Eddie_T
Member
- Occupation
- PE (retired)
I'm retired and had to google VFD to see what it was, don't laugh!
Do you remember ?
- Thread starter junkhound
- Start date
- Status
LarryFine
Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
- Location
- Henrico County, VA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
My parents indulged my electrical and electronic interests, ever since my mom found me in the utility room looking at the wires leaving the fuse panel. "What are you doing?" "Wondering where the wires go." They bought me books about electricity, basic machines, and other physical-science topics.
When I was 6, i built a "fox-hole" crystal radio I read about in a book. It used a coil made with a paper-towel tube with 120 turns of wire, and a detector made with a blue razor blade and a pencil lead tied to a large safety pin with wire. All you had to add were an antenna and a ground, and high-impedance headphones.
I found a link and a pic:
http://onetuberadio.com/2014/05/29/the-foxhole-radio-turns-70/
I started playing with those quart-size Eveready ignition batteries and knife switches to control lights. They bought me an electrical experimenter's kit. I even had to assemble the light bulb sockets and switches using fiber washers, terminals, and nuts and bolts. I also remember there being Fahnestock terminals.
I also started messing with electronics like audio equipment when I added a stereo headphone jack to my brother's stereo record player, and telephone extensions around the house. I wired a circuit for receptacles and lights to my parents' shed by the age of 10 or so, even wiring it to an unused fuse socket in the panel.
My first real job was at a near-by service station, where the boss liked my wiring experience and knowledge, and my second was as an 8-track stereo installer and repair/troubleshooter in a car stereo shop. I even worked on a couple of 4-track systems. (feel free to ask me about the differences).
I read books about how houses were wired, including adding wiring to already-built houses, when I was still in elementary school, and did my first service upgrade for an uncle when I was 15. So, yeah, I've know a thing or two about switches for quite a while, like since I was a kid (chronologically speaking).
When I was 6, i built a "fox-hole" crystal radio I read about in a book. It used a coil made with a paper-towel tube with 120 turns of wire, and a detector made with a blue razor blade and a pencil lead tied to a large safety pin with wire. All you had to add were an antenna and a ground, and high-impedance headphones.
I found a link and a pic:
http://onetuberadio.com/2014/05/29/the-foxhole-radio-turns-70/
I started playing with those quart-size Eveready ignition batteries and knife switches to control lights. They bought me an electrical experimenter's kit. I even had to assemble the light bulb sockets and switches using fiber washers, terminals, and nuts and bolts. I also remember there being Fahnestock terminals.
I also started messing with electronics like audio equipment when I added a stereo headphone jack to my brother's stereo record player, and telephone extensions around the house. I wired a circuit for receptacles and lights to my parents' shed by the age of 10 or so, even wiring it to an unused fuse socket in the panel.
My first real job was at a near-by service station, where the boss liked my wiring experience and knowledge, and my second was as an 8-track stereo installer and repair/troubleshooter in a car stereo shop. I even worked on a couple of 4-track systems. (feel free to ask me about the differences).
I read books about how houses were wired, including adding wiring to already-built houses, when I was still in elementary school, and did my first service upgrade for an uncle when I was 15. So, yeah, I've know a thing or two about switches for quite a while, like since I was a kid (chronologically speaking).
LarryFine
Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
- Location
- Henrico County, VA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
My parents indulged my electrical and electronic interests, ever since my mom found me in the utility room looking at the wires leaving the fuse panel. "What are you doing?" "Wondering where the wires go." They bought me books about electricity, basic machines, and other physical-science topics.
When I was 6, i built a "fox-hole" crystal radio I read about in a book. It used a coil made with a paper-towel tube with 120 turns of wire, and a detector made with a blue razor blade and a pencil lead tied to a large safety pin with wire. All you had to add were an antenna and a ground, and high-impedance headphones.
I found a link and a pic:
http://onetuberadio.com/2014/05/29/the-foxhole-radio-turns-70/
View attachment 21911
I started playing with those quart-size Eveready ignition batteries and knife switches to control lights. They bought me an electrical experimenter's kit. I even had to assemble the light bulb sockets and switches using fiber washers, terminals, and nuts and bolts. I also remember there being Fahnestock terminals.
