Category Archives: futura

Rack closet

So, after tearing down part of that wall we needed a safe way to store the equipment. It also has to be a bit above floor level, as we plan on making a small stage.

For the base I used some C channel iron. Parts of it were a bit mangled, so I made a makeshift tool with an hydraulic jack to spread its sides and have a good fit.

  • Rack Closet: truing it up
  • Rack Closet: making the base

The top is simpler, it just needs to hold the vertical struts in place and the light fixture.

  • Rack Closet: top frame
  • Rack Closet: top frame
  • Rack Closet: top frame

Then I centered it on the base and proceeded to punch and drill the holes to locate the rest of the structure:

Rack Closet: making the base

Making space

We decided to tear down part of the wall that divided the old studio from the control room in order to have a bigger space.

Before it looked like this:

  • Original control room
  • Original control room

And after a bit of effort it became this:

  • Removing a wall
  • Removing a wall

Cultural differences

Sunday was a very nice day among friends and partners of our neighborhood.

Instead of finishing a draft post about that I’m sad. I spent most of this Monday listening to our representatives going around circles instead of voting, while some of my friends were treated like terrorists, being searched by masked officers at gun point, others punched and kicked.

I listened to the live stream for about ten hours before the sleep took over. Most of the ‘normal’ people I met yesterday chose to ignore this and watch crap tv. Meanwhile in Japan they have entertainment shows like Supreme Skills where they pit engineers and craftsmen to see which one is able to complete very demanding projects. Some of them are very light on the details but nonetheless the content is still better than other productions and showcases a complete different scale of values.

On weekends most of us choose to numb our minds with meaningless stuff. Others enlighten themselves.

No wonder things go downhill.

Birthday

This 30th birthday is way better than the last one.

Near the end, when we were almost finishing packing up a police car appeared. They said someone made a complaint about noises and that we should turn it down.

By then, after a very loud party on the street, there was just a small powered speaker, so we just unplugged it. They walked away, tail between their legs, but before that took all my personal data just in case.

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Kubero Díaz

Las night I had the privilege of meeting Kubero Díaz, a legend of argentinian music.

It’s refreshing seeing someone so great being so natural and friendly, without airs of big star. He talked a lot about his adventures with Jorge Pinchevsky in Europe and played many songs for us with the same energy he had on his youth.

I bought his last work, a magnificent cd with a beautiful crafted artwork, and he had the generosity of signing it.

Nightly sidewalk view

We were wanting to do this for quite a while. After installing led flood lamps over the transoms the whole corner transformed. I really like how the mixture of cold and warm lights inside portrait a scene through the frosted glass.

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Lamp fixture and hoist

As part of a big renovation project we bought a set of very nice aluminum lampshades for the new space at the corner.

The ceiling is very high and the trusses are located in positions that make it a bit hard to arrange them in the pattern we wanted.

I built a wooden frame and put some pulleys on the roof.

Wooden lamp fixture with hoist

I centered it in the floor and proceeded to locate the anchors. For that I hanged another wood beam from each pulley on the roof, it went level to the right point.

Wooden lamp fixture with hoist – setting up pulleys

It’s looking better:


Wooden lamp fixture with hoist

And done:

  • Wooden lamp fixture with hoist
  • Wooden lamp fixture with hoist

It evokes memories of sailing rigs too:


Wooden lamp fixture with hoist

Plant a tree, write a book, and raise a child.

I’m years from finishing a book and while I don’t have biological spawns yet I made some (positive I hope) changes in many peoples lives.

As I was walking to Futura I saw around the corner a container full of soil and plants. Our sidewalk never looked quite right and this seemed like a good gift.

I brought with me the plants (some aloes and one that I don’t know yet its name) and went back with a couple of buckets and a shovel.

After a lot of sweaty work on a hot spring day we got this (I also took a Strelitzia from home):

  • New plants at Futura’s sidewalk
  • New plants at Futura’s sidewalk
  • New plants at Futura’s sidewalk

Distribution Panel III

Now it’s time to cut the umbilical cord and properly link to the main feed.

