Part 2 of an ultra-slow-motion series, the first part of which was presented last July in “The Electronics Workbench.” All three tube-type oscilloscopes are gone. So’s a signal tracer, two full-sized vacuum tube voltmeters (VTVM’s). And an early Heathkit Signal generator. Poof. In a cloud of fury powered by Mrs. Olson. It’s time to resume that conversation because the summer heat is nearly upon us and the Bench is still not perfect.
Reader Hank set off something of a firestorm of comments recently with his recommendation of a nifty small 3-in-1 multimeter on Amazon. I got to thinking about this, because there are a lot of younger (everyone is when you’re 75, lol) people who would like some of that “old man knowledge” about electronics passed along. But, without taking a day to go through the one-day Technician Class ham radio school. Just want to know a little something about electrical and electronics in general.
Gotcha covered. Organize your thinking first, then organize your acquisitions and space.
Levels in Electronics
Management guru Peter Drucker covered one of the major gaps in business thinking years ago in his book about “Management by Objective.” While MBO as it was called made Drucker famous, the actual title of the book was “The Practice of Management.”
As will happen in all fields, people will come along and put their own spin on things; and nowhere is it more clear than in MBO. Because the two big concepts that followed were Tom Peters’ In Search of Excellence and Andy Grove (of Intel) who was a huge fan of OKR – Objectives and Key Results. I had the pleasure of working with one of Grove’s people (in DLP development) and it was impressed deeply on me that having “objectives” is great, but you have to shepherd things along to actually hit success milestones.
“Huh? Electronics Ure – Get to the Point!”
With all things in life, begin with Observation and Scaling. Nowhere is this truer than in Electronics. In Electronics, people who have no clue what they are doing are called the “Golden Screwdrivers.” These are people who, unable to set up a proper antenna for a radio, for example, will insert a screwdriver into all indecent parts of radio equipment thinking their random twisting of a screwdriver will improve on the results of a highly skilled and experienced engineering team with state-of-the-art resources.
Amazingly, they always screw things up.
A few – highly admirable people – go from Gold Screwdriver to Master Tech whiz. Had a cousin, a bit younger, who did just this. Began as a “golden screwdriver” but upped his game and became a masters of seismic electronics – a huge life accomplishment.
Sometimes life is like that. You know, in the South, the term “shade tree” mechanic” is not a bad thing. But it can be tantamount to adopting the “Bumper Car School” of learning. Where you make every possible mistake (bump!) until finally you find what works. Then you try to remember it.
That’s how “red-necking” works, too. You learn over some number of years what are the zero-budget workarounds and then you can make anything work. With enough duct tape, chewing gum, bailing wire, and someone to “Here, hold this…”
It’s a hell of an inefficient way to learn, though, compared to a copy of Shrader’s Electronic Communication that I had nearly memorized by age 16. But not everyone has the good fortune, a part-time job, and supportive parents with a firm understanding of how to raise young people to make such environments universally available.
The point which cannot be overstated is therefore:
“Do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in electronics of any sort unless you can clearly articulate the problem and support it with data.”
Like so many superficially “hard things in Life” electronics can be broken down into simple tasks.
- Try to use a piece of equipment.
- If it doesn’t work, write down what isn’t working.
- Get documentation it it’s around. I recently picked up an older Hallicrafters SR-400 Cyclone. The Boat Anchor Manual Archive was my first stop. Bama Manual Archive (edebris.com)
- When you have a manual, you can take a basic piece of equipment and compare how it is not functioning with what you would expect by the book. Like our Electronic Detective series, you round up suspects.
- Then you measure.
- Fix that what doesn’t measure as it should.
- Now go play with your working electronics.
The Tools You Need
I’ve done what I can this week to reduce tools needed into four general “classes” of work. Going from the simple to the not so much.