I also started messing with electronics like audio equipment when I added a stereo headphone jack to my brother's stereo record player, and telephone extensions around the house. I wired a circuit for receptacles and lights to my parents' shed by the age of 10 or so, even wiring it to an unused fuse socket in the panel.
My first real job was at a near-by service station, where the boss liked my wiring experience and knowledge, and my second was as an 8-track stereo installer and repair/troubleshooter in a car stereo shop. I even worked on a couple of 4-track systems. (feel free to ask me about the differences).
I read books about how houses were wired, including adding wiring to already-built houses, when I was still in elementary school, and did my first service upgrade for an uncle when I was 15. I've known more electrical theory than any electrician I worked under when I was a helper.
So, yeah, I've know a thing or two about switches for quite a while, like since I was a kid (chronologically speaking).
When I was 6, i built a "fox-hole" crystal radio I read about in a book. It used a coil made with a paper-towel tube with 120 turns of wire, and a detector made with a blue razor blade and a pencil lead tied to a large safety pin with wire. All you had to add were an antenna and a ground, and high-impedance headphones.
I found a link and a pic:
http://onetuberadio.com/2014/05/29/the-foxhole-radio-turns-70/
View attachment 21911
I started playing with those quart-size Eveready ignition batteries and knife switches to control lights. They bought me an electrical experimenter's kit. I even had to assemble the light bulb sockets and switches using fiber washers, terminals, and nuts and bolts. I also remember there being Fahnestock terminals.
I also started messing with electronics like audio equipment when I added a stereo headphone jack to my brother's stereo record player, and telephone extensions around the house. I wired a circuit for receptacles and lights to my parents' shed by the age of 10 or so, even wiring it to an unused fuse socket in the panel.
My first real job was at a near-by service station, where the boss liked my wiring experience and knowledge, and my second was as an 8-track stereo installer and repair/troubleshooter in a car stereo shop. I even worked on a couple of 4-track systems. (feel free to ask me about the differences).
I read books about how houses were wired, including adding wiring to already-built houses, when I was still in elementary school, and did my first service upgrade for an uncle when I was 15. I've known more electrical theory than any electrician I worked under when I was a helper.
So, yeah, I've know a thing or two about switches for quite a while, like since I was a kid (chronologically speaking).
Eddie_T
Member
- Occupation
- PE (retired)
Popular Science used to be a good magazine. I ordered a crystal radio kit from an Alva L Allen (I think the same Alva L Allen that made Heavy punch presses and such) ad in the back of a PS magazine. It had a real crystal (lead galena) and a cat whisker (phosphor) bronze wire, but I made a better detector with a piece of fools's gold from a pile of gravel where the returning WWII GIs were building an Amerlican Legion building. I found 300Ω headphones from another PS ad.
Last edited:
Adamjamma
Senior Member
- Location
- Jamaica and london
My parents bought me a nine volt radio... had interesting bits inside but required a ear piece to hear it... Neighbor was throwing out a tv... tube style... but had nice gear inside... I figured out how to make my radio play through the speaker from the tv.. was around five.. could not talk right, teachers claimed I was dumb, daddy on TDY... And I took apart a tv in the basement and used the speaker because the earphones hurt my ears... used the trim button off it for volume...lol... not pretty and not exactly correct but it worked...
Next TDY daddy found a place called RadioShack and every time he was sent to NASA he brought back kits... I had all sorts of electronic toys that I put together... all started from tinkering woth an old tv..lol...
Miss those days and want to teach my grandkids to tinker but their mom is like..no junk in my house...lol
Next TDY daddy found a place called RadioShack and every time he was sent to NASA he brought back kits... I had all sorts of electronic toys that I put together... all started from tinkering woth an old tv..lol...
Miss those days and want to teach my grandkids to tinker but their mom is like..no junk in my house...lol
- Status