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HD Supply Reports $202 Million 1Q Loss
HD Supply reported sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2010 were $1.8 billion, a decline of 5.7% compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2009. Net loss for the quarter was $202 million, compared to a year ago profit of $10 million. Previously, HD Supply reported sales for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2010 were $7.4 billion, down 24% from a year ago. The company recorded a loss of $514 million, compared to the prior year loss of $1.3 billion.

RathGibson Emerges From Bankruptcy
RathGibson announced its emergence from bankruptcy and transition of ownership to an investment group led by Wayzata Investment Partners. The name has changed from RathGibson, Inc. to RathGibson LLC. Headquartered in Lincolnshire, IL outside of Chicago, RathGibson is a worldwide manufacturer of stainless steel, nickel, and titanium tubing for diverse industries, such as petrochemical, power generation, oil and gas, food and dairy, beverage, pharmaceutical, and general commercial. RathGibson's corporate headquarters are located close to Chicago in Lincolnshire, IL.

Weldbend/IPD Corral Da Coach
"Network 2010 ," the annual convention of the American Supply Association slated for Oct. 12-15 in Chicago, will include legendary NFL football player and coach Mike Ditka (left) as guest speaker at the Industrial Piping Division Breakfast, sponsored by Weldbend . Ditka will share his philosophy on attitude, character and enthusiasm. Also on the agenda is PVF notable Don McNeeley (right), president and COO of Chicago Tube and Iron Corp. and professor at Northwestern University's Graduate School of Engineering. He will speak on the "Industry Outlook." Keynote speaker for Network 2010 will be renowned political strategist and former White House advisor Karl Rove.

Registration Opens For Global Green Expo
BNP Media brings you the free Global Green Expo on August 5, 2010. Attendance requires no flights, no nights away from home. Just log onto your computer from the comfort of your office or home and join the conference to attend live keynotes and conference sessions under three tracks - Green Building, Green Manufacturing and Design, and Energy and Resource Management. Global Green Expo is an AIA and USGBC Education Provider. Courses noted with credit will be approved for 1.0 AIA learning unit and/or 1.0 GBCI CE hour per 45-minute webinar PLUS 15-minute scheduled chat. For the full conference agenda and to register, go to www.virtualglobalgreenexpo.com. Exhibitor opportunities are still available. Contact Diane Brown at brownd@bnpmedia.com or 248-244-6258.

Sonnhalter Offers Free LinkedIn Webinar
Sonnhalter, a communications firm marketing to the professional tradesman in the construction industry, is hosting a free one-hour Webinar on how manufacturers and marketers can utilize LinkedIn, a professional networking site. It will be held on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 2 p.m. EDT. Participants can visit www.SonnhalterLinkedInWebinar.notlong.com to register for the "LinkedIn: How Can B-to-B Manufacturers and Marketers Utilize the Professional Networking Site" Webinar. It will teach manufacturers and marketers how to harness the power of LinkedIn by showing how to grow contacts, join groups and use the social media site to promote thought leadership and ultimately, to generate sales leads.

Piping Tech Offers Free Webinar On Snubbers
Piping Technology & Products Inc. will hold a free webinar technical presentation about mechanical and hydraulic snubbers on Thursday, July 8, 2010 at 10:00 am or 2:00 pm. The featured presenter, Jerry Godina, has over 13 years experience as a support designer and manages PT&P's engineer training development program. Register: Shock Control, Restraint & Support Devices Webinar.

Business & Pleasure At The PVF Roundtable
This photo depicts scene from the social hour at the May 18 meeting of the PVF Roundtable, featuring an open bar courtesy of Westbrook Manufacturing. The social hour provides a networking opportunity for hundreds of attendees. The May 18 meeting included a visit from ASA's Industrial Piping Division Council, chaired by Pat Adams of MKS Pipe & Valve Co.

Plumbing + Hydronics Expo Postponed Until 2011
Messe Frankfurt Inc. has postponed the 2010 Plumbing + Hydronics Expo, originally scheduled for Sept. 15-17 in Baltimore. The show was to be co-located with the Remodeling Show, which is still taking place in the Baltimore Convention Center on those same dates. Show director Kristen Woodburn said Messe Frankfurt will perform additional analysis on the needs of the plumbing and hydronics market before announcing a location and dates. For more information, contact Woodburn at 770-984-8016 or kristen.woodburn@usa.messefrankfurt.com.

Hooray For Merchants!

Academics and intellectuals tend to look down upon the business world as populated by nothing but greedy money-grubbers. Here's a refreshing, brainy article that instead credits the development of trade, and the merchants who brought it about, as a key to the evolution of human civilization.

Tech Tip #49
by Gregg Marshall

To help you make the most of the Digital Age.

I Can Hear You Now!

Cell phones have become an integral part of society. There are over 200 million cell phone users in the U.S. (that's two out of every three people). When I sold the family rep agency in 2000, I decided to use my cell phone as my primary business phone number.  With as much traveling as I've done since, it was a good choice.

