How did your interest in electronics ignite?

[Sideband]

My brother repairing our Pye 11U TV (I still have it).

We had the set from new and it went wrong at some point. My brother came home with some parts to fix it, I was reading a 'Batman' comic and the errant TV was on the kitchen table with the back off. He was using something called a 'soldering iron' (it was a Solon 25W type). Eventually he reached round the front of the set and switched on. This was followed a few moments later by sound and an unlocked picture (I was half-interestedly watching all this between reading about Batman fighting off the Penguin). Suddenly the picture appeared normally while my brother was making mysterious adjustments inside the set. By now I was fascinated by how the picture had appeared, put the comic down and peered around the back of the TV to see the mysteries inside.......

The Batman comics were subsequently replaced by "A Beginners Guide to Radio' and various library books on the subject. I then had a Philips Electronics Engineer kit for Christmas 1965 and a monthly order for 'Radio Constructor'.

50 years later (35 of those at Philips) I'm still interested and still restoring.

[radiograham]

My Grandad built wireless sets ready for 2LO starting up and built them for neighbours also according to my Dad.He became interested in shortwave listening and mending radios and tvs for a local shop on a foreigner basis,I used to watch him mending radios and tellys on the kitchen table in the 60s.Then came that fateful day I brought home a Marconi 521 ac R/gram.This was bought for the princely sum of 50p from the local saleroom. Valve lineup was MS4B/MS4B MHL4/PT625.Dad took one look and said your not plugging that ------thing in!I mithered him to death until he tried it after checking it over,It worked well after he repaired the topcap on one of the screen grid valves.That was 40 years ago doesnt time fly!.

[murphy512]

I was given an old tv in the early seventies (I was very poor in those days, earning just 7 pounds per week) and it worked for a few months, then it went completely silent.
I took it in for repairs, but the chap refused to fix it as it was too old (could not even tune it to BBC2).
Went back home and had a look inside ( absolutely no idea of what a resistor or anything else was)
and saw a charred component which to me looked like something like a rod that I had seen inside a 1.5v battery.
I cut to size the inside of a battery and placed it across the burnt component and to my amazement there was sound again! It actually worked for a couple of months.
I then saw magazines like Practical Wireless etc at the newsagent and started assembling little transistor projects and after retiring (early) I got interested in restoring valve radios.

[Jolly 7]

My parents got me a pocket radio kit for my 15th birthday. That was my first exposure to electronics and soldering, even though at the time I wasn't quite sure how many transistors my radio had. Soon after that I started dismantling every radio in the house, working or not. Some of the radios I destroyed left me with guilt and sorrow till many decades later I found out that the same models could still be found second hand, with a lot of searching and sometimes plain luck . I am delighted to say that once again I have collected and restored all the radios I once took to pieces in my destructive youth. My favourite is a Mickey Mouse radio that even came with its box. The original was a birthday present when I was seven. The replacement works just like it used to, I bought it last year !

[FrankB]

I became interested at the age of 7-8 yrs old, when my mother took me to the local 88
cent store (That was like a Pound Store is in the UK now).
we would buy "Rocket Radios" and assemble them with a huge 300 watt soldering iron.
(Yes, my mother was pretty smart and skilled, and help feed my inquisitive streak).
That progressed to a Cub Scout xtal set, then I got my hands on a 1961 ARRL handbook, and the world was never the same again.
In high school my assisting the guy at the local garbage dump gained me mass TV sets and radios to get parts from and fix.

[Peter.N.]

Started in primary school in the '40s, I was always messing about about with batteries and bulbs then someone gave me an old radio chassis and that got me going. Got lots of books from the library. Was repairing neighbours radios before I left school then TV's, needless to say I went into the trade.

No qualifications but there was such a shortage of engineers in those day if you could repair TV's you could get a job, I could and did. Been self employed most of my life, retired after 50 years in the trade in 2004. Don't understand it anymore.

