Modern Electronics (was Re: List charter mods & headcount... ; -))

From: Joe R. <rigdonj_at_cfl.rr.com>
Date: Sun Jun 20 13:51:54 2004

At 11:05 AM 6/20/04 -0700, Sellam wrote:
>
>On Sun, 20 Jun 2004, Teo Zenios wrote:
>
>> Tools are great, I use them myself. But you have to have some knowledge of
>> what's going on to know when the answer the tool gives you is wrong (maybe
>> you didn't feed the tool enough information, forgot something, or there
is a
>> bug in the program, etc). Lots of solutions that look good on a computer
end
>> up not working great in the field because of many things that are not
>> modeled in your tool. Bridges fall, roofs cave in, microchips short out,
etc
>> not because the tools were wrong, but because when things get too big or
too
>> small other forces that normally don't matter come into play. The only
thing
>> that really changes in engineering is we have new materials, controls, and
>> better detailed models to play with, the basics you learned in school don't
>> change much if at all. Without the basics the tools are just a good quick
>> way to make a mess of things. Somebody who knows what's going on can jump
>> from tool to tool, if you just know how to use one particular tool then
your
>> in trouble.
>
>I think the question boils down: Are we losing any knowledge as each
>generation passes?
>
>My instinct would say "no",


    I vote a resounding YES! When I was a kid there were a couple of dozen
very knowledgeable adult hams (amateur radio operators) in town and I knew
plenty of kids and teenagers that were seriously interested in electronics
and many more than were intersted in mechanical things such as automobiles.
Now I know exactly ONE teenager that's remotely interested in electronics
(and he only knows enough to be dangerous!) and perhaps two that are
interested in mechanics. And this is in a town that's at least twice as big
as the one that I grew up in. And as far as finding a knowledgeable ham
goes you can just about forget it! There's ONE in town. The rest just buy
prebuilt packaged radios, plug them in and start talking. They're even
less knowledgeable than the CD operators were in the 60s.

   Joe
Received on Sun Jun 20 2004 - 13:51:54 BST