Ancient History

[Jim Audiomisc]

I decided to write up a bit more of my (non audio) history. People may find some of it interesting/amusing. The newest section is the part on 1972 and working on a telescope on Tenerife. Astronomy was a bit 'wild and wooly' at the time. Nowdays pro astronomers sit in their office and operate the telescope in comfort whilst having a cup of tea. Not like back in the pre-net days...

Later, volcanos, earthquakes and 14,000ft, etc...


http://jcgl.orpheusweb.co.uk/history/ups_and_downs.html

 

[Tony L]

Fascinating stuff, I had no idea you were involved in that kind of stuff! I assume this is all before the time at Armstrong? The Concorde eclipse trip looks amazing!

 

[Jim Audiomisc]

Fascinating stuff, I had no idea you were involved in that kind of stuff! I assume this is all before the time at Armstrong? The Concorde eclipse trip looks amazing!

Yes, I did a postgrad studentship at QMC. Then went to Armstrong (via a *brief* time at at a defence company) then returned to QMC as a researcher - whilst also continuing to work in my 'spare time' (sic) for Armstrong.

The student period was mainly trips to Tenerife along with the Concorde trip.

The later research period let me visit other places. Notable Hawai'i, but also back to the Canaries a few times. Mainly worked on developing kit, but also went with astronomers to help them not cut themselves on sharp objects, etc, when working in the dark. Fun like a telescope that tended to charge up to a few kV when no-one had touched it for a while, and earthquakes...

There was one storm when I was on top of Mauna Kea (Hawai'i) where we don't know the peak wind velocity. It got to about 100 mph, then the device that measures it blew away. 8-] It also blew a Bronco with its brakes on *uphill*.

HiFi has, professionally, only been about 10-20 percent of my 'career' (sic). But as an enthusiast it has occupied me since the days of reading HFN back in the early 1960s.

edit: I'm currently trying to recall the name of the defence company I worked for, briefly. It was (something) Dynamics I think, and was in the St Albans area. They made pointy things designed to ruin someone's day. I can recall all the fluorescent lights coming on in a beam that swept across the hanger-sized room when someone was testing a radar outside.

 

[davidsrsb]

Sperry perhaps?

 

[sq225917]

General?

 

[Still]

Properly interesting and impressive, thanks Jim.

 

[Stunsworth]

Hawker Siddeley Dynamics?

 

[Jim Audiomisc]

It wasn't "General" or "Sperry". I have a vague/unreliable feeling it might have been "Hawker Siddley" or anoither UK firm like that. It will probably come back to me at some point, but at present it's hiding at the back of the untidy shed of my memory...

 

[Barrymagrec]

http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Hawker_Siddeley_Dynamics

 

[Jim Audiomisc]

Hawker Siddeley Dynamics?

Bingo! You wrote that just I as writing my previous posting, so I didn't see what you'd said until afterwards.

Yes, I think it may well have been Hawker Siddeley. But I'm not certain. Maybe I can find something somewhere in my old piles of rubbish... erm valuable archives that may clarify.

I was only with them for a couple of months as I got bored. They had no work for me to do, so left me to wander off to the library, etc. I'd have made some 'homers' but they didn't want me to use any components. Someone there explained that at the time defence contracts were funded on the basis of "requiring X man-hours" and were inflated to bump up company income. Hence the lack of something to do. But I have no idea if it was true. I just got bored, quit, and got a job with Armstrong a few weeks later. Result!

 

[Barrymagrec]

I was only with them for a couple of months as I got bored. They had no work for me to do, so left me to wander off to the library, etc. I'd have made some 'homers' but they didn't want me to use any components. Someone there explained that at the time defence contracts were funded on the basis of "requiring X man-hours" and were inflated to bump up company income. Hence the lack of something to do. But I have no idea if it was true. I just got bored, quit, and got a job with Armstrong a few weeks later. Result!

"Cost plus" - You got paid the cost of the project plus the profit margin so the more people you employed (cost) the larger the profit margin (plus).

Stopped circa 1983 I seem to remember.

 

[Jim Audiomisc]

"Cost plus" - You got paid the cost of the project plus the profit margin so the more people you employed (cost) the larger the profit margin (plus).

Stopped circa 1983 I seem to remember.

OK. Yes, I was there in the 1970s, so I guess this was what I ran into. Others there seemed to think it was fine to be paid for periods of not doing anything much. But I was antsy to do something interesting. And also worried that too much coasting might reduce my ability to get a better job later on.

I also noticed whilst there that every now and then groups would turn up for inteviews for hiring. Some of them were recognised as people 'well kent' by the others. i.e. some seemed to shift from project to project, sometimes moving firm or with gaps.

