Simple $30.00 Weather Alert Radios could have saved many lives in Texas flood why where they not mandated.

 It is absolutely the worst case of incompetency I have seen when over 100 people are now dead after the Guadalupe River in Texas took them downstream during extreme weather conditions.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/07/10/texas-flooding-death-toll-missing-search-updates/84529818007/

They know this is an area with tragic level floods frequently yet no warning sirens  and a delayed Red Alert by the 911 center  and a Austin  Fire Chef denying aide. who has been asked to resign over his DEI hiring 

https://www.theblaze.com/news/dereliction-of-duty-dei-obsessed-fire-chief-on-hot-seat-following-deadly-texas-flooding

 But much of the deaths could have been avoided had simple $30.00 Weather Alert Radios been mandated at those campsites to warn campers 

 They come on  and are activated by National Weather Service and have battery back up if there is a power failure . they work and alert 24/7  They even make small personnel weather alert radios with flashlight and AM/FM Radio built in 

Why where they not mandated as part of the Texas Approved Emergency plans ?

Simple effective and very cost efficient . Placed where people are sleeping or who are on duty 

the tones come on and messages are delivered. you can even listen to local weather forecasts .

Of Course if there not maintained with battery's when needed  or warnings are ignored. tragedy will still happen but a lot more people would have survived.  

I have had a weather radio in my home since 1981 when a tornado came into Pittsburgh area  

I keep my eyes and ears on weather all the time due to Radio towers I maintain and other critical property's and weather radios alert me when bad storms are coming thru area so i can take precautions necessary.

 Maybe now officials will get a clue i doubt it we have talked about tornado sirens in Pittsburgh area for over 30 years and its still nothing but talk.  

  

 

Alarmax Distributors just screwed every Small Alarm Dealer in Pittsburgh

 I have been a loyal Alarmax distributors customer from day they opened after Rodger Graff started it after Triangle Electronics  which he worked at went out of business in late 80s.

There location on Liberty ave  in Pittsburgh not always the easiest to get into but they always where able to get me the parts I needed for alarm and camera systems.

 Since I am a smaller company I always paid cash and what ever the price was like all the little company's who buy there. averaging 50 to 100 K+ in Purchases every year .

It was the little guys like us who helped keep Alarmax flush with cash   when they ventured into providing the Big Regional company's   with hundreds of alarm systems etc. and adding more branch locations .

The Big Company's dictating what they would pay and when they paid it.

Rodger knew this and always took care of us little guys. 

Unfortunately Rodger passed away and things started changing and it was getting harder to get Parts we needed especially special order items .

Now going to the supply house was always a good networking thing you got to see other dealers  and talk shop over what was going on in the industry over a cup of coffee and manufacturers reps would come in and show latest new products , and some times offered a nice simple lunch . and training classes .

BUT NOW THAT'S ALL GONE 

Alarmax now has changed the branch to the Big Dealers only and they expect us to order everything from their Cleveland Branch which has had a bad reputation  for years  and now  have our product orders  dropped shipped to our home office. 

No more just walk in and get what you need when you need it. no more seeing other dealers who I will probably never see again unless I bump across them in the field 

The Corporate Suits who decided to go with the big money and screw the little guys have taken over and

Rodger has got to be turning in his grave.

Needless to say I will no longer purchase from Alarmax  . There are plenty of alternatives available.

Why they would take such a risky chance and deal with large alarm company's that are highly leveraged and a house of cards financially and have little to no real assets other than locked in contracts which people will break if economy goes south  I will never understand . But I can see the coming down fall of Alarmax. Every Electrical Distributor who played this game failed in 5 to10 years in this area. 

 SHAME ON YOU ALARMAX SHAME ON YOU

Was David Croyle Framed on a Child Molestation Charge ?

 

 I meet Rev. David Croyle  back in the early 20s when he was interested in purchasing  the then WAVL 910 AM Radio station in Apollo Pa. 

He asked me if I could stay on and engineer for him  while he was under a LMA agreement with the current owner and he eventually asked me to do some engineering and security work for him at his location in Kittaning where he owned WTYM 1380 AM.

Unfortunately the agreement with WAVL fell thru and station was sold to some one else but stayed on their as engineer and for David.

 David owned several joined buildings in downtown Kittaning  on N Jefferson Street .One store front was his community Newspaper operations and also served as an small entertainment venue in the rear 

 

the next store front was the family life chapel where he was minster the next store front was the Radio station Operations which included a low power TV studio and finally the last storefront was his apartment and storage

 

I took care of station engineering and also did minor electrical work for David in the buildings and  fixed minor computer networking issues when he had them on a casual as needed basis.

Many in the community did not like David they saw him as a grifter and conman and a little on the weird side.  

But David was a good man who did a lot to help his community.

He Ran for and became a Armstrong County Commissioner and that's when the problems started .

Including several break ins and having to update his security alarms and cameras.  Some one was not happy he had become commissioner and was determined to see him done in.

 

But Davids world would come crashing down 2 days before he was ready to launch his new FM translator  when he and a Fire Marshal from community across river from his where Arrested

 

https://www.cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/church-pastor-fire-marshal-teen-boy-sexual-assault/

 

David had little money for defense and a friend put up most of the money to defend him. 

While he was out on bail David came to my fathers funeral and swore to me he was innocent and was being set up by those who he had dirt on who where corrupt and stealing from the public. including  high ranking Armstrong  politicians and Judges .

Davids attorney asked for and was denied a change of venue this should have been automatic grounds for appeal due to fact David was a commissioner.but appeals judge ignored Davids appeal after his conviction.

After reading the trail transcripts I saw many legal challenges which where missed and should have been explored including the Grinder Account a gay meet up site  on Davids computer which I never saw when working on them for him. 

