Hi David,

On 3/20/2011 4:01 PM, David Nebenzahl wrote:
On 3/19/2011 9:09 PM Geoffrey S. Mendelson spake thus:

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.
Not quite a web forum, but more personal.

Interesting suggestion, but highly impractical for me for several reasons.

First of all, it would require a whole 'nother pursuit--getting the
license AND acquiring/building/setting up a radio rig, which is
definitely *not* what I'm the least bit interested in at this point.

Getting a "Technician" license would require about an evening
of your time -- plus travel to/from exam. And, I think, $6 (?)
exam fee. No need to set up a radio, etc. Just like getting
a driver's license doesn't require you to own -- or even
DRIVE! -- a car.

[But, I understand your point...]

Then there's the problem of the medium. Web fora are perfect for my
porpoises: I can easily send text and images, and receive the same. With
radio, I'd have to exhaustively describe every little detail of what I'm
trying to do. And unless I had some kind of radio-fax setup, whereby I
could transmit images (and images of extremely ****ty quality at that),
how would I exchange schematics with other hams? Email? or, ironically,
posting them on the Web?

You have access to all the same media with a ham license. The
point is, you (can) "hang with a different crowd". Hopefully
one that, at a minimum, knows that electrical power is measured
in Watts, inductance is expressed in Henries and that a current of
2 amps flowing through a resistance of 3 ohms develops a potential
of 6 volts.

I.e., questions that separate the "men" from the... um... I
forget...

[I think that about sums up the Technician Class, eh? : ]

A good bit of the license information deals with *regulations*
and conduct/expectations/responsibility/etc.

Sorry, not a good suggestion. I will say, though, that I do have a copy
of the ARRL Handbook (1991) which has been quite useful, if a bit out of
date.

I don't think the license itself will buy you anything
towards your goal (though, as an aside, you might consider
downloading the question pools for the various license
classes and wading through the "technical" questions /cold/
to get a feel for just how much you actually already *know*.
This could be encouraging -- or discouraging -- to you.)

Rather, the real value is getting you exposed to that
sort of person. Sort of like hanging around a sports bar
(instead of a LIBRARY) if you are interested in learning
about sports...

(google: technician ham questions)