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Gold/Mining/Energy : Unitec Int. Controls Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John B. Smyth who wrote (308)	4/12/1998 4:02:00 PM
From: Bobby Yellin	Respond to of 856

Hi John: waiting for the next installment..will send you private message from time to time..but don't mind you answering them on the thread.. some of my questions may be irrelevant and don't want to imply something about a SCADA application that isn't :> I also have been reading most of environmental news releases from quote.yahoo.com first I would like to hear more of the applications Unitec is working on and later if you have time if there are environmental applications besides the ones you have mentioned... I was fascinated when I spoke with you how you designed a remote control application for disposing of hazardous waste... I was also wondering about those ramifications or is SCADA always used for stationary applications over dynamic processes or have I totally confused myself and probably sent you the last question via private mail..(I cant blame it on the sun!) to

To: John B. Smyth who wrote (308)	4/12/1998 7:47:00 PM
From: Brad Yonkman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 856

Good Afternoon John and All, Stumbled onto this thread this morning (I think I was following Bobby Y from the GPM thread). It took me several hours but I managed to get through all the postings, I must say that this stock does seem to be undervalued. I'll likely pick a few shares up in the morning unless I find something that scares me off in the meantime. I'm very impressed with the amount of time that you spend answering everyones questions and concerns. If you don't mind I'll send you my fax # I would love to read the Yorkton report. I'm not sure if you Email or mail a complete investors package but I'm interested in any info you may be able to provide including the 98 business plan and the CD that you mentioned a bit back. Your last name doesn't ring a bell so I probably haven't met your son but I live just up the road from him in the lovely town of Hazelton. Spring has arrived here as well as elsewhere, so I spent several hours this weekend working on the lawn, and I even got out to one of the local lakes to fish - earliest I've ever been able to do that! Regard's, Brad

To: John B. Smyth who wrote (308)	4/13/1998 10:36:00 PM
From: John B. Smyth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 856

Drainage system monitoring and control is an important part of risk management in the Municipal SCADA system. Drainage systems are normally designed to use gravity to efficiently dispose of rainfall. However, as cities expand, often low lying areas without natural drainage capability are developed for housing and industrial use. Cities are also built near rivers which tend to flood. Levies are built to protect those areas from flooding, however, the water tables are high and the areas must be pumped to protect the civil structures. In those areas, even a small rainfall will require water removal. Unitec installed such a system for the City of New Westminster as part of its Risk Management program. The Municipality is liable for damages in the event that a failure in their drainage systems results in a water backup in homes. The City employs a series of drainage pump stations throughout the low lying areas of Annacis Island. These stations operate automatically, turning the pumps "ON and OFF" when the water level in the drainage ditches reach a high and low level respectively. If a failure occurs at one of the pump stations, or if the pumps are unable to keep up with the demand, basements will flood, roads will become impassable, and the City is liable for damages. In the past, "idiot lights" have been used (mounted on top of the pump stations) to indicate a failed status. Maintenance crews regularly drive by and check that these stations are operable. "Murphies Law" (my version), dictates that the chances of failure in the station is directly proportional to the level of water in the ditch. Perhaps there is more truth than joke here as the stations are working harder when the level is higher. SCADA systems provide real-time continuos monitoring of the stations. It monitors water level, flow, motor winding and bearing temperatures, station power, power factor and other parameters as desired. The reduction of labor cost to check the sites, while significant, is insignificant in contrast to the damage that can incur and the potential liability to the municipal government if a failure is undetected during a period of heavy rain or flood. A point of interest, a few days after installing the system for New Westminster, their drainage superintendent received a call at home at 2:00am from the monitoring station, reporting a power failure at one of the drainage stations on Annicis Island. He immediately called the City's Electricity Department (who distribute the power throughout the City) to see if they had a power outage in that area. The Electricity Department advised that they did not have an outage. At first, he was tempted to dismiss the alarm as a glitch that Unitec had not debugged during the installation phase, but as it was raining heavily he decided to err on the side of caution and got dressed to go and inspect the station. As he was leaving his house, the Electricity Department Dispatcher called him to advise that someone had phoned in to report a failure (their system had not detected it) in that area and he was wondering how the Water Department knew about it! We have a system installed with the City of Abbotsford (which I will discuss in a later posting), where we enhanced the pump monitoring features with an automated maintenance scheduler. As the SCADA system knows the run time of each pump (and other equipment), it generates a work maintenance schedule for each device based on the actual run times. This insures that equipment subject to heavy use gets proper maintenance and others deferred to maintain efficiency. Questions will be appreciated, but if none, I will next focus on Sewage Systems.