Unfortunately due to the loss of electronic manufacturing in the US,
The majority of the technical population in the US has NEVER constructed
an electronic device and parts sources are few and far between, I'm in
my early forties and I can remember Radio Shack, Lafayette Radio and my
town had Evans Radio and Stark Brothers electronics so you had parts and
books by people like Forest Mims on building electronic gadgets.
Popular Electroncs had articles on building a "TV Typewriter" now we
have "How to hook up your Home Theater". Ah just another step towards
a third world economy i.e. Import manufactured goods and Export raw
materials and agricultural products.
Dr. David Kirkby wrote:
> Jim Thomson wrote:
>
>> From: Dave White <mausoptik@btinternet.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Amps] why did Heath die?
>>
>> What did surprise me was that when I bought a couple of large vacuum
>> variable capacitors on the fleamarket at Dayton and was carrying them around
>> and back to the car, I lost count of the number of guys with extra class
>> callsign badges who asked me what they were. Is there a message in there
>> somewhere?
>>
>> Dave G0OIL
>>
>> ## That is a sad state of affairs, to say the least.
>>
>
> I recall reading somewhere that in the RAE exam (or whatever it might be
> called
> now in the UK), X % of the candidates did not know how to wire a 13 A plug.
> The
> pass mark was Y %. I can't recall X or Y, but I know X was greater than Y. It
> stuck me as wrong, that the pass mark could be higher than the percentage of
> people who know how to wire up a plug.
>
> An American ham once said to me that a typical project now in QST was:
>
> "How to Build a 12V 1A Power Supply with a 7812 Voltage Regulator"
>
> It is a sad state of affairs. I wonder if making the exam harder, so people
> have
> to do more work to get a ticket would help. Or would it just put more people
> off, and be worst for the hobby.
>
> Dave
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>
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