Gene Kranz NASA Flight Director (retired). Kranz celebrated his 88th birthday on August 17. NASA photo
Gene Kranz – my troubleshooting hero
My presentation is inspired by two things: Observing a problem during an emergency communications drill and the movie “Apollo 13,” starring Tom Hanks as Jim Lovell and Ed Harris as Gene Kranz.
Kranz’s experience, decision-making and guidance helped the massive team of experts to troubleshoot and resolve the crisis on the mission. All by “remote control” and without tools.
In our everyday operations no matter what the conditions or situations are, someday, something will go wrong. We must be prepared for this and try to get back on the air, sometimes quickly.
The basic concept to troubleshooting – anything – is the need to understand how the item works, in its most basic sense. For receivers and transmitters, it can be as simple as this:
Very basic receiver and transmitter concept
An increased understanding of how the item works often helps the troubleshooting process.
Next, consider why something is not working correctly – develop a theory – and then check to verify whether your assessment is correct.
Guessing and replacing parts is usually time consuming, expensive and often never solves the problem.
Another Way to Look At Things
Sometimes, we must think about what it is not, rather than what it is or can be.
For example, my front-loading clothes washer developed a problem: rinse water was in the compartment when the washer finished. At first, the bin was just moist, but when it was filled to the top, I decided to correct this to prevent a possible flood.
Doing some research on the internet, I found many entries about the detergent dispenser not working, and not adding soap into the washer.
Although this is not exactly like my issue, it is similar. All repair suggestions centered around the water supply not flowing properly into the detergent bin.
The solutions included making sure the water supply had enough pressure, cleaning the incoming water supply path into the dispenser using a piece of wire or a pipe cleaner, and cleaning the detergent dispenser.
This made the suggestions almost useless for solving my problem, since the fabric softener was going into the washer, and, since there was rinse water in the softener bin, water supply is not the problem.
I had to think about this some more: Water in the bin means water supply is fine. Softener is going into the washer. But why was the softener bin full, all the way to the top? Normally, the amount of liquid softener fills the bin at less than an inch.
So, something is not allowing it to drain, the opposite of filling it.
I checked to see if the washer was level. Maybe gravity helps drain the bin. Nope, a bubble level confirmed the washer was level in all directions.
Wait! There was something about cleaning the dispenser. I examined the dispenser tray unit and noticed the softener path was different from the detergent path.
I disassembled the dispenser tray and cleaned out the softener hole and mating tube. There was not much to clean, so I was not sure it would make a difference.
Clothes washer fabric softener dispenser
I ran a batch of laundry. The problem is fixed!
Understanding how something works and observing symptoms when it does not work, will often lead to a solution.
A Question for Later
There was an excellent question from the session: “How do we prevent things from going wrong in the first place – what are some best practices to prevent things from going wrong?”
This will be the topic of a future CQ magazine “Ham Notebook” column.
If you have any questions on troubleshooting basics, or if you have a story about how you solved an equipment problem to get back on the air, let me know, and I will share your story in an upcoming update to this presentation!
I love a good pastrami sandwich. The salty, peppery, thinly-sliced meat on a toasted bun with a little mustard kind of pastrami sandwich, like they serve at a place in West Los Angeles (Culver City) called Johnnie’s Pastrami. Amazingly, my dad used to go there when he was a single dude in the 1950s. . . . and he brought us kids there. I still remember the bowl of pickles and the giant box of French fries – and of course, the pastrami sandwich. On the Johnnie’s Pastrami “About” page, it says, “Johnnie’s Pastrami was established in 1952 and has become a Southern California landmark. The juke boxes on the counters and booths are all original. So are some of the waitresses.”
So when I saw the Turkey Pastrami on the first season of Primal Grill(on DVD), I had to give it a try. It was several summers ago, and I looked at several supermarkets for a turkey breast, but couldn’t find any. So I made it with chicken breasts instead. And it tasted great!
Earlier today, I made turkey breast pastrami – and it is equally good, although a little on the too salty side for me. I think this is because I marinated the turkey breasts too long (almost 2 days) instead of 24 hours. I will try it again to see if I can get a better result.
Here’s how we did today. . . . .. .
Dry rub marinade for turkey pastrami
On the Big Green Egg – 250 degrees F, with some hickory chips.
Slicing the turkey pastrami – so juicy it squirts!
The gasket on my Big Green Egg finally wore out. After three years, the gasket hardened and had a few “bald” spots.
Rather than working upside down, I removed the lid portion of the BGE from the hinge assembly.
The old gasket was scraped off to bare ceramic. Acetone was used to de-grease and clean the surfaces.
New gasket in place. Easily done in a few minutes.
3M super strength adhesive (a spray-on contact cement) was used to fasten the gasket to the bottom and top rim. Butcher paper was used to help limit over-spray going into the interior of the BGE.
My secret for a juicy and tasty turkey: Brining. I use the Orange Brine recipe from Primal Grill, Season 3. (Orange-Brined Turkey Breast)
The 20-lb hen swimming in the orange brine. I started late, it is best to soak the turkey for at least 24 hours – I brined for only 12 hours – but it was still moist and tasty!
