Sanyo was the world number one producer of rechargeable batterie.

“A modest beginning in a small room

In 1933, a small laboratory dedicated to making high-quality cameras was set up in a simple apartment room in the Roppongi area of Tokyo. At the time, all high-quality cameras were European with the majority coming from Germany. It was in this small room that young people with a big dream earnestly began their work on producing a high-quality Japanese camera, marking the beginning of Canon. Through hard work and with an enterprising spirit, they eventually succeeded in building a prototype, which was named Kwanon after the Buddhist goddess of mercy. The following year, in 1935, Japan’s first-ever 35mm focal-plane-shutter camera, the Hansa Canon, was born, along with the Canon brand.
Striving for the world’s best camera

In 1950, Canon’s first president, Takeshi Mitarai, went to America for the first time to attend an international trade fair. Having seen modern factories and a high standard of living first hand, upon his return, he built a fireproof factory of steel-reinforced concrete in the Shimomaruko area of Tokyo, which he saw as essential for Canon to succeed in doing business with the world at large. Mitarai also made clear his respect for humanity by stressing the importance of the San-ji, or Three Selfs spirit, the guiding principle for Canon employees. In 1955, Canon made its first step into the global market with the opening of a U.S. office in New York City. In 1957, Canon set up its sole European distributor, Canon Europa, in Geneva, Switzerland. By 1967 exports already topped 50% of the company’s total sales.
The challenge of diversification

Soon after its founding, Canon was hard at work in 1941 on diversifying itself with the introduction of Japan’s first indirect X-ray camera and other products. In the 1960s, the company took further steps toward diversification by adding electrical, physical and chemical technologies to its optical and precision technologies. In 1964, Canon entered the office equipment market with the debut of the world’s first 10-key electronic calculator. In 1967, the management slogan “cameras in the right hand, business machines in the left” was unveiled and in 1969 the company changed its name from Canon Camera Co., Inc. to Canon Inc. Canon took on the challenge of developing Japan’s first plain paper copying machine, which it introduced in 1970, and realized further diversification from one challenging field to the next.
Averting disaster with the Premier Company Plan

By 1970, Canon grew to 44.8 billion yen in sales and more than 5,000 employees. But hit by dollar and oil shocks, followed by problems with a defective electronic calculator display component in 1974, Canon fell on hard times. In the first half of 1975, it failed to pay a dividend for the first time since becoming a public company. In 1976, Canon unveiled its Premier Company Plan, an ambitious strategy to transform Canon into an “excellent global company” through such means as introducing a vertical business group constitution and establishing a horizontal development, production and sales system. The plan proposed high ideals and pooled the strength of its employees, enabling the company to promptly recover.
Canon’s second inauguration

Canon continued to grow under the Premier Company Plan. With the dawn of the personal computer age, Canon introduced to the world a series of products never before seen, among them a personal copying machine based on an all-in-one cartridge system, a laser printer with semiconductor laser, and a Bubble Jet inkjet printer. Canon also began promoting global production in earnest on the road to becoming an excellent global company. Then, in 1988, the 51st anniversary of the company’s founding, Canon announced its second inauguration and unveiled its corporate philosophy of kyosei, an unfamiliar term at the time. It also began promoting such progressive and environmentally sound activities as toner cartridge recycling in addition to globalizing its development sites.
The Excellent Global Corporation Plan

Canon had developed unprecedented technologies and carefully nurtured them to create business opportunities and products unrivaled by any other company. But by the mid-1990s, the business division system that had been in place since the 1970s was showing signs of wear. Canon also carried debt of more than 840 billion yen, meaning the company needed to improve its financial constitution if it was to carry out long-term R&D projects and launch new businesses. Fujio Mitarai became Canon’s 6th company president in 1995, and in 1996 the Excellent Global Corporation Plan was launched. Transforming the corporate mindset from partial to total optimization and from a focus on sales to a focus on profits, the new plan was the start of the innovations that characterize today’s Canon.”

Garmin
Dreaming big and obsessing about the details.

It’s a dynamic philosophy that has taken Garmin from a start-up GPS (Global Positioning System) manufacturer to a large international corporation that’s earned the respect of customers, dealers and investors.

Since its inception in 1989 by Gary Burrell and Dr. Min Kao, Garmin has evolved as the leading, worldwide provider of navigation, communication and information devices and applications, most of which are enabled by GPS technology.

Garmin designs, develops, manufactures and markets a diverse line of user-friendly handheld portable and fixed-mount products for the auto, mobile, outdoor, fitness, marine and general aviation markets.

