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Spartans Winter Newsletter 2019/2020

I look forward to the preparation of these newsletters with some apprehension, particularly for a two finger typist, but this concern becomes less threatening as I

become absorbed in the interesting correspondence with members, more like thoughtful conversations. I will pick up where I left off in my closing remarks for the

summer 2019 newsletter with an exchange between Ian Grier and Dave Barnby as they compared experiences at high altitude looking after microwave installations. I still find it remarkable that their memories of long ago are still so vivid and well

expressed. I encourage all readers to share their experiences whether work related or not, and they do not have to embody threat to life and limb from gunfire or

erupting volcanoes as experienced by our correspondents. Through the effort of webmaster Ed Sorochan we are steadily progressing on our project to prepare a photo gallery, and also an honour role begun by George

Larder in recognition of colleagues who have passed away. I encourage members to visit our web site https://clubspartans.weebly.com for timely news and recent postings which will soon include the fourth and probably the final chapter in Mike

Morris’s survey of microwave radio relay development at RCA Montreal including the introduction of solid state equipment, and the shift in business emphasis to

aerospace products and services. You may have noted in the Fall Luncheon report a most welcome addition of new members to our group. Word of mouth is still our most reliable recruiting tool but most first time visitors appreciate the warmth and

camaraderie of our lunches and become members and regular attendees.

Correspondence with members

In the summer of 2019 but too late for the summer newsletter, we were saddened to learn of the death of Bruce Aikenhead a long time colleague and a Spartan member for many years. Although he never made the long trek from his

retirement home in Salmon Arm BC, to join us for a luncheon, he was a regular correspondent and enjoyed reading the newsletters and the web site to keep up with

the activities of our group. You will find a full appreciation of his many achievements in his Globe and Mail obituary (add hot link), and I will add a few personal reminiscences.

I may have met Bruce as early as 1960 when he was working for Gerry Bull at McGill on the ill fated High Altitude Research Project (HARP). Some of you may recall

that this project centred on firing payloads from converted large naval guns, and even entertained the idea that complex payloads could be put in earth orbit. We had only begun to design the communications payload for NASA’s RELAY experimental

communications satellite and were beginning to realize the challenge of designing for the space environment, including launch accelerations that seemed almost trivial compared to the enormous albeit short duration accelerations of gunfire. One of the

workers in the group was Selwyn Bell, a former RCA employee and friend from my first days at RCA and a good contact to query about their construction techniques. I

wondered openly what magic tricks or potent elixir they might be using. I went away

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from this encounter astonished that even their relatively simple telemetry payloads survived this torture, and remained convinced that complex payloads like the microwave repeater we were designing, and the even more complex Alouette

scientific satellite being deigned in Canadian governments labs, could ever be designed for such a launch. My next encounter with Bruce was as a colleague working on the Canadian

Government Scientific Satellites ISIS A and likely ISIS B, but our paths diverged as I became more involved with communications satellite studies. Shortly after this time,

Bruce was seconded to a government position while still nominally an employee of RCA. His position as a permanent government employee eventually led to his appointment as head of the astronaut selection group within the Canadian Space

Agency (CSA), and he remained a loyal and effective leader in that position to the end of his career.

In my early years of retirement, his name came to my attention in a somewhat unusual context. I had volunteered to represent retired members of the engineers union on their retirement committee, and eventually obtained the names

of all twenty five or so members of that group. The first person on my list was Lorne Anderson, but a check with Canada 411, the on line telephone directory, showed twenty six listings right across Canada and nine in Quebec alone. An attempt to

follow this lead proved both frustrating and ineffective. The second name on my list was Bruce Aikenhead, and fortunately there were only two listings in Canada and

one was in Salmon Arm in the interior of BC and a likely retirement location. Before calling the number I did an online search, relatively primitive at that time, and found to my surprise and delight that he had been awarded an order of Canada, the

highest Canadian civilian award. I immediately called to offer my congratulations and ask for his e-mail coordinates for future communications. My second surprise

came when he shyly admitted that he did not have e-mail and explained that when he retired, he and his wife agreed not to have a computer in their home. Shortly after in another volunteer role, as chairman of the Quebec branch of

the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute (CASI), I invited Canada’s first astronaut and president of CSA, Marc Garneau, to address our annual general meeting, which he did so graciously. While we were chatting amiably over dinner,

Marc brought up the subject of retirement and I believed he might be interested in the tale of Bruce that I have just recounted. It quickly developed that Marc had been

the first choice made by Bruce and his astronaut selection committee. My third surprise came when Marc eagerly volunteered that he had nominated Bruce for an order of Canada, and while recovering from this surprise, I murmured an

agreement, that yes, a recommendation from Canada’s first astronaut and president of the space agency would have a big effect on the Order of Canada selection

committee.