Take a look and see if you can follow the flow:
If all you ever plan to do is work on home maintenance, level 1 (top) should get you through OK. This is the Homeowner Level. Where it is nice to have a good multimeter, a Fluke would be nice. And in the parts department, there would be electrical tape, a junction box, assorted new and ready for us replacement sockets and a few plugs. The hand tools are important, but the most critical part is always turning off the power first.
The second level of tools is AC and some DC work. This is the level where you might work on a busted intercom, a stereo amplifier, or a motor speed controller gone sour. A few more hand tools and a meter of some kind (I like to keep one of those $30-class AC/DC clamp on current meters around because they are so useful). Then a better meter if you want to move into replacement of dried out capacitors – which when they dry, in the power supply filter section – cab make your equipment hum.
Next level we can start working on older solid-state gear (with the big component call “thru hole” (Because they go where? through holes and get soldered to them…). A signal source and a few more instruments, more advanced soldering and we start to load up on components at this level.
Last, we gear up to the max and work on Surface Mount equipment. It’s more challenging and requires specialized tools. Microscope for soldering is a huge plus, hot air soldering and solder-paste, desoldering station is nice and for things like big computer boards, sure, a reflow oven would be nice. The good news is that parts are easier to store (they are tiny and can be in folders) and as long as you don’t get the shakes, it’s rewarding work.
Anyway, that’s the main thing this morning: Getting tools and supplies appropriate yto your intended level of play.
Like the guy trying to figure out which big CNC machine to get for his home, sighting an online auction for a big Fanuc, for example. No, a serious LightBurn license and a 5-watt CNC laser rig for under a thousand on Amazon is the right solution.
Again, scale what you really want to do and then tool up, gear up, accordingly.
I’m still going back and forth on whether I need a 3-in-1 meter…and if I do, which one for what level of play. If you find an easy solution to that one, let me know, OK?
Dirty Knives Drive Me Nuts
Take Saturday morning and the tool cleaning project completed this week was cutting up a bunch of cardboard boxes. Some of which had adhesives on them, packing tape and the like:
See how much goo there is on the hook bill rescue knife (left)?
GooGone works, but so will most of the spray-on bug, tar, and bumper remover sprays you can pick up anywhere. Worst case? A tablespoon of diesel.
Don’t forget once the adhesive is off to give the knife a once through on your sharpener and maybe a strop or three. Depends how much you use and value your every-day carry.
Off to the 3806 coffee clatch on the ham bands… a quite news week ahead, I keep thinking about shorter columns…
Write when you get rich,
George@Ure.net /ac7x
(Still looking for a Hallicrafters PS-500 power supply, buy the way.)
Get Smart TV Show
Maxwell Smart : Don’t pay any attention to him, Phoebe. He’s an electronics genius.
Phoebe : Oh, are you in electronics?
Hymie (the Robot): No, electronics are in me.
Happy 5×5 day
Yesterday was tractor reassembly day. I managed to get through it with mild contusions and a squished pinky.
I remounted a hydraulic cylinder that I had blown the seal on, after sending it out for a installation of a seal kit. That was relatively easy, with one quick trip to the store for a $2 packet of 1/8″ clevis pins.
The next installation was a 3-point hitch stabilizer bar, and that was a 2-hr ordeal. 1.75 hrs was required for me to dredge up the correct tools and sequence, and 10 minutes to actually do the installation. It’s all about level and alignment. Tools required:
8″ piece of baling wire
6″ block
hammer
hardwood tree
stout long chain
bumper jack.
I’ll leave the rest to Ure imagination. Once everything is lined up, it all goes back together with a light hammer tap.
Is the tractor reassembly vocabulary the same as the plumbing vocabulary? I have a project in the near future and I want to be sure I have everything that I need.
Only the terminology you use when you smash your pinky is common. If you need a long chain and a bumper jack for a plumbing job, it is probably time to call for help.
Greatly appreciate Ure advice regards keeping Ure tools clean. This muy importante .
Take for instance Ure May pole, aint nobody gonna wanna “dance” around a dirty May Pole , nobody.
