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More people should build stuff with vacuum tubes. They’re easier to understand on a conceptual level than semiconductors, and it’s absolutely worth learning the limitations of things from the past at a fundamental level, plus there are still millions of them in circulation

Similarly, it was much easier to get my ham license than I thought it was, more people should do it! But be careful about sharing your call sign unless you’ve registered with a PO Box, because the FCC database is fully public, including your address and phone number

Vintage computing, while rewarding, can be hazardous; not only do you have to deal with leaky batteries and the occasional exploding tantalum capacitor, but mice and rats often make a real mess of things and especially in the American Southwest, this carries the risk of hantavirus

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If you want a really good crash course in analog engineering, start building analog synthesizer parts; you will gain a much more visceral understanding of how transistors really work by making a log converter (for 1V/octave) with a BJT than any amount of book exercises

Also, this is not an opinion so much as a fact that is not communicated very well in basic electrical engineering books and courses, but: BJTs are voltage-controlled, not current-controlled, and (here’s the opinion part) teaching them initially as current-controlled does a lot of lasting damage

Or assuming you already generally have the knowledge and enjoy the process, yeah, but I already have thoughts on that

Medium Dave Lillywhite@cursed.monster

Same argument goes for maintaining your own car or house, like… yes, many of us are likely paid considerably more per hour than mechanics or handymen or whatever, but if it’s a thing you enjoy and you would not otherwise be working during that time, you are not actually losing money