How did you get started in Electronics

[MEZLAW]

I though this would be a good way to get to know one another a little better. The title states "ELECTRONICS", I did this because everyone may not be into radio and more into audio. With that said I'll start;

In the 1950's we used to have a big family picnic a few Sundays during the summer at a place called Sherwood Island, the whole family would meet there. My Uncle Joe would provide a radio for listening to a local radio station. Well we didn't a lot of portable radios back then and they also had huge batteries. Well Uncle Joe would take and old car radio along with a section of an old dashboard which contained the speaker and place it against a tree. He also brought a extra car battery and an old car antenna and set the whole mess up. I was fascinated to see this pile of parts come to life! I've been hooked ever since! Thanks Uncle Joe!

[electra225]

I was lucky to have two elmers. But I reckon my actual start was in Mr. Wells' Zenith TV shop. The shop was in the basement of his home. I worked in the shop for three hours on Saturday mornings. My job was to have the TV sets on and warmed up so he could make adjustments when the test pattern came on Channel 8 at 6 am. At 8 am, I would start work at the Cities Service station in town

[19&41]

When I was little, about 6, my dad gave me a rocket crystal radio. He went with me around the house to seek out the "suitable ground" the instruction sheet said was necessary. It was amazing to me when that radio eked out the nearby AM radio station from 8 miles away. That was the first hook. The next was my dad's portable shortwave radio. I used up many sets of batteries in that one. He got me a shortwave radio of my own, a sears Com Trek
AM FM SW and public safety bandspreads. I wanted to learn about how such things worked and to work on them. I had a short class in some electronics from a good shop teacher who got training materials from the Delco Electronics facility in Kokomo, IN and taught us about automotive electronics. That was a start. My real immersion in electronics came at Ft. Sill, OK. I was taught a course in basic electronics, with more advanced training and individual courses in each type of tactical communication system I would be working with. That was the true start of my lifes' career in electronic repair. I've been trained on newer and newer equipment throughout my working life. While at Ft. Sill, I learned about tube architecture communications, and how to troubleshoot them. Much more recently, I decided to start getting radios that I knew growing up and restore them to proper function. I also have radios like my dad's shortwave and my first shortwave, though those were solid state. My favorite restoration is the Magnavox in my avatar. It does most of my SW listening.

[William]

My very first was a crystal radio as well. I could never make it work, but looking back I think it was because I lived in the sticks with poor reception. My next was music, and something decent to listen to it with. My Dad and I built a mini console out of plywood for a Mercury 12" speaker, a 4 tube amp, and a RCA 45 changer. That was actually a nice sounding little unit and eventually got upgraded from RCA 45 changer to a three speed changer with a ceramic cartridge. Around that time I got my job at the Gamble store. I was 14 and was very happy to be around TV's, Radios, and record players. I would demonstrate for customers, sell, and even deliver. I was kind of an all in one guy. I would watch, and try and learn, from the guy that did the repairing, but he never seemed to have the time to actually teach me the trade. I would make house calls to clean tuners, and change out tubes but that was about it. Those were fun times, simple times that I miss.

Bill

[hermitcrab]

I was about 8 or 9 years old and we moved into a new house, and in the basement was a chassis out of a admiral radio ... to me the tubes reminded me of the towers on the jetsons and I would pretend they were ... when the TV would quit... Ackley's TV service would come to the house and I would drive the poor guy nuts looking over his shoulders and asking a hundred questions ... but he did his best to show and explain what and why he was doing what he was ...at 14 I got my first radio a 42-380 Philco... { still have it} been hooked ever since ... anything electronics ...TV , Radio, audio , Yes Please!

[TC Chris]

My Dad had a nonworking AA5 from the WW II era. Seems to me he had brought it back with him and had the olive-drab cabinet painted brown & beige. I can recall asking Dad to help me "take it apart" so I could figure out how it worked when I was maybe 7 or 8. As you know, radios don't much come apart unless you start cutting. I ran the IF transformer adjusting cap screws in and out. I pulled the speaker later to use as a remote for another radio. Still have this unfortunate old AA5. Eventually I conned my grandfather out of the 1935 Airline 62-167 console that sat unused in his basement. It worked and gave me the broadcast band and SW. Still have that one, waiting for a recapping. My Dad got the idea that this was an interest so he ordered up a Knight-Kit Space-Spanner 3-tube regen. set (BC and SW) that we built. Still have that one, too. I got a ham radio novice license under the influence of Mr. MacKenzie, who ran a TV repair shop and sold Zeniths. I was a poor student and never quite acquired code skills so the license lapsed after a year. But my fascination with glowing dials, snagging invisible signals out of the air, and improving the audio quality of music continued.