Cant have that as a “Grand Climax” would not occur, wasting Ure hard work and victim (s). You no wanna disapoint “ole Scratch” do you ?
“feels good”
https://youtu.be/qIOaU7Sm-ZE?si=B5H8av5LpxuvdHDJ
Hears hoping you all had a lovely time May pole dancing on Wednesday Walpurgis..at Ure local festival (Beltane)..https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/edinburghs-beltane-fire-festival-2024-thousands-attend-spectacular-celtic-celebration-on-calton-hill-4612104
Interesting video. It reminds me of Burning Man, but it seems everyone is wearing clothes at the Edinburgh festival.
Disappointing.
Consider the sources, yada, yada.
Alleged ‘Time Traveler’ FL Man Sneaks Into Shed Comes Out Way Older Day Later?!?
https://www.tmz.com/2024/05/02/time-traveler-hides-shed-viral-video-tiktok/
Longer video –
Man Claims To Have Caught ‘Time Traveler’ Using His Shed In Bizarre Video!
https://worldstar.com/videos/wshhkKv1nG069LLOikJI/man-claims-to-have-caught-time-traveler-using-his-shed-in-bizarre-video
At 3:33 in the WorldStar video the presenter indicates ‘Mattyice’ did a little investigating and found old interview notes from the time travel, Stephen Albert miller born august 17, 1949, and S.A. indicated an “obsession with sounds and time travel”.
I couldn’t find the interview/notes. May look more in the future.
(“In Electronics, people who have no clue what they are doing are called the “Golden Screwdrivers.” )
lol lol lol.. new untrained nurses were called …Raisins.. lol lol
once the paper training and theory is covered they use to put unlicensed raisins on the floor..
god I could tell some stories lol lol..
A not so embarrassing one was the lift.. A young tech asked about a large stroke patient. the tech was five feet tall not even eighty pounds soaking wet..the patient six foot two forty and strong ..paralyzing stroke where they would attempt to help but push backwards and twist..
the tech would have had hurt their back.. so I said use the equipment that’s why we have it.. the raisin threw a fit at the you g inexperienced tech..I get invo!Fed and told the raisin leave her alone I told her to use it..that’s why its here.. she proceeded to tell me about facility policy I said I don’t give two cents about facility policy..if she gets hurt the facility would be furious if the patient gets hurt she would lose her job. there’s no reason for a back injury..or broken bones. the raisin says the patients evaluated to be 1 standby..ok your about the same height of the tech and similar body build ..I will give you twenty dollars you go in and transfer the patient to the chair.. she said proper technique.. I said go ahead use any technique you want ill stand by to make sure no one gets hurt..
I left with the twenty and the tech used the lift..
Prefer my “raisins” be Smuckered..
https://www.smuckers.com/ice-cream-toppings/magic-shell
Ice cream aint the only things that go well with magic shell, MMMMmmmmmmmmm!
If worlds going to end, might as well go out with a Smile on my ugly mug.
How tell temperature of the ocean? Stick Ure finger in a Wave..https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/diversity/women-in-the-navy/waves.html
My tool using project this week was replacing the handle on a GE microwave (the epoxy fix didn’t fix). GE wanted $70 for the replacement handle, but I got one on Amazon for $27, with free shipping.
When the parts arrived, I got on the PC, entered my model number and watched the first two How to Replace videos.
After spending two hours in a futile attempt to take the door apart, I went back to the PC and watched a third How to video. This one showed a slightly different door configuration, and in a half hour, I had the door apart, the new handle installed, and the door back togather.
Then I attempted to hang the door back on the two small brackets that had holes for the pins in the door to go through.
After another futile hour, I had to conclude that I couldn’t see well enough to complete the simple job, and that the microwave would not be available to cook supper. Sometimes getting old sucks.
I called my son, and he came by and hung the door in ten minutes.
You need to check the door for RFI leak. All microwave doors leak a little, but some leak too much. Ask your son about it. He may know someone with the right test meter.
