Evolv-ing Thread

[BillW50]

My wife is an automotive repair prophet, not kidding.

Wow, that's tough. When I was young and just out of the military, I moved to the middle of nowhere for a year. And I found a job at a local TV shop (remember those?). After working on radar, computers, and missile control systems down to the component level for the military, TVs should be a piece of cake, right?

And there was two customers just shocked me. One was a little old lady sweet and all and said her B&W TV needed a new picture tube. Well I knew us mere mortals don't know if that is true until we take the back off and do a few checks. Something as little as a buck or two could cause a blank screen. Well I popped the back off and did a few checks and I'll be damned. The CRT (picture tube) had a blown filament and everything else was working just fine.

So I called her up and told her that her filament was blown in her picture tube and that it would cost as much as a new TV to fix (B&W CRTs really cost as much as a new B&W TV just in parts alone -- why would any place even stock them, but some places actually did). So I called her up and gave her the bad news and I told her that she would be better off moneywise just buying a new TV.

So she came in to pick up her TV and a said it was like a $20 charge for labor (labor was cheap back then). And she said for what? And I said for troubleshooting and finding out the picture tube needed replacing. Then she said that she told me that when she brought it in. Damn! I was speechless and tore up the ticket and carried it out to her car. As I was carrying it out to her car, she was talking about turning it into a planter or something. I dunno, I really didn't care what she said anymore. I just wanted her to get in her car and drive away and to never come back. I know, I still feel guilty thinking that way about a sweet little old lady. But luckily I never saw her again.

The second one was a gorgeous young woman. Not as nice as Tibs morning coffee pic, but still very nice. Remember I was young too back then. And she walked into the shop and held out her closed hand. I placed my palm right under it and she dropped something in my hand. Immediately I knew it was some sort of power transistor. Taking a look at the part number, I recognized it as a commonly used horizontal output transistor. And when I told her, she said correct. Got any?

I said sure, I have lots of them. But how do you know it is bad? And what do you know about electronics? She said she knows absolutely nothing about electronics. But she recently got divorced and she got the Heathkit TV and the manuals and a meter. And she read the whole manual and decided that the horizontal output transistor was bad.

I have read those Heathkit manuals before. And they are really good about taking someone who knows nothing to building and then troubleshooting if something goes wrong. And I figure anybody with an above average intelligence could probably figure out that the horizontal output transistor is bad. Then she explained what she checked and how she came to that conclusion. And I thought damn, exactly what I would have done. So I sold her one for a few bucks and never saw her again. Silly me, I should have at least asked her out.

 

[kiba]

I made sure my gf knows at least the basic stuff, the old, "enough to make it home thing" I try to show her more so she'll be more independent but she still ends up reverting to me for most of it though like today she turned on the ac for the first time (new car) & it's blowing hot air, she had looked already at the compressor & noticed the clutch was still spinning, so she must of known but still asked me what was wrong with it & then watched me try to turn it on & check the clutch without saying anything. (we've refilled her freyon in other cars before).

 

[mikepetro]

 

[tiburonfirst]

 

[Alexander Mundy]

Wow, that's tough. When I was young and just out of the military, I moved to the middle of nowhere for a year. And I found a job at a local TV shop (remember those?). After working on radar, computers, and missile control systems down to the component level for the military, TVs should be a piece of cake, right?

And there was two customers just shocked me. One was a little old lady sweet and all and said her B&W TV needed a new picture tube. Well I knew us mere mortals don't know if that is true until we take the back off and do a few checks. Something as little as a buck or two could cause a blank screen. Well I popped the back off and did a few checks and I'll be damned. The CRT (picture tube) had a blown filament and everything else was working just fine.

So I called her up and told her that her filament was blown in her picture tube and that it would cost as much as a new TV to fix (B&W CRTs really cost as much as a new B&W TV just in parts alone -- why would any place even stock them, but some places actually did). So I called her up and gave her the bad news and I told her that she would be better off moneywise just buying a new TV.

So she came in to pick up her TV and a said it was like a $20 charge for labor (labor was cheap back then). And she said for what? And I said for troubleshooting and finding out the picture tube needed replacing. Then she said that she told me that when she brought it in. Damn! I was speechless and tore up the ticket and carried it out to her car. As I was carrying it out to her car, she was talking about turning it into a planter or something. I dunno, I really didn't care what she said anymore. I just wanted her to get in her car and drive away and to never come back. I know, I still feel guilty thinking that way about a sweet little old lady. But luckily I never saw her again.

The second one was a gorgeous young woman. Not as nice as Tibs morning coffee pic, but still very nice. Remember I was young too back then. And she walked into the shop and held out her closed hand. I placed my palm right under it and she dropped something in my hand. Immediately I knew it was some sort of power transistor. Taking a look at the part number, I recognized it as a commonly used horizontal output transistor. And when I told her, she said correct. Got any?

I said sure, I have lots of them. But how do you know it is bad? And what do you know about electronics? She said she knows absolutely nothing about electronics. But she recently got divorced and she got the Heathkit TV and the manuals and a meter. And she read the whole manual and decided that the horizontal output transistor was bad.

I have read those Heathkit manuals before. And they are really good about taking someone who knows nothing to building and then troubleshooting if something goes wrong. And I figure anybody with an above average intelligence could probably figure out that the horizontal output transistor is bad. Then she explained what she checked and how she came to that conclusion. And I thought damn, exactly what I would have done. So I sold her one for a few bucks and never saw her again. Silly me, I should have at least asked her out.

