Well, today, for the greatest part, manufacturers also add to the fire.
A number of them don't supply schematics or information detailed enough for
service or, else, you need all kinds of extenders or jigs. This only adds
fuel to the fire. But' like somebody said, the "no knowledge" syndrome is
much more disconcerting that the no code one. The new Elekraft K3 is a kit
WITHOUT SOLDERING: 7 minutes to a working radio. NO SOLDERING!!!
What can be expected from a system which encourages blackbox operators just
to keep membership up?
The tendency to pay someone else to do the job robs a lot of people of the
thrills of creating something new with their own hands.
This also entails the disappearance of parts sources, since nobody cares to
look for them. If Digikey charges $10 for 10 SMT resistors and you can't
find through hole components any longer, then building a new radio is really
an expensive proposition!
Alex 4Z5KS
-----Original Message-----
From: amps-bounces@contesting.com [mailto:amps-bounces@contesting.com] On
Behalf Of Pete Lancashire
Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010 6:40 PM
To: amps@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [Amps] Fleamarkets
Sadly it goes beyond HAMs/Electronics etc
I worked in both hardware and software from my days as an engineer at the
old Tektronix
Recently aI co-working got is BS in Computer Science a few months ago. I
needed a simple text filter using Perl. He could not do it. It took about 10
lines of Perl.
I have a small (well not so small) lab in my basement. A friend of a friend
who got his BS in EE about 3 yrs ago was given a 60's transistor radio, I
had him bring it by. It first needed a couple new electrolytics, hadn't a
clue how to go about how to desolder them. The fun began when I turned on a
sig generator and the SA to align the thing he just didn't know what to do.
And was in a daze when I did it w/o even a schematic I mumbled something
about 'it is just a simple 6 transistor AM radio' BTW he will has is MS in a
year.
A couple years ago a HAM has a intermittent in some super duper Yaesu HF
rig, cost him thousands. He was scared to take the cover of. Found a loose
connector in less time then it took to get that cover off, sent him home in
less then an hour.
BTW he had a Extra License.
I could go on for hours ...
-pete sad again
PS And dont get me going about why do Hams use MS Windows instead of Open
Source ..
- Show quoted text -
On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 8:14 AM, Scott McGrath
<mcgrath@fas.harvard.edu>wrote:
> But the larger problem is where are new hams and budding engineers going
> to SEE those components and learn to recognize them, My dad (chemical
> engineer) helped me build radio receivers and other electronic stuff
> on pieces of plywood etc, You can't blame new hams for only
> recognizing parts on a schematic where are they going to SEE THE
> PHYSICAL COMPONENTS!!.
>
> When I was a senior in High School I helped commission a new FM Radio
> station (WEVO) 50KW etc where are the opportunities for kids these days
> to do stuff like that. I'm a technical mentor for the FIRST robotics
> program and yes one of the kids on the team is a ham at 14 so there is
> some dim ray of hope for the future.
>
> I'm a lot less worried about 'no-code' than I am about 'no electronic
> abilities' these days
>
> 73 - Scott N1JIN
>
> david sutton wrote:
> > All very true statments.
> > You see it on the amateur radio groups all the time. most on this
> > group
> will agree i'm sure, Just reading posts from some ham's makes my
> skine cringe.
> > The comment Dave G0OIL made about Dayton and the vacume capacitors
> > he was
> carying. unfortunatley nowa days you don't need to know what a
> risistor or Cap looks like you just got to be able to remember what
> the right answer is to the question.
> > I to remember the time back in england, when you walked down the
> > High
> street Tandy and Richards electric, all sold electronic part's, my
> local Richard electric's was owned by a Radio Ham G3VZR. he sold
> washing machine part's and Heathkit, kits and a ham's tresure trove of
> parts. The manger in Tandy was a ex-royal signles sg maj, Now today if
> you go into Radio shack, you will find youngsters capable of telling
> you how to send text on your cell phone, but not an idea as to what
> those things are in the grey draw racks at the back of the store are for
or do.
> > my 2 cent's
> > Dave
> >
> > Brits with a southern call? how strange, only when you hear the accent.
> > see kg4uxr on :-
> > www.qrz.com/callsign/kg4uxr
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: Scott McGrath mcgrath@fas.harvard.edu
> >
> > Subject: Re: [Amps] Fleamarkets
> >
> > Unfortunately due to the loss of electronic manufacturing in the US,
> > The majority of the technical population in the US has NEVER
> > constructed an electronic device and parts sources are few and far
> > between, I'm in my early forties and I can remember Radio Shack,
> > Lafayette Radio and my town had Evans Radio and Stark Brothers
> > electronics so you had parts and books by people like Forest Mims on
building electronic gadgets.
> >
> > Popular Electroncs had articles on building a "TV Typewriter" now we
> > have "How to hook up your Home Theater". Ah just another step
> > towards a third world economy i.e. Import manufactured goods and
> > Export raw materials and agricultural products.
> >
> >
> >
> > Dr. David Kirkby wrote:
> >
> >> Jim Thomson wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>> From: Dave White <mausoptik@btinternet.com>
> >>> Subject: Re: [Amps] why did Heath die?
> >>>
> >>> What did surprise me was that when I bought a couple of large
> >>> vacuum
> variable capacitors on the fleamarket at Dayton and was carrying them
> around and back to the car, I lost count of the number of guys with
> extra class callsign badges who asked me what they were. Is there a
> message in there somewhere?
> >>>
> >>> Dave G0OIL
> >>>
> >>> ## That is a sad state of affairs, to say the least.
> >>>
> >>>
> >> I recall reading somewhere that in the RAE exam (or whatever it
> >> might be
> called
> >> now in the UK), X % of the candidates did not know how to wire a 13
> >> A
> plug. The
> >> pass mark was Y %. I can't recall X or Y, but I know X was greater
> >> than
> Y. It
> >> stuck me as wrong, that the pass mark could be higher than the
> percentage of
> >> people who know how to wire up a plug.
> >>
> >> An American ham once said to me that a typical project now in QST was:
> >>
> >> "How to Build a 12V 1A Power Supply with a 7812 Voltage Regulator"
> >>
> >> It is a sad state of affairs. I wonder if making the exam harder,
> >> so
> people have
> >> to do more work to get a ticket would help. Or would it just put
> >> more
> people
> >> off, and be worst for the hobby.
> >>
> >> Dave
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Amps mailing list
> > Amps@contesting.com
> > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/amps
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
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> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/amps
>
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