The company’s “vertical integration” business model keeps these functions in-house, giving Garmin more control over timelines, quality and service. Garmin’s ergonomically designed, user-friendly products have innovative features and designs and cover a broad range of applications and price points to meet the demands of any consumer.

A member of Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN), Garmin International’s world headquarters is in Olathe, Kansas.

Our products include portable navigation devices, in-dash infotainment systems, fleet management solutions, maps and real-time services, including the award winning TomTom HD Traffic..

By streamlining and integrating our organisation we have created a lean and agile structure enabling us to stay close to our customers and substantially improving our time to market. TomTom comprises four business units – Consumer, Automotive, Business Solutions and Licensing.

TomTom was founded in 1991 with a focus on developing software products for mobile devices. The founders Peter-Frans Pauwels, Pieter Geelen, Harold Goddijn and Corinne Vigreux are all currently still working within TomTom. Our founders had the drive and vision to help grow TomTom from a small start-up to the multinational, blue chip listed company it is now.

In our first decade, TomTom focused on developing a number of business-to-business applications for mobile devices such as bar-code reading, meter reading and order-entry systems, before shifting focus to developing consumer software products for personal digital assistant devices (PDAs). By 1998, we had established ourselves as a market leader in PDA software, creating a number of consumer applications for PDAs, such as our EnRoute (later renamed RoutePlanner) and Citymaps navigation applications.

In 2001, as more accurate GPS satellite readings became available, we recognised that in-car navigation presented a major opportunity for innovation. Our first navigation product for PDAs, the TomTom Navigator, was launched in 2002. This product was sold as an add-on application for third-party PDAs and included a GPS receiver and car-cradle. We promoted and distributed this product across Europe, which allowed consumers to buy a fully functioning navigation system at a much lower price than previously available factory-installed and dealer-fitted systems.

By now we saw a gap in the market for an affordable, easy-to-use car navigation system that integrated all the components of a navigation system in one portable device. In 2003, we made a strategic decision to adapt our core software architecture to operate both on our new hardware products and also across a wide variety of third-party hardware platforms and operating systems. We recruited an experienced hardware team to develop an all-in-one navigation product as the potential for portable navigation devices was clear to us.

Dec 2010

It’s not an unknown fact that GPS manufacturers still urge drivers to keep their eyes on the road and not on the GPS – ships and aircraft use GPS as a navigational aid and the navigators of both know the pitfalls of relying on instrumentation.  A ship’s captain told me years back about losing their satnav and only when, in dark cloud and low viz that on seeing another vessel that via VHF they found they were 200 miles off course. In the middle of the ocean this may happen from time to time but it’s a big no no when off coastal waters. This is what happened.  GPS is a navigational tool – it doesn’t drive your car and like your cell phone you need to have your eyes on the road and hands on wheel.  No, the GPS may be a wonderful tool but only at the hands of an experienced navigator.

Like Decca and LORAN before, GPS also has it’s limitations. Decca and Loran use low frequency radio waves which follow the curvature of the earth – transmitters are very powerful, LORAN-C, the newer post war navigational system proved to be very reliable and operates in the 100KHz range. This makes long range navigation simple and accurate but this accuracy is affected by static electricity due to signal degradation. The LORAN-C chain used to be used extensively in the United States. USCG decommissioning started about a year back as GPS rose in popularity. (LORAN maintenance costs are high and the receivers are very expensive). Like any radio device, signal jamming is a huge possibility and in a time of war this is highly probable. GPS use very weak signals to get timing and this is therefore easier to block by malicious users through jamming. The obvious now is whether these jammers are illegal. Unfortunately they aren’t. Jamming was known to take place during Operation Desert Storm but in all likelihood was used by both sides. I recall the jammed transmission in the 80′s from a very well known commercial broadcaster – this broadcaster used powers of up to 500KW on the lower frequencies and the jamming station easily overrode this signal. The intention is only to block out the radiation of intelligence through modulation, even keyed transmissions can easily be blocked such as CW or morse code transmissions. RDF can detect these signals but what can one do in a time of war? GPS transmissions are weak and can easily be jammed – worse still inaccurate data could possibly be propogated.

