50's era Non electronic card readers put Socail Clubs and there members at risk

I have an all social  club membership access card  it works  in up to 70% of the  social clubs in Pa. and many other states such as American Legion, VFW, Eagles , Elks ,Moose,Fireman's   etc I just walk up slide my all access card in the reader and in I go. It cost me nothing in fact it was free its my Wholesale Club  membership card  Yes thats right for this type of reader it is not a reader at all it has no electronics involved all it does is open a door when you slide any type of card the right size and thickness into it and it closes an electrical switch. typically they are all silver toned metal rectangle  about 4 inches in size with a slot and you have a laminated paper membership card which serves as your entry card some units where flushed into walls or like in picture where surface mounted. I have repaired several of these readers at clubs  when the switches have gone bad in them.

 Most clubs installed them in early 50's  as a way to keep the public out as required by Pa. Liquor Control Board or LCB as we call it ,and they have worked well for years but with the vulnerability of any one from the public or criminal knowing the trick behind them being able to bypass them that can be a problem.

I have several social clubs I provide services to and when I enter I ring a door bell and they let me in this is the way it is suppose to be . Non Members  can not just walk in. For the most part it works well but the fact these card units can not distinguish who or what any member of any club can just walk in and use there card and members who have not paid there dues are a common problem and know this and sneak in and drink till there discovered and made to pay there dues or are booted out the door.  Some clubs can have more than 1500 members thats a lot of members to keep track of. This also does not allow clubs to keep out banned or trouble making members as well and with many clubs staffed only by women by them selves some days this can be a dangerous situation and several clubs have been robbed in broad day light and attendants injured and know one knows because its behind a supposed locked door. Liked happened in Freeport Pa. Eagles Club where attendants where robbed and attacked.

Now you would think The clubs them selves or LCB would make them upgrade to a modern system to keep out non paying members and trouble makers . But no it is not going to happen. Modern card access systems can run into several thousand dollars for these clubs and many just do not have it in there budget to upgrade , but in same breath the money they would make if they enforced dues payments and kept dead beats and trouble makers out  would more than offset the cost.
But with these systems some one has to maintain the data base etc . which is also more than most clubs can handle and yes managed card access is available for these situations but again its the monthly fee that scares the clubs away.
So you have a bunch of old social membership clubs with old outdated door entry systems out there just waiting for the day a determined bad guy decides to target them. Dam shame but clubs do it to them selves all the time and are there own worst enemy some times when it comes to doing whats right.

Pa. Fire depts need to take great care before they sign off on any Day Care or Assisted Living facilty

When the new state Uniform Construction Code  known as the UCC was put in place  one thing happened and it was very quietly done . In the state of Pa. State inspectors no longer perform life safety checks at Assisted Living , Daycare,Group Homes , Some  Rehab Centers and Private Schools  this has been delegated to each and every community and mostly falls on the Fire Depts. them selves to do it.
Just in my community there are over 50 licensed facility's how in the hell was the local fire marshal suppose to inspect all these facility plus do all his other duty's?  That's right he could not  local depts . needed to help him with some .What about community's with out a Fire Marshal  thats also right its up to local fire dept to do it.
But where back to the same old issue who in the fire dept is going to do it? Does the fire dept even have some one qualified to properly do it and is there qualifications enough to meet  state standards? In the case of volunteer depts this means finding some one to do it who is not working during the day a very big problem to get people to take off from work and do this.  What liability is a fire dept facing should one of its members doing an inspection face should he or she do it wrong or just blow it off  and there's a fire and serious damage or loss of life?

Yes there are plenty of questions that need answered before we have a major crisis in this state because some one not properly trained or trained but fails to do proper inspection  causes a problem.
We also have the problem of 
It being  all too easy for a assisted living facility to just sign off on paper work and inspectors who come in and check the paper work have no ideal if fire dept signed off on it or not .
State inspectors may or may not ,make a phone call to local dept. and when no ones there to answer will follow up calls etc be completed to make sure who actually did the inspection?