While Ed Sorochan was collecting material for the Spartan’s honour role and preparing a web posting, I learned of the passing of George Kadar in 2009. I could

easily relate to Ed’s comments and added my own appreciation of this remarkable person as follows:

George was a mixture of conflicting and contrasting characteristics. He was a great companion over a good meal and a bottle of wine, but as an employee he was

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essentially unmanageable. Joe Zuran was another engineer that I found unmanageable, but he lacked George's redeeming charm. George worked for me from time to time, but I do not believe that I gave him the damaging evaluation that

Ed Sorochan noted, that provoked George’s explosive reaction. It would be charitable to say that he was not a well rounded engineer and rarely wrote things down. If he was unhappy with some information, or the performance of some supplier, he did

not hesitate to phone their chief executive. I recall an incident that led to a somewhat surprising chain reaction as that executive contacted our executive with a

query, “Who is George Kadar” convinced that he must be a special representative of the company. He apparently did well at Telesat, particularly in their role as industry consultant. George was intelligent and experienced, and I am sure would ask the

most penetrating and awkward questions at design reviews. It is people like George who make life interesting, but frustrating if you happen to be his unfortunate

supervisor. Lorne

Mike Morris added this poignant vignette:

“Indeed, George was unforgettable in many ways. He had a significant design

responsibility on the original double conversion Earth Station up and down converters in the 60s and similarly for the MIC versions in the mid 70s. As has already been said George would fearlessly charge ahead on (almost) any assigned

task. His brain worked in overdrive....but to rely on him to get a complete set of accurate drawings and all the details ready for production would have been a

serious managerial error of judgment. You nay recall Thomas Welt from the Canadian Overseas Telecommunications Corporation (COTC) who later joined SPAR Aerospace and whom I knew well over the years. When Thomas joined COTC he was

assigned to inspect and accept the MV2 GCE on COTC's behalf...a large system with many racks of equipment...and proceeded to drive everyone nuts with endless

requests for more tests, analyses, reports, specifications, justifications, etc. Weeks of time wasting. At our wits end as to how to handle this situation someone came up with the brilliant idea... "George Kadar". George was assigned to be Thomas's full

time handler and kept him busy (swamped!) with days of discussion while everyone else got on with the mundane task of actually testing the GCE. Even Thomas, who was no slouch at that stage of his career, was no match for the irresistible force, the

Kadar Tsunami that had been unleashed upon him. I can still see the two of them sitting around the table "discussing" whatever with boundless passion and energy. I

was forever grateful to George for this outstanding performance. And it was a performance; George new what was required of him and he did it. As with Lorne it was never me who gave him that "bad" performance review

mentioned by Ed. I can understand his reaction. George had far too good a heart as well as pride in his ability, to be able to accept such a thing. A below average review

would have been pointless as well as cruel.” It was probably during Ed’s search for honour role candidates that the name

Tom Szertes came up, starting a lively conversation beginning with this recollection from Roland Schwerdtfeger: “I am not sure anyone knows about Tom’s later life. He was a critical member

of Peter Foldes’ feed/antenna group in Lenoir Street. When Spar took over RCA, he moved to Spar in Toronto and became engaged in multiple facets of Spar activities.

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Peter Foldes told me that he has suffered from dementia … not sure he is still alive (Obit link needed), but Tom has written a massive 800+ page book on Applied Dimensional Analysis and Modelling.