My phone works almost everywhere in the world-except inside my house. Even though there are more than 180,000 cell sites, when I'm in my home office my cell phone barely works. On a good day, I get one or two bars of signal. One a bad day, my phone shows no signal at all. Most of the time I get voice mails, not a ringing phone.

T-Mobile, my carrier, is nice enough to show their coverage map, and it's easy to see exactly why I have problems. I used to have the same problem in our offices/warehouse, but that could easily be explained by all the metal in the building's construction. As we become more dependent on our cell phones for our business, locations without good cell coverage can mean losing a lot of business-especially when those locations are where you spend a lot of your day.

There have been solutions for in-building cell coverage issues, but they have been expensive costing between $10,000 and $25,000. Now there are solutions inexpensive enough to make sense for an office or house.

The first unit I tried was a simple cell phone repeater. It operates with two antennae (one outside the house/office, one inside) and amplifiers. The outside antenna I mounted on the top of our fireplace chimney to give it the best view of existing cell phone towers in my area.  The antenna is Omni directional so it can pick up more than one tower.  The signal is then fed into the amplifier inside and rebroadcast inside.

When I'm making calls the reverse is true, my signal from the phone is picked up by the inside antenna and rebroadcast using the outside antenna. This all happens so fast there is no delay added by the system. The negative of this approach is that if your neighbors all find out what you have and decide to get their own repeaters, pretty soon they are going to be interfering with one another.  Similarly you shouldn't use several repeaters in the same office/warehouse building.

The other approach is a new smart repeater from Spotwave. Using the same basic technology as their commercial (all building), the Z-1900 costs a lot less at $399.  The Spotwave unit uses a square directional antenna outside (the  NAU--network access unit, its intelligent amplified antenna) and a very small amplifier antenna combination inside (the CU coverage unit, the miniature indoor cell tower).  I did notice the mounting hardware for the outside antenna (which I have mounted on the second story of the house) only allows mounting at 90 degree angles, so my outside antenna is not pointed exactly at the cell tower, I suspect lowering my signal a half a bar or so.

The big difference between the Spotwave unit and a simple repeater is it prevents feedback between the two antennae. You know the squeal of a PA system when sound from a speaker makes its way into the mike to create a loop. The same thing can happen to cell signal boosters that aren't smart enough to counter the problem; for them, feedback effectively blocks any desired communications from happening. Echo Feedback Cancellation happens in the Spotwave cell-band booster through patented interference & oscillation protection technology.

Both of these units were designed to operate in the PCS 1900 MHz range. There are some services using the older 850 MHz range (even new installations where there are spectrum availability issues). Obviously these units won't work with those services, so check with your carrier what band you are actually on before getting one.

I guess now that I have 4 bars of reception anywhere in the house, even the basement, I don't have any reason to miss any calls. Maybe this isn't such an improvement after all :)

Gregg Marshall, CPMR, CSP, is president of Rep Connection Inc. He can be reached by e-mail at gmarshall@repconnection.com, or visit his LinkedIn profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/greggmarshall.

AEC Store Corner

Must-Have, Tried and True Product Training Series! Order this CD for you or your staff. 

College of Product Knowledge CD
by Don Arnold - $89.85

The best-read, most highly acclaimed product training series ever published in the plumbing /PVF industry has been made available to fill the gaping hole in the industry's knowledge training.The College of Product Knowledge is ideal for wholesalers, manufacturers, agents, designers, contractors, technicians, engineers, architects and other pros who need to understand a variety of systems and components.

The College of Product Knowledge CD is simple to navigate and provides:

• More than 100 products into 27 sections in 300 pages;
• 4-color diagrams showing product cut-aways and flow direction;
• New section on tankless water heaters and more;
• Overview, Glossary and Section Quizzes (and answers);
• Clickable Table of Contents;
• Expert compilation by top industry consultant and writer, Don Arnold
• Expanded content includes: Residential Faucets, Supply Piping, General Application Valves, Water Heating, Fixtures, DWV Pipe Fittings, Water Treatment Products, Disposer Dispensers, Shower Valves, Tubular Goods, Chemicals & Compounds, Drains, Sump Pumps and More!

Follow this link to purchase this item.   Quantity discounts apply to bulk orders. Call 248/244-1275 for bulk orders.

Visit AECStore.com to view all of our technical resources, CDs and DVDs.

What's The Industry Buzzing About?

• Showerhead Manufacturers Blindsided By DOE 
• Apollo Valves Sold To Aalberts 
• Warren Alloy Sold To Allied Fitting

Fast Inspection Of Plant Heat Exchangers
AcousticEye , a non-destructive inspection technologies startup, declared its ability to inspect tubes 10 to 20 times faster than all previously existing methods. AcousticEye's easy-to-use acoustic-based technology makes it possible for companies in industries such as oil and gas, chemical, and power-generation markets to accurately test 100% of their heat exchangers. To view videos of the Dolphin system and software, visit: http://www.acousticeye.com/en-us/product/demo.asp.