Saturday, January 31, 2009

Electronic technicians


Now electronic technicians do not know how to solder.........anything!
It is all insulation displacement in plugs, sockets, pins, etc,etc,etc.
I learned how to solder by assembling Heathkits, sitting around with a soldering gun that my parents bought me when I was about 7 or 8.
It was a WEN soldering gun.
It burned stuff real good too!
The principle is that you put a current through a metal wire that has a lower resistance than the wire it is attached to and it will heat up.
Like a electric heater that glows red when you turn it on or a light bulb. Which are going to be obsolete pretty soon. And to thing I bough a whole bunch of them on sale , like 20 or so, that will never be screwed in, since I changed all my bulbs to CFE.
Back to the soldering.
There were two companies than built soldering guns. WEN was the first and immediately after came WELLER.
Now Weller is still making them but probably not as many as in the hayday of hte 50's and 60's.
Every radio, television, electronic device has solder connections.
Building Heathkits, was the neatest thing, you could smell the smoke of the burning rosin, get little dabs of wayward solder on your pants and clothes. If it was hot enough it would burn little holes right through down to your skin........Ouch!
We hired some technicians a few years ago, to do general work around the business, install radios and antenna connections etc.
None of them knew how to solder the PL259 connectors on to the coax cable. They were taught only to use crimp connectors.
Don't know how to solder?
Forget the raise. If I have to solder the connectors on, why do I need you?
Back to a one man operation.

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From TV News to owning radio communications business, seen technology grow and change the way we live. Hobbies are still some photography and reading, satellite pickup. Did catering and cooking at wineries, taught cooking classes and culinary related ventures. Do a few regional cooking classes down here at my house from time to time, in between visiting and living in this beautiful country. Some tech consulting and lots of opinionated chatter.