Hi, I'm Amie!

[Ed_Dinning]

Hi Amie and welcome.
A slightly simpler book and a good primer for Art of Electronics is "Electronic Circuits" by Mike Tooley

Best wishes, Ed

[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.

[Amie]

Hi Amie and welcome.
A slightly simpler book and a good primer for Art of Electronics is "Electronic Circuits" by Mike Tooley

Best wishes,  Ed

Hello Ed.

I've not seen that book so I will give it a try, thanks. I've been given the student companion to The Art of Electronic and that has helped with the basics some, I still feel I'm missing out if I don't understand stuff though!

Thanks,
Amie

[djrm]

Greetings Amy,
When I was even younger I built myself a one or two valve regenerative receiver.
I used to listen to it in bed at night until the early hours.

I was encouraged to use transistors for experiments, which I did, but valves always held a fascination too.

I learned a lot form a book called The Boy Electrician, the radio design was a composite from the receiver in there and one in another book.
see here: https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Arc...Morgan.pdf
I think it is a well known book and there was a much earlier edition. I still have my copy it has a red cover.
I imagine others on the forum will have read it in their youth.

I too was impressed by your writing skills, my wife Jenny studies creative writing and writes short stories for appraisal by peers.
Kind regards, David.

[Amie]

Greetings Amie

Hi.
I've downloaded the book.
Thanks!
Amie.

[Doodlebug]

I cannot fathom your writing skills, Amie.
You have a means of expression and show a maturity
well ahead of your age.
Amazing.

[ppppenguin]

Hi Amie

I remember corresponding with your father back in 2017. He was very helpful to me. A real gentleman. His memory is certainly worth remembering and celebrating.

Jeffrey

[Terry]

He cradle snatched my Mum in 2003   (he was 38, she,19) and I came along in 2007 ...

Interesting. A younger brother of my father married my mum's sister in the 1930s, which is how they met.

'Courting' was a somewhat complicated process in those days and I recall my mum telling me that her mother came along on all their dates to act as chaperone!

They married not long before the start of WWII when my father would have been 43 and my mother 27. I was born in 1944.

He died in April 2018 aged 53.

My father died in 1947 at the age of 52 from gastric ulcers. I was 3½ and my mother was carrying my younger brother - he was born 5 months later.

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

His user name was Pat Pending.

I remember the name and you will find him listed on the Members list. I haven't looked but you should be able to find and read his posts. My father had no technical interest in wireless, as it was then known, so any similarity stops there.

As others have said, your writing skills are excellent!

[Amie]

I cannot fathom your writing skills, Amie.
You have a means of expression and show a maturity
well ahead of your age.
Amazing.

Hello Albert.

Some people who meet me say I'm gifted, (my second best trait behind modesty ), but I'm really quite ordinary, I just have an eidetic memory and love to read, things tend to go in and stay in.

It can be a curse.

And it does not make me popular

As for the comments on my writing, its 30% creative writing class, 30% compiler program, 30% plagiarism, and 10% imagination

Thanks,
Amie.

[Amie]

Hi Amie

I remember corresponding with your father back in 2017. He was very helpful to me. A real gentleman. His memory is certainly worth remembering and celebrating.

Jeffrey

Hello Jeffrey.
Yes! Dad mentioned you a few times, I've looked at your site and IIRC he mentioned you wrote articles for the Television magazine. Dad spent some of the early eighties in Kent he told me, and also by chance met a guy who called himself Les Johns, and wrote for that Magazine, as well as other books, he also had a TV and electrical shop there too.
I believe also that a couple of years ago he was trying to "negotiate" a collectable for you.
He said you were a helpful chap too! You helped out with some project he had taken on.
Thanks, 
Amie.