Before the UCC state inspectors did check exit signs , emergency lights , make sure exits are clear extinguishers serviced, range hoods are cleaned and serviced Fire alarms working  etc. etc.  but they no longer do it. all they do now is sit there and check paper work. They have put the burden on fire depts some of whom are not up to the task.

 It is going to be another case of duck and cover your ass after a serious incident happens in this state after depts and there officers  get sued and is the state going to exempt you?  good question Because you could see firefighters brought up on criminal charges for signing off on inspections they did not do.
Just walk into any of the licensed facility in Allegheny County see how ell there maintained  and then walk into one in  Washington County which is more rural and you will see major horrifying problems allowed to go along because the small depts down there do not have a vigorous program in place to check all places properly. it is just a matter of time till that ticking time bomb goes off and we have another horrifying fire  with deaths like we did in Erie and as usual it will be queitly overlooked and
things normal as usual. how many deaths will it take this time till we do something in this state 12- 22   maybe 3 or 4 of these tragedy's before something happens.

 Just look at the Horse shit thats happened in Pa. because we do not regulate Radiation technologists and one is accused of a major hepatitis out break.

Before any one signs off  from your dept on any of these forms for any of these licensed facility check and make sure there training is adequate your dept. has adequate insurance and if not then make sure it does.

I Do Not Suffer Fools

Amazing as it is with 35+ years in the field as a trouble shooter and installer  and having numerous jobs inspected and passed by every alphabet agency out there and testifying in court on  electrical matters , the number of people I run across who think there code experts when they have no ideal what there talking about they do not even own a code book because when I point things out and they actually open a code book and check it out they find out there wrong. of course they never admit there wrong.

Or like here in Pa. how many people try to say you have to follow this or that in the IFC Fire code but sorry again folks it was not adopted  as part of the state code package.  You use the IFC when it references to it in IBC Construction code but it is otherwise not enforced. Yet there are how many people out there saying you have to follow this and that with the IFC and they are wrong. Call labor & Industry in Harrisburg and find out for yourself before your customers get wise and sue your ass for giving them the wrong information and spending money they do not need to be spending.

Its just like the Dedicated phone lines for fire alarms there is no mention of the word dedicated phone line in the NFPA. In fact they prefer you do not dedicate them.  they want you to use the working numbers in a business under the ownership of the property because  line monitors only can tell you if line has voltage not if it is actually capable of dialing out. Yet there are fools who insist  they must be dedicated can not use a fire alarm on a phone line which has DSL service and every other cock and bull story you can think of.

But when challenged to provide proof  they have nothing to back it up.

 Its just like that Spike TV show "Bar Rescue "with John Tattor he is an expert on bars and when he goes in and try's to tell bar owners there doing things wrong and need to change things some look at him with there goofy ass stupid look and say he is an ass  and knows nothing he is wrong. I love it when    John Tattor always shoots back your such an expert why is your bar failing and not full of people and you called and said you needed me? Some people never learn the bars that listen to him are successful those that do not fail. Just like with Chef Robert Irvine and his Restaurant Impossible show where you see every show the constant mistakes restaurants make because there not properly trained and just assume there right well you know what they say assume stands for make an ass out of you and me. Why would any one try and open a business without having prior experience especially the bar or restaurant trade which are 2 of the hardest ones to work and make a profit in.

Had a guy call me other day insisted his IPGSM communicators where operating properly with out a cross over cable.  Wrong again. if you plug  in the communicator  and register it with out the  internet cable plugged in it will work  but then when you plug in the wrong cat 5 cable it will still look like its working and sending signal over network because lights blink but no it is not its doing it all by cell  you can tell by looking up the communicators status report. But He insisted I was wrong till he looked up the status report and guess what  yea thats right he has a dozen communicators all on cellular  only instead of on internet with cell back up  no wonder his total connect 2 runs so slow its much faster on IP. I sure hope he did not install these in a jewelry store  for a UL system and think he has both features active. Wonder why his cell overage was so high.

