[TechAssist] Re: where did u guys learn?
- From: larry <schntv@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: techassist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 20:01:08 -0400
OK guys, I tried to be quiet, for fear someone was going to
complain about the non-tech posts.
but you are all getting away with it , so I will tell my story
also. lol
At about 10 years I began building radio kits, Knight, Heath,
etc.
I Loved electronics, and studied and became a license Ham
Radio operator.
Experimenting and tinkering is fun, but, in my opinion, wont
really teach the basic building blocks.
My tinkering caused questions in my mind that only study would
answer.
I hated to read as a child, but in my small town, that was the
only place I would find any help.
So I read every book and magazine in the local library, and
the Radio Amateurs Handbook, and anything I could get my hands
on.
Once you learn the difference between RF and DC, and
understand what a cap or a resistor or a coil will do to it,
you are on your way.
You than have a chance to teach your self.
You must love your work, and when you dont understand why
something
happens, study until you figure it out, by reading or asking
questions,
even if it costs 3 bucks a minute from Sony. lol
Try to forget about making the profit you deserve, and enjoy
your experimenting, and take time to teach your self the
answers to those questions that bug you.
Like all of us, I believe I am worth far more than I earn, but
life has been good, and I am doing what I love, and I am my
own boss. Well, when my wife isn't around. lol
Just my opinion,
Larry
Electric Medic wrote:
>
> WE HAD 14 television sets in our house during the ?60s, none of which worked
> properly. My dad was the TV repairman!
> There were two sets in the living room?one provided the sound, while the
> other flashed a barely visible picture. Mom and I tried in vain to find the
> faulty tube or loose screw that made the picture too dim to watch.
>
> Dad could have done it. His customers said he was a genius when it came to
> fixing their broken TV sets.
>
> Trouble was, Dad was so busy fixing TVs at night and working his factory job
> during the day, he had no time to repair our set.
>
> Mom was the one who persuaded Dad to get into TV repair. Years before they
> were married, Mom attended the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago in
> 1933 and the New York World?s Fair in 1939, where she saw demonstrations of
> television.
>
> My parents bought their first set when they were married in 1949. Mom then
> urged Dad to go to night school and learn how to fix TVs.
>
> Dad enrolled in the television repair class at a technical school. When he
> finished the class, he bought a repair kit that he carried in a big case.
>
> Word soon got out in our Augusta Georgia South Side neighborhood that Dad
> was a technical whiz. He could figure out the problems people were having
> with this magnificent, but complicated, piece of equipment they could no
> longer live without.
>
> Referrals from satisfied customers kept our phone ringing at all hours. Even
> at midnight, we would get calls asking for Dad?s help. At 4 years old, I was
> already taking Dad?s phone messages. ?My TV went out during The
> Millionaire!? one panicked customer cried.
>
> Lots of Tubes to Test
>
> In those days, most of the problems with TV sets were in the tubes?and those
> huge sets had a lot of them. Some used as many as 25, and all were different
> sizes.
>
> I remember going with Dad to a customer?s house. He?d unscrew the back of
> the set, brush off the dust inside, then remove any tubes that looked dark.
> That meant they were burned out.
>
> If he didn't?t have a replacement tube in his kit, Dad would go to
> Walgreen's, which had tubes and a tube-testing machine. Dad taught me to use
> the tester. He showed me how the prongs on a tube would correspond to the
> holes in the testing machine. I?d plug in the tube, then turn the knob to
> ?On?. A dial would tell if the tube was ?Good?, ?Weak? or ?Poor?. Dad would
> then buy the tubes he needed.
>
> Sometimes the tubes were all good, but the picture kept rolling. If the
> problem was the horizontal or vertical hold, it meant there was a loose
> screw somewhere.
>
> Once their sets were fixed, smiles spread across the customer?s faces. Dad?s
> fee? In 1959 it was about $2, plus whatever tubes he had to replace.
>
> Old Sets Were Handy Loaners
>
> When customers bought new TVs, they often gave Dad their old sets. He
> welcomed them because he could use the good tubes to repair other sets. Dad
> also used the sets as loaners if he had to take a customer?s set home for
> repair.
>
> That?s how we ended up with 14 sets, none of which worked properly. That?s
> also how Mom and I, after trying to fix the sets, knew that Dad really was a
> genius.
>
> When solid-state television sets appeared in the ?60s, Dad?s business
> plummeted. The new sets were too advanced, too technical for him, Dad said.
>
> Before long, the late-night repair calls stopped, Walgreen's removed its
> tube-testing machine, and Dad?s repair kit was tucked away in a closet.
>
> Just like the iceman, the doctor who made house calls, and the man who came
> by to sharpen knives, the TV home repairman?s era came to an end.
>
> Dad continued to work at his factory job and he worked weekends at an
> old-fashioned soda fountain. I helped him there, too.
>
> But he never did fix any of those 14 TV sets we had at home
>
> Perry Bower, (EHEER) Electronic Home Entertainment Equipment Repairer
> Electric Medic
> "It's Cheaper to Keep Her"
> http://www.electricmedic.com
> Free Electronic Screensaver:
> http://www.eyetide.com/download/?s=O3OfmSLHXygGHCv1W6Gz3Bgjtq3DNNMNdcKsYSVGC
> 3850 Washington Road Suite 5b
> Augusta, Georgia 30907
> Phone: 706-8MEDIC4 (863-3424)
> Phone: 706-863-3474
> Fax: 706-863-2316
> mailto:info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: inventdv [mailto:inventdv@xxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2003 3:51 AM
> To: techassist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [TechAssist] where did u guys learn?
>
> im intrested in where some of u guys learnt repair
> tell me
>
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--
Schneider TV & Electronic Inc.
5415 N. Wooster ave.
Dover, Ohio 44622 www.geocities.com/schntv2000/
330-343-0768 FCC. first class & Extra class K8WLY
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