SPECIAL DOUBLE ISSUE
* * * * * * * * 35th Anniversary & OTW Summary * * * * * *

No. 1 Manufacturer's Newsletter in the Industry - 42 Months at No.1!

EPC designs and manufacturers printers, data acquisitions systems, and print utilities for the geophysical, military and imaging marketplaces. Visit us today on the World Wide Web:
http://www.epclabs.com

In this Issue:

1. Quote of the Month

This August EPC marked its 35th Year in Business. We've been overwhelmed with the well wishers and supporters. A small sampling...

"You're almost as old as I am."
Bob Hope
98 Year old comedian

"I wish I had that kind of stamina."
Lance Armstrong
Cyclist and 4 time Tour De France winner

"I'm envious of your success."
Bill Gates
Chairman Microsoft

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2. EPC Celebrates 35 Years in Business

Established in 1967, EPC celebrated 35 years in business in August of this year. Founder and President Edward Curley, left EG&G and with the blessing of Harold "Doc" Edgerton opened an office on Water Street in Beverly, Massachusetts. The company, now located in a new state of the art technology center in Danvers, MA has gone through several business cycles, technology advancements, and grown into different marketplaces, but has always stayed true to delivering the highest quality recording systems available.

The company prospered in the 70s with the boom of oil exploration. With a downturn in the survey industry in the mid '80s the company was lucky that the recorders easily crossed over into an anti-submarine warfare application during the Cold War. An emerging imaging marketplace ushered in the 90s, and today EPC enjoys a broad range of applications for its line of thermal recorders in the geophysical, military, educational, and imaging marketplaces.

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3. OTW Summary

As a founding member of the Marine and Oceanographic Technology Network (MOTN) and as a principal architect of the Ocean Technology Workshop it is hard to maintain an un bias opinion in reviewing the recent event.

On September 23-25, 2002 the 3rd Ocean Technology Workshop took place in Plymouth, MA, just an hour outside of Boston and Providence, RI. The venue had been moved off of the Cape to accommodate travelers and upgrade the hotel accommodations. This proved to be a wise move as the new venue was a vast improvement. Attendance (over 200 attendees) exceeded expectations - possibly due to the addition of several new manufacturers /workshops like Coastal Oceanographics, Argos, Odom Hydrographics, Triton Elics International, RDI, SAIC and TSS to name a few.

An improved speaker session, with the help of Marine Technology Society, also helped. Although the boat trials were easily accessibly, marginal weather and topography made this aspect a mild disappointment. The popular New England Clam Bake was very well received being held at a lovely venue, the nearby Plymouth Plantation. Post banquet entertainment included a sing-along, which could best be described as, interesting. A table top exhibit area has also been included, and attendance was welcomed, but somewhat sparse.

All in all, the event seemed very well received by manufacturers and attendees. Plans are already underway for the next one. Out of a possible ten badges the 3rd Ocean Technology Network receives: 6 1/2 badges.

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4. FAQ: Print Drivers

Does a print driver come with my printer? This is one of the most frequently asked questions. The answer is no, not usually. The majority of the time the printer driver is on the onus of the topside system, whether it be the sonar manufacturer, real-time acquisition system, spectrum analyzer or post processing systems. EPC does, however, offer several print utilities that facilitate such a function. A brief synopsis of EPC Print Utilities:

Application Programming Interface (API): A high level Windows Library for easy integration of the EPC Network Printers (1086NT, 9206 & MP-1086), includes test code. A Windows application with a simple tabbed GUI is available for full remote control and data display on PC systems.

WIN 95/98 NT Developer's Tool Kit: An NT parallel printer interface service for the EPC GSP-1086 Series, 9802 Thermal Graphic Recorder, Model 9205 Thermal Graphic Recorder, and ADS-640 models. In addition to supporting NT applications with kernal mode device driver, the included library also supports normal port IO under Windows 95.

Window Driver for HSP-100: Allows operators to run Window applications such as Word, Excel, etc. to the Model HSP-100.

Image Processing Utility (IPU): A Windows 95/98/NT image processing utility designed and developed by Chesapeake Technology, Inc. for EPC Laboratories, Inc. The IPU application allows EPC thermal recorder users to load, manipulate and print almost any standard graphics imagery file to the EPC A/D Dongle, EPC GSP-1086, EPC 9205 and the EPC 980X Thermal Graphic Recorders. The IPU also imports several industry standard sonar and seismic data formats for instant view and playback on the EPC printers listed above.

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5. Holiday: Closed Columbus Day

EPC will be closed Monday, October 14th in observance of Columbus Day.

Editor's Note: We apologize for the delay in the EPC Monthly. We, O.K. I, have been delinquent, O.K. lets just say lazy, about furnishing a timely newsletter as of late. We will try to be more discipline in the months ahead.

The EPC Monthly is a FREE Newsletter provided to EPC Customers and Industry personnel. If you have received this e-mail in error or you are tired of reading the EPC propaganda, please reply and type "NO MORE" in the subject line.

Next Issue: November 22, 2002

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