On 20 Nov 2009 15:54:49 GMT, Allodoxaphobia wrote:
On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:25:27 -0700 (PDT), Tim Shoppa wrote:
On Oct 25, 9:41*am, sorry-spammers ""w9wi\"@(sorry-spammers)" wrote:
Paging through an old QST, it dawned on me that when schematics are drawn, usually the earliest stages are drawn on the left side of the diagram. *The
speech input circuits for a voice transmitter; the antenna coupling and RF preamp (if any) for a receiver, etc., all seem to be drawn on the left.

In the tube days at least (and to some degree with solid-state homebrew today) we seem to build the actual equipment the same way: the earliest stages
are physically on the left side of the gear.

In the 70's I was befuddled by a bunch of schematics from England that
I had to decode. I came to the conclusion that they were hard to read
because they drive on the wrong side of the road over there. But
really they were just using (by my standards) some odd symbols or odd
line thicknesses oddly placed. In my experience the choice of odd or
unconventional or even just different symbols is a far bigger barrier
to schematics between different cultures than any left-to-right bias.

Many old TRF schematics went left-to-right and then right-to-left.
This was done, I believe, to make it all fit on a 'standard' sized sheet
of paper. The antenna input was in the upper left -- with the RF
sections runing on towards the right. Just before, or just after, the
diode detection, the signal path would drop down the righthand side of
the schematic and then audio section(s) would run left-to-right.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
sigh... . . . . . . . . . . . . Of course I meant "right-to-left".

Jonesy