What got you into electronics?

Following WWII my father returned from the Pacific, married my mother and began using his GI Bill to attend college becoming an EE. I grew up being surrounded by the electrical environment, dad was also a ham radio operator. As a kid I was just drawn towards the technology thing while my two sisters and a brother were more my mother and drawn to the arts. I was 13 in 1963 when I got my first ham radio license building my station fron surplus WWII & Korean Conflict gear. Money for school was tight so like my father I joined the US Marines and like my father used my GI Bill benefit for my schooling.

Electronics put beanies and weenies on the table and took care of family. I retired in 2013 at age 63 from a career I really enjoyed and a company which treated me well. I was afforded the opportunity to work with some really sharp people over the years.

Ron

 

Sometime in or around 1955 my father came home from work and showed me a D size flashlight cell, a flashlight light bulb and and a short length of wire. He completed the circuit. Upon seeing the bulb light my fate was cast. My parents and neighbors continued encourage me to exercise my curiosity about electricity (and later electronics). Though I have seen some amazing things since, nothing has electrified me (excusable pun) like seeing that first light bulb come on in my father's hands.

In 1968, my uncle gave me a present for my 7th birthday: a wooden box with lamps and sockets, knife switches—all ceramic, of course, and “bell wire” with a big #6 dry cell. He also included a Dover edition of the NAVPERS Basic Electricity text. I spent hours with that stuff, and one of the lamps was a bimetallic flasher, so I learned about circuits and a variety of things by empirical messing about.

I still have that book, though I’ve repaired it. It’s really a great text.

 

I was curious, and just went back to search the Popular Electronics Archives.:
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Popular-Electronics-Guide.htm
I found my first exposure to the world of hobby electronics: August 1959
I was 14. So many changes since then.

Ken

 

I was curious, and just went back to search the Popular Electronics Archives.:
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Popular-Electronics-Guide.htm
I found my first exposure to the world of hobby electronics: August 1959
I was 14. So many changes since then.

Ken

Every month I looked forward to my father's PE and QST magazines arriving in the mail. In the PE magazines I liked reading The Adventures of Carl & Jerry which during the late 50s and early 60s was good reading for a kid like me.

Ron.

 

Hey @KMoffett I enjoyed reading the Pete and Johnny story about Transistors... It's still fun to read.

 

Watching and 'helping' my Father build and repair radio's in the late 1930's !
Gave all my pre WW2 Radio tech magazines to a Lecturer in 'old electronics'.
E

 

Wow I might have to get one for old time sake:

 

Hi,

Funny story...

When i was 5 years old, the neighbors had a Christmas tree with lights on it that blinked by themselves.
Well, our Christmas tree had lights but they did not blink, so i figured i would MAKE them blink by unplugging and plugging the light cord in and out of the wall over and over again. Yeah, they blinked on and off, but then my finger got closer and closer to the two prongs with each plug and unplugging so eventually my finger went right across the two prongs and with the next plug in i got a huge shock and burnt finger. It was painful of course and blackened part of my finger.
Now you would figure i would hate electronics after that, but nope. I went on to fool with different electrical devices and so on and so forth.

 

i was always curious and wanted to learn more so I looked at the world around me and kept on asking questions.

one day I saw magic tricks and was fascinated, but quickly realized that everyone I knew apparently also knew a trick or two. that was bothering me, I was looking for something that no one knew, or at least most people had no idea about.

as I was always annoying everyone around me with questions about, it became clear that things we call technology is fun and usually very few satisfactory explanations. specially devices relying on invisible things like electrical current, magnetism etc. so I was trying to figure things out on my own. for example magnets… I was not happy to just have few or to merely observe magnet behaviour, I wanted to know how they really worked and see where they are used and how. this meant I still had to disassemble and inspect everything from electric clock, kitchen mixer to brand new expensive speakers. often such things could not be put back together after my inspection (to a great displeasure of my mom).

my father was the smartest person I knew (then and now) and he was always on my side, shielding and nourishing my interests, replacing things that got sacrificed and making it up to my mom. he never raised voice even when something went bad and I am still wondering how the heck did he manage that. for example he was rebuilding engine once and of course I had to be there and offer "assistance" (learn, hand tools, keep company, ask million questions). it was an interesting project, he was finished and just stepped out to answer a phone call - long enough for me to spot a shiny new tool which I had to try of course. I was not sure yet what it was but it looked like a wrench, had knurled adjustment knob and it could make loud click. lets just say that just competed engine block needed few snapped bolts extracted... I don't know how he remained calm. he must have been a saint (I know I would be steaming).

many things we discovered together. in 6th grade I had to choose an elective courses for 7th (and then 8th) grade. I was going to pick math or physics but then I saw listing for "controls and automation". this was offered for the first time in my small town school and teacher was coming from out of town. I insisted on meeting him to learn more about the course. he just finished unpacking but he smiled, showed us to a little room next to new classroom and started demonstrating some of things that he has built (various electronics gadgets). Finally someone who not only knew about all the secrets but knew how to use them to routinely create something completely new and amazing. I was blown away and - that was it. my father was pleased, my mom was happy too since number of sacrificed things around house sharply dropped down. but she could not stop worry that I would electrocute myself, burn myself with soldering iron or etchant, so I had to make sure she did not know about things like that...