Plus knowing there had been several small break-ins that as far as I know David reported  to police  it would have been easy to plant  evidence.

The 14 year old in the case also had a history of lying and false accusations according to David who hired him to deliver copy's of the paper he printed.  

 David claimed photos of him supposedly having sex with the kid where not true and he had marks on him he could prove that it was not him. 

But despite all the questionable stuff to the case David was convicted and served his sentence of 5 years  and was denied an appeal ..The fire Chief was convicted and committed suicide while on bail.

 Davids friend who paid for his defense and kept his apartment paid for called me and said he had He developed cancer while in prison and asked for compassionate release again he was denied and he died just a few days after release.

David swore  the truth would come out by Gods own hand when he was  released ,and who knows Karma is one of those strange things. 

Was David lying to me the whole time ? who knows and now we will never know . Hopefully some group or person in the years to come who has the time and money to take a hard look at the case come along and prove or disprove Davids Accusations .

In the mean time I hope David and the victim have found peace. 

 

Rapid Radios are a popular new radio being hawked as instant communication nationwide for Emergency / Survival radios . But there is a catch and could back fire big time on you.

 There the hottest new thing in the radio world Rapid Radios  they work very similar to the old Nextel Push to Talk Radios 

These are license free nationwide and at little to no cost to use. 

HOWEVER THERE IS A  BIG CATCH 

These radios depend on Cellular Towers staying operating. 

NO CELL SERVICE NO RADIO SERVICE

 They operate on the Cellular LTE Side Data Band so while they will work when regular cell service is disrupted  as long as the towers stay powered up you should be able to communicate . But what like happened down in North Carolina  this summer after the hurricane even the cell towers got taken out by the storms .

 So now your Shit Out of Luck.

The only Radios working in that case where Citizen Band , GMRS ,FRS and MURS  and Amateur Radios  . Radio to Radio which means only a few miles.

Now luckily one of the 2 meter VHF Amateur Radio Repeaters stayed up and for those lucky enough to have the right equipment to make contact to it  and license they where able to extend the range and get messages out.  As well as Amateur Operators who had normally expensive  HF Radios and appropriate  license

So before you go plunking down money for Rapid Radios thinking your covered think again.

 

If your serious about survival radios get on the numerous websites and lean about radios which will work for what you need . Dont just buy a Baofeng or other cheap radio  and think your going to be able to use it to talk to the next town over.

There is much to be learned about how two way radios work  and avoiding issues with FCC .

 

It is rare when it happens but it does happen a Gas hot water tank collapsing in on itself and can be very dangerous

 Was recently called to inspect a hot water tank for a insurance claim  and I always heard it could happen but for the first time in my 45 plus years in the field I actually got to see one .

The  tank in pictures as you can see has its pipes bent and fittings around tank are melted .

The tank actually collapsed in on it self shutting off the top vent and sending Carbon Monoxide directly into the basement.

Had the lady who owns home not heard the strange noise and gotten the strange smell checked by gas company the CO could have killed her and the tank could explode violently .

The reason this can happen is 

1# the small  air buffer tank next to hot water tank fills up not providing a buffer and building up pressure on tank

2# the high pressure reief valve failing to blowon a pressure increase from street.

3# failure to clean the dirt and crap out of bottom of tank and it builds up.

This is one lucky lady.

Contractor could have burned down building due to not wiring Industrial Heater to correct specifications

With the recent deep freeze in Pittsburgh I had a customer call me to hook up an Industrial Salamander  style Electric Heater .

He had borrowed from a contractor friend. The only problem the contractor did not have it wired up properly and was using an undersized extension cord and plug. 

The problem this 230 volt heater is 15000 watts which means it draws 62.3 amps and requires a no#6 gauge wire to it hardwired 

The contractor had it wired 1 size lower than required and the extension cord was 2 sizes too small.

The heater ran but then extension cord started heating up. when i got there I rewired the heater with proper no 6 wire straight to fuse box and wire never even got warm.

Contractor claimed that's how he bought unit new with that undersized cord. unfortunate for him the web site clearly says hardwired no 6 wire

Extreme subzero temps in North east causing strange problems to ocur like these fuses poping out of thier holders

 It was the coldest week in many decades here in Pittsburgh Region with several days of subzero temps dropping to  minus 17 below at night .

One of the strange things I had happen at an Oil Distribution Facility 

Where 480 volt 60 amp fuses started working their way out of the fuse clips which hold them because the metal had contracted from the cold 

Because the switch and outlet where not being used and electricity flowing thru it you can see how left fuse popped out and middle one is working its way loose.

No one was in plant so this is not a case of tampering and we found several other switches and fuses  doing similar .

Because the switches where mounted on the cold block walls this helped contribute to the problem because those in middle of plant had no such problem. The plant is not heated  so temps quickly drop as the sun goes down. 

I have forwarded this information to manufacture to see if anything can be done to prevent this

This photo shows proof why it is so important to maintain a proper firewall in Structures

 I recently was sent to inspect a Hot Water Tank which was damaged by a fire in a duplex  in Beechview section of Pittsburgh

Now amazingly the Hot Water tank which got damaged was on the right side of duplex which despite the total destruction on left received no damage other than the tank which  overheated when water pressure dropped in the street due to fire  hydrants being opened during the fire sucking water out of the tank. 

Because a foot and a half firewall from basement to roof made of Fire resistant brick was installed and maintained the unit on right had no damage at all. 

This rarely happens usually units on either side receive significant water and smoke damage or actual fire damage but not in this case .

This just goes to show just how significant and important firewalls are in construction. 

Another case where a firewall stopped significant damage was in a commercial strip mall in Cranberry Twp Pa. along US19   when a Play it again sport resale shop went up in flames and owner eventually convicted of arson.