0
“Sometimes getting old sucks.
Sometimes?? If assisted suicide were available in the US I’d be not posting these lines.
MAY the creator bless you all good people. :-)
Sometimes getting old sucks.
choices
“Sometimes getting old sucks.”
Yes, you are right. I would suggest you move to Canada where it is legal but I won’t. I have no idea how old you are or of your physical or mental health. I am 82 and “giving up” is not on my agenda.
An aging body is like an aging car. Put the wrong gas in it for 60 years and it deteriorates. Run it at full throttle most of the time and it wears out. Leave it sitting in a damp garage with no activity and it rusts out. Drive it like a stock car constantly bumping and running into other people and well, you can see what most stock cars look like at the end of the race.
I made a lot of bad choices at the beginning of my life. How I wish I hadn’t. I got a wake up call in my late 50s when I realized that there things more important than money and superficial success. I now tell my kids and grandkids not to try and be the richest person in the cemetery.
There are a lot of different characters on this website. Some I agree with, some not, but they all add chunks of life experience that I may have missed and I learn.
Life can suck at pretty much any age. I have watched small children die of dysentery in distant countries, not for anything they did wrong but for lack of a simple glass of clean drinking water. That sucks.
People are dying in wars all over the world and most of them are not even close to my age or yours. That sucks.
We watch the political and economic system collapsing that our parents and grandparents worked so hard to build and protect for us and that sucks.
Most of us that post on this website, even the left wing posters, can see what is happening with a world in turmoil. Each of us makes a choice on how we deal with it. Some prepare, some continue with “normalcy bias” disease and some just don’t care.
Assisted suicide is not a good choice in my opinion and I have gone through it with my closest friend. My choice is to try and live through the physical and mental pains of old age but savour the experiences that got me to this age and contribute to the well being of others that have far greater problems than me. I have developed an online relationship with LOOB who frequents here. If anyone has reason to feel like life sucks, it is him. His life experiences would fill two books. Life doesn’t suck for him. He’s too busy helping others.
George opens this forum to a wide range of opinions. I am sure you have things to contribute that may be missing from the lives of the rest of us. Why not share them rather than consider assisted suicide.
Peace my friend.
While some Costly Rican mindset might move to Canada, Ure’s counterpoint is:
We all go when we are ready – to which I’d add no need to move anywhere./ Death will be along in due course. Why hurry going into the penalty box?
To BIC: Thank you for your contribution to this thread. I agree with Geoge Ure ;-). Death will probably come when least expected. Btw. I’m 94 and people don’t take me for older than 80 if that informs you of my health. I am not on any medicine, and I think that I’m fit except for walking with my rollator. It’s getting more cumbersome by the day.
(“1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has seized you that isn’t common for people. But God is faithful. He won’t allow you to be tempted beyond your abilities. Instead, with the temptation, God will also supply a way out so that you will be able to endure it.”)
I have had my share of learning modules.. each one was hard.. but not so hard that I couldn’t work through it.. I think of the motto of the Marines.. “Improvise, adapt, overcome”Being faced with a challenge is often the time when people are most inventive and when ingenuity and creativity thrive.I think about a story of Adam when they had eaten of the fruit.. Adam at one point got so sad and remorseful that he killed himself.. God brought him back.. and basically said.. when its our time.. he will take us..until then he wants us to do what we can in anyway we can.. be the difference.. an old Indian saying to one that felt like they were missing out is….
(““Why shouldn’t we get some pleasure in this life? Why later? Why not now?”
“Because we don’t owe things just to ourselves. There are others.””)
