User:Dimi wiki

My background ?

I was born in Brussels, Belgium, in 1943; There I studied and ended up with a specialization degree in Electronics of " Ingénieur Technicien en Electrotechnique ". Later, this title was upgraded to " Ingénieur Industriel ", when the Belgian  " Ingénieur Techniciens "  were assimilated to " Ingénieurs Civils (Universitaires) ".

My first technical related job was at the E.B.U (European Broadcasting System) which took care of EUROVISION broadcasts. So during one night shift, I was the "operator" in charge of the "technical coordination" of the World Wide broadcasting of the video transmission of the landing of the Apollo 14 Mission on the Moon (#).During my work at the top of the Palais de Justice, where the studios, broadcasting relays and switching and Technical Coordination Center were installed, I specialized at the brand new digital Switching Center for the broadcasting links. Actually, we worked in teams (shifts) of three: one operator, one in charge of maintenance of equipment and one supervisor and as a "debutant" I was "the" Operator, of course. But during the Mission I was supposed to call Houston or provide them with any requested technical coordination needed for the World-Wide live transmission of television pictures between the Apollo location (on or around the Moon) and the Television Broadcasting Corporations (##). Luckily for me there were no questions asked or transmission problems, except that my supervisor was getting crazy being busy to re-route the transmission via alternate satellite relays somewhere above China or the Emirates, because a cabled Earth Link failed somewhere in Arizona. You might guess that any interruption of the live pictures had to be avoided and that no mixed-up of accidentaly introduced pictures from any other source might be tolerated. On top of that, our team was supposed to guarantee the best available quality of the transmission.

(#) if you are interested read more about the Mission at:

http://www.space.com/news/spacehistory/a14_retrospective_010131.html

(##) I watched recently a documentary on the television about the background of those Apollo Missions and, if I got it right, this mission and transmission was also a first time experiment of a live full-duplex television transmission between the location on the moon and ... the United States President's Office, enabling the President to congratulate in real time the cosmonaut "stepping for Humanity"

Because of the difference of local times, we had to work also as night shifts, at some periods up to two week long, than take the legal days off, in the middle of a week ...

This kind of work was not a long term opportunity for me. When I read an advertisement of the Institut International des Brevets about recruiting staff for Examination Work, I applied. I did not mind leaving Brussels or Belgium at that time for The Hague or Holland.