Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Sun, 20 Mar 2011 05:09:04 +0000 (UTC), "Geoffrey S. Mendelson"
wrote:

David Nebenzahl wrote:
I'm looking for an online electronics forum (web-based) where I can post
some questions.

Get a ham license. Then you can find people who actively design and build
things, like to talk about them and would gladly help you.

Locally, we have about 2800 licensed hams in the county, of which I
would guess about 500 are at least semi-active, 100 regularly attend
various club meetings, 50 bother to build things, and perhaps 4 are
qualified to design anything useful. While it's possible to get some
help with design and construction from ham radio, it really depends on
whom you contact.

Valid point, although I think you exaggerate a bit.

Now, give those same numbers for the denizens of sci.electronics.repair.
Maybe two numbers, with and without the profuse few who insist
on pushing the SNR toward zero.

I'd also like to hear your estimate of the percentage that even
attempt to add USEFUL new information that helps answer the
original question. Percentages by post will be different than percentage
by author.
And the percentage that just want to argue for the sake of arguing,
name calling, backstabbing, "hey look how smart I think I am", etc.

On any subject, it's important to ask someone who knows what he's talking
about.
Unfortunately, there are precious few of them.
Most get drowned out by the multitude.
Some of them ARE hams.
-.-



This is the age of specialization. I can design and advise on some
aspects of RF and repair. In other areas, I'm clueless. You would do
best by finding a forum, blog, newsgroup, or mailing list that covers
the specific area that you're interested in asking questions. Don't
be fooled by the names or lack of traffic. There are often forums
where most of the answers are by email from those that just don't want
their names and advice subject to public scrutiny. For example, I've
found that the LEAST useful forum for solving Apple computer related
problems is Apple's own forums. Just post your question and see what
happens. If you get a dozen one-line useless bad guesses, move on.

As always, the quality of the answers depend heavily on the quality of
the question. Without a clue as the nature of the question, vague
answers, like this one, will be epidemic.