Most of us once we are gone in a few weeks or months will be but a pleasant memory.. or unpleasant.. what we do in life is what matters to be committed to those around you.. a good friend was building a garage.. he looked at the whole garage.. I said don’t view it like that.. its one board.. be the one board.
they wanted me in hospice three times now I was not expected to survive.. I am still here saying more than ten words .. take the day for the moment.. instead of viewing the negative.. be the positive..
the things we all take for granted..
none of us knows how we affect all of those around us strive to get as much out of life.. life isn’t about getting. its about giving giving your wisdom to someone else.. to share their greifs and help them through a struggle that they can’t see the answer but in your eyes and mind you have the answer at your finger tips..be the obnoxious grandpa at a childs sports game rooting him on.. What I learned the hard way was it wasn’t about the number or the thing.. that is gone in an instant.. its about Family, friends, Faith show those in your life how much they mean to you every chance you get.. God Bless Choices look at cloud shapes.. ( I get a real lift doing that ) and a cup of coffee..give those that visit a hug.. think the positive .. teach what you know to the younger kids.. quit watching the evil doings that are being shown for entertainment on television..I tell you that puts the negative images in your mind and makes you question a lot..
‘ Death will probably come when least expected. Btw. I’m 94 ‘
OMG Choices.. share your story.. at ninety four.. you have a lifetime of wisdom and experience to share with others….the best part of working in healthcare was learning everyones story.. volunteer.. there are kids all over the planet that could use the wisdom you have.. wisdom of the ages how many people I run across that are young but doesn’t have an answer.. they see the issues they are dealing with and can’t see the door or passage to make it past it….
choices. Please tell us how you made it to 94 with no medications. People would pay big money for that secret :-)
Ure,
One failure mode I never see covered anymore is dendritic growth. Back when solder was lead solder this was not ever a problem. It was a known problem when using silver solder, the silver dendrites could grow even without power. Caused many a problem with old silver solder containing products. When the EPA banned lead in solder and the newer compounds came out there was a flurry of failed systems, especially as the spacing between leads became extremely small. Given that a lot of then newer products always had power somewhere in the system (no real power interrupt switch) there would be a power differential between two leads. Given the spacing, the fields in volts per inch were high enough to cause dendritic growth with the lead free solders between the leads and then failure and the power levels were too low for the short to burn out. Solder technology has improved to the point that is not a regular problem anymore, unless factory quality control slips.
I rescued my Eton XM1. I used to keep batteries in it all the time, one day it wouldn’t turn on. WTF. Remembered the old solder dendritic growth issue. I disassembled the entire unit. Depending on the boards, washed some under the faucet, all were swished around in a Pyrex dish filled with distilled water, placed out in hot AZ sun to dry off. Reassembled and viola, radio worked. Now I keep the batteries out the unit unless I’m using it. I have rescued a flat screen tv and a cheapie radio that way as well.
The last VHF TV transmitter that RCA produced… the ‘G’ line… was supposed to be the latest and greatest in solid state low-level drivers for the final 20kw power amp tube. We had one in a high-rise oceanside in Honolulu. We found the driver boards had the dendrite problem that eventually was beyond rescue or repair. The entire driver rack was replaced with another manufacturer’s low power transmitter to drive the 20kw PA. The RCA transmitter suffered other design defects that were difficult to manage to keep it on the air. RCA broadcast went out of business after this dismal failure of a design.
A very good source of quick basic rundown of older equipment and a good source of old manuals. (free)
RIGPIX.COM
Top notch.
Item Two
“The Knack” (Short: about 2 minutes.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EbNrTf-cQE
73
KW1B
“…became a masters of seismic electronics”
This caused me to remember an old repairman’s joke. Jarring is an approved method of repair. This may require anything from a three- to six-foot drop, preferably onto a concrete floor. But we must be careful with this method. We do NOT want to mar the floor!
“Do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in electronics of any sort unless you can clearly articulate the problem and support it with data.”
Probe and test, probe and test, measure voltages and describe exactly what is going on. An Army master teaching us digital electronics told us we will have a commander over our shoulder demanding to know “when will it be fixed”. Tell him.. “Five minutes, Sir… and as the commander is walking away pleased, shout after him: “… AFTER I find where the problem is, sir!”
