The Official Newsletter of the Portland Chapter #972 of the Piano Technicians Guild

December, 2008

Next Chapter Meeting:

DATE	January 26, 2009
LOCATION	TBD
Business	6:00 PM
General	7:00

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Next Chapter Meeting: 1

Special Edition. 2

A NOTE FROM OUR PRESIDENT: 2

California State PTG conference: 4

TOOL TIP. 5

CONTACTS. 6

Special Edition

Julie asked me to produce this special edition newsletter for December. The minutes for November as well as more information about the technical for the January meeting will be published in the normal schedule for January, third Monday of the month, with a meeting scheduled for the fourth Monday of the month.

Merry Christmas and happy new year ed

A NOTE FROM OUR PRESIDENT:

Season's Greetings to all chapter members and their loved ones. I wish to extend a huge thank you to Tucker for coordinating this years Christmas party. The Kennedy School was an ideal location for the annual get-together. The old gymnasium provided our group with a wonderful space to mingle before our meal and plenty of seating as the evening progressed. I was very impressed with the food all the way from the fresh fruit to the delectable desserts.

Tucker arranged for a saxophone, trumpet, bass and drum quartet that played a bit during and after the meal. Hat's off again to Tucker for bringing together a group of musicians that were perfect for our gathering.

Congratulations are in order to the newest recipient of the Emil Fries Award. Don Mitchell did a great job of dropping enough clues for us to figure out who was to be honored. Please give John Rhodes your best when you see him. He was honored in keeping with the spirit of the award for his inventions and contributions to piano technology, work at the Piano Hospital and for giving of his time and talent.

FYI: Oregon Day was a huge success with 39 registrants. I may have already mentioned some of this but it's worth saying again. Mitch Paola at Sherman Clay's/ Moe's was a wonderful host and Ted Mulcahey helped to organize the room and bring in extra chairs. Kent Webb was as usual a thorough, knowledgeable instructor. Don Mitchell was responsible for all of the instructor, location and travel arrangements. Mark Gallant set up the camera and screen and Jeff Hickey helped to get the best camera shots. Bob Ledden provided support. Amy Zilk arranged a sandwich buffet that was incredible. Rick Hales had name tags and an excel spread sheet for all of the registrants. Michael Reiter, our Regional Vice President, attended and brought a number of items for sale from the Piano Technicians Guild. He gave two items as door prizes. Randy Potter was the winner of the $50 grand door prize. Oregon Day coffers were increased by just a bit over $1000 after expenses were paid.

On a sad note, Dr Al Sanderson's passing will be recognized by a donation from our chapter to the PTG Foundation for $100. He will be missed.

I would like to remind all those who want to pay for either a tuning or technical test at the 2008 prices. The money needs to be to Rick Hales before January 1^st, 2009. Then the tests must be taken before February 28^th, 2009. The test fees will be doubling after the 1^st from $90 per test to $180.

Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year!

Julie Mackinnon, RPT

California State PTG conference:

Email not displaying correctly? View it HERE.

February 19 - 22, 2009 Burbank, California Register NOW! Take advantage of this incredible opportunity to further your education for the rock bottom price of just $275.00. Early Registration ends JANUARY 31, 2009! Hotel Reservations Be sure to stay at the newly remodeled Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel and Convention Center. We have secured a fantastic price of just $115.00 per night (single or double occupancy). Use The Force Get complete information and the latest updates on the USE THE FORCE Conference. Hosted by

