Good thread.
I kinda knew Carl’s skillset from years here and other sites. Well respected by me having worked in science and technology myself for 4 decades.
@awise1961 We may have dabbled in some of the same aircraft.
My dad was a tinsmith by training because his dad worked in a malleable iron factory across the street and sold copper moonshine stills on the side for extra cash. It was a prerequisite to be skilled at soldering at an early age as my dad and I would put copper snow flashing on house roofs for his own extra cash side hustle. The man knew copper and was awarded 2 patents for his R&D efforts. He used his skills to become the team leader patching the skins of B-24’s after bombing raids in the big one before returning to work in the copper industry.
Everything growing up was either fix it yourself or DIY that from the ground up with your own take on it. While only a measly mechanical engineer in the world of electronics I wasn’t designing the PCB’s, but hardening them against vibration, EMI/RFI or extracting their heat while packaging them into structurally sound "black boxes" replete with the necessary connectors and filters. With lots of help from experienced mentors I put my stamp on the V-22 Osprey fuel system black boxes in the 80’s, a few B-2 bomber devices, General Motors next generation airbag systems in the 90’s, Oshkosh and John Deere active tire inflation systems, and animatronic figures for Universal/Disney (say a 10,000 lb.,45 foot T-Rex with full body motions mounted on a class 7 truck chassis rolling forward into a show for 60 feet at 5 mph and not crush little Jimmy in the front row by breaking through the light curtains).
Like you folks, I love music and electronics. I was working hard as a teenager to buy a set of speakers to bypass my Dad’s Utah’s built into the living room system. He had the turntable mounted in a drawer(!) and the tube amp mounted in the wall so we could spin albums by Mitch Miller or the Carpenters! I was hooked and dove head first once I graduated college into buying my own system; bi-amped JBL’s and DIY subs in maple plywood racks and stands my dad and I made with his ancient cast iron Craftsman table saw. The same table saw he cut 16 foot strips of redwood to make a canoe and guess who was on the other end of those redwood pieces at the table saw!
One of my hobbies I sunk ridiculous dough into for 25 years was racing R/C boats throughout the Midwest. 2-cycle motors burning nitromethane and alcohol at 25,000 RPM’s running 60 MPH on 1/3 mile ovals 6-abreast. Lots of mechanical and electrical elements in that hobby. Build a wood or fiberglass hull, paint it, set it up, tune the motor and then have some jackass run over your deck and watch your $1500 boat get destroyed, all while standing in the blazing sun or pouring rain. Stereo gear is tame in comparison. ha
I love gear, room design, frequency sweeps, and flavoring with cables! My wife let’s me roam in this hobby as much as I want because she knows, together, we can put my DIY skills and her decorating skills to work remodeling a kitchen, putting up a fence, making planter boxes, adding a lighting circuit, or building some shelves when many others have to hire those activities out to contractors. I don’t golf because my L3 and L4 are in bad shape, so I’m home building crap she wants on weekends. And if I want to build/rebuild a stereo or HT room, the boss is okay with it since her contractor is a live-in.
It is encouraging to hang out with folks who have skills and the rest who respect us with skills. I can’t design the circuits some of you can, but I can recognize good design when I see it. I’ve done plenty of work with friends over the years who cannot swing a hammer but have the vision of what they want, so away we go. In another life I would have been an EE or a professional drummer. Regardless, I work to fund my hobbies and this is pretty much my remaining dance.
Happy listening.