Tom was an interesting character, an accomplished pianist, a story teller, a really good mechanical engineer, and had a good working knowledge of the mechanics of the solar system. At the time of Mill Village 1 preparations, he and I

were tasked with establishing the velocity of satellites as seen from the earth. We used the large bare wall of the engineering office outside Bruce Berridge’s office to

do this. One story I will never forget, Tom was on his way to New York, driving along the Interstate 87. Apparently a police patrol decided he needed to be apprehended,

turned on his lights. Tom did not stop. The fuzz decided to pass him and block his further progress. Tom told me he was forced to pull over, to explain to the officer

that he could not stop because there were signs on the side of the highway “No Stopping Except for Emergency”. Tom didn’t think this was an emergency !! According to Tom, he did not get a ticket. Best wishes to all, Roland”

To which I replied: Thanks Roland for this reminder of an exceptional and unforgettable character. Like

other memorable engineers including George Kadar whose name came up just recently, his grasp of mundane matters such as cost and schedule was tenuous at best, and he set his own standards as to what should be done. I may have

unintentionally supported a chapter of his magnum opus when I innocently asked him to do some mathematical calculations for me, quite possibly some basic celestial mechanics that had something to do with my work at hand. Sometime later in

reviewing his progress and time charges, I was aghast at the huge cost overrun, although I could not comment on the quality of his intellectual effort, it seemed to

have little relevance to the assigned task. As you may recall Tom did not drive a car during his early years at RCA, so it was with considerable surprise that I learned that he subsequently owned a Bentley,

a Rolls Royce with a different badge. His rational was that if you must own a car you should go for quality. It probably brought him to the realization that expensive cars

require expensive maintenance and since there were no open shop orders to support his indulgence, he either abandoned driving or selected a more practical marque, Perhaps he had acquired some of Peter Foldes genius for getting the required work

done but stymieing even the best accountant trying to find our where the real costs were allocated. I am somehow reminded of the probably apocryphal story of the employee

who submitted an expense claim that included a raincoat. His supervisor challenged the claim and told him to redo the claim without the raincoat, as it was not an

allowable expense. When the employee submitted the revised claim without the raincoat, his supervisor noted that the dollar value of the claim was unchanged and asked where the employee had hidden the raincoat. The reply was, that’s for you to

figure out.

Tony Raab continued the conversation:

“My memories of Tom, in random order:

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He gave me a ticket to ‘Tristan und Isolde’ at the Cente des Arts with Jon Vickers as

Tristan, a performance I enjoyed.

He wrote a book on ‘Sentential Logic’ which I had copy-edited for him and gave

me a copy which I no longer have

He was an excellent if reluctant pianist. He gave me the briefest of recitals in

his apartment and apologised for the dropped notes. I understood he once

contemplated a career as a professional concert pianist.

His name was pronounced ‘Seertesh’. There were a lot of Hungarians in the

antenna group whose names I learnt to pronounce correctly thanks to Tom. Always

useful knowledge!

The group’s lab was a former RCA recording studio with curved wooden walls

for acoustic diffusion presumably.

He was a gentleman, kind and cultured.”

Tony

I commented: Thanks Tony for your fond recollection of Tom, a part of his persona that I was

only dimly aware of. Many of the Hungarian escapees following the uprising against

the soviet occupation were no doubt a part of the Hungarian intelligentsia of artists,

scientists, engineers and also business men. Others have recalled that Peter Foldes

was a good amateur artist in the true sense, and appreciated good music. We had

many discussions at Place des Arts, following MSO concerts that showed that he

had a depth of knowledge and appreciation of modern music much greater than

mine. The mention of the great Canadian tenor Jon Vickers reminded me of a most

moving evening in a theatre when he sang Othello with Teresa Stratas as

Desdemona, one of the many outstanding concerts during the Expo67 music

festival.

Lorne

Recalling Roland’s comments on Peter Foldes, Tony added:

“One of my recollections of Peter was an invitation to dinner at his home in Westmount (?). I think it was Helmut who said that Peter would give me one of his

paintings. After dinner we went into his basement where he had perhaps two hundred of his paintings hanging on the walls. Unfortunately, he did not favour me

with one of them and we left empty handed to my great disappointment. That was no mean collection.” Tony”

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Tony Raab was a highly valued colleague and remains a good friend, and my wife Riggie and I shared many pleasant dinner and other social exchanges with Tony and Alice, as in the following photo taken at my Montreal home. When I explained to

Tony that Riggie was not in the picture as she was highly averse to having her picture taken, something I never understood as she was quite photogenic, at least in my biased opinion, but Tony agreed with her. This exchange of confidences led to

Tony’s admission that he would carry his own pillow with him when travelling on business. The image of this serious person carrying around a pillow in the manner

of the comic strip character Linus with his comfort blanket, was too much for her and she dissolved into unrestrained laughter.