So you will understand and get a kick out of this. Way back when my best friend and I played practicle jokes on each other. One time at the yoke I reversed the leads from the horizontal output on his tv while he was at work. Made sure I was there when he got home. He turned the tv on later that afternoon (and a ball game was on) just as the batter hit the ball and ran to third.

 

[TrollDragon]

I worked for a friend who ran a repair depot for Radio Shack products back in the day when they farmed out repairs. He had just finished replacing all the blown components in a direct coupled amplifier and had it running when the phone rang. As he went to answer the phone I blew a big drag off my cigarette through the chassis and quickly moved away. The phone hits the floor, he comes running to yank the plug on the amp, not wanting to put another $100 worth of parts in it and then realized it was only cigarette smoke... I hated DC amps, you miss one passive and the whole chain lets go...

Another time he had just finished restringing a multi band radio dial cord and was lining up the pointer to one of the local radio stations. I was sitting in the back room on the RF bench feeding a different radio station into the Gertsch signal generator. No matter where he went on the dial there was always that one station.

He came back to ask if I had ever experienced this kind of weird problem before and saw me sitting at the Gertsch...

 

[awsum140]

Way back in my early days I worked in a three man shop that repaired AV equipment for schools. Two Brits and me. It worked well because we all had the same sense of humor, dry and ridiculous but I did come out with a British accent after a year of that. RCA 16mm projectors, the "1600", had a DC coupled audio amp or as I call them, a series fuse amp. I stayed late one night and ran a piece of rubber tubing from a hole in one of the guys work desk around to my desk. Next time he powered up a 1600 I blew smoke through. We did a lot of other stuff, like his buddy nailed a 3M reel-to-reel recorder chassis to his desk top with nails so long he couldn't open the drawer to get out tools to pull the nails. Great times.

 

[Alexander Mundy]

I've worked as a bench and or mobile tech on pinball, videos, general radio / TV etc, cb & ham gear, pinsetters, traffic signals, and broadcast equipment at one time or another back in the 70's, 80's, and 90's. What I noticed was that practically every other tech that worked on electronics smoked also. Was this a norm or just a midwest thing?

 

[mikepetro]

I've worked as a bench and or mobile tech on pinball, videos, general radio / TV etc, cb & ham gear, pinsetters, traffic signals, and broadcast equipment at one time or another back in the 70's, 80's, and 90's. What I noticed was that practically every other tech that worked on electronics smoked also. Was this a norm or just a midwest thing?

Weird, I was still in high school (early 70s) and I took a course in "Coin Operated Amusement Devices" at the local adult school. That was my start in what became an electronics career. All relays and cams and solenoids back then. My main motivation was I figured if I was fixing them, I would get to play a lot of pinball to test them.



And yes, we all smoked....

 

[SlickWilly]

Make sure you have uBlock or another good popup blocker running before clicking on the link otherwise you may be offended by some of the popups, never had one I had to worry about as far as a trogan or virus, just some smutty game stuff. You can download and save the movie or watch online.

https://www4.fmovies.se/film/tommy.52vyq/qqpl4v

 

[SlickWilly]

Ugh, there's that Corona commercial again, I'll be running that Use Me Up song through my head again all night...

 

[Alexander Mundy]

Took a trip down memory lane and pulled out a box of old manuals etc.
Here are a few of the manuals that were in that box.

My first electronic troubleshooting guide that a retired air force avionics electronics neighbor gave me when I was in 1st grade and he learned that I liked electronics from seeing my antenna for my oatmeal crystal radio. He taught me how to pronounce capacitor correctly since I had only read library books on electronics. I called them "cap-a-sitters" since that is how the spelling was for a 1st grader.

I worked for the Bally corporation when War Games came out and they gave me a press release packet because they were going to have a sweepstakes based on the movie.

And my prized letter from Texas Instruments when I was a freshman in high school was in that box. (prized because they certainly read the "wind" wrong on the future) By then I had built a ruby rod laser and a CO2 laser but was curious about the new double heterostructure laser diode that would operate at room temperature.

 

[Rossum]

What I noticed was that practically every other tech that worked on electronics smoked also. Was this a norm or just a midwest thing?

Normal around Philly as well when I was a youngster.

 

[SlickWilly]

Normal around Philly as well when I was a youngster.

When I was a teenager more people still smoked then not, cigarette machines were everywhere so it was easy to buy them even though we weren't old enough. Plus they were relatively cheap, fifty cents a pack was top price in a machine. One kid in school, his parents own a mom and pop general store so we always had access to cigs, beer and Hustler mags when he was running the store.

 

[tiburonfirst]

 

[SlickWilly]

One of the simple little pleasures of summer and being up early AM, I love sitting out on the porch and listening to the birds waking up and singing while it's still pitch dark. The cool damp air before the sun rises and it starts to get hot, then one lone bird will break the silence with a chirp. It starts around 4 AM, by 4:30 as more wake and join in they have quite the chorus going, they have the entire stage, it's the only sound. Must be nice to wake up singing every day, what a nice way to start the day.

 

[mikepetro]

 

[TrollDragon]

When I was a teenager more people still smoked then not, cigarette machines were everywhere so it was easy to buy them even though we weren't old enough. Plus they were relatively cheap, fifty cents a pack was top price in a machine. One kid in school, his parents own a mom and pop general store so we always had access to cigs, beer and Hustler mags when he was running the store.

Hustler...
Now that was quite the rag with it racist cartoons and all. The coffee table at the local fire station was well stocked.

It's a wonder Flint was only shot once.

 

[ShamrockPat]

... quite the rag with it racist cartoons and all

I don't remember any cartoons at all

 

[awsum140]

That's odd, I don't remember cartoons in Hustler either