I made a hole in the wall to house a small box. I also added another pair of breakers with an rcd to rewire the adjacent room (for other reasons it’s best to keep it apart from the radio panel).

As we couldn’t disconnect the aerial fuse at the power pole we worked on live circuits.

Moving in

It’s been about a month since I left Berisso and moved into La Plata.
I miss a lot that air of simple town, the walks in the forest and the docks. I also miss that sense of security, here I need to lock my bike almost everywhere I go.

The (monetary) cost of living here is way higher but on the other hand I spend about a third of the time traveling to the uni (mostly by bike, even if it’s raining it’s still faster than the bus) and the bus to work and I am closer to my support net and the friends of Futura. I’m a strong believer that the amount time lost commuting is one of our biggest illness as society. For many lines of work it can not (yet?) be avoided. So it seems like a net win to me.

But, in spite of this I’m feeling quite down. Today I went to run a little and stopped at Parque Saavedra to rest before returning.

It’s a nice view nonetheless but not even close to the nights in Los Talas and Isla Paulino.

A proper rack.

For too many years our audio processors and studio link hanged on a wooden shelve that was at the brink of falling. It also had some wires screwed into the roof to stiffen it up a bit.

We managed to get a very good deal on a new rack and took that opportunity. I drove to Buenos Aires as the seller didn’t offer delivery, it barely fit on my car and I had both the rear hatch and a door held closed with rope.

The construction was mostly straightforward and it gave us a very professional look besides making our cable management a lot easier.

  • Comms rack at Futura
  • Comms rack at Futura
  • Comms rack at Futura
  • Comms rack at Futura
  • Comms rack at Futura

In the air tonight

There’s something that always mystifies me when I’m here at night and everybody’s gone.

All the movement of people gives turn to a very deep quietness and sounds otherwise ignored come to the foreground. I can focus on small details, how the light and shadows paint a different view of everyday places.

Fixing a microwave oven with a broken keypad

This is by far one of the most productive things I did this week outside of work (at least the one I can write about here).

A couple of months ago my ex gave it to me, it started with intermittent display issues and one day it stopped completely. I picked it up and stored it.

The other weekend I was in a bit of cleaning frenzy and I remembered that it was using valuable space on the shack doing nothing so I set to see if it had any hope of working again. Otherwise I’d take the transformer and dish motor, the magnetron would go to a friend and the rest sold as scrap.

This is the second time I fix a microwave oven and I’m amazed at the amount of grease and acid stench that accumulates inside them.

I bridged the safety interlock pads on the control board and powered it with an isolation transformer. It kinda turned on but was not responsive and only some digits were dimly lit. It was also very sticky.

After that I cleaned it using lukewarm water, detergent and a toothbrush, a scoop with a hair drier and then another bath with alcohol.

Now it works!

The keypad is a mess, besides being sticky and stenchy too the conductive traces were broken, like dissolved, on the connector side. For some models there are still replacements on the market but they aren’t cheap and also what’s the fun on that?

I peeled away the layers, traced it and make a replacement using tact switches. The decal will be glued on top of that. It works fine, there’s less waste (but I’m short of a spot welder) and off it goes to Radio Futura.

Thanks

There was this old lady at our club that used to calm discussions with this adage:

If you don’t have anything nice to say, just don’t. Unless it’s important.

She was very very quiet.

I have more than enough ranting material but, on the other arm of the scale I have this that makes me feel warm inside and takes away all the pain.

A while ago one of my Best Friends published his first album, Clusterobvia.

We were long out of touch despite living near and one Thursday tagged along for tea and snacks with a mutual Best Friend to catch up (quite a bizarre triangle).
He brought two copies and we discovered that our names appear on the credits with words so nice and heartwarming beyond description.

It’s so wonderful seeing the dreams of a close friend come true. I’m very guilty of keeping feelings to myself and so when reading the booklet there was such a revelation of how much we value each other.

Thanks.