Returning to more

professional matters, I find the following photo provided by Mark Lopianowski, and

already posted, most interesting. I had completely forgotten, if I ever knew,

that The Nortel transcontinental TD2

system did not have a service channel for technical maintenance. The cost of

essentially adding a separate radio relay system for this function must have

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been expensive, but at that time Bell had a complete monopoly on long distance phone and television service and charged the maximum allowed by regulation, essentially a cost plus situation with no incentive to reduce cost.

For several years the name of Bob Clark from the 1950s at RCA has come to mind but no connection with him was made until Al Evers said that he had

maintained contact with Bob through their mutual connections with MPB. I did manage one e-mail exchange with him and his reply following showing that both he and his wife have medical issues, but otherwise he would be most interested in

reviewing the old days. I have often told colleagues and interested parties that Bob was probably one of the most innovative engineers, and one of the least appreciated, in my experience. We never worked together but I was well aware that it was his idea

to create a TV raster style video display for computers that amounted to a quantum leap beyond the prior art, and a lasting if scarcely recognized milestone, something

we use every day without thinking.

Hi Lorne: Thank you for the email; it was nice hearing from you after all these years. I apologize for not responding to your email sooner. At present my wife and I are preoccupied with health issues which are dominating our lives. Hopefully things

will settle down in a couple of months at which time I will contact you again to get together and trade old RCA stories. Thank goodness the one thing I still have is a

healthy brain and a sound memory. Kind Regards Bob Clark

Business News

At the May 2019 luncheon, recently retired and new Spartan member Marc Donato gave a comprehensive account of the Maxar business and governance issues

as I noted at the time:

“Summarizing Marc's complex story on the status of Maxar (MDA) is not simple. His comments show that in Maxar’s attempt to grow the business through acquisitions, particularly to serve the American military market, left them over exposed to risk or over leveraged as financial experts describe the situation. This

typically happens when a company borrows heavily to acquire another company in the expanded business area, attracting financial vultures who see a company

floundering financially. It is in their interests to encourage bad news in the expectation that things will get even worse and the stock prices will continue to fall and they can clean up by selling the stock short, and buy back when the stock

begins to recover on any good news. I expect that the principal owners of Maxar, whoever they are, are probably feeling very uncomfortable now. We should recall the

experience of the slow but sure decline of RCA as it lost its corporate way through over diversification and began selling off assets in a vain attempt to meet near term financial goals to maintain share value and keep shareholders happy.”

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Later events confirm at least some of this analysis, with the surprising twist that a private Canadian group has made an offer of purchase of the Toronto robotics and Montreal electronics divisions, both sound businesses. It is less clear if this applies

to the core imaging business of MDA in Vancouver that must be closely related to the military interests of the revised Maxar. Lorne

Ed Sorochan also noted:

“Mark’s negative take on Maxar has been offset by a positive note subsequently. Maxar collected $183 M from insurance for the Worldview-4 Satellite

failure and projected revenue loss. This caused an upward bump in share price. I asked Mark whether he would buy Maxar shares, there was no endorsing response. I took a speculative risk bought some in Q1 2019 at various prices, as MDA at least

has value. The stock reached a low of $5 per share and is up 20% to-date maybe trend will continue. Since I posted the Satellite failure news on our Blog I may post

the insurance payout clip. At Mark’s retirement party I sat next to Tony McDonach, he was upbeat about shares eventually going to $60 plus, he was positive about Maxar being able to collect $$ for Satellite failure.”

I along with several Spartans attended the memorial service for Mary Soul, wife of long time colleague Joe and a friend for many years. It was a little startling to

see his three adult children that I had not seen for decades except for Colin whom I recall was still working for Spar when I retired in 1996. My wife had known Mary

almost from her arrival in Montreal in the late 50s and we had shared many pleasant social engagements with Joe and Mary over the years.

