The Cedar Rapids Gazette; Sun., July 21,1985 3e

NORAND: Construction a 2-stageFrom page 1E

processradios don’t interfere with electron­ic devices installed in the car.”

While the Norand test site is far from a multimillion-dollar facility, it is unique in terms of construction.

Wood was used throughout con­struction of the building and vinyl siding covers the exterior. Plastic "nails” and glue were the most common means of bonding, al­though birch pegs were used in the roof trusses.

" I t ’s ac tu a lly a tw o-stage process,” said Howard. "The wood is initially nailed together with metal staging nails and glued. After the glue drys, the staging nails are removed, a hole is drilled and the plastic nails or bolts are driven in with a hammer. Slanted threads make sure they won’t pull back out.”

The building is 40 feet long and 20 feet wide, and has 20-foot high sides. A below-ground instrumenta­tion "pit” will contain measuring equipment, telephones and other devices. Alt utilities are buried below ground.

"The site has a ground plane or wire mesh material to ensure there are only two defined reflections,” said Howard. "The metallic wire mesh is placed on the floor of the building, shielding the device being tested from our equipment in the pit below. That wilt ensure repeatabili ty of our test results, regardless of the time of the year or weather conditions.

"If we are testing our A-Line unit, for example, the console will be placed on a non-metallic turntable which will rotate 360 degrees. An antenna positioning tower can be raised and lowered to find the maximum signal from the device. The antenna can also be placed at varying distances from the device to further measure its signals.”

Although the building is visible to humans, it will be invisible to testing devices, Howard says.

"The building has to simulate an open-field test site,” he said. "As far as the instrumentation is concerned, the building doesn’t exist. The signals will pass right through it.

"Once the building is completed and calibrated, it will be registered with the FCC as a testing facility. We expect it to be ready for initial use by this fall.”

WHILE SUCH a building might seem to be lacking in strength, Howard said it must be able to withstand 100-mile-per-hour wind gusts without damage.

Mike Howard

"Once every five years,” said Howard, "we can expect a 100-mile- per-hour wind in this area. We found this out after checking with meteorologists’ forecasts at the local television stations.”

Once the facility is completed, Howard said it will be used to test current and future Norand devices. He said the facility will also be made available to other area elec­tronic manufacturers needing such a test site.

"The FCC requires all electronic manufacturers using microproces­sors to have their devices tested and registered,” said Howard. "If you look on the back of many units, such as personal computers, you will see an FCC Part 15 registration number. That certifies it has been tested and has met certain standards.

"All manufacturers, including the Japanese, must have the Part 15 registration to sell their products in the United States. If customs in­spectors find a device is not registered, it can be impounded as contraband.”

Howard said testing devices for other manufacturers could help

Norand recover the costs of leasing the structure from Harvest Hill Construction. The only other Mid­west test site accepting products from outside firms is located in Chicago.

Howard, a former Deere & Co. engineer, operated that manufactur­er’s testing facility in Waterloo. When it stopped accepting outside products for testing last year, Nor­and hired Howard to design and supervise a facility to test its products.

FAIRFAX WAS chosen as the site after a number of locations, includ­ing some in Cedar Rapids, were considered and rejected. Howard said the site adjacent to the former Royale Ballroom property was ideal­ly suited to Norand’s purposes.

"W'e considered several sites before we settled on Fairfax,” said Howard. "We needed the flat terrain and a flexible building code to build the structure with some unconven­tional methods.”

Norand chose Harvest Hill Con­struction because of a long associa­tion with its owner, James "Buck” Hill, according to Howard. He said Hill was able to supply the unusual construction methods from past experience.

"Buck had some experience with this previously and he brought this to our attention when we first discussed building a non-metallic building,” said Howard. "He had constructed something with plastic fasteners before, but on a much smaller scale. This was the first time he put together a building of this size without using some form of metal fastener.”

Howard said Norand is pleased with Hill’s work on the project and has given him several o th e r projects, including the non-metallic turnable for the testing process.

Gazette, KCRG to host exchangeThe Gazette and the KCRG

Stations will host this month’s "Business Exchange P.M.” Thursday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Members of the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce will be able to meet Gazette columnist Donald Kaul and KCRG newscasters Doug Krile and Melissa Wells at the informal get-together, as well as other personnel from both organiza­tions.

The event, sponsored by the chamber, will be held under a tent

on the upper level of The Gazette Co. parking lot adjacent to the KCRG building. Parking will be available after 4:30 p.m. at the Iowa National Mutual Insurance Co. par- kade. Drivers should use the Fifth Street entrance.

All chamber members and spous­es are invited to the "Exchange.” Reservations are not required.

There will be a $2 admission charge to cover the cost of refresh­ments. Music will be provided by the Czech Plus Polka Band.

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Gazette photo by John Mclvor

There once was a day when many buildings were put together with dowels, but it is rare to do so in 1985 when the above roof trusses were put together with dowels for the Norand Corp. electronic test building near Fairfax.

HILL: Twice as strong as iiailsFrom page 1Econstruction, except for the use of the adhesive, which is normally used to prevent floor squeaks, and nailing system.”

Although Norand specified that the building must be able to withstand 100-mile-per-hour wind gusts, Hill is convinced it will take a lot more than that to topple the structure.

"We found that with the strength of this adhesive and nailing system, the building will be twice as strong as we would have had with metal nails,” said Hill. "There’s no way that I could nail plywood sheathing onto studs with conventional nails and not have them pull out when 1 hit the board with a large hammer.

"The nylon bolts are made in such a way that they will break before they can be pulled out. The threads flatten out on the way in and then form grippers to prevent them from being withdrawn.”

IN ADDITION to the special adhesive and nailing systems, HilF also used stronger bracing boards (two-by-eights instead of two-by- fours).

Prior to building Norand’s test facility, Hill had been the prime

contractor for several other Norand projects.

"Two years ago, 1 built the underground ramp between the Norand building and the old Na.sh Finch or Century Engineering build­ing," said Hill. "We later remodeled the entire building, finishing the work several weeks ahead of time.

"We went from the five or six people we normally had to about 37 people working on that project. We also had about the same number working for subcontractors.

"That’s the first project where I wasn’t personally 'involved in the labor. I stayed busy supervising my people and the subcontractors.”

In addition to constructing the Norand test site, Hill also was asked to design a non-metallic revolving platform and antenna mast to use in the testing process. As usual, using plastic sewer pipe, rope and non- metallic pulleys, he managed to come up with a design that was both cost effective and functional.

"1 enjoy the challenge of trying something new,” said Hill. "When someone asks me to take a shot at building something new for them, I say 'Why not?’ ”

Buck Hill

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