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From: john larkin <jlarkin_highland_tech>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: hobby electronics
Date: Wed, 03 Jul 2024 08:49:17 -0700
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On Wed, 03 Jul 2024 12:20:30 GMT, Jan Panteltje <alien@comet.invalid>
wrote:

>On a sunny day (Wed, 3 Jul 2024 10:30:39 +0100) it happened Martin Brown
><'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> wrote in <v635o1$24goj$1@dont-email.me>:
>
>>On 02/07/2024 17:28, john larkin wrote:
>>> 
>>> It's my opinion that there are few hobbyists that really work with
>>> parts and make circuits, and most EE grads are EE/CE dual majors that
>>> code more than they solder, and don't have instincts for electricity.
>>
>>There are still a few, but it has become a very minority interest today. 
>>Partly because everything is so heavily integrated and surface mount.
>>
>>When I grew up you could get dead ICL 1900 boards full of TTL chips for 
>>and bags dross coated transistors at start of line for pennies. Today 
>>there is no equivalent source of cheap easily reused parts.
>>
>>Back then there were also electronic kits for build your own computer etc.
>>
>>A lot of it today is plugging new mass produced modules together. 
>>Raspberry Pi has done a lot for that and to encourage electronics 
>>hobbyists though so it isn't all bad news.
>>> 
>>> Here's a youtube on the subject:
>>> 
>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLnolhyT5SI
>>> 
>>> Some of these guys blame surface mount, which seems wrong to me. There
>>> are lots of thru-hole parts and parts kits around.
>>
>>Surface mount has rendered modern kit all but impossible for the home 
>>user to repair. 
>
>No, its even easier than say resistors with wires through holes
>While back I replaced a surface mount resistor in a digital mulimeter.
>It had evaporated.
>The difficult part was guessing the value from the other surface mount resistors around it.
>SMDs are easy to unsolder and remove and replace.
>
>  
>>I cut my teeth mending transistor car radios back when 
>>chassis earth was chosen randomly by each car manufacturer to be either 
>>positive or negative and people blew up their brand new car radios.
>>
>>The other big earner was mending teenage wannabe rock stars amplifiers 
>>that had their output transistors fried or a pint of beer in them.
>
>In those early sixties I designed and build a tube amplifier for the high school band,
>years later I got a call from the guitarist who really liked the sound
>if I could make some special effects stuff...
>I grew up with tubes and 78 rpm records ..
>
>
> 
>>> I'd like to hire a few kids who love component-level electronics, but
>>> they are hard to find.
>>
>>Go looking at maker-spaces or whatever they are called in the US. Most 
>>of them will be trying to make electric guitars but they will be showing 
>>at least some skills with small pickup coils and low noise amplifiers.
>>
>>Back in my day a lot of our physics practicals were essentially 
>>electronics based - characteristics of a FET, various oscillators and a 
>>substantial digital electronics and logic course with a finishing test 
>>of making a digital dice (it may still be the same course even now).
>>
>>I'm pretty sure the previous generation did the same experiments on 
>>thermionic valves and relays but that was discontinued on H&S grounds.
>
>Teachers, in electronics school we had an old teacher teaching us about transistors
>and a student asked:
>'Sir, what exactly is a complementary pair?'
>Teacher got mad, thought it waa a sex joke, and asked the guy to leave the class.
>Took all of us to convince the teacher that that was a valid question.
>
>So, there but for what you learned yourself go you and I..
>
>But I am a bit diffferent, knew more about radio at 5 years old than some profies.
>Much I learend fron E Aisberg's books... Dutch for 'That is how the radio works':
> http://waij.com/oldbooks/radio_bestanden/Zoo_werkt_de_radio.pdf
>Mother got it for me from the library, was too young to get it myself.
>Later he also wrote 'That is how TV works', and 'That is how the transistor works'
>French:
> https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Aisberg
>
>I don't know if there ever was an English translation, but THAT is good stuff to teach kids...
>I just downloaded the Dutch pdf, good memories! Still all valid!
>He starts with electrons and protons, atoms, the book had an 'ask all' and a 'know all' person
>in conversation about it all...
>Asking the right questions and getting the right answeres is a great way to quickly learn.
>
>I started learning French here ik kindergarten in the late forties..
>Do English ever learn French? German?

Yikes, blast from the past.

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/ryder-amps-cabs-from-the60s.663614/

I designed the signal path of the Ryder amps, including the "bell
tone" circuit, sort of an amplitude-adaptive harmonic adder.

The amp was named for Frank Ryder, mostly because someone liked the
name.