Missing Nuclear Gauges used in construction work it happens more often than you think

You hear this story every couple of years a special gauge used to determine the density of road materials and moisture content of soil goes missing off the back of a construction vehicle. No big deal stuff falls off trucks all the time when not properly secured so what makes this gauge special.
This gauge contains a small amount of radioactive material which if tampered with could cause injury and burns .

To even possess this gauge which is usually only available by lease you must have a special federal license from Nuclear  regulatory Agency so you think contractors would be more careful but there not . It is amazing over the years the stuff I have found which has fallen off trucks I have returned to owners or turned over to police to find  owner when it had no identifying marks such as ladders, tool boxes etc   . People are always in a hurry fail to tie things down properly or fail to properly latch  down a tail gate they go speeding down highway at 75 mph and its gone.  Sometimes with tragic and deadly results when it bounces thru a drivers windshield but no matter its speed up get done and get to the next job and this is how situations like this happen and now it will be months of paper work and interviews etc. because they screwed up.

if you ever run across something like this do not touch it and call 911  so properly trained people can make sure it is safe to picked up and returned to owner.

In this latest case it was safely found and returned 

http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2013/05/15/dep-seeks-publics-help-to-locate-missing-nuclear-gauge/

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/region/officials-looking-for-missing-nuclear-gauge-near-pa-wva-border-687602/

 

Cellular Back Up units a classic example why you need to hook them direct and not use Dial Capture

Uplink unit utilizing a Line capture card

When it comes to connecting a  3rd party cellular back up unit to a Burglar alarm system like a Uplink unit  It can be done in 2 ways . Direct wired to  panels bell output or thru a technology known as Dial capture.

The draw back to direct attachment is some 3rd party  cell communicators then only send a general burglar or fire signal and individual  zone codes are not sent.  Where as if you use  Dial capture it can send full data from the panel.
Which can be useful when you have a large complex to know exactly what is going on. The problem as one of my clients found out the other day is when you use Dial Capture it may not always trip the cellular unit and send a message when there is an alarm.

The problem my customer a very large food distributor who is adding on a new warehouse section and updating there old section  which I am in the process of installing  a new system and merging his old systems into  the new systems  ran into was when a door set for 24 hour alarm was opened it should have contacted the central station it did not. Unlike if the Uplink communicator was direct tied and a signal would have been sent his original installer installed an Uplink unit with a Dial capture card made by the now closed  Stealth Laboratories.
 The  Dial Capture unit measures voltage and line amperage and when it does not see it takes over the phone line and sends the signal . But the problem is the phone line was not dead it still had voltage and was dialing  but when it made contact the central receiver could not hear the tones. I confirmed this after they got a failure to Communicate trouble at the panels keypad and took a butt set and tried dialing out .
This has always been a problem for  all  Burglar and Fire Alarm System phone line monitors. They only can tell if line has voltage and amperage not if the phone line is actually operable.

Had in this case the Uplink unit been direct wired to the bell output of the panel  the  message would have went out  to central and then a fail to communicate message would have still showed up at keypad that would have required further investigation but at least the message would have gotten out instead it did not.  Luckily the plant was open for business and it was an accidental door opening by a construction person but what if it had been a burglar when they where closed the message never would have gotten out . Needless to say the new system is not designed this way instead I am using the manufacturers  cellular with  internet back up unit which attaches directly to the panel and not using line capture.
To prevent this type of issue from happening.
needless to say this is something which when installing a cell back up unit you must take into consideration and if possible if using line capture also connect the cell unit directly if possible.

A Very Important Building thats open 2 times a year

 I drove by this one time old dumpy white pealing paint building not much bigger than a large shed   along E. US 22  next to the Pittsburgh Speedway ( Keystone Drag-way)  not knowing it's purpose thought it was just another abandoned farm shed with classic old out house out back for many years possibly part of an old extinct farm  on my way to Blairsville, Johnstown, Altoona or State College

When they went to widen US 22  that summer in 2004  it disappeared or so I thought till I saw the state had moved it up the road about a mile from where it was , and then I saw people working on and fixing it up strange I thought of this old white dumpy looking building  why where they saving it. I thought it was abandoned. Well the answer would come out in the Tribune review in late 2004 This was no dumpy building it was one of a very small handful of stand alone polling places you went to to vote.

They have been working on it and most recent article on it being ready to reopen is below .

http://triblive.com/news/westmoreland/3662716-74/voting-county-polling#axzz2RwZdA3Hp

In the days of horse and buggy these stand alone polling places where very popular in rural America but all but a handful   exists now.

