Order Of The Ohm

I was named Chief Engineer of KONO/KITY in April of 1984. Getting a new title did not change the fact that George Ing, Vice President of Engineering for Mission Broadcasting Company (MBC) would be my mentor as long as I worked there.

Francisco (Frank) Garcia joined MBC in June of 1984 as an intern. He had recently graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in Electrical Engineering (EE), and wanted some “hands-on” experience. Anyone familiar with radio engineering in the 1980's will agree there was plenty of "hands-on" work to experience. In fact, it seems that most broadcast engineering work at that time was “hands-on.”

Frank helped with wiring chores, tuning the KITY RCA BTF-20 and the KONO BTA-5 transmitters. Looking back on those old transmitters I now realize how reliable they were, running unattended 24/7 on technology from the 1950's with no computers to automatically keep track of them. On second thought, maybe that is why they were so reliable—no computers!

Soon, lunchtime became an adventure. On a regular basis, George and Frank would engage in spirited math discussions. It could be as practical as power factors or as theoretical as minutiae about Calculus.

Both George and I very much appreciated Frank’s great work. Because his internship was quickly nearing the end, George and I decided to grant Frank both a tongue-in-cheek and at the same time serious award—The Order Of The Ohm.

I made up an official looking certificate using a nice piece of resume’ quality bond paper and the best Kroy lettering Jack Roth’s money could buy. I found a wooden plaque base. A local craft store had a wooden Greek "Omega" letter that I affixed to the top of the certificate. After that, I sealed the whole thing under a coat of that neat clear epoxy craftsmen use to coat wooden clocks.

Jerry Paonessa

George Ing, Frank Garcia, Jerry Paonessa

Jerry Paonessa Note: Frank currently works for Uncle Sam in San Antonio. He is still using his EE in the communications arena.

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