Nuts & Volts - July 2004

From the A-Bomb to the Enterprise

blazing red fireball. “The sand was melted about an inch thick. In fact, an Army six-by could drive on it. It surprised me because I had been down to the Trinity site where the first one had been tested back in ’ 44. I went down there on the 19th of July in 1949, and it was only crusted about a quarter of an inch thick and it was dark green in places from the minerals in the soil there, whereas the one out in Enewetak was all yellow because there weren’t any minerals there, other than coral sand.”

Last Honors upon Retiring

Report to the Enterprise

superstructure above the flight deck — each side of that ship had two separate radars. One was a low frequency one that was for long distance searches and the other one was a rather higher frequency one — about 33,000 or

34,000 megacycles. That was a fixed array thing and there was one on each square. So, I had eight, three-megawatt radars and I had a whole bunch of men to take care of it to keep it operating, plus all of the communications and navigation equipment for the ship.”

Dress Whites, February 1952

Norman left the Navy’s nuclear weapons program about a year later, with the rank of warrant officer. In May of ’ 52, he was transferred to the USS Pittsburgh and, eventually, to the Navy’s Bureau of Ships, whose Washington, DC building was located where the black marble Vietnam War Memorial is located today. At the Bureau of Ships, he worked on harbor defense, traveling across the country on waterfront inspections.

Eventually, he was commissioned as an ensign and, in April of 1961, he was ordered to report as electronics material officer to a ship that had just been commissioned by the Navy the year before: the USS Enterprise.

“I was responsible for the maintenance of all of the electronics equipment associated with the ship (not on any of the aircraft, though). That was a major job in itself.” For this major job, Norman had 62 men working under him. “Up in ‘the island’ of the Enterprise — the square

“How Would You Like to Go to London?”

Eventually, Norman put in for service in West Germany, where a friend of his was stationed. He was turned down by the Navy, which made him a counterproposal: “How would you like to go to London?”

“That was a great tour of duty,” Norman says without hesitation. “In July of 1964, my wife and the kids and I got transferred to London and I was on a four star admiral’s

· For the experimenter.

· Determine surplus stepper motor specs using simple easy to build test equipment.

· Design and build microcontroller-based control systems (flow charts and code examples included).

· Design and build stepper motor driver circuits.

· Analyze the mechanical characteristics of stepper motor-driven devices.

· The book is full of experiments, circuits and code. $34.95

ELECTRONICS

P.O. Box 1414, Hayden, ID 83835

Voice (208) 664-4115 Fax (208) 772-8236

We have been selling on the Internet since 1996. We ship the day we receive your order or the next business day.

JULY 2004

New Titles

Same Useful Books Table Of Contents And Ordering Information On Web Site. Not Distributed Via Book Sellers We accept VISA, MC, AM, DS, MO, Check CA residents please add 7.25% CA sales tax See our web sites for s/h rates. PIC, PICmicro and MPLAB are trademarks of Microchip Technology Inc.