Not wanting to use a barn  as a local school or other suitable building was not always available or close by  these small buildings where set up and used 2 times a year for election purposes where for many years ballots where on paper with pencil and deposited into a locked box to be counted at the end of the day.  I am glad to see this building which I thought was abandoned has been saved and is being recognized for it role in American history. Soon to be open to the public again

Honeywells New Turbo Series Alarm panels a Major Disapointment

I like the advanced series of panels Honeywell makes for commercial work like the Vista 128/ 250 BP  and 32,128 and 250 FBP
But the problem none of them would work with Total Connect 2  the more advanced of the total connect services or the Tuxedo Keypads  available thru Honeywell they only worked with TC1
There answer to this was the new Turbo series panels Vista   128/250 BPT and 32,128/250 FBPT
great you get the best of both worlds with more features . WRONG
In fact the new panels are lacking several handy features dealers like my self use  and you pay more for the turbos to get less makes no sense .
Gone are the Direct Wire down loader feature where you can use the 5104 serial input module to program on site  . Gone is the handy feature to allow a small add on beeper piezo which follows the keypad beeper when you need to know in back of shop or in big warehouses someone has come thru the door plus many others  in my eyes not worth the $100.00 cost increase for the new panels just so the will work on TC 2  Once again build something you think dealers and customers want but never ask.

Sorry but my customers do not want to pay more to get less.  While yes the turbos give you TC2 and Tuxedo capability which some commercial customers will pay for most will not once again a total disappointment .

After the break up of AT&T accessing low cost long distance carriers lines was a challenge

After the break up of AT&T in early 80's   many new low cost long distance carriers came on the market to challenge AT&T. like MCI, LDI and Sprint  The problem was the lines where where not yet  totally deregulated and shared as they are now  and to make a long distance call and save money you had to first dial a 10 digit 800 toll free number to access the carrier then dial the 10 digit number of person you where calling a real pain in the ass. So the long distance carriers came up with a solution a re-dialer  whereby  when you made a long distance call  by dialing certain area codes the re-dialer  recognized these numbers and would then seize the line and dial the 800 number automatically connecting you to the long distance carriers 800 number. In fact Phone systems at the time incorporated these dialer's in a sophisticated  means called Least Cost Routing  LCR where the unit would see where you where dialing and put you on the phone line and into carrier with the best cost.

To allow these units to work special phone blocks known as RJ31X blocks had to be installed to allow the re-dialer to capture the line in the same way Fire & burglar alarm s do. I was often hired by these carriers to install the blocks on mine and other customers of theirs phone systems so that there dialer technician could come by hang the unit and program it and just plug into the phone lines.
With the advent of Digital phone switching and full deregulation where AT&T and the baby bells  had to now share there lines with other phone carriers the re-dialer's where no longer needed and  where shut off and removed  and became a forgotten relic I ran across this old one in picture below  while  helping a friend move his imaging company's phone system .

Old deactivated MCI Re-dialer

But while this era of re-dialer's went away the technology itself is still used today in varying ways in the alarm industry.  need to take over an account and send the burglar alarm signal to your central station but the panel is locked out and you can not get into programming ? Well they make a simple re-dialer you hook in line which redirects the call to your central station and account number .

http://info.nextalarm.com/products

Also with many phone land  lines going away and cellular or Internet being used again re'dialers or re-directors as some call them are again being used to plug the panels existing dialer  lines into the cellular or internet communicator  where signal is converted from a dial up phone line to a cellular or internet digital signal.
Seems when theirs a communication issue in the field some smart engineer is out there figuring out how to make a unit still operate with out replacing a whole system

Have a large warehouse ? Want a Shift Start & End Time Tone? Also need a door bell to know a customer is at shipping door but want to avoid the expense of multiple bells and buzzers ? There is a solution

If you have a large warehouse or distributing business like my customer has  and need  to know some ones at your shipping / receiving door  and you also would like to have a clock controlled shift  start / end and lunch time tone  but do not want to spend a fortune to do it  . Then you need one of these modules  I just put in a very large food distribution facility in W.Va.  after the manager asked me about how to keep the cost down with out all the wiring and bells and said he had a crazy ideal could he put it over paging system he had every where  my answer was yes using this item

http://www.vikingelectronics.com/

Does your warehouse have a  Paging system then all you need to do is add a simple module to get the door bell and or the clock tones.
 the  CTG-1 and CTG-2  clock tone controllers fill the bill

http://www.vikingelectronics.com/products/view_product.php?pid=559#

 What they do is add simple tones over your new or existing paging system.

Want a door bell run a simple 2 wire circuit from door bell switch to controller then 2 wire from controller to paging input and thats it 

Those same 2 wires you hooked from controller to paging amplifier also sends the shift change  tones which you program into the controller with simple commands via simple schedules you can set for once to several times a day.

 You can even hook the facility burglar alarm in so it sends an alarm tone all thru the place

or even just a door or any contact  to a device you need to let every one know needs immediate attention. there is also an emergency whoop tone alert for use to evacuate the plant if theirs a fire ,tornado etc. all in all a simple solution to what is usually a mess of wires and devices.

Viking even makes a device you can add to existing paging unit to provide mass evacuation tones and voice commands . how ever you will want to make sure the device and paging system has some type of  back up power like a UPS

http://www.vikingelectronics.com/products/view_product.php?pid=446#

I just love all the neat products Viking is coming out with because it allows me to provide solutions for customers with out an extreme cost and complication.