I started my career building satellites, then went to work at a government facility for 27 years and did an apprenticeship for electrician, they then offered a tech apprenticeship, and I did that most of the rest of my time there. After that I spent the last 6 1/2 years prior to retirement as an electrician for a University. I follow Mr. Carlson on YouTube and Patreon.
The name here is John and like many of you…electronics has followed me since childhood:) I’m truly honored to be a part of Mr. Carlson’s forum, it’s difficult finding others with our level of interests. I’ve held a 1st Class Commercial license and I’m currently a Ham radio licensee as you can tell from my call. I spent most of my life (81 years) being self-employed in a HVAC company for 30 years and then twenty years as a glass blower. Now retired, with time for my lab and discovering new ideas and technics…I spend time everyday trying to learn something new, the knowledge pool is vast…then I found Mr. Carlson! Thank you Paul.
Wow, I feel humbled when I read all of your backgrounds. Also happy because it means there’s a ton of experience and knowledge here that I can profit from, hehe! 🤓
I have no background or extensive knowledge in electronics. I’m a landscape architect and work with urban design, public spaces, etc. Electronics have always been fascinating to me but I didn’t really take the step into it until my oldest son started to be really into guitar playing. That got me into effect circuits, tube amps, vintage electronics, etc. I’m a person who always go way down the rabbit hole when it comes to research and planning projects but I can struggle when it comes to finalizing them. I’m working on that though. I’m always looking on local auction sites for nice test gear and are slowly building up a little lab. Saving up for a decent scope. If I felt confident enough to fix or restore one I would probably already have an old analogue one. Will probably start with a entry level digital one though.
Oh, and I’m from Sweden with a fiancée in Canada (long story lol).
(Went to a flea market outside Montreal last summer and saw this. Too bad I couldn’t take it as carry on luggage back to Sweden lol)
I’m mainly a music person, having performed and recorded opera, choir, and orchestral stuff for decades. Lately I’m more into building and modding the gear I use to record and mix with. I have no formal training, but rather started following Mr. Carlson’s many helpful tutorials, reading a few key books, and just mucking about on the breadboard. I’m only about 3 years into it so far, and am certainly bit by the bug. Thanks for making this, PC!
I’ve been doing electronics for most of my life, got into vintage tube stuff in my high school years in early to mid 2000s greatly inspired by the aesthetics of Fallout, a series of roleplaying video games. I went on fixing stuff, restoring old radios, building guitar and hi-fi amps, working on tape machines, etc. I studied chemistry, got a master’s degree, never worked in the field – then went on doing IT tech support while still doing my not so advanced back then electronics lab as a side gig. Later on I worked at the Book Art Museum, developed a computer control device for Monotype composition casters, did a bunch of other projects, moved out to another city where I am now. I did repairs, remodeling, plumbing and wiring jobs, and again, been running my electronics lab mainly for my own projects. I’ve also started my own Youtube channel in December 2021 and got more involved in the YT electronics community. Now building amps, restoring radios, modding effects and synths, fixing appliances, doing some IT, reverse-engineering stuff, making videos… This fall I had an electronic engineering job at a company that makes EVSEs (a.k.a. electric car chargers), it was a fun gig but the company did poorly and had to cut down, me included. I’ll just Keri on doing tech – Keritech… Running a small and independent lab has its advantages and disadvantages; I can show that it’s entirely possible to do that even having trouble making ends meet living in an economically underprivileged country such as Poland.
Hi Larry…81 here so I can relate! Its magic when the electronic bug bites:) 73, John
Glad to meet you John, yes it is never to late, just a little more of a challenging. 73 Larry
Larry – N7LUF
Keritech… Running a small and independent lab has its advantages and disadvantages; I can show that it’s entirely possible to do that even having trouble making ends meet living in an economically underprivileged country such as Poland.
Hello @keri
I love your country! My wife and I have been there several times. You all are very hard-working people. You can make your lab happen!
BTW, it’s cool that you are interested in modding effects and synths. Audio electronics is where I spend most of my time. I’m slowly working on designing my own custom Eurorack synth. Some modules I purchased. These few are more for reverse engineering than for the sounds they make. I also like to create my own modules – because it is cheaper and way more fun.
Looking forward to seeing (and hearing :)) what you come up with!
Good luck for your new business! Życzymy sukcesów!
ciao
– Howard in Florida, USA
Spent most of the latter half of the 90s as a part-time CmpE student and part-time software developer. Alas, I wasn’t terribly great in most of my EE classes at the time and too much of my focus was on work. There was a lot of easy money to scoop up in the early-Internet days, I’m sure everyone remembers the infancy of all those “internet appliances” they promised us back in the day… IoT before anyone had even heard of IoT. Given that even Microsoft couldn’t get people to buy into WebTV/MSN TV there wasn’t much hope for anyone else.
We all know that bubble burst in the early 00s, I took my severance and savings and just chilled out for a while then 9/11 came around and I decided to follow my lifelong dream of riding submarines. Enlisted (never did get that degree in all that time!) and became a submarine sonar technician. I was older than the average recruit when I went in and decided one stint was enough.
After separating I went into sonar engineering, integration and test and have been doing that for the past 18ish years.
Most of my hands-on electronics experience is hacking together test jigs for the lab from whatever I can get my hands on… I don’t do any work on the production side, most of my bodged-together work wouldn’t pass muster. =)
I have been a licensed HAM operator since the mid 60’s. I hold a FCC Extra class ham and a Commercial FCC General Radiotelephone (It was issued as a First Class and renewed as a General) licenses. I spent time as a field tech, sales, and Region Manager in the technology sector. I am 74 years young and presently retired.
@wa5jml Nice meeting you Paul, the 70’s past very fast for me, and I still have things to do.
I use to have a five call, but when I moved to Washington state I got a 7 call alone with my wife.
We were lucky we got back to back calls. She is N7LUG and I am N7LUF, but never went for the Extra class and was happy to be one of the few Advance Class.
Larry – N7LUF
@larry_n7luf I was an Advanced for a few years. I resisted the upgrade just to protest and demonstrate that I had to master CW at 13 WPM. Sometime back the group of guys that hung out around 7213 decided to move down to the Extra portion so I needed to upgrade.