Looking at just this one simple problem or disadvantage makes me think of WI-FI. Our world is inundated with a communication structure based on WI-FI which has a similar weakness, low signal strength. Besides power klystrons or magnetrons our UHF signals are not very strong, they don’t need to be as long as it’s line of sight. Therein lies the next weakness of GPS and all satellite receivers – loss of signal in a poor environment or weather conditions. A GPS cannot work when the signal is blocked via buildings, mountains – LORAN-C can still operate due to the operational frequency.  Because LORAN proved itself over the last 50 years it’s of no surprise that military are looking into and have manufactured the eLORAN or Enhanced LORAN navigational system. The eLORAN (E-LORAN) transmitters radiate more power than GPS like it’s predecessor, in the magnitude of hundreds of KW, as well as a Differential GPS signal whilst the receiver processes signals from more than one station enhancing accuracy.  At present users of GPS should be advised of the disadvantages of GPS and use it for what it was designed for – a navigational instrument.

(Ed:- As a sidenote, the maintenance company overseeing the Decca Chain in South Africa in the 90′s used the disadvantages of GPS during the operation Desert Storm debacle to attempt winning back the contract from the SA government after it was decided to shut down the network. Sadly this was not proven to be successful and was shut down for good during the year 2000).

Educational: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in653 – University of Florida

FRT-70 1KW Transmitter SSB/FSK/CW

I was onboard a merchant vessel in the southern part of the North Sea when the Piper Alpha went down. I recall the 500 and 2182KHz auto-alarms going off in the later part of the evening and sitting up for what may have been hours picking up inter-ship and coastal radio stations repeating the distress calls of earlier on and giving updates. I recall reading in the papers thereafter of the events that lead up to the tragic loss of nearly 170 lives. I recall the crew having not followed the chain of command, the miscommunication on the platform and nearby platforms and the ensuing inferno which engulfed the Piper Alpha. It was something which could have been prevented but wasn’t. But what holds me interested nowadays is not how this happened but how perfect the radio communication was at the time. Not the electronics but the discipline.

Young radio officers were taught to communicate effectively in morse code and phonetics, the use of Q-codes, telecommunications, radio theory and the saftey of life. Moreso, SOLAS – the Safety of Life at Sea. There were silence periods on a watch, although only three minutes every 15 minutes, on the hour and every half hour for 500KHz and at 15 minutes past and every half hour thereafter for 2182KHz.  Just how many lives this simple but very important international regulation saved will possibly never be known but it would be in the thousands. Often late at night the auto-alarm would sound from ships in distress, I recall once being over 1000 nautical miles from Singapore when a relayed distress message was sent from Singapore radio on 500KHz. The Asian operators learnt two morse code sets, ours in English and theirs, the most significant being the Japanese and Koreans. Yes, there were others – morse code was not a difficult language to learn, transmitting it precisely was. One knew the operator by his style.

One learnt not to play around with bug-keys, if you transmitted too fast to Postishead Radio in the UK, they would send back to you at a speed that may not have been intelligible. You learnt to grow up – there were rules to follow over and above international law, radio etiquette.  Puerta Rica Coast Guard was not to be trifled with – they were very fast operators and not for the novice operator. In fact in my early years to work a USCG operator was scary business, more so than driving a car for the first time. Portishead was the most polished, without a doubt. Australian operators worked the AUSREP system and you didn’t forget to send reports. A very ingenious system which must have saved thousands of lives, likewise the AMVER system which if I recall correctly was controlled by the USCG. The AMVER system was an international system and all vessels were encouraged to participate, not only so big brother could watch your movement.

I can go on and on about the preciseness of radio communication through the 20th century until the late 80s.Operators were qualified and most took their work seriously. There was a benchmark and if Portishead found you weren’t following a minimum requirement you would be reported and there were dire consequences, likewise the USCG and most of the other larger radio stations. Telecommunication at the time only had one downfall – the ionosphere. Fundamentally the depth of the ionosphere was the deciding factor on which frequency to use. I over simplify but the fact remains, telecommunication wasn’t an up and downlink through a transponder or satellite.  The question I ask myself now is how strong is our communication system in a time of peril? There are some countries, the US being one which has a very strong and hugely active civil defence program. I live in a country which I believe has one but we know will never be strong because our military is weak. How would the civilians on our planet react if we had no system to work with? People have used the cellular network to save lives but what happens in a major event such as the Tsunami that hit the Asian coast not that long back?

I believe sincerely that we should not just pack the old WT and RT systems in a box because modern technology rules.  Modern telecomm is all around close suscribed networks – WT and SSB was never designed for this purpose. I stand corrected but I believe certain aviation routes still carry older radio systems for communication.Yes, the older systems were slow but they were reliable at the hands of a qualified operator. Modern operators do not necessarily have to go through stringent tests to operate a cell phone, 3G, 4G or land-line link. It’s all at the press of a button. In civil defence and here I am talking about natural disaster, possibly, just possibly we are setting ourselves up for disaster.