An appeal by Mike Morris for work related photos from the 50s and 60s produced a fruitful reply By Mark Lopianowski who came up with several, but as

he ruefully noted, were mostly of the spectacular scenery viewed from the high altitude of most radio relay sites, not the more mundane equipment used. We had several

exchanges on the somewhat technical issues of scanning old and sometime obsolete photo formats including this exchange:

“You are correct Mark that my scanner does not have a 2 ¼” square platen,(to scan your old

photos) even though this format was popular in the 50s, remember the twin lens Rollieflex high quality camera? My first camera, purchased

used in 1951 for $11, was a Kodak Vollenda with a decent Schneider Kreuznach lens, but I soon

learned that like any folding camera, it suffered from wear that made consistent focus a problem. It used 127 roll film in a so called split frame

format that gave sixteen pictures, measuring 35 X 44 mm, an interesting size in that the transparencies could still use a 2X2” cardboard

mount, and in later years was briefly promoted as “super slides” when Kodak produced

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Ektachrome roll film in 127 size. In spite of all these limitations, you occasionally get lucky as the attached picture shows. The time was 1962, and the location was Lech am Arlberg in Austria where I often

skied. I am the one in the red toque with old friend John Berger, who worked at RCA In the late 50s, so I cannot claim to have taken the picture. It was taken by a local skimeister who clearly knew something about framing a picture as well as

skiing superbly. Like you, I manufactured a platen for my unusual split frame 127 roll film.

I soon abandoned the folding camera for a modest quality 35 mm camera when I began shooting Kodachrome in 1953, although the compactness of the folding camera was always a temptation, particularly when skiing.” Lorne

Although our friend and faithful correspondent Adam (Dan) Mercik has not been able to join us for our regular luncheons, he has provided a steady stream of memory flashes and anecdotes that have been very helpful to Mike Morris in his

reconstruction of the microwave radio relay developments at RCA. One note gave insight into how those major programs were organized. Clearly the right skills were

available and put to use use, but what was the chain of command and who ultimately was responsible for the successful conduct of the program? Anyone who worked in the design and manufacturing operations at RCA is very familiar with the

Engineering Change Notice (ECN), an important part of the “release” system that is the method used by the organization to control how an end product is manufactured

and tested, but it normally says nothing about how a major program like building a large microwave system or a satellite, is organized. It seems most likely that the definition of responsibilities for a major program was probably initiated through

“organization notices” that were narrowly distributed to senior level managers and administrative personnel responsible for the various skill centres of the organization..

A most interesting ECN on faded pink paper was salvaged by Dan in spite of the massive throw-out during his move from his long time Hudson home to his

present retirement location. This designated Dan as the program manager for a major system, a microwave system from the US Mexico border to Mexico City, to carry the Olympic games to the outside world. The originator was the lead marketing

person Bernie Lee, and approved by Greg Baylis, marketing manager, so at this time there was no such position as Manager of Projects and the prime responsibility

was in Marketing. This was the first time that we are aware of where the distinction was made clear. I have commented in earlier correspondence that it is a major issue for a medium size organization on how to manage a major project in an organization

created primarily for the manufacturing of equipment. In Dan’s own words:

“(1)--regretfully confirm that I have no pics worthy of publication

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(2) Change Notice # 62 is on pink paper with low contrast printing not good for copying--therefore, since I cannot take it with me , I will gladly mail it to you. (he did)

(3) What has or is being written about the "Olympic" system, ie Matamoros to Mexico City? The crash program to meet the deadline imposed by the Games? To my knowledge it was the only system for which we had to produce our own maps,

Mexican ones being totally unreliable. We contracted a Canadian photogrametry company to fly over a "corridor"-about a kilometre wide as established by me over

the anticipated final route and University of Mexico to produce the strip maps. Only then we were able to finalise some critical paths. PS--just a little story to add "colour". During the final days of testing the

system I happen to be driving just north of Matamoros when a state trooper pulled me over, nothing unusual as often all they wanted was an American cigarette, but

this time "follow me". We stopped at a police station of some small town, the captain, after I confirmed that I had indeed "something to do with the system" complained that with all the advertising in the local press that the system was going to carry the

Olympic games he bought a small portable TV set but "carramba" even though he is looking straight into one of our dishes "nada"-nothing. I had hell of a time, in my broken Spanish explaining the difference between TV and Microwave. At least he did

not arrest me. ( However, had the system used our TVR-1 my captain would have been very happy).”