So be a fool and make your fool comments anonymously and prove just how stupid  and incompetent you really are on my blog  I check and triple check what I post here and can back it up in a court of law if needed . Can You?

 Real experts do post on here I know who they are if they do not want to use there real name they have contacted me so I know who they are .
I have vetted them. otherwise your comments go in the shit pile.
because you have nothing to contribute but your own ignorance.

Robo Calls to an Elevator Phone not a good Idea

I was working in the lobby of the building in Beaver County today where I am retrofitting out the fire alarm system when all of a sudden I hear the emergency phone ring and then talking in the elevator . OK whats going on is some one trapped? No I push the button open the door and its an advertisement from a credit card company coming from a Robo Caller machine. This number should never be called its unlisted and on the do not call list but with Robo callers you just set up a bank of possible digits and away it goes and in this case it could be catastrophic if some one is having an emergency stuck in the elevator and unable to get help because a Robo caller has the line tied up.
This is something that needs looked into and I will be filing a complaint with FTC to look into this practice and getting it stopped.
Before we have an unneeded tragedy.
 I hate Robo callers I always identify them  call the place back notify them I am on do not call list and then file a complaint with FTC .
Robo callers is one technology which needs to go away period.

Despite numerous safety devices and procedures some truck drivers prove how stupid they are everyday

One of my customers runs several of these mini Storage facility's where you rent a unit to store your unneeded items .  At his one facility 2 times in a months time drivers bringing in trucks to pick up or deliver items have managed to rip apart the gate control system . Each time this has cost the truck drivers over $10,000.00 out of there pockets and in one case the driver took off and was stopped and brought back by police. he faces losing his CDL license  to ever drive trucks again.

Now this gate is equipped with a bumper guard re-tractor on bottom of gate to send it back if it hits a vehicle and there is also a safety beam across as well which retracts  the gate there are also flashing red and yellow strobe's to warn gate is going up or down . There is absolutely no reason any one should hit this gate there timed to allow vehicles thru and prevent exactly what happens . Yet these supposed professional drivers managed to hit and destroy this gate twice now.
It was all caught on video as well so these drivers have no way to deny what happened yet they come up with total bullshit story's .
When the gate come down they should have stopped and put there foot on brake as they have been trained   instead they just kept driving and acting like they never saw a thing. Needless to say Tractor trailer type trucks are no longer permitted on property and now have to stay outside the gate and hand jack the loads into where they go. But this is what happens when trucking company's hire people who are not qualified to be behind the wheel you have to wonder how they got there CDL in the first place. But trucking company's are so desperate to have body's behind the wheel they hire any one
and these are the consequences they deal with every time they have to pay a claim when one of there brain dead drivers causes an incident.
Its a shame because in a recent truckers newspaper I read of a driver who just retired after 3 million miles behind the wheel without a reportable accident.

Employee lucky to be alive after driving forklift where it was not supose to be

It never fails to amaze me the number of brain dead individuals walking around in the world. Employees at my one customers business have been told to never take a forklift down thru a narrow alley way between his main store and warehouse buildings due to tight conditions and electrical wires which supply power running along the wall.
Well one Dumb Ass Lazy employee decided he did not want to use the manual pallet jack and instead decided to take the forklift down thru the path and as a result he hooked into a live 230 volt 100 amp feeder wire for the warehouse. He caused at first a massive surge in store then there was a flash and warehouse lost power . By some lucky miracle he did not electrocute himself as the breaker did not trip and was still on and hot when I got there. Needless to say manager on duty fired his ass on the spot and sent him home for violating company policy. the dumb ass was still trying to pull items out with the fork lift when the manager went out and confronted him as he was totally oblivious to fact he had just caused several thousands dollars in damage as concrete will have to be cut out and wire pulled back thru and replaced.
There are reasons why there are rules in business but too man fail to follow them and then wonder why they find there butts unemployed here is a classic case.

