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Closed Circuit Television |
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Recently Nathan had a special opportunity to rebuild a Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) head-end. This project made special use of Nathan's skills, and was required when his guard unit was tearing down the building that originally held the equipment. As an overview, the head end takes several different satellite dishes (both commercial and military), local digital broadcasts, and special purpose base information from computers -- and turns it all into what is essentially a local cable TV network. Combining the outputs of roughly 20 satellite receivers and transmitting it within the CCTV infrastructure as well as the video on demand local intra-net is no small challenge. Involved with the project was the following:
- Finish installing equipment racks and cable tray to reach it
- Mount, point, and weather seal 4 satellite dishes and 1 local TV antenna
- Conduit installation
- RG6 Coaxial cable installation to all dishes or antennae
- Termination of approximately 100 RG6 F-type connectors, and some RCA-type and BNC style connectors
- rack mounting and organization of several satellite receivers, VCRs, DVD player, local digital receivers, local radio feed, local weather receiver, and computer servers
- Configuration and calibration of remodulators taking several inputs on RF channel 3 and remodulating it to appropriate cable tv channels such as 24, 25, 26, etc.
- Calibrating overall RF feed to fiber optic transmitters that feed the RF signal over fiber optic lines to the rest of the base
- Reconfiguring base fiber optic network to reroute feeds from one building to another and then ensuring propagation to all locations on base
This project, though hugely overkill for any regular home or business customer, demonstrates Skoglund Technical Services' capabilities and special skills. Involved in this project is planning, hand crafting of several custom adapters, and extensive knowledge of all technologies involved. When it comes down to it, this was a marathon project. This marathon project ensures our ability to take care of your small jog around the block project. Please consider giving us a call if you are having trouble with your TV, or if you own a motel and need some work on the CCTV system within the building. |
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Inexpensive Laptops |
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Frequently we are made aware, by our suppliers, of an exceptional deal. Occasionally, we actually agree that it is an exceptional deal. Skoglund Technical Services are proud to make those savings available to you.
Recently we came across an excellent laptop, for just under $430. It was a brand new item, and seemed to have everything. The 'deal' was because one of the major manufacturers was clearing out its inventory of 'single core' processor laptops. Everything else was top notch. While the machine may be a little bit slower at doing 10 things at once, I still felt it had enough power to take care of all requirements. I purchased it and resold it to a local man.
He and his family have since bought 2 more laptops from us, both slightly more capable than the orginal, but also excellent deals. What we want you to remember is that he bought new hardware from us, and was very happy with the deal and came back for more.
You might wonder how a small computer business on the shore can get deals better than the 'major retailers'. The reason is that oftentimes we get it at the same price they do, and even when we don't, we don't put the same rediculous markup on them. Skoglund Technical Services wants to bring a small amount of honesty and integrity to computer work. |
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STS Carries on Through the Flood |
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Nathan (of Skoglund Technical Services) was recently deployed on state active duty to aid in Minnesota's response to the Red River Valley flooding. During the last half of March 2009, into April, Nathan was aiding operation of the state's JCP. Some things went on hold while Nathan was gone, but not all things. As Nathan was heading out, Silver Bay also bore the brunt of a nasty ice storm that caused rolling blackouts up and down the shore. Lisa filled the gap, returning 6 computers to operation, after having lost the ability to boot into a full desktop. The problems ranged from: - fried modems that required troubleshooting and replacement
- horribly corrupted file systems that were non-bootable that required removal of hard drives for repair
- fielding numerous phone calls where she was able to step people through troubleshooting to get their machines running (for free!)
- hard drive crashes that resulted in bad sectors on the drive that required moving data to unaffected sections
Lisa was rewarded with many thanks, and one handwritten note after returning a business critical machine back to a local entrepreneur stating: Lisa - Thank You! You were a lifesaver! ---Bri-Esa's
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Simple Fixes -- Cleaning up after 'the other guy' |
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I recently received a worried call from a customer. She and her husband had left for a trip, and turned off the computer. When they returned home, it would not turn on. The machine was completely dead - no lights, no fans, nothing on the screen. I ran over on my way back from Duluth, and verified that everything was as it should be: - The power strip was plugged in, and turned on
- the cables were firmly in place
- Manually operated the motherboard jumpers to determine if it was the front switch and that it was connected securely
- made sure the power supply's own switch was indeed on
Everything was perfect...except that it did not turn on. The machine was definitely in need of repair, so I brought it to my shop. While removing the power supply I noticed a couple of things: - It was not a factory power unit
- It may have been underpowered for the machine, with only a 250Watt max rating
- While removing the unit, I noticed a note written with a marker on the top (hidden) side of the power supply: "Shuts off when it is jostled."
This was an obvious issue. It was clear to me that the computer had repair work done on it in the past, and that the service technician had used a sub-standard power supply as a replacement. Worse yet, it was a KNOWN bad power supply that would cut out when shaken, or as he termed it "jostled". I would also imagine that the technician had it on his bench because he had taken it out of another person's computer expressly because it was bad. There you go, one NEW power supply, of adequate capacity and the computer worked fine. Once again, Skoglund Technical Services is cleaning up after the other guys and doing it right the first time. |
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Demonstration Websites |
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We would like to announce the formation of 2 virtual demonstration web servers. They are simply named:
Example1.skoglundtech.com Example2.skoglundtech.com
These two are differently themed default Joomla installs. They contain sample data, which is mostly meaningless, but allows a person to see many different modules and functions of the website. These modules can be turned off at will - many websites have no need of a weekly poll, or dedicated download section. However, all the functionality is there - allowing you do accomplsih anything you need to with your online presence.
These simple example websites are in addition to those already hosted by Skoglund Technical Services. Of interest to the local community may be:
sycharlutheran.orgnsop.bizskoglundtech.com
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