Then there was the installation instructions for a foreign-made piece of complex TV broadcast equipment. Clearly a misprint, it read: “Before beginning, make sure the needed REST equipment is readily available.”
And for Star Wars fans, yesterday’s joke was: “May the 4th be with you “
Make it so.
Mote it be.
Star Wars?
LASERS APPEARED OVER HAWAII IN FEBRUARY 2024 AND WERE RECORDED BY AN OBSERVATORY
Nostradamus and The Third Age of Mars 2024, G.A. Stewart, 2023, Pages 404-405
I believe Nostradamus called this technology the “Promontory Weapon of Mars.” There are eight important prophecies that suggest this weapon is integral to World War III. Even though they are outside the timeline, I have collated them and added my interpretations at the end of this chapter, because appropriately, one Quatrain calls the weapon, “The Black King’s Horn.”
On August 8th, 2023, the city of Lahaina on the Hawaiian Island of Maui was destroyed by a fire hot enough to melt the aluminum wheels and windows of cars without harming the asphalt on which the cars rested. The suspicious nature of the fire in conjunction with government actions suggests the use of Directed Energy Weapons from satellites, and those rumors have currently gone viral on the Internet.
https://main.theageofdesolation.com/GA-STEWART-NOSTRADAMUS-PAGAN-SECT-2024-9-1-1.html
Q – Whose Satellites ?
– heard recently they be trying to deflect responsibility on the Chyknees.
Ever since “they” killed Kennedy brothers and MLK – we been living in “Make Believe Time”.
Dark Times for the Human Herd on planet Urth.
A- same assHOLES who are fucking with Bird Flu – imposible to Cross species..UNLESS previously “fucked with” Hell O toni FOULqi, FU dazak x 3 !
hear the hounds a howling, yet ? Soonly – I Promise.
The Show SUCKS ! A bullscheisee, all the time.
the wargames analyst I was listening to on the George Noory radio show.. was talking about that very report.. except he brought up NK that we would take out Iraq first then go after syria etc… in that list of seven countries the whole middle east was involved in it.. A week after the broadcast.. North Korea restarted their nuclear program..
It was funny to because I was reading a story about the US building a pipeline to the coast but Iraq was against it so was the Taliban and Iran.. that was in June.. that september the twin towers and we marched into Iraq.. a coworker was sent there.. and I would send a box every month of things that are taken for granted.. toilet paper hard candy body powder for the boots.. etc. My brother went over and I didn’t know what to give him.. so I asked the Rangers and Seals I know what was the one most useful tool or gadget that they had.. it came back get a multi tool.. ( everything that my brother had was made in china..military issue.. my shoes now are Vietnamese from the VA) So I picked him up a good multi tool.. he still carries it.. shortly after that.. we see china and russia all making agreements with all the countries .. then the port deal with the company that makes the club k.. now open borders
Yeah… green ‘ground mapping’ lasers. Low power stuff. Definitely not blue lasers starting Maui fires.
I’ve said it before… it would take megawatts to terawatts of energy into a laser to penetrate atmospheric attenuation at orbital distances to cause that kind of damage at ground level. Nuclear reactors with that kind of power do not exist ‘in orbit’. China is currently ‘developing’ a one-shot chemical laser for satellite killing… on orbit and it does not penetrate the atmosphere.
I have a bit of experience with UHF radio propagation thru the atmosphere from orbit. NASA photo archives have a pix of the ISS commander talking to me on the ham radio, and I can prove to two ways. Even UHF ‘line of site’ gets disrupted for FM voice communications. It was a difficult contact. Blue lasers starting fires on the ground? forget it.
People who point to melted wheels have no concept of what an 80mph wind-driven wildfire can do.
“In Electronics, people who have no clue what they are doing are called the “Golden Screwdrivers.”