I also recall long queues forming to get change for the tea and sandwitch machines.

I was used to working in a small group where we just got stuck in, and were interested in what we did, so it didn't really suit me.

Quite possibly if I'd stayed and get stuck into some project work, things would have developed and I'd have been happy. But after a month or two I decided to try elsewhere. And thus what followed. I never really planned a 'career'. Just looked for something interesting to do.

 

[Barrymagrec]

I also noticed whilst there that every now and then groups would turn up for inteviews for hiring. Some of them were recognised as people 'well kent' by the others. i.e. some seemed to shift from project to project, sometimes moving firm or with gaps.

I was informed by a very reliable source (my Dad, who was working there at the time) that many of the contractors employed during the building of the West Drayton air traffic control centre simply signed in first thing in the morning, slung a jacket over the back of their chair and disappeared to do a days work elsewhere returning in the evening to sign out.
The management turned a blind eye since it was more profit for them.

 

[Patrick Dixon]

"Cost plus" - You got paid the cost of the project plus the profit margin so the more people you employed (cost) the larger the profit margin (plus).

Stopped circa 1983 I seem to remember.

Yes, GEC was built on the back of it and it pretty much killed innovation as they would never sanction anything that didn't return a guaranteed profit within the same year as the expenditure.

Ahh, the days when Britain was great ... shortly to return.

 

[martin clark]

Jim thanks for that, I really enjoyed those pages.

 

[iainsteele]

Hi Jim,

Many thanks for posting this I really enjoyed it. I last used the 60inch telescope (by then known as the "Carlos Sanchez Telescope") about 15 years ago - to be honest the control and tracking system, while computer controlled now, is still pretty flakey! It was at the very end of the single channel photometer era - the chopping signal subtraction being done by computer, but not a lot else more advanced than what you were doing. They now have an infrared array camera that takes images instead.

When I was there, the weather was not very good, and at times they would not let us use the telescope as it was "too windy" - some of the other telescopes up there were open however as they had a more relaxed wind speed limit - I asked why the limit was so low on the telescope and the answer I got was "When the English gave us the telescope they left behind a big book and on the front page that is what is said.", so that was that!

You are right that most pro astronomers these days just sit in their office at their computer these days and would not know what to do if given an actual telescope to play with! There are still some of us left trying to keep the "wild and wooly" approach alive though - building small instruments and tracking off around the world with a postgraduate student and a engineer to try and make them work. So many of your experiences still ring true today - I still have various interesting conversations with airport staff when transporting cryostats as hand luggage (although we do release the vacuum these days!), and have been stuck up various mountains at times!

Best Regards,

iain.

 

[davidsrsb]

Fascinating, my first interest was astronomy, but I figured out that the job prospects were poor, so went into electronics.

 

[Jim Audiomisc]

Hi Jim,

Many thanks for posting this I really enjoyed it. I last used the 60inch telescope (by then known as the "Carlos Sanchez Telescope") about 15 years ago.

...

You are right that most pro astronomers these days just sit in their office at their computer these days and would not know what to do if given an actual telescope to play with! There are still some of us left trying to keep the "wild and wooly" approach alive though - building small instruments and tracking off around the world with a postgraduate student and a engineer to try and make them work. So many of your experiences still ring true today - I still have various interesting conversations with airport staff when transporting cryostats as hand luggage (although we do release the vacuum these days!), and have been stuck up various mountains at times!

Best Regards,

iain.

Interesting to see how some things change while others remain the same.

Did you take any photos of the site/telescope? I've wondered how things progressed there. My later trips were to UKIRT.

 

[Jim Audiomisc]

Fascinating, my first interest was astronomy, but I figured out that the job prospects were poor, so went into electronics.

I quickly realised as a research student that there was a stark division.

New students who were astronomers and studied stars, galaxies, gas cloud dynamics, etc, came and went. Cheaper and easier to get a new one than find the money for them to become a post-doc.

Students who focussed on kit - e.g. building better detectors - tended to find a post doc position. The established staff needed them to get in the data for the 'real' astronomers. 8-]

Also. As per Iain's comments. The 'engineering' ones got to go to the telescopes to fiddle with the kit, whilst the astronomers ended up sitting in their office.

For me, no contest when deciding which approach to adopt!

 

[Jim Audiomisc]

FWIW I've now added a page covering the period I worked for Armstrong. It doesn't say much that isn't already on my Armstrong website, but does have some alternative photos. Also includes some non-audio info about the 1977 Silver Jubilee!

http://jcgl.orpheusweb.co.uk/history/ups_and_downs.html

All being well, the next section will be on the 230 GHz systems I designed when I first went back to QMC. More trips up volcanos as well as fancy technology!