The BGE is set up for indirect grilling, and a drip pan is placed underneath. Unfortunately, this set up usually burns the drippings – will try using a traditional roasting pan to catch the juices next time. Not this bird has one of those pop-up doneness indicators – I usually ignore those and test for actual internal temperature.
Pop-up indicator says this is done, however, it is not. Total roasting time at 325 degrees F was 3.5 hours.
After the turkey was finished, there was plenty of heat and lump charcoal, so I decided to cook the stuffing in the BGE, too.
Great announcement from Paper Transport in Green Bay, WI, USA. Nice mention of the Agility Fuel Systems and how their natural gas fleet is both cost-effective and clean. Click here to see the story….
Early last week, a co-worker bought a falafel plate for lunch. That made me want some all week long. Since do not like to fry foods in my kitchen (too messy) I wanted to try making some on my Big Green Egg.
The disaster Preparedness Expo at the Huntington Beach Central Library on September 21 coincided with the Pacific Islander Festival Orange County. It was the 6th annual event…. I stopped to take some pictures and bought a t-shirt, but didn’t stay to watch the programs. There was plenty of exotic foods and displays.
The Huntington Beach events website said, “This fantastic event is meant to be spent among “friends”. The hospitality of the California’s island people originating from Polynesia, Guam, Hawaii, Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti, Aotearoa, Northern Marianas, Belau, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Fiji, is undeniably alluring and enchanting, as you’ll see when you come to the free Polynesian fest. . . . ”
Looks like I should visit this event next year. Aloha.
Six active Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service – RACES – members were on-hand to meet and greet visitors to the Disaster Preparedness Expo on Saturday, September 21, 2013 at the Huntington Beach Central Library.
The RACES volunteers explained what the RACES group is and what we do for the City of Huntington Beach. Joe Tom, KB6JOE, brought his portable radio system, shown in some of the pictures. Wayne Yoshida, KH6WZ and Public Information Officer (PIO) for the RACES team, brought anAutomatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) beacon, which transmitted the demonstration station location. A screen capture of the map can be seen below. The Expo location is indicated by the eye icon and the KH6WZ-5 callsign. The APRS message also points to the HB RACES website, www.hbraces.org/.
Screen capture of the APRS beacon information. The Disaster Preparedness Expo location is indicated by the callsign KH6WZ-5 as well as the eye icon.
The Disaster Preparedness Expo is an annual, free event where the City’s emergency services organizations educate the public about emergency preparedness and the possible disasters that can happen to the city of Huntington Beach, such as earthquakes and tsunamis. The Expo is also a demonstration and recruiting tool for emergency preparedness volunteer groups in the city.
Huntington Beach Fire Department Urban Search & Rescue (USAR)
Huntington Beach Police Department
National Weather Service
Ready OC
Huntington Beach cable TV channel 3 was at the event, and shot plenty of video of the demonstrations and displays. Several of the event volunteers were interviewed and may appear on TV soon.
EssexHam
A ham radio club in the UK with over 200 members. Great intro to ham radio videos!
Huntington Beach RACES
The Huntington Beach Fire Department Emergency Management and Homeland Security Office administers the RACES team. RACES (pronounced “RAY-sees”) is not a club, it is a volunteer group within a government agency.
Automotive Links
Agility Fuel Systems
Need an alternative fuel system for your fleet of heavy-duty trucks and buses?
Factory Five Racing, Inc
The official Factory Five Racing website, showing descriptions of their component cars, gallery of completed cars and links to the Official Factory Five Racing Forum
Crash Space
“A collection of hackers… who generally like to break things and see what new things we can build with the pieces” Featured in my CQ magazine article
Make: Magazine
A printed (and online) magazine dedicated to Makers of all ages
Maker Faire
A two-day, family-friendly festival of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement
Orange County (CA) Mini Maker Faire
A gathering of talented Makers that meet in the Orange County area, and hold a Maker Faire on the UCI campus
Need an Alternative Fuel System for Your Fleet of Heavy Duty Trucks and Buses?
Agility Fuel Systems
Agility Fuel Systems designs, produces and markets alternative fuel systems for heavy duty vehicles. With thousands of heavy duty trucks and buses on the road, our systems have an extraordinary strength-to-weight ratio and a surprisingly small footprint.
Other
Angry Asian Man
I heard about this website and the guy running it (Phil Yu) on NPR recently. Strange and funny and weird and interesting
Photography
Lytro Camera
The Lytro Camera – A whole new way to enjoy still images
History of Ericsson
I found this While doing some research on Ericsson’s “three sausages” logo. Interesting look at the Swedish communications company.
Made by Monkeys
Design News magazine’s blog of things gone wrong
Microwaves 101
Great resource for RF related technology. My favorite section is the Microwave Mortuary. Note, sometimes the link to the Mortuary is broken.
Visit My YouTube Channel, KH6WZ
Ham radio, BBQ, car and Maker Faire projects for the visually-oriented folks. Other channels may be added as I find them
