Thoughts on antique radio collecting

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by Tubejunke

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 had those thoughts back in 1988 - I took the Associate CET exam with a bunch of tech school students - it was one of those paid, post-high school tech centers that taught electronics, computers, and HVAC. The US Navy paid for the test, so a bunch of my shipmates and I signed up to take the test. An instructor at the tech school was the proctor. I finished the associate exam, had it graded, and took the Avionics specialty exam, the same night. Of 23 test takers, 6 of us passed the associate exam, and I was not surprised that the folks failing the exam were the tech school students. i
dunno if anyone passed any further specialty exams, as I got out of there and went home before most were finished. The associate test is quite easy if you have a solid background and understanding of electronics, but those tech school students seemed to be of the "memorize for the test, forget forever" type, and seemed only interested in electronics to get that degree.

I gave up the whole CET bit when they started the re-test program, and the CET conventions were less about learning and more about socializing, eating and getting drunk.

Originally Posted by Tubejunke

I fear that Ohm's Law will one day be seen as a relic or archaic and useless theory.

Georg Simon Ohm did more to further mankind than Einstein - his work touches all but the nomadic sheep herder. Ohms law is in everything electric, and will never be a relic.