Peter

[G4_Pete]

I still have my Ladybird copy of "Magnets ,Bulbs and Batteries complete with a Primary School label in the cover stating that it was presented to me for nature studies at St davids Head visit. I remember choosing the book from the offered selection.
I also grew up on a farm where nothing was ever thrown away so there were always old things including radios electric fence units etc thrown in barns to play around with.
Core interests get established very early in life!!
Pete

[John M0GLN]

It was in the early 50's when I was about ten or eleven and very interested in Hornby Dublo, Meccano, Keil Kraft model aeroplanes and I'd just been given a Lotts chemistry set, now the local Radio / TV shop 'Lesken Radio' where we lived in Warminster put the innards of a new TV in their window as an advertising aid and I was fascinated by it, I had no idea what all the components did but those big brightly coloured resistors stood out and I thought they were glass tubes holding different chemicals to somehow effect the electricity, a 4K7 resistor would to me have layers of Sulphur, Pottasium Permanganate and Copper Oxide, anyway it started me off on the interest I still have.
I paid quite a few visits to that shop for bits and pieces to build crystal sets etc over the next year until we moved to Southport.

John

[Craig Sawyers]

Originally Posted by G4_Pete

I still have my Ladybird copy of "Magnets ,Bulbs and Batteries complete with a Primary School label in the cover stating that it was presented to me for nature studies at St Davids Head visit. I remember choosing the book from the offered selection.

Really surprised how many here remember this book, and still have it. And what an effect it had on us.

The other thing that got me interested in maths was Reed's Practical Mathematics for Marine Engineers. My Dad was in the merchant navy, and this was the standard text. I remember looking at the equations and thinking how much I would like to understand them. As early as I could remember.

When my Dad died, I think my Mum must have throw it out, because it was nowhere to be found when she herself died.

So, the web is your friend, so I bought one. I have to take my hat off to my Dad, because it is actually a very heavy-hitting maths textbook involved with all aspects of marine engineering. Steam turbines, ship drag, condensing efficiency and so on. And an example exam at the end that meant you really had to understand your stuff. All imperial units of course.

The other thing that sparked my interest was Practical Knowledge for All, a 6-volume tome. There were articles about everything - with quite a bit about electrical phenomena, static electricity, motor generators, and how to make a crystal receiver, including making your own resistors by using a soft pencil and ground glass. That never worked, alas - total silence - but it was good experience.

A little later, aged 15 in 1971 I bought my first oscilloscope. A massive ex-defence Hartley 13A. Hernia inducing, questionable performance, but it worked and was with me for a number of years. A whopping £25 - I have no idea how I funded that at that age.

Craig

[ColinTheAmpMan1]

When I was really quite young, my brother had a book called "Moving Things for Lively Youngsters" by T.J.S.Rowland and L.G.Smith (I still have it). This sparked my interest in all sorts of mechanical and electrical things, even though many of the illustrations were very crude. Jump forward to my teens and meeting a school-friend at secondary school who had built himself an electric guitar. I was a fan of the Shadows and Hank B. Marvin and thought that this was the way to get a real electric guitar and be like him. I duly made the guitar, but was then stymied by not having an amplifier. For some reason, I started reading "Practical Wireless" and found both articles on electric guitar effects and adverts for suitable amplifiers (these interests were somewhat interfering with my favourite subject, chemistry). Things blossomed from there and though I studied chemistry to PhD level at University, I kept an interest in electronics and still do. I especially like electronic devices with lots of switches, knobs and dials, which might explain both why I worked in mass spectrometry for a good while and my fascination with oscilloscopes....
Colin.

[Croozer]

I spent much of my childhood on the floor of various British Relay workshops as my dad was a service engineer. My box of junk included a growing collection of cassette player motors of various specs, which could be made to drive meccano models in the absence of that unattainable steam engine.

A little knowledge can leave its owner vulnerable to being taken advantage of. With the relationship between motor and dynamo, and voltage, current and power surely I should be able to connect two motors mechanically and electrically. One starting spin and it should run forever. All those helpful and considered suggestions from those in the workshop about matching motors, heavier wires, wider driving belts, heavier flywheels, etc sounded sincere - but there was another motive afoot - occupying a kid with an unattainable search.

