How did your interest in electronics ignite?

[electronicskip]

There must be many different ways in which peoples interests in technology/electronics must have been sparked(excuse the pun).
My own personal ones were my fathers interest in model railways and being bought one of those 150 in one style electronic sets that were prolific at the time.
Whats your story?

[Cobaltblue]

I have told the tale a time or two before.

My grandparents TV caught fire and they threw it out into the Dutch barn. Despite being told to leave it alone every time we visited I took it apart a bit more. I started looking at other electrical bits hanging around the farm as well like the fencers the battery chargers etc.

My parents noting my interest bought me a Philips Electronic Engineer kit for Christmas 1964.

Cheers

Mike T

[G6Tanuki]

In my case, it was reading through my brother's pile of 1960s "Practical Wireless" mags he left behind when he went to uni: I'd have been around eight at the time.

Fascinated by the stuff inside, I scavenged a bunch of capacitors, switches, coil-formers and battery-valves [DAF91 etc] from radios junked at the local tip and built myself a one-valve regenerative radio from a design in one of the 1961 issues of the aforementioned "PW".

My brother gave me a "DLR5" ex-army headset, and aided by a 50-foot length of wire coupled to my 0-V-0 I discovered amateurs on 80M.

A 3-transistor amplifier [OC71, LT44 transformer, two OC78, LT700] with parts bought from Waltons in Wolverhampton got me loudspeaker-volume.

After that, word got round and various family-friends donated old radios/record-players. Some of these were 'live-chassis' designs and there were some fuse-blowing incidents when I interconnected them.

My first 'real' radio was a TCS-12 receiver bought from GWM Radio down on the south coast for six-pounds-nineteen-shillings-and-sixpence, plus a now-forgotten amount for carriage by BRS. I had to build a power-supply to provide the HT; an old car-battery provided the 12V LT. This gave me 160 80 and 40M coverage.

Then there was a PCR (again I had to build a power-supply), a CR100, a R209 - and then I was off to University with a grant, much of which got spent on an AR88 rather than the more-traditional-studenty beer!

I still have the TCS, the R209, the AR88, the PCR.... and am planning to build a reconstruction of that first 0-V-0.

[Radio Wrangler]

Dunno

too young at the time to remember!

David

[Refugee]

I started getting interested in technical things when my parents bought one of the first washer/driers in the 1960s.
The engineer was out almost weekly so I got to watch him many times and got very interested. I also took a couple of old radios to bits in the garden but the most dramatic incident was when a popped the tube in an old telly in the garden shed.

[G6Tanuki]

If you're interested, this is the 0-V-0 regenerative radio that I cut my teeth on. it works remarkably well compared with many similar designs I've tried. You need a metal case/panel to avoid hand-capacity effects though.

[TonyDuell]

My parents did what I think is the right thing to do with young children. They let me experience all sorts of things. Art and music and sport and science and engineering and...

They quickly found that only 2 things fascinated me. One was clocks. The other was the inside of a radio. I guess at that age it was the bright colours that first attracted me, but of course as I got a little older I wanted to know more. My parents bought me a number of the electronics kits (Philips EE series, Denshi-Block, Braun Lectron, etc) as birthday (etc) presents. My father was a physical chemist and talked to me about resistors and valves, etc. I built the Ladybird Book radio. I got even more interested, I took it a lot further..

The radio that started my interest nearly 50 years ago? A Hacker RP18 Sovereign. I still have it, although it needs restoration now.

[kellys_eye]

In the early/mid 60's a family friend used to deliver new TVs from 'Uptons' store (Middlesbrough) and always took away the customers old set which he then stored in our garden for future repair/resale (which, IIRC, he never managed to do!) but they were systematically 'investigated' by yours truly and usually rendered inoperative anyway!

Then came the now obligatory Phillips electronics kit....

[Richard_FM]

I can't really pin it down but I remember my Dad getting one of those "How Things Work" books for me from the library when I was little.

[michamoo]

My infant school let us play with bulbs and batteries from the age of four. Imagine that now

[Philips210]

Hi.

My interest started as a young kid when the Rediffusion service engineer used to call to do some repairs to our rented colour TV. I think it was a hybrid Bush set, possibly a CTV25. The set was withdrawn and was replaced by a RBM A823 type set as I remember the colourful swing-up convergence board. At the time, I was surprised it was taken out of service as it seemed to be working very well. As we now know the burning LOPTx problem was no doubt the reason for this.
I also used to attend a local TV service dept one day a week after school where I learnt quite a lot including how to solder. While there, I was given a load of Radio Constructor and Practical Wireless magazines which were fascinating and managed to build a small pre amp and power amp as a successful first projects. Many radio projects followed.

I recall being given a load of old telephones including a couple of Trimphones. These were stripped down for parts and the electronic ringer PCB in one Trimphone was converted into a handy continuity tester.

I was very keen as a youngster and always tried to get my hands on old radios and TVs, often going around to TV repair places asking if they had any old sets that they were throwing out. Most places weren't very accomodating but I remember one shop where I usually came away with some old transistor radio or tape recorder for about 50p!
I also remember in a store room at the back of our form room at school there were a couple of old 405 line TVs which I managed to pull apart for parts much to the annoyance of our form teacher!
As a kid it was a new adventure and have happy memories from then.

