Luckily,
While I was in Vo-Tech, our electronics training included tubes as much
as semis. Our instructor was an avid ham and seen we were taught both.
We had several tube type, television trainers made by Motorola on the
bench. Plus, some tube ham gear there. We were taught home brewing also
as we had a small, shear, brake, drill press, and a lathe. Not doing
something then was no excuse. It's funny that I learned on those old
tube Motorola trainers and then took over a Quasar dealership after I
graduated. Remember the "works in a drawer"? Those used to be tube,
tube-hybrid, then all solid state. I used to have a ball working on that
stuff and everything was heavy built, steel chassis. I had shelves of
tube power transformers salvaged from Quasar, RCA, Sylvania, etc. sets.
I'll have to say, Sylvania was the toughest, even in their first modular
sets. I remember in my first year of school, at the ripe age of 16. I
had a 304-TL and a 572B in each hand and the instructor telling me he
could get way more output out of the 572B. The physical size of the
304-TL (round) made me think it was larger in power back then =) All
those days are about gone, and how much I've learned in the 23 years since.
Will Matney
When I got into ham radio in the late '50s it was more common for
transmitters to be homebrewed than bought, especially if you include
kits as "homebrewed". Thinking back on all my friends from those
days, not one had a commercially made transmitter.
Receivers were a different matter. Nearly all were commercial or
modified war surplus, which there was a ton of back then.
Ahhhhh... the good ol' days. :-)
--
73, Bill W6WRT
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