Dan’s comment on the map making episode in Mexico being a first may have been preceded by a similar situation during the CENTO system implementation. I

remind readers that this large system had been planned by RCA International who handled all international marketing and system engineering at that time, a task

subsequently assigned to RCA Montreal when serious planning flaws became clear. One serious flaw in route planning resulted in the following story possibly exaggerated in telling, but still an interesting tale from the field. The RCA

International person responsible for route selection adamantly refused to change his position when the Montreal manager pointed out that there was no clearance on one particular path. The manager made the suggestion (ordered) that he accompany the

manager on a test flight following exactly the altitude and track proposed by the route planner. As a large mountain grew in the windscreen of the aircraft, this high

stakes game of chicken was terminated when the unfortunate employee admitted that he may have made a mistake. Sounds like a Randy Martin caper but this is only a speculation.

Late in 2019 Mike Morris resumed his preparation of the history of radio relay developments at RCA from 1970 to the Spar era of 1977 when company telecommunication interests swung sharply to satellite communications. This was

the time of the digital revolution that affected every aspect of our working and private lives, as computers moved from the domain of massive mainframes for governments and large large corporations, to powerful desk top computers and even

personal computers with capabilities beyond anything imagined in 1970. Many of us had matured during the analogue era and found the digital

revolution challenging both in hardware design and in system concepts. One of the

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pioneers of the era at RCA was Kamilo Feher who had just completed his Doctoral studies at Sherbrooke University and shared his insights with his colleagues both in formal classes and in less formal encounters. Some of the concepts that were

eventually to prove so important were counter intuitive to analogue old timers, in that the digital solutions to telecommunication problems were extremely complex both in hardware and software design, as opposed to the well tried dictum of the

analogue world to keep things simple. The insight that I gradually recognized was that, hardware implementations involving integrated circuits with millions of

transistors on semiconductor real estate not as large as a little finger nail were highly reliable and had low reproduction costs, so what matter the complexity?. Even the attendant software with its mind numbing thousands or millions of lines of

code, was very reliable when properly debugged and reproduction costs were almost trivial. It was a business as well as a technical revolution that is still unfolding.

Another pioneer of this new era was Peter Garland who was among the very few who understood this new digital world and helped many of us in the transition. You may know that he is recently retired and joins us regularly for Spartan

luncheons. He recently obtained a Masters degree in Naval History that we hope that he will share some of his scholarship with us at some time, and possibly explain how he managed to support such a variety of interests while raising a family and

achieving a productive career..

It is difficult to single out key contributors, and I have already named Bob Clarke but Malcom Keelty also came up in some interesting exchanges between Mike Morris and John Barkwith. I leave it to Mike Morris in his chapter four to give

a proper attribution to our digital pioneers.

Our webmaster Ed is not only effective but diligent in following up on members who may have fallen by the wayside unintentionally, as shown in this exchange with Terry Cagney:

“Hi Ed I was delighted to receive your message and learn that you are still very much

alive and kicking. Only 80 years old? Why you’re still just a kid! I turned 87 in October. I had to give up golf a couple of years ago, but I am still healthy enough for

a minor workout and a long walk almost every day. Nanaimo is a great place to live when you’re old. Vancouver Island is the most beautiful place I have ever seen, and Nanaimo never gets cold and it almost never snows. I have a few minor health

problems but really nothing to complain about. I am glad to hear that you are active in Club Spartans, but sorry to hear that

you have chronic back problems. In my opinion the medical profession has failed miserably to come to grips with that condition, which is almost universal among seniors. I used to suffer frequently from back spasms when I was in my 50’s and

60’s, but I have been almost free of them since I retired. Maybe the nice climate here has something to do with it. Say hello to my old friends and work-mates when you see them. Not ever

seeing them is one thing that I do miss, living so far away. I’m afraid I don’t have any old photos of myself – or any newsworthy items for Lorne’s newsletter. My life

here is certainly dull from that point of view. I am trying to keep my brain active by

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reading and studying math and physics. I am halfway through a book on quantum mechanics, which is a subject quite new to me. At least it keeps me from boredom. Per your advice I have just sent off a cheque to Club Spartans for $40 to Ms.

