[Tubejunke]

I was born in 1969. Yet I have very few radios, TVs or whatnot that are even nearly that new. I started toying around with 30s-50s radio and TVs at around 10 years old when they were regularly available for $5 or $10 at flea markets and generally considered junk except a few of the finer models that had been really well kept. I never cared for the older 20s sets mainly because they were DC farm radios and I never had a way to power them. Once I gained the knowledge of how to power them later in life I found that it was still too much trouble.

Only a year or so ago I found an Atwater-Kent "coffin" radio that operates on AC, so I grabbed that. Luckily it works as I find that I don't know much about exactly what makes it tick. I mean I do, but I'm happier just flipping the power switch once in a while and letting it do it's thing. So, for decades now I have been interested in mainly the same era which has nothing to do with my actual life span. I am glad that I am old enough to remember tube testers in all the drug and dime stores and even taking bags of tubes to test. I am glad that I can remember regularly seeing older stuff still in regular use like the "roundie" color TVs that everyone is raging over.

I went through a phase where it was mostly 50s TVs I was bring life back to, but I have found that it is not for the common man with limited space and the remote thought of keeping a woman around. I still have 5 TVs from a 1948 RCA up to a 1965 or so Zenith "roundie" which I sometimes wonder if I should let go of while they are HOT. And hot they are! But I have always for some odd reason liked the first generation color TVs and have often kept one in use through the years.

It's funny; even the other techs joke about my love of what I call REAL electronics. They say things like your stuff is before electronics existed. Meanwhile they often can't even solder. They don't think about what makes something work (or not work). They just change parts. Can't read analog meter scales or understand the multipliers; yet claim to be educated in electronics. But that's what the schools are putting out in the world these days. Not to say that all techs are this way; mostly the young ones.

I also get that funny look when I talk about vintage electronics or my collection, but let me bring in a nice old radio or piece of test equipment and many times people are very interested if not amazed the same way I am. So keep the dream alive folks because it's never coming back. It's up to us to preserve the equipment AND by the grace of God the knowledge that fades with each passing year. I fear that Ohm's Law will one day be seen as a relic or archaic and useless theory.