You are invited to attend... THE GREATEST PIANO TECHNICIANS CONFERENCE IN THE GALAXY! A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away members and friends of the Pomona Valley Chapter of the Piano Technicians Guild began to use the Force to create a Piano Conference and Technical Institute of Galactic proportion. The team worked long and hard to assemble an event so powerful no one could resist its lure…something that piano technicians of all levels could benefit from. New classes never before taught, new ideas never before seen, hands-on classes never before given and new products never before displayed. And now, all of this is taking place in the spectacular, newly remodeled Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel & Convention Center. If you attended the Conference here in 2006, you won’t believe the changes. Everything from rooms to lobby to pool area has been completely upgraded and is now available to us for the bargain price of just $115.00 per night (single or double occupancy). Want more? We are including All-Day Hyperdrive Thursday classes, Bösendorfer Gala Opening, Banquet Dinner, a Galactic-sized Exhibit Hall, Yamaha Premier Concert, CyberTuner Coffee Café, and Supernova Sunday with your registration! This truly is THE conference of the millennium. You simply cannot afford to miss this incredible learning opportunity. So come to our galaxy and visit with old friends, make new ones and learn along the way. We guarantee the force will be with you! I hope to see you all in Burbank in February! Bruce Stevens, Conference Director info@CalStatePTGConference.com

If you would prefer NOT to receive any more e-mail from us, simply reply to this e-mail with "UNSUBSCRIBE", and you will NOT receive any more e-mail. It is not our intention to invade your privacy in any way. Copyright (C) 2008 Pomona Valley PTG. All rights reserved.

TOOL TIP

check the calibration of your ETD with a cell phone

As Most of you know I am a gadget guy and have more than one electronic tuning device. I currently have a SAT II, a Peterson 490-st, a VERITUNER 100, the RCT in my PDA, and I just downloaded the TuneLab software for the PDA.

The calibration procedure for the TuneLab is very interesting as it uses the National Institute of Standards and Technology pitches that are available by phone. I used my cell phone to calibrate the tunelab in the PDA per the instructions and then for fun check the calibration of the Rayburn cyber tuner and my verituner.

What makes the NIST source work is the offsets for C5 and D5. These two notes with the proper offsets are 500 Hz and 600 Hz exactly. There are several sections of minutes on the NIST phone that alternate between these two tones on the minute.

www.boulder.nist.gov/timefreq/stations/iform.html is the website that carries all of the other information you need, http://tf.nist.gov/stations/wwv-wheel.htm shows the schedule of the 500 Hz And 600 Hz tones.

The Colorado phone number is 303-499-7111. It is not toll-free. It will disconnect you after three minutes.

I'll leave it to you to Read The Fine manual for your particular electronic tuning device for calibration procedures. But here are the two offsets for C-5 and D5, be sure to use the fundamental or P1:

NIST 303 499 7111

Offset for C5@500.00 = -78.69

Offset for D5@600.00 = 36.95

Merry Christmas and happy new year to all,

Mark Gallant

CONTACTS:

Current Officers:

President	Julie Mackinnon, RPT: 503-359-4944 julieannmac3@hotmail.com
Vice President	Don Mitchell 360-696-1985 donmi@pianotuningschool.org
Secretary	Amy Zilk 503-936-0594 amy@zilknet.net
Treasurer	Rick Hales, Associate: rick_d_hales@yahoo.com
Member Liaison	Greg Tucker, Associate tuckerdrez@hotmail.com
Immediate Past President	Thomas Levings, RPT: 503-285-2454 lvngs@comcast.net
EXAMINATION COMMITTEE	The examination committee must have a record of request to schedule exams. Please call or email to let them know you wish to take the next available test. Tuning: Jeff Hickey 541-756-7701 TunerJeff@aol.com Technical: John Rhodes 360-256-7277 jrhodes@pacifier.com

Soundboard Editor:

Mark Gallant

1595 SW 200^th Ct

Aloha, OR 97006

503-642-1883

thesoundboard@verizon.net

Article submission deadline in the 2^nd Monday of the each month to allow inclusion in that month’s publication.

PTG Bylaws (National) Article VIII section E #6

All expression of opinion and all statement of supposed facts are published on the authority of the author as listed, and are not to be regarded as expressing the view of the Chapter nor the Piano Technicians Guild Inc., unless such opinions have been adopted by the chapter or the Piano Technicians Guild Inc.