This was me when I was 4. I was allowed to tinker because BigBro and our next-door neighbor were both degreed, licensed electronics technicians. Mom & Dad figured letting me play with stuff was a great way to both allow me to learn and allow my brother to hone his repair skills. I wasn’t allowed in the backside of a TV until I was about 7-8, had begun to have actual success in repairing electrical and electronic stuff, and had been preached to, literally hundreds of times, regarding the danger inherent in the HV box and the delicacy of the stems of (and expense of replacing broken) CRTs, but radios, test equipment, and appliances — you bet! I loved my VOM (old Philmore) and used it nearly daily for years, even for things it couldn’t do…
France just deployed a battalion of Legionnaires to the front lines in Ukraine.
Emmanuel Macron is desperately trying to take Europe into World War III. The EU elections are June 9th, and the Right is well ahead in most of the polls, which is unsurprising as Europeans are starting to wake up to the cost of Climate Change. Like Biden, Macron seems to need a war, fearing a loss of power on June 9th.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/war/macron-needs-war-before-the-eu-june-9th-election-as-does-biden/
when I asked Ai when it would start.. I got back the date of November this year…since we know that no republican will be elected or allowed to take the seat of the country.. my guess is after the election results it will ignite.. that also goes with the alois irlamair prophecies to..
I am taking suggestions:
I need to be able to carry my 9mm while working.
I will be carrying it for protection against critters, not people. Therefore I’m seeking a chest or shoulder holster — something that’s not intrusive and will not get in the way if I’m lifting or dragging stuff, or lying on my back, working overhead on a tractor.
I asked someone I know.. he does a lot of mountain and wilderness travel.. anyway.. here is what was suggested..
https://gunfightersinc.com/shop/custom-kenai-chest-holster/
What’s funny is when I asked his opinion ..he curiously asked if I was finally ready to get one and a gun lol lol.. he spent decades going from one hot zone to another..now he wanders around on weekends..I said no..my bolster of choice is the backyard griller chefs holster to carry grill tools..lol lol
Hope it helps with what you will require.. I do know he knows a lot about guns and holsters.. That of course is why I called and asked him about what he would carry..
“a lot of younger (everyone is when you’re 75, lol) people who would like some of that “old man knowledge” about electronics passed along.”
From ARRL, “The Radio Amateur’s Handbook” opening chapters have one of the finest introductory programs to electronics I have ever seen. You can start from zero knowledge and teach yourself electronics in these opening chapters. How far you take it after that is up to you. Got questions? The answers are there. You can learn about DC, AC, resistance, capacitance and other components and functions, and how things interact. This is a self-study dream.
https://home.arrl.org/action/Shop/Products#filter=%7B%22Facet%22%3Anull,%22SubFacet%22%3Anull,%22Category%22%3Anull,%22SubCategory%22%3Anull%7D&searchTerm=Handbook&searchItemNameTerm=&searchDescriptionTerm=&productClass=
The only way, is the NAVY way.
1) Basic Electronics and Electricity School for beginners
2) A School – drills down into particular job description..RM, IC,EW..
3) C School – deeper dive into particular job description.
*I got a set of dummy Orders for BUDS Training out of electronics A School.
“Someone” (ole halfass) put a big green placard card in front page of my official record that said in big black letters UDT/SEAL candidate. They never bothered to dig deeper into record to find 4yr + 2yr for ATField contract. Ended up having to give me a choice tween the 2..drop the +2yr of Enlistment, and attend 26 weeks of BUD/S, or 6 yrs and a C School…never guess which one I choose?
This after being told all along that Advance Technical Classification precluded me from tadpole training, I had fallen out of shape and was smoking again.
* “ole halfhass” was Nam vet SEAL who literally lost the other half of his ass to RPG fired into boat squad was extracting with. Yeah, real hero jumped on top the f-ing thing.
Most of body was covered in scar tissue, office was a darkened cave like place, spooked out. Told me to practice eating raw meat sprinkled with gunpowder when I asked about prep for BUD/S..funny guy.
Lol lol chat GPT couldn’t answer why the USA has to borrow money to finance the budget lol lol