Hi, I'm Amie!

[Amie]

Hi Amie and welcome to GVR.
This has to be the freindliest, most easy going forum un the UK, with many experienced members happy to give advice and share knowledge.
Its great to see someone so young having an interest in what essentually now seems an older persons hobby. I started on this hobby when I was probably about 9 or 10.
The hobby carried on through my teens,  learning lots from Dick & Smithy, then I found pubs, motor bikes and work. I still had a keen interest in knowing how all things worked throuout all my working life and became a keen vintage radio collector and restorer about 8 or 9 years ago.
It would be nice to know a little about your dad, if feel you want to talk about him, some of us may remember him.

regards
Mike

Hello Mike.

The main part of my electronic interest is making, but I do find old electronics fascinating, there is a warmth to it, (quite literally of course in the case of valve stuff), some of the old radios even seem to have a soul, it seems to me like, you don't switch them off so much as let them sleep, then switching back on wakes them up, slowly, the wait, then the yawn from the speaker as the hum gives way to coherent sound, talking to you, or singing to you, maybe reminding you of better times, like a friend. That's what I love.

(Creative writing classes not a  waste of time eh?  )

I don't mind transistorized either, or printed circuits. You see the individuals who make your gadget work.

Integrated circuits seem soulless, but they have their place in the world, it's the irreparable, the cheapo smt throw away rubbish that we all have to use I'm not interested in.

Yes I like to talk about Dad, I'm not prepared to put his memory in a box as well. I'll give you a short resume of his life, then I'm sure some of you may have some memory of him too, then I'll try not to make anyone uncomfortable about it again.

His name was Andrew, he built his first radio age seven. My grandad had a friend who worked at the corporation tip who used to bring broken radios, TVs, and record players for him to pull apart, he started to repair some of the better ones to sell for some pocket money.

When he left college, he was a TV repair man, and ended up working for Curry's I think, he called them "Mothercare". He hated it!

He went back into education and did a degree course.

For a long while after that he worked as a designer, for industrial control systems etc. He also designed some medical implant communications systems, heart pacers, bladder controls, that kind of thing, for a company in the USA.

After granddad died he came home to look after grandma, and took a job looking after a manufacturing company's IT and control system equipment.

He cradle snatched my Mum in 2003   (he was 38, she,19) and I came along in 2007, he became ill in 2012, and had to slow down with work, so became more involved with his hobbies. He also mentored students in electronic engineering at a local college.

He had successive problems with his health then late in 2017 he was diagnosed terminal, the problem had affected his brain.

He died in April 2018 aged 53.

He was a member on GVR as well as other forums for a few years I think.

His user name was Pat Pending.

Thanks,
Amie.