Chris Campbell

[MEZLAW]

My real immersion in electronics came at Ft. Sill, OK. I was taught a course in basic electronics

WOW!!!! I can't believe it REX! I got to teach a basic radio class at Ft. Sill in 1970. When where you there?

[19&41]

September to October 1974. Not a bad post. I turned 17 while waiting for my class assignment.

[William]

You were young, Rex.

Bill

[19&41]

I'll get out a picture of me around that time and put it up. I enlisted not too long after I turned 16.

[electra225]

To all of you on here who have served our country, we thank you for your service.

[William]

If I might ask, were you already out of high school?

Bill

[19&41]

It was a new plan at the time, one would enlist in the inactive reserve before graduation, then in my case, 2 weeks after graduation, I was sworn in to the regular Army. Then a trip through the induction center in Indianapolis, then on the bus to Ft. Knox, KY for basic. I graduated the day Richard Nixon went home to San Clemente.

[19&41]

The early entry allowed me to choose the unit I was to serve in, and have the education and MOS I wanted.

[MEZLAW]

Then a trip through the induction center in Indianapolis, then on the bus to Ft. Knox, KY for basic.

Well Rex, we almost crossed paths again. I also did basic in Kentucky.....Ft. Campbell. Home of the 101 Airborne.

[SeniorSteve]

I went to St. Paul Vocational Technical Institute (TVI) starting in the fall of 72. I took the 3 semesters of basics , then went into TV/Radio repair. Finished near the top of the class, but went back into communications for another semester. Ended up getting my first class FCC license (I think that was the first year you could use a calculator in class - which I specifically purchased for). I never renewed the 1st Class License and don't even know where the paper certificate is. Got into a small town doing radio/TV/Stereo servicing for a few years, but ended up doing more deliveries that I would like so moved on. Got a job at a medical device company and worked the production line as a tech verifying TENS units.

That company went under so I went to another company in Minneapolis doing repair work on projection TV's mainly the Advent and the Nova Beams (they looked like a Norelco shaver, but were best of the breed at the time). I also repaired VCR's and consumer cameras, they were "the" thing to have back then. Repairs on consumer electronics didn't pay real good back then, and if you had a "dog" you could take a pretty good ding in the paycheck since where I worked was all commission work.

I left there and went to a school district as their "High Tech Service Center" technician in 1984. Ended up doing 12 years there and was their network tech back when Novell 2.15 was out and upgraded to Novell 3.11. Anybody remember Novell? I changed school districts in 1996 and replaced a "network consultant". Worked there for just under 20 years. Went through the changeover from Novell to Microsoft in 2006. The Technology department went from 5 people when I started to over 20 by the time I left in late 2015. I was one of the "Network Specialists" and was in charge of about 700 printers, kept the switches and routers running along with some of the servers.

Retired late 2015 and started enjoying working on old radios and stereos. With TV's being digital I never really had an interest in fixing something that was obsolete. I have always enjoyed working on radios and stereos, so I picked up some test equipment and started purchasing a few radios. The radios and stereos I prefer to work on have FM as that just sounds so much better than AM radio. I do have to say though trying to DX the AM band is still rather fun on a good radio. I really have to get rid of a couple of the consoles as the house isn't large and I want some space back.

That's how I got started (again) Did I put you to sleep?

[TC Chris]

That's how I got started (again) Did I put you to sleep?

I read the whole thing with interest. Thanks for posting. We need to have a new rule: "No apologies." Anybody who doesn't read can move on easily enough.

Chris Campbell

[SeniorSteve]

Chris, I wrote the comment as a "tongue in cheek" comment. In fact I was smiling when I wrote it, thinking of how much sarcasm was dripping off of it. I'm hoping I didn't offend anyone. Now there's an apology.

Steve

[electra225]

I like the idea of no apologies, Chris. I'll put those in the rules extension, when the time comes. We are a family here, Senior Steve. I, too, read your post with interest. You don't need to apologize for anything.