Regards
Symon.

[Aerodyne]

Just after the war, as a kid of around six years old, I was fascinated by the sounds emanating from the old Aerodyne on the shelf in the living kitchen of my parent's home. Whenever I asked how it worked, Dad said nothing (of course, he had no idea...) but my Mum affirmed that 'Little men were inside the cabinet, playing instruments and talking."
She didn't know either and I didn't believe her version, even at six, being a natural sceptic, but it remained a fascinating mystery until I was given a couple of old Practical Wireless magazines by a kindly radio repairer. By the age of 11, I was on my way to a lifelong hobby and interest.

It's a much longer story but this is the brutally condensed version.

Tony

[Nymrod121]

Taking a television set to pieces sometime around 1961-63. The son of our local milkman was keen to get involved with this and I recollect being fascinated by the density of the components/complexity of the wiring in one particular removed assembly (I.F. strip) and the intricate beauty of the things called 'valves'. They made wonderful spaceships that took off from their "launch-pads" e.g. the B9G socket that was dedicated to the Inter-galactic capable transporters - "EF80", "PCL82" etc. - and the B7G one for the smaller support ships such as the Moon Base supply vessel "EB91".

My (astro)physically-gifted colleague took on the job of destroying the "Cosmic Revenge Tyrants" star-base ... he held it vertically by the neck and wacked its forward-facing force-shield against a nearby rogue asteroid (lump of dried concrete next to the old air-raid shelter at the furthest end of our known solar system - otherwise known as the bottom of our back garden). All this without gloves, safety goggles or indeed any form of Planetary Protection Equipment whatsoever.

Engage warp-drive to 1967 ... I was given a Philips EE8 kit for Christmas. The reflex radio circuit was superb and I transferred it to Veroboard when that first became available in our local radio surplus shop. I didn't plan the layout, just cobbled it up as I went along. It worked first time and I quickly became the 'Mr Fix-It go-to' at school (also the 'let's ambush that little first-year swot, de-bobble-ise his cap then nick his dinner-money' candidate). Don't worry, lads, I won't come tearing after you; revenge is a sweet best eaten cold

'Nuff said!

Best wishes

Guy

[Craig Sawyers]

Magnets Bulbs and Batteries. https://www.vintage-radio.info/download.php?id=358

Craig

[jamesperrett]

Originally Posted by michamoo

My infant school let us play with bulbs and batteries from the age of four. Imagine that now

Well this week's activity at my son's Beaver Scout group (ages 6-8)was making simple electric circuits using batteries, odd bits of wire, LED's and home made foil switches. However, at home he has a couple of Snap Circuits kits and he experiments with his own circuit designs which stray quite a bit from the instructions sometimes. The kits seem to have hidden protection for many of the parts so he hasn't destroyed anything so far.

In my case I was always fascinated by our old HMV valve radio and the strange glows from inside. From an early age I used to adjust the controls while my mother was trying to listen to Housewives Choice or The Archers. This progressed to adding extension speakers and then doing 'Radio Tests' which really consisted of seeing what strange stations I could find tuning across the wavebands.

I hadn't really thought about building my own electronics until I saw a book about it in the travelling library that used to visit our junior school. My uncle worked for Mullard (later Philips) Research labs in Horley, Surrey and, for a birthday present, he provided me with all the bits to make a crystal set with a transistor amplifier and a Henrys Radio Catalogue - which opened my eyes to all the other things you could do with electronics. From then on I subscribed to Practical Wireless and gradually developed my interest in both general electronics and, more specifically, sound recording.

[crackle]

My first memory at around 4 or 5 was being fascinated by the string of colourful Christmas lights, this developed into an interest of taking apart clang type mains adaptors as I was fascinated in how all the pins connected together inside.
I watched dad take apart our TV and replace the large thermistor which seemed to repeatedly keep melting the solder and disconnecting itself.
By now I wanted to take everything mechanical and mostly electrical apart to see what was inside and what would happen if I just!!.
We got a KB "Danctime" battery operated record player, and that had to come apart to see how it worked. My aunties gave me a PYE P31MBQ radio and then later a HMV 1107.
Dad bought various KB, RGD and Regentone sets from the STC factory shop. These all suffered some sort of demise probably due to me and my curiosity.
My parents got me a building kit for Christmas and later another one for my birthday. It kind of carried on and became my full time hobby till my late teens.
Then it petered out a little, till recently, about 7 years ago I revived it by buying an old Stella radiogram.
I now only collect KB, and related radios like STC, transistor RGD and Regentone, and ITT.

Mike

[Dickie]

Originally Posted by Craig Sawyers

Magnets Bulbs and Batteries. https://www.vintage-radio.info/download.php?id=358

Me too. I've still got it.

[AC/HL]

The Woolworths electrical counter.

[mole42uk]

A family friend who had been in radio in the RAF emigrated when I was 10 and gave me his stash of parts and books. Little did he know.

[evingar]

Originally Posted by Craig Sawyers

Magnets Bulbs and Batteries. https://www.vintage-radio.info/download.php?id=358

I could never get that ruddy "cork armature" motor working reliably !

... I guess what really fired me was broken jumble sale black and white tellys. The pre teen "game plan" was to get one working for the bedroom. Had even less success with that than I did with that poxy motor