I was thinking now recently about how our lives have changed through the internet, how cloud computing has become this amazing Messiah. As dangerous as our electricity in the time of a blackout. We are pushing the limits when it comes to technology but forget how infallible this is. How many movies have you watched over the last ten years where the world is doomed until the trusty CB set is whipped out of mothballs. It’s not really as far-fetched as one would like to believe. Maybe we have become too clever for our own good. Ships and aircraft are still sinking and crashing in these modern times although technology has moved on. I fear for the time when we do not have power, we do not have a reliable cellular network and maybe, just maybe your local telecomm cables are all down. Believe me, it has happened.

It’s time for the managers of cities, towns and local government to tell their fellow citizens what they have done to prevent a total communication blackout in a time of crises. Radio should never be put into mothballs – it still plays a very powerful tool in modern society. The old radio systems added a touch of class to life, it was interesting, it was exciting and in this there were many tens of thousands of people that put together systems which could save lives. At present there is only one body that could be of assistance in a time of civil crises and that is the ARRL or local Amateur Radio Ham.

For the student or enthusiast of radio telecommunications of yesteryear I have added some very informative links below:

• Portishead Radio GKL/GKA etc
• Scheveningen Radio PCH  in Dutch
• Wick Radio GKR
• Martime Radio Historical Society
• International Radio Day (there is no ZSC – see link below)
• Cape Town Radio ZSC
• The Radio Reading Room
• Chatham Marconi Martime Center
• Scheveningen Radio PCH
• Coastal Radio Communications PCH

There were virtually hundreds of large radio stations in operation through the 60s, 70s and 80s. Most communication in my day was through Portishead, Chatham, Amagansett, Scheveningen, Oostende, Cape Town, Durban, Choshi, Seoul, Perth, Sydney, Guam, Puerta Rica, Mauritius, Singapore, Dakar, Walvis Bay, Keelung, Hong Kong, Roma, Athens, Haifa, Madrid and many more but I am afraid my memory escapes me.

I’d like to keep this page open to comments. I see many pages of radio stations from a bygone era but I’d really like to consolidate this under a united banner – I’d like to see radio stations from Russia, Germany, more about Cape Town Radio – remember they controlled radio traffic through the southern sea route, a very important setting through WWII, also Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, France, Egypt, Argentina – the USCG stations of course held a special fascination for me,  likewise radio stations placed on islands thousands of miles from nowhere – the operators were always very friendly and helpful. You had to be, modern technology has obviously changed this for the better and possibly the loneliness is now a thing of the past.  (think the dark, unfriendly waters between Australia and South Africa, those that travel alone have balls of steel).

You can contact me through this website.

Thank you for reading this article.

I’ve put together a set of links which will cover jet engines and their design plus some links to the South African Air Force:

• First of all you’re not going to get very far without reading Wiki’s article on the Brayton Cycle – the very reason why gas turbines actually work.
• First and foremost, I found the General Electric website very informative, from their educational link to current engines.
• Wikipedia is informative, as always, showing pictures of the first Heinkel turbojet and of course Frank Whittle’s design.
• How Stuff Works is a great way to while away that lazy Sunday afternoon.

The loudest jet aircraft I have ever heard was at an airshow when an English Lightning came low over the crowd, kicked in the afterburners and proceeded to do a vertical climb to 30 000 ft plus.  Real ‘shit yourself’ stuff. In write-ups the B1 and the F/18 Hornet are said to be loudest though, never heard them unfortunately. Maybe one day when I save enough money I’ll make a plan – I think US warbirds are awesome.  Just by and by – Mig-25 is also supposed to be an extremely loud aircraft. See video below.

Being a South African we had the Mirage jet fighters in the 60s to 70s and with the arms embargo (had a very naughty government then ) built our own Cheetah, thanks to the Israelis. Nowadays the SAAF have only the SAAB Gripen, a few Mirages and Cheetah aircraft in the stable, a huge shortage of manpower and trained pilots – such is the way of Africa sadly.  If you’re like me the only airshows worthwhile going to are the military type which unfortunately seems to be also disappearing into the ether. Once a very proud airforce too. Sad, because possibly they have one of the richest heritages of any air force around. See here (Wiki) and one exceptionally good website, unofficial website of the SAAF, SAairforce or the official website here.