I've still not achieved perpetual motion but I am grateful for a childhood that exposed me to consumer electronics before they were digitised.

[unitaudio]

In 1979, I obtained a Dansette Major Deluxe 21 record player from the local tip. The plan had been to dismantle it but I noticed the black wire in the tone arm was broken. I thought to myself "Can it really be that simple?"

I reattached the wire and to my astonishment I had a working record player! This was when I was 10.

From that day on I was obsessed with audio electronics and paid regular visits to the tip to stock up on spare parts and future projects! The icing on the cake was my present from my parents for Christmas 1979, a Radionic 150 project electronics kit.

I got a reputation for being the local "fix it kid" and earned money for repairs and many sales of mainly record players to school mates and neighbours. The money thus gained bought me my first separates system but that's for another post.

Regards,
Paul

[Richard_FM]

Originally Posted by ColinTheAmpMan1

..... Jump forward to my teens and meeting a school-friend at secondary school who had built himself an electric guitar. I was a fan of the Shadows and Hank B. Marvin and thought that this was the way to get a real electric guitar and be like him. I duly made the guitar, but was then stymied by not having an amplifier. For some reason, I started reading "Practical Wireless" and found both articles on electric guitar effects and adverts for suitable amplifiers (these interests were somewhat interfering with my favourite subject, chemistry).

That sounds like Queen in their early days.

Brian May made his guitar because he couldn't afford an electric one, & did a good enough job to last 50 years as his main guitar!

Bass player John Deacon made an effects amp from a radio circuit board he found in a skip, which again is still in regular use.

[Tyso_Bl]

Not really sure, my memories of how it happened are a bit like a few stills, and some short video clips, I do recall exposure to "pop" music early in life, my father tuning in what I know now to be radio Caroline in about '64 soon after it started, I'd have been about two then. We moved to southern Europe for a few years, returning in '69/'70, more exposure to music while abroad via uncles records brought back while on tours of duty, also live bands at village type festivals. All very exciting, mum had a short wave set to listen to the BBC world service, I recall hearing news of the bombing of the P.O. Tower on that.... if I recall correctly. There was also a programme around lunchtime on the national radio "Disco Setenta", which played pop music, the flour mill next door would start up around that time, and that was the end of radio listening for the day, RFI pollution isn't a new thing!

Returning to England and Radio 1 was broadcasting by then, I also heard RNI on short wave using a radio chassis from a gramophone bought from Portobello market in the days before it got yuppified.

I knew I wanted to be a DJ...... I also knew that there was no chance of a 12/13 year old getting on air, that it would be illegal if I did, the warning in the Exchange & Mart section dealing with transmitters told me so. The Ladybird build your own radio book which I found in the library sort of got me into home construction (without soldering), and Gilbert Davey Fun With Radio was my first Soldered project, I'd bought a soldering gun by then, (67.5p). Not much or any interest from my parents, I was playing round with mains power supplies, getting what should have been lethal belts from my "projects" and looking back I suspect they thought is would have been an unsuspicious case of misadventure, I was always the difficult one !
I digress... sorry
Still not having given up hope of being a DJ I'd realised that I'd have to build my own transmitter, I'd discovered Amateur Radio books in the library, credits to F.G.Rayer, Pat Hawker, and many others, they were my elmers even though we never met. I'd also been buying PW, back issues and the current ones, Henrys Radio and HL Smith were favorite haunts, before Henrys turned into a tat shop, and smiths started selling car radios....
I also remember visiting Lee Electronics, for goodness knows what I don't know, but they had a poster up for an Amateur Radio course at Paddington Tech not far away, so I went over there and signed up, David Peace G3KKM took the course, passed with a credit and distinction despite never being able to turn up on time, (the class started about half an hour before I finished work), still by that time I'd already learnt enough on my own so didn't break a sweat over it.
I'd also managed to build my first working 200M ish and 3M band gear at the time, I'll say no more except that I enjoyed the engineering/logistics aspect of what I was doing so let my friends come round to play at being DJ's...
I was in my late teens/early twenties through this time, and went through a bit of a dark patch with chemicals and plants like many people of that age will do. Through all that I had my workbench with me, whenever I moved a random wire was the first thing unpacked and installed, I applied for a callsign several years after passing the C&G exam, still have the same call.

