Does anyone know of a club or group that meets in different chapters all over? I really would like to join something where I can meet many people, interested in electronics. I would join IEEE, but of course you actually have to know what you're doing to be a part of that. So if anybody know of a club that actually meets in person on a regular (possibly at least monthly) basis it would be wonderful if you could inform me, thanks

 

The AARL is one:
http://www.arrl.org/
There are ARRL-affiliated clubs all over the place. How frequently they meet depends upon the club, but it's generally monthly.

A Google search for "HAM clubs" gave over 640,000 hits. Add your city, town, or county to narrow it down.

 

are arrl clubs for electronics in general or radioing only? I looked up both of those and they seemed to be strictly radio from my research.

 

I ran an electronics club at my college, but nobody cares. I really enjoyed the 500/$/semester they gave me to buy stuff though!

Steve

 

First couple pages of a Google search on "electronic club meetings" looked promising. Adding terms for my own location was not so promising.

 

are arrl clubs for electronics in general or radioing only? I looked up both of those and they seemed to be strictly radio from my research.

I can't tell you for certain; that will largely depend on your local groups.

The best way to find out would be to attend a few meetings. Frequently, these meetings are open to the general public. After the close of business, talk with some of the members. You'll likely find that quite a few dabble in things not strictly radio communications oriented.

 

This board is as close as i'll probably ever get to an electronics club ...
nobody at my tafe seems interested in it.

 

A lot of people would argue that it is becoming a rare hobby. This is because components aren't as simple and easy to work with as they used to be, which is a degree of separation for the hobbiest. Myself, I find it an ideal time to get into electronics because PCBs are cheap and SMT isn't that hard to solder (unless it is a stupid BGA, of course).

Steve

 

Scuba, You mean you think PCB's are going to get more expensive,why is that? And how did you manage to get 500 a semester. You were the proctor and they trusted you would buy stuff for the club, haha.

Thingmaker, yeah, same here, I found some really great clubs in England though. It's only an 8 hour flight from the Jersey shore though.

wookie, ok, thanks I will look into it

lannan, hmm I agree with steve, in most cases, with modern technology, it really has to be a profession if you want to be considered proficient, i mean come on, I don't even know how o use a 555 yet, hahaha

 

Hey,

I was saying that PCBs are cheaper these days, so you don't need to play around with acid in the garage and invest in basic equipment to make PCBs. Personally, I used www.4pcb.com , since they offer a 33/each (2-layer) and 66/each(4-layer) specials.

For the club, I had good intentions from the start, but the truth was that people were too busy with their studies to care about being in a club. That apart from people that are studying electronics weren't really interested in it, which I find really confusing.

Yeah, I was technically the president, vice-president, and treasurer of the club We(I) made a lot of school-financed projects when I was in college. It wasn't really deceptive because the people that operated the school events and clubs knew and didn't care. It looks good if there are a lot of active clubs in the school and it is bad if there is a lot of unused money in their division. I ran a legitimate ski and snowboard club with friends though, which had over 200 members.

Steve