Lanecki. I hope it arrives by the end of December. I also hope that you also will have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Terry”

I commented to Terry:

Ed took the liberty of forwarding your note, and I too am pleased to see that your interest in former work colleagues is still there. I am impressed but not surprised that you have taken up the challenge of mathematics and quantum

mechanics as intellectual stimuli. At least two other former colleagues have done the same as retirement projects. As you may recall, I am neither a scholar nor a

theoretician but I respect people skilled in those domains. Only recently in conversation, someone raised a similar issue of rationalizing conventional physics with quantum mechanics, and I recounted a tale from an undergraduate physics

lecture many years ago. Our grey haired professor candidly admitted that he could not make this rationalization and rather facetiously said he taught general relativity on Monday Wednesday and Friday, and quantum mechanics on the other days.

Lorne,

And a response from Terry: “Hi Lorne Thanks for your message, which I really appreciated. I am always very happy

to hear from, and about, old friends like you and Ed. Your remarks about rationalizing classical physics with quantum mechanics are right on the mark. Some

of the greatest minds in physics, including Einstein, Bohr, Dirac and many others, have struggled with that issue, so far without success. Your old professor was typical of the professionals in that regard. Hopefully some genius will somehow solve

the riddle, but it may take centuries! Remember that Einstein’s relativity theories did not emerge until 230 years or so after Newton published his equations of motion. Heck, Maxwell only published his fundamental equations of electromagnetism about

150 years ago. Actually, Newton’s laws are still sound and perfectly adequate and accurate enough

for 99.9% of modern scientific and engineering applications, so relativity only needs to be brought to bear on quite exotic cases. (Interestingly, one such case is the Global Positioning System, which requires such extreme precision that the engineers

who designed it had to allow for the effect of gravitational time dilation as set out in the general theory of relativity.) Something like that may govern practical

applications of Quantum Mechanics, though considerable progress has already been made in some areas. The development of microelectronics is one example. Let’s hope for the best. Anyway Lorne, have a happy Christmas and New Year.

Terry”

A query to KK Chan from Ed also got a quick response and a comment on Terry:

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“Terry Cagney will remain in my memory for a very long time. On my very first day at work at Spar (RCA) Ste. Anne-de-Bellevue, I was called into the War Room. Both Terry Cagney and John Stewart started shouting at me about the lack of progress of

the RCA SATCOM antennas which I did not know anything about at that time. It was very interesting time! Vancouver island is a little bit far for me to visit him. I am in downtown Vancouver (Yaletown).

It is good to know that you are healthy, wealthy and happy golfing with your buddies.

All the best.” KK

KK’s comment about Terry’s more aggressive side reminds me of his more creative engineering side. During my early days in satellite systems engineering, I

began to wonder if there was some way to track a satellite if normal electronic communications were lost. Based on my past experience with Terry and unusual and poorly defined problems, I told him to represent the satellite as a one metre

diameter ball, half white and half black, and determine if it could be detected photographically. Terry always brightened at these unusual challenges and in a remarkably short time replied that, yes, with a modest telescope and a time

exposure, the satellite could be detected against the star background as a streak of light. QED Lorne

There are so many stories to be shared and some must inevitably be left for

future newsletters and postings. When I start the process, there is always a question in my mind, is there enough material since the last newsletter, to inform and

entertain the readers? The answer has always been yes and it is more a question of selection from a remarkable volume of correspondence. I would be more than pleased to have submissions from any member with an interesting story to share.

When I happened on some Spartan paper files that predate the widespread use of personal computers and e-mail. I note that there were accounts of interesting trips, sometimes with family and sometimes solo, with interesting experiences, perhaps

not as dramatic as gunshots and falling bombs, but just life experiences to be shared.

Your Editor Lorne