Quote:
Originally Posted by TV Engineer
I understand what you're saying, but the concept is foreign to me.
I made a very good living as a service tech for 20+ years before moving into engineering. I began tinkering around the same age you did, and of course, I destroyed equipment in the process of my experiments. But, as time progressed, so did I, and I became a professional in the field. As I honed my skills and knowledge base (I attended electronics school), destruction of equipment became increasingly rare and my success rate was very close to 100%.
The equipment that I experimented on and destroyed in the process was often fairly common, and in some cases in daily use (like roundie color sets,) so it was quite plentiful.
It is the same equipment that I read of folks working on now. However, it is rarer and not so easily repaired or replaced if inexperienced, untrained hands begin chopping away at it. And every time a set ends up on the unrepairable pile because someone that didn't really know what they were doing got to it, to me, is very sad. It's also a part of history that doesn't exist any more.
Maybe that will help you understand how I feel about this "hobby" sometimes.
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I do understand what you're saying, but I think it depends on the set in front of you.
For example, there are plenty of TVs out there with picture tubes with 6.3v heaters that are far from rare that are great to "cut your teeth" on. I personally blame the Admiral corporation for most of the deforestation of the United States
. At least here, Admiral combos are a dime a dozen.....you can't give them away. Then there's your garden-variety Air Kings or Motorolas from the early 50s with rectangular tubes that are the prehistoric equivalent to the Wal Mart set of today. I personally think that the split chassis Philcos are an excellent set to learn repairs on, because they're not so intimidating.
Naturally, if you've got a CTC-5 in front of you that needs repair, it's not something you're gonna want to tackle until you've got some good repair skills under your belt, and even then.....
As far as unrepairable sets, well, that's going to happen whether it's at the hands of inexperience, or Father Time. The nice thing is that the best things around are still being unearthed