 

I found a different path to electronics. As a boy, I was into sports and dinosaurs. Contrary to most here, I didn't have any interest in technology, and I never took things apart to see how they worked. I learned to play guitar because I thought it was cool and might help me meet girls. Somehow, the combination of music and teenage angst inspired my curiosity about the human condition, and why? -- not how? -- became my mantra. I studied philosophy in college, fascinated by the history of human thought. Eventually, I got to 20th century analytic philosophy, which is dominated by formal, systematic approaches to logic, language, and our knowledge of the world. I saw the power of applying hard mathematical techniques to previously soft subjects, but math scared the crap out of me. Nonetheless, that marked the beginning of my love of information theory.

In the decade that followed, my exuberance for why? questions slowly eroded. No one had any bullet-proof answers, and all the pop-sci books I read seemed to suggest that no one ever would. I had come to find that how? questions are much easier to answer. Combining my love of information theory and music, I taught myself everything I could about how music is stored digitally. I didn't understand the integrals in the sampling theorem, but I understood the ideas. However, the more I learned, the more I could see that my non-mathematical understanding had a limit that was clearly lower than whatever upper bound was possible.

Coincidentally, I was working as a Linux sysadmin and software developer for an engineering firm, and became good friends with one of the EEs. I'd teach him about Linux, and he'd teach me basic electronics, patiently tolerating my dumb questions and math ignorance. He helped demystify what had been for me two very mystical things: electricity, which was invisible and scary, and math, which was obscure and scary. The company happened to have a tuition assistance program, and so -- with blind faith that I could handle the math -- I enrolled in an undergraduate EE program. It was probably the best decision I've ever made. The things I learned in engineering school completely changed the way I look at and think about practically every aspect of my life. And it developed in me a deep love for math, physics, and -- of course -- electronics.

So, I suppose you can say that one need not have the knack to get into electronics. But I do think that profound curiosity is a prerequisite.

 

So, I suppose you can say that one need not have the knack to get into electronics. But I do think that profound curiosity is a prerequisite.

+1

I think a big misunderstanding about the knack is that things seem to come easily for what you might have that 'special' talent for. Dues must be paid. The instinctive profound curiosity causes you to commit large amounts of time, labor and mental resources, mainly in isolation, building a subconscious mental framework for quickly classifying novelty until most 'new' problems are just a variation of a theme. You can focus on the tone or tonal dissonance in your head instead of the broadband noise that seems to confuse people without the knack.

 

+1

I think a big misunderstanding about the knack is that things seem to come easily for what you might have that 'special' talent for. Dues must be paid.

Heck yeah... people act like you just know and so easy for you... it was hard work and mental gymnastics that got you there... I have heaps of broken gear that never got fixed... more of them are a tradeoff between cost and time now... but I love that Dilbert short - thanks for sharing. It's how I liked to picture myself when I was little... haha. I think my mom thought I was the destroyer of all things.

 

And some, just want to see the innards.

 

And some, just want to see the innards.

We have a special room for those people. It's warm with very soft walls.

 

What got you into electronics?

Cheap booze, loose women and poor judgement.

 

What got you into electronics?

Cheap booze, loose women and poor judgement.

That works for me!

 

Electronics can be like farming. You do it until the money runs out.

And I do regret not taking those cell site options.

 

Electronics can be like farming. You do it until the money runs out.
.

Or just do it in the military world... can you say 5kW klystron amplifier? We had an extra magnet for one... attached it to a truck frame and couldn't get it off... you can cook hot dogs from the wave guides... good stuff.

I don't remember nerds being that popular... in fact I had to play guitar - which fed more nerdiness because it was so fascinating...

 

It was about 1944. I was 8 at that time. One day we moved to a new house right next door to my best friend. Wow. Soon we had wires between the houses for code practice. Then came a crystal radio and a copy of the Boy Electrician. Loved that Tesla coils and the model T spark coil that ran it. The home arc lamp was great too, though I blew a few fuses when I inserted the salt water rheostat electrodes too far into the water! Later I became an electrical engineer. I said I ruined a great hobby when I did that, but now I am retired and.....

 

Coincidentally, I was working as a Linux sysadmin and software developer for an engineering firm, and became good friends with one of the EEs.
So, I suppose you can say that one need not have the knack to get into electronics. But I do think that profound curiosity is a prerequisite.

As Wittgenstein would say, "at some point your shovel is turned and you can go no further", but that doesn't stop me from digging in new spots while I work on more "practical" things.