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I just showed up on the scene in 1969, fresh out of high school with something different on
my mind. The field of electronics was far from my thoughts, IBM had taken the lead in mainframe computers, but the invention of transistors and IC‘s were quickly changing the face of
technology and educational institutions were there to teach people how to deal with this
rapid change. I got involved just as the home computer came of age, and so did I, as a
technician, in that field. With the advent of personal computers and the Graphical User Interface (GUI) of the 80‘s traditional schools began to open up computer classes for businesses to take advantage of the new revolution about to happen and as they say, ―the rest
is history‖.
2. Tell us a about pros/cons of that “growing up” during this time as well as what your opinion about the quality of electronic devices today? A good “Timeline of the Era” can be seen
on the IEEE website. Because of the reduced stress and heat of electronic circuitry as well
as miniaturization of components, longevity and durability is assured and software emulation
now almost replaces even dedicated digital circuits. I think the future of software emulation
of traditional test equipment is going to be awesome.
3. What can you say about the degree of technicians repairing these devices today (good,
bad, or ugly)? Today‘s technician is a world apart from the technicians of yesterday. Yesterday, any shade tree mechanic could figure out what made a machine tick. A good ―rule of
thumb‖ was to look for the ―socketed‖ item on the board and you could almost always put
your hand on the culprit, or if there were tubes involved, they were generally suspect. To
speed the repair, just pull a tube out of your caddy, swap and be on your way. Of course,
It‘s not the same today, you not only must be a software technician or engineer to troubleshoot and repair the latest greatest equipment, but you must have the manufacturers special software keys and a couple of configuration manuals.
4. Can you tell us what you think about the repair of early computers? Were they easier or
harder to repair? Actually, repair of the basic computer has always been a lesson of changing out component modules. With the invention of multi-planar circuit boards, are multi layers of multiple substrate planes. The compactness results from a structured folding of several parts in complementary directions that allows intermediate portions to be stacked on
each other. It is almost impossible to repair them in a mom and pop shop.
5. What was the cost to replace vacuum tubes? Vacuum tubes were almost always the
most obvious culprit in the circuit because of their inherent heat and loss of electron material
as well as the degradation of Power resistors that fed them. Tubes were generally affordable
with pocket change. A ―Tube Caddy‖, a very large carrying case sometimes with hundreds
of compartments for vacuum tubes, was a technician‘s best friend.
6. What were the dangers involved? High static voltage on the tubes was the main fear of
the circuits but there is always the inherent ―electric shock‖ that could ultimately hurt or
cause you to hurt yourself.