“since you fixed my computer it’s been very slow” – kudos to the son and his porno site (on your computer buddy! Maybe it was you!)”

“since you fixed the TV the sound is soft” – kudos to the husband who didn’t know ‘hotel mode’ existed before you told him.

“don’t worry, take your time” – normally stated by the most impatient of us. If you’re not worried don’t say anything.

“since you worked on the VCR the head has gone skew” – welcome to the world of helical heads. Lesson learnt – never show a client how to manually clean a VCR head.

“the engine makes a noise” – after you replaced the silencer system. Maybe 300 000 miles has something to do with it.

“the last technician was much better, he fixed the thing in 15 minutes” – maybe a different fault? Maybe it’s because your TV set is now 20 years old.

“the new printer only did 20 pages” – because (a) your son was using the printer while you weren’t looking or (b) the more common ‘full colour A4 pages from head to toe’. With demo cartridges.

“I never go to porno sites” – ah, the old one, the very best. The porno sites came to you.

“I bought a backup drive and now that I have made a backup the backup drive crashed – I don’t have another copy. You sold me crap!” – Ummm, this one boggles the mind.

“My brand new drive crashed – I’m holding you responsible for getting my data back!” – if it was a toaster would you hold the seller responsible for making you toast. What about a vibrator?

“My PC has no operating system on it” – of course not, the last one was pirated. Would you like to forward the complaint to Microsoft.

Telephonically: “You promised to modify my decoder so I don’t have to pay for the channels. You still haven’t been round – I’m going to tell my friends how unreliable you are”.  – Oh yes, this actually happened.

“I bought three of these things – none of them work!” – let’s try user error.

“I’m returning this software – it doen’t work” – yes, but I bet you made a backup copy somewhere.

The world famous Windows 98 and XP song:  “how do I activate this, the activation code sticker (Ed – COA) has gone. I am returning this and want a new one.”  – Sorry buddy, that’s what you pay for – that little sticker.

“My printer only prints one page a minute” – maybe try a different resolution.

“My printer jams after you worked on it” – that’s right folks, same old ribbon.

“the motherboard caught alight after I put in the USB device” – try connecting the headers correctly.

“I did register the Microsoft Office, but I never used it. I want the professional edition, it has powerpoint” -  try reading the instructions before opening the package.

“the screen on my notebook cracked after you worked on it” – sure, when we tested it in front you nobody noticed this small problem.

“make out a quote for my insurers and replace the hard drive with a SDD drive!” – insurers just love these fraudulent claims. And they still pay up. Don’t do it!

“I have 8 laptops on the network and they all crash. We want to return all of them” – This was a computer sales and service company.

“I’m going to my lawyer!” – looking for instant results. Big balls.

“I’m going to the press!” – looking for instant results. Small balls.

“DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?” – No balls.

“I’ll pay you as soon as you finish this last job.” – the penguin trick. Better known as short arms and deep pockets i.e. limited funds available.

“I don’t care how much this costs, just finish the job”. – naturally.

“a family friend works for ***** and he said that you didn’t do the job properly!” – another expert in this field.

And of course we then move on to Google where everything is true, correct, factual. eHow – “how to fix an ingrown toenail with a hairbrush.”  Also, how to fix your hard-drive with a set of nail clippers and arc welder. Wiki – “how to split an atom with an axe”. Beware of people that readup on the internet before they ply you with their problem – they may have tried to fix it themselves or better still want to catch you out. There are lots of experts and gurus out there.  Real guru is not an obnoxious piece of canine dropping!

I ran a repair business for 10 years and one learns to read the customer 99% of the time. The one percent is above. My experience is that those that eke out an existence but work hard are the ones that pay their bills, the rich look for excuses, the middlemen look for a quick fix and the best people to do business with are people that run their own business. Most of the time. Find anyone who runs a successful repair business shouting at the lady at the till? They know the buzz. They’ve done a few laps. Of course I have done work for lawyers before – most of them are human to a certain degree but when it comes down to a business agreement you’d better have it in writing. Their DNA is so unlike ours.

My worst clients were in order:

• a lawyer
• a doctor
• a fertiliser factory manager
• a banker

My best clients were:

The elderly – don’t rip them off.

• Abalone divers.
• Most factory workers.
• People in the repair industry – panel-beaters, mechanics, plumbers.
• Sea-fairers.  (mainly fishing industry).
• Corporate.

So don’t just lie there – do something about it.