Arfa Daily wrote:
I'm not trying to " impress " you, or anyone else about my abilities. In the
case of the majority of amateurs who ask questions on here, and whom as a
professional, I try to help, they probably would be impressed as a matter of
course, in much the same as that I, being only an amateur carpenter, or
plumber, or car mechanic, am impressed by the knowledge of people engaged in
those fields.
I too have repaired this equipment for some 30 odd years, and, whilst I have
not worked with tubes bigger than a kW, I have certainly worked with sub
miniature types - in fact I recently rebuilt a military radio transceiver
which used them, and didn't have much difficulty obtaining them either. So,
by the same token that you claim I am trying to impress you, don't try to do
it back to me.
The only point I was trying to make, is that there is still a considerable
amount of vacuum tube equipment being currently manufactured, which many
amateurs, and probably more than a few professionals don't realise. It is
NOT all vintage, and tinkered with by ancient proffessor longhairs. Whilst
there is no longer TV sets and tape recorders being manufactured with tubes
in - and nobody, amateur or professional needs to be told this - the sector
of the market producing tube amplifiers is still alive and as well as it
ever was.
Bull. At one time EVERY home Hi Fi or stereo was all tube. Today
only a small fraction of a percent are ewither built new, or are still
in use.
Fender, Ampeg, Orange, Marshall are all names that immediately spring to
mind. If you like, I'll check with one of the equipment shops that I do work
for, and see how he thinks that the market for tube amps is, in comparison
to 30 years ago.
Please do. While you're at it, make sure to check with all the
others who are out of the tube amplifer business because there isn't
enough work to support more than one shop in any one area. There is
exactly ONE shop in the Ocala area that still works on tube amps,
although its only a tiny part of his repair work. All the music stores
send him their equipment to repair, but 30 years ago, most had their own
repair departments.
I really don't know what has happened to newsgroups in recent years. People
now seem to treat them as forums, and chime in with all manner of unhelpful
replies to posters. It used to be that if someone- often an amateur - wanted
to know something, they posted and asked, and some kindly soul, who knew the
answer, posted back. The original questioner then either posted back to the
group, or direct, and said " Thank you for your help. The problem is now
cured." End of.
You put down my suggestion of the OP going to a newsgroup centered on
tube based equipment. I tell some people who post there that they
belong here, even though they might find help on the other newsgroup.
Why limit your chances by not going to where you can find more help?
Now, all manner of other posters will chip in with half assed replies, and
often getting quite nasty saying " Go Google it, and don't be so lazy " and
other such stuff. This is not helpful to amateurs.
Some are too lasy to use any search engine. If I read, "I've looked
all over the place and can't find anything about..." and find it as the
first hit with a search engine what do you suggest?
1: Lead them step by step so they never learn anything?
2: Totally ignore them, plonk them, and then forget they ever posted.
3: Tell them to take another look, with the proper search term.
I prefer # 3, but you can do whatever works for you.
Recently, a poster on here had asked how to get into a Bose sub. Despite how
clever all the self styled moderators on here are
Sorry, there are no "Moderators" on this group. Never have been, and
never will. This was not chartered as a moderated newsgroup.
it's not at all obvious,
unless you know. Helpfully, the first reply was " Use a chopsaw ... "
If all else fails, try a little humor. Any day you can't laugh
wasn't worth getting out of bed.
On many occasions, I have spent hours on the net trying to track down info
on something, and then posted on an appropriate group, and got an immediate
answer from a professional in that field.
Once again, I suggested an appropriate newsgroup and you slammed the
idea.
I still try to be one of those " professionals in the field " , and try to
help, constructively, where I can. If people want to be " impressed " by
that, then so be it, but don't imply that I am actively trying to impress. I
know my abilities and limitations, and have been around for far too long to
need to play silly games of how good I am.
Arfa
I have been a "Professional" in many electronic fields in the last
40+ years. I started with TV repair at 13 by working part time, then
full time after I graduated. There were over 50 TV shops in my home
town, but only a couple had the reputation, "Those guys can fix
ANYTHING!" I managed two of them and ran the commercail sound
departments in both of them. Then I went into the military where I was
awarded the MOS for broadcast engineer, after testing out of a three
year elctronics school. After my time in the service, I opened my own
commercial sound business, added industrial equipment, then computers
and industrial video
equipment. I ran a service center in Cincinnati, Ohio for United Video
where we repaired and modified CATV headend and distribution equipment.
After that I moved to Florida to work as a broadcast engineer at a 5 MW
EIRP UHF TV station in Orlando / Orange City. After that, I moved and
rebuilt an all tube RCA TV transmitter to but Ch 58 in Destin, Florida
on the air. My last job was building telemetery equipment at Microdyne
(bought out by L-3com). Some of my work is in space, and the weather
satellite photos you see on the news come through Microdyne 700 series,
or a turnkey 'MFR' packaged system built here, in Ocala. In other
words, I have been all over the industry, as it changed. These days, I
repair computers for free, and give them to disabled veterans but I
still have a 1200 square foot shop here at home that has equipment
ranging from early tubes, to VLSI SMD construction.
BTW, the last time I checked, all 50+ TV shops in my home town are
long gone.
--
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Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida
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