So I suppose that loving music was really the start of it, and it spread out into all sorts of areas of interest, electronics and radio just being one of them, I still have an interest in radio technology but it is not as accessible as it once was, I see the future of amateur radio as being in the SHF bands but it really seems to be too specialist too get into, the government is busy reallocating swathes of usefull amateur spectrum, and the HF Bands are turning in to a polluted wasteland. Ooopps rant over.

I hope I've not said too much, more of your stories please....

[fergussonguy]

I played, as it seems many of us did, with batteries wires and old crystal sets. It grew to a hobby in my teens and along came the triac and thyristor in 60's/70's. That gave me the best laugh of those years on my last day at school by hanging some homemade dimmers on the school lighting board and using the telephone lines to the back of the hall having a disco display in final assembly. It stayed my hobby until I was 30 something when losing the sight in one eye I went to school and got papers to say I was good at electronics, leading me to a job with the sadly gone Ferguson TV company in Gosport. Played there for a time till it was closed and eyesight got me again. I now have the problem I know how to fix it but just can't see to fix it. but hey ho life is good and I have a knowledge to pass on. ask me and this hobbyist will try to help.

[ColinTheAmpMan1]

Originally Posted by Richard_FM

That sounds like Queen in their early days.

Brian May made his guitar because he couldn't afford an electric one, & did a good enough job to last 50 years as his main guitar!

Bass player John Deacon made an effects amp from a radio circuit board he found in a skip, which again is still in regular use.

Yeees, I can see how you might think that. However, I am not Brian May nor can I play as well as him. Also, his university subject was astrophysics, mine chemistry. But the comparison regarding making my own guitar was also due to a lack of funds to even be able to buy a Vox guitar, let alone the Fender Stratocaster I lusted after (I eventually got both).
A slightly darker reason for playing electric guitar was so that I might get to know girls, but that didn't work very well, despite my present wife commenting on an old photo of me at university that I looked "tasty".
Colin.

[peter_scott]

The Science Gallery of what was the Royal Scottish Museum. (Sorry it hasn't existed for several decades now and its modern equivalent certainly fails to excite me.)

Peter

[mark_in_manc]

I think we acquired a soldering iron because of the way the little rivets which were meant to hold the braids on, on Scalextric cars, kept falling off. Then men my dad worked with (he was a turner) who fixed the NC and CNC machines gave him a few boards out of all sorts to give to me. But I didn't have a clue, so I mainly borrowed solder off them to fix the Scalextric cars (we didn't have a reel of solder) and got good at cutting small donor squares of carpet from under the bed, to replace the patches where I had burnt holes in it. Luckily Mum didn't hoover in my room very often.

Things got worse when I started playing guitar. I pulled apart a usable far-east Gibson copy and made it unplayable, and blew up a Rogers transistor stereo amp by trying to use it as a fuzz box I didn't have much money so I carried on taking broken things at the end of jumble sales, and mostly they stayed broken.

Then I studied acoustics and worked in noise and vibration for quite a while. And now I'm slowly putting together some electronics knowledge I wish I'd picked up a long time ago - but goodness, I forget things in a hurry. Ah well.

[wireless_john]

My Dad showing me how to make a crystal set! And then how to solder … Never looked back, I was hooked!

John

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by AC/HL

The Woolworths electrical counter.

I remember it more as a sort of pick & mix than a counter.

MES batten holders and miniature tumbler switches, but beware of the ones with shiny metal covers because the pivot pin of the dolly connected the cover to your circuit, and you got a belt from the back-EMF of your bell or buzzer.

This is how we learned.