I began my writing career on the Galaxy Latin America project (DirecTV for Latin America). The customer, Hughes Aerospace at the time, wanted a number that would indicate how close each digital video signal was to its failure point, its error cliff. I was assigned that task.

The process was patentable. But, my employer, Sony, wanted the publicity of perfecting it instead. This led to presenting papers at conferences and writing articles. The first article is here.

I was working at Sony
I wrote an article on Digital Satellite uplinking for Broadcast Engineering magazine. As always, I ran the article through the VP's office that I reported to. Usually, they would approve it and pass it on to the magazine. In this case, I got a call on a Friday afternoon from the magazine's editor asking where my article was. I said they should have received it by then.

They said they received the article, but it didn't have my name on it. Instead, it had the name of the VP. The VP had agreed to write an article for that month's edition. But, he had not delivered it and submitted mine as his.
While the magazine's editor was understanding, it was only to a point. He said I still owed him an article, and that he needed it on Monday. It wasn't until Sunday that I found a relevant topic to write about for that publication. It was about something I grew up in, Remote Television Production, so I wrote a fluff article on the industry. Not my best work, but it was well received by the readership.

It eventually came to the attention of McGraw-Hill. They passed on doing a book on the remote production industry. But, they proposed that I write the book below after some time.

The Guide for transitioning to DTV transmission for broadcasters

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In 1999, wrote the DTV Survival Guide for McGraw-Hill.

his book explained the retrofit process and technology behind a TV station's switch from analog to digital. This opportunity grew out of the dozens of articles that I wrote for Broadcast Engineering magazine.

In addition, I have written sections of the National Association of Broadcasters Engineering Handbook.

First addition

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I co-authored two editions of TV on Wheels - The Story of Remote Television Production. It was the top teaching guide for remote TV production. George Hoover, retired CTO of NEP Inc, and I talked to over 250 industry insiders. This book celebrated the industry

Remote productions are a last bastion of live TV. It looks at remotes of all sizes, from one-camera news shots to the Olympics. It covers the tech, skills, planning, logistics, and history.

It explains why those who work in this segment of TV meet the weather, travel, and pressure to bring the "thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" to millions of viewers.

Look through the book

Using VBA to automate Excel

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Wrote this book initially for myself as I discovered the ways that VBA could be used to check for errors, and automate tasks. Long-time friend and colleague Lou Janis, chipped in to help. Enough others were interested in what we had gathered that we offered a "vanity press" version.

While I consider myself knowledgeable about VBA and Excel, I do not consider myself an expert. I wrote my entire website in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Like most, I've repurposed a lot of others' code. So no, I don't consider myself a web developer. These skills showcase my ability to learn what I need to know.

Online copy of the book.

Second addition

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I co-authored the two editions of TV on Wheels - The Story of Remote Television Production. It was the top teaching guide for remote TV production. George Hoover, retired CTO of NEP Inc, and I talked to over 250 industry insiders. This edition covers the last 10 years of changes. It also explores business, operations, and technical issues in more depth.

Here is a review of the book by Cal State Long Beach.

Tour of a typical truck at the turn of the century.