin Organs/Pianos. Around 1975 or so we started selling Marantz and Kenwood stereo gear along with JBL speakers. I really enjoyed service work but by the late 70's I started to see the handwriting on the wall as the bread and butter of service work the TV was in decline.

I got busy and studied up for my commercial license, after spending over 4 hours taking an exam in front of FCC examiners I got my General Radiotelephone Operators License and then applied with the Communications Division of the Missouri Highway Patrol. I retired from the Patrol as Field Engineer on April 1 this year after 27+ years.

I've serviced just about everything from a pocket transistor radio to a 25,000 watt FM broadcast transmitter and other than a few scary times I've enjoyed it. Now that I'm retired I'm able to devote more time to my hobbies, Old cars, tube equipment, ham radio, and travelling.

I've been married to my sweetheart for 36 years now and we've got 2 kids ages 32 and 29. We were able to get them both through college, and they are both out on their own and doing well.

I enjoy these forums on the internet, it's nice to communicate with others with whom you share interests, especially in a hobby that has as few adherents as ours...

RB

We like to hear electrocution stories?? did you poke wrong one day? :-)

Good Monday morning to you, Randy! Thanks for the intro!

Hello Randy, your mention of the little dust-up makes me realize how things change. I used to drive through a little town every day where James Madison brought the government when we were burning down the White House (1812). I didn't get here until 1984. I have only recently found a distant relative, but with the same name, who fought for the Union in the Civil War. He was wounded and was receiving a pension (how we found him). His wife died in childbirth and his daughter died at age 10 and Robert disappeared but turned up over here just in time for the war.

We like to hear electrocution stories?? did you poke wrong one day? :-)

Let me just say never drop a crescent wrench into the battery cabinet of a 7.5 kva UPS. The box holds 10 group 27 deep cycle 12 volt batteries, it will throw the wrench back at you and shower the area with bright sparks.

Also....make sure the dead man switch closes on the door before you start poking a bang stick around in a 7800 volt power supply that's capable of 7.5 amps all day long. It's a good idea to investigate why the fuses blew on said power supply before attempting to power up or you'll spend the rest of the day yelling "WHAT"?!?!

Then there was the night I was called out and opened the back of the transmitter and found about a 5 ft long black snake, he'd gotten on the bleeder resistors and the 3500 volts had dispatched him, but there was enough left to scare the poop out of me.

But the scariest was almost getting killed by an out of control tractor trailer that missed me by less than a foot even though I'd driven the States van into the ditch and as far up an embankment as I could. This was 2 weeks before my retirement date. Tractor trailer wasn't the only thing leaving skid marks that day.

The thing that pushed me to retire when I did was my eyesight. I've lost use of my right eye due to macular problems and getting called out all hours of the night and driving in all kinds of weather conditions with my vision was just getting too uncomfortable and risky for my liking.

Good to meet you, sir.:thmbsp:

well, that reminds me, Archibald Barasol -- 'Toze, give that a phonetic whirl sometime!

Welcome Randy!

Welcome aboard....



Bill

Some things in common, in my younger days as a tech in several switching centers I would get called out at all hours and in all weather. One winter night in a snowstorm the whiteout was so bad I lost sight of my hood ornament, fortunately no one else was stupid enough to be out in that weatehr. There was a twenty foot drop to the river on one side and a regular ditch on the other, so I steered for the middle of the road and inched out of it.

At one of the exchanges they were adding a new three phase power entrance and a young electrician got himself on the wrong side of the 240 volt transformmer, probably 4800V. After they got him down from the platform we took turns with Holger Neilsen resuscitation and he lived to tell his kids about it.