Mulch and discgarded cigarettes a bad combination

I was In Altoona  Pa. this past Saturday working at a customers swimming pool sales store when all of the sudden the stores manager Buck starts yelling
what the hell is going on wheres that smoke smell coming from next thing I hear is FIRE! I run outside to find the mulch used around the store to landscape it on fire and flaming . Luckily he already had a hose hooked up and filling one of the outside display pools and we quickly put out the fire.
After examining the area we found several discarded cigarette butts laying in the mulch this despite the fact there are No Smoking signs posted and buckets filled with sand to dispose of your cigarette butts are at each door.
 The only customer to store at that time had been there approx. 2 hours before I arrived and it took that long till the butt not totally out  heated up from being feed oxygen from the brisk breeze on Saturday.
This could have resulted in the loss of the store had we not been there and it flamed up.
I soaked the hill side down to make sure there where no further problems and we pulled out all of the butts.
The temps where in the high 80's that day and conditions where just right for this fire to happen.
Needless to sat Buck is pulling out the much and replacing it with gravel. to prevent future problems.
Yes mulch is a nice landscaping material but as this fire shows use good judgement where you place it to prevent a flare up if some one drops a discarded butt into it.

Grounded 3 Phase power legs a Dangerous condition which puts service techs in danger everyday

A  newly trained service technician  is called to check on an air handling unit on the roof of a plant he starts by checking to see if he has 480 volts of power coming off  each leg of the 480- 3 wire Delta supplied power from the utility company. He tests with his meter from phase A, B and C to ground A and C show 480 to ground however B shows 0 voltage he assumes the fuse is bad and makes a very bad judgement call of reaching in with his hand instead of a fuse puller to pull the fuse out with out shutting off the switch a rookie mistake made by many over the years that never should be done. As he reaches in he receives a severe shock and burn lucky he survives.
But what went wrong the phase said 0 volts it should be dead right? Wrong  This rookie along with even many experienced electricians who are not familiar with 3 phase delta supplied power  can run into this condition any time they work on one of these services do to the three phase power being supplied by the utility having on of its 3 power legs grounded accidentally some where within the distribution system. This condition exists in 230 volt 3 phase services provided by Duquesne light company in the North side of Pittsburgh  and 480 volt systems in Braddock Pa.
The correct way to test a 3 phase delta system is to make measurements from A to B - B to C and A to C   not to ground  this would have shown the rookie the power was actually working on all 3 phases.
Better yet he should have a Phase Rotation meter many Industrial Electricians and Trouble Shooters like my self carry  around $100-450 dollars these meters show you when all 3 phases are properly working and the rotation of the phases  as you can see in this photo of a Rotation tester made by BEHA now Greenlee  which I was using to test 3 phase power on an overhead crane.

In the case where I was checking a crane the grounded phase threw the maintenance man off  track and they called me in thinking they had a main phase fuse blown in the distribution gear  Bus bar system when in fact it was a small 3 1/2 amp fuse used to supply control voltage to the cranes operating pendant .
I tested and new power was good but to show that it was I brought the rotation meter in and hooked it up and showed it to the maintenance people so they would know in the future they have a grounded phase issue.

Now your saying to your self should equipment not be marked warning about this and should the utility company not be doing something about it? yes they should but again they do not because only properly trained and equipped personnel like my self should be doing this work but  we all know this is not the case and every year techs get hurt and confused by this condition I mark switches  and warn electricians and maintenance people about this all the time because 99% know nothing about this condition.  Duquesne Light  trouble shooters have spent many hours tracing and trying to find the ground to no avail . They should do a better job disseminating this to techs and electricians but they do not  so its proceed with caution which is what you are suppose to be doing in the first place and when a tech hits this strange condition and he and his supervisor can not figure it out they are suppose to call the power company who would send out a trouble shooter who will test and alert them to the issue but as usual they do not.  Its a dangerous world out there and thats why only properly trained personnel are suppose to be doing  this work and any one who proceeds with out the training shame on them.