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Although this is in my job history, it is also a work. The man who owned the only DJ concern on Kadena Air Base liked
to be called Lou. A friend, Jerry, who worked in Engine Shop and also performed as a DJ for Lou, brought me together with
Lou. Lou insisted I be paid salary, even though I thought I should be paid by the job for his sake. I understand
that now. it had to do with taxes. When it was settled that I would be paid salary, Lou wanted me to go first. I decided on
$75 a month. Lou kept saying, "you sure??", thinking that was way too little.
The first thing he brought me was a Peavy Amp with hoards of output transistors, of which several were shorted. I replaced
them with suitable replacements purchased from a Japanese TV repair store just outside [I think it was] gate 5, using a transistor
specification manual (from the U.S.) to make sure the transistors were up to the task. The amp still didn't work. No sound
from one of the channels. I found an evil little device across the output that, I guess, was supposed to protect the speakers
should the amp malfunction, and it was shorted. I removed that and the amp worked. Lou went out of his mind with glee. Apparently,
this amp had been a problem child for a long time, so obviously, whoever fixed it before had substituted with transistors
that weren't up to the job, or didn't find the evil little device.
He brought me a REALLY nice Crown amp one time. He was using it as a subwoofer amp, if I remember right, in the NCO club.
It annoyed the hell out of Lou. At random intervals, it would thump the subwoofers at full power. You can imagine how annoying
that might be. That one was easy! The two power supply capacitors were the type that had screws. The wires had lugs attached
that went under the screws. I merely tightened one of the screws that was loose.
I think there were several months he brought me nothing. At one point he brought me a classy S.A.E. amp with digital
up and down controls for volume, bass, treble, etc. I believe it's the first of it's kind. When I told him it has output integrated
circuits instead of transistors and that I wouldn't know how to find them on Okinawa, and that I would pretty much have to
order them from the States, he gave me the amp. I still have it and I ordered the IC's and fixed it. It just got hooked
up in the Computer Room! My Pioneer receiver broke (see The News - 13 Feb, 2004! I have two Carver M-500T amplifiers
(the ones with the meters) in the living room.
Then he brought me two S.A.E. amplifiers, the kind with the torroidial power transformers, one for each channel. What
an over-designed, shiny-happy amp! Nobody had ever managed to blow these up. Instead, some... thoughtless person... ...OK...>MORON<...
had set them on a five foot high stack of record crates. Of COURSE they fell. I fixed them both. They had circuit boards
in the front for the meters and the gain control, whatever, and one of these had broken completely in half! I epoxied it back
together and soldered copper strands of wire over the broken traces. I asked Lou if I could have a raise to $100 a month and
you could say he said yes before I was done asking.
Can you understand why I consider this a job and a work?
DONE
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