Radio Shack and my education
 

Reg Edwards wrote:
I'd been trying to locate a reasonably priced USB cable over the

weekend

It seems that you often pay as much for the cable as you fo for

the

device you are connecting to the computer.


======================================

It's quite legal for traders to charge whatever price they think the
buyer can afford.

Of course. And entirely up to me if I go into the store again.

On the other hand, it is also quite legal for the buyer to haggle
about it. It's entirely up to you if you are unhappy.

I'm trying to guage the reaction from the RS folks if I haggled over
the price!

My main point wasn't the price anyhoo, but the snake oil science used
to sell the "superior" cables. RS has no monopoly on that.

I've had trouble in the past with cables. Once with a too long SCSI
cable. But that was just a velocity vs timing, and a cheap-o video cable
that didn't have good shielding.

But those things make sense, not exotic wire formulations that speed up
or slow down certain frequencies.....

- Mike KB3EIA -

Radio Shack and my education
 

Michael wrote:
My son took and electronics course at Benson High School in Portland Oregon.
The teacher was totally clueless and just made things up as he went along.
One of them was that the higher the voltage on a wire, the faster it travels
in the wire. It took me all day to make my son believe that his teacher was
just a clueless sot and to understand ohms law. From my son's perspective, a
teacher must really know something to be a teacher. Sadly, this is far from
true.


This is why there is a market for some pretty bizzare antennas out there!

The good news was that I was forced to take a more active part in his
education about electronics. We built and tested projects together and it
was good for both of us.


There ya go!

- Mike KB3EIA -

Radio Shack and my education
 

Dave Heil wrote:
Michael Coslo wrote:

Slightly OT, but kinda fun anyhow.....

I'd been trying to locate a reasonably priced USB cable over the
weekend It seems that you often pay as much for the cable as you fo
for the device you are connecting to the computer.

Has stereo voodoo physics entered the computer realm?

Anyhow, I ended up in a Radio Shack store, found the cheapest cable I
could, (20 bucks) and made the mistake of mentioning something to the
salesman about the funny claims on the packages. Big mistake, I had
blasphemed his religion. In the next couple minutes I learned that:

Turns out that different frequencies travel at different speeds down
the cable. Good cables have special formulations of wire that
compensate for this.

Everybody knows that!

He didn't know what velocity factor was, but let me know that he
had taken physics classes, so he knew what he was talking about.

So why have u antenna gurus been misleading us?!


Now that my eyes have been opened I understand....

Looking at an antenna, it becomes obvious that the lower the
frequency, the slower the signal moves. The extra length of the
antenna allows the RF to accellerate enough so that when it reached
the end of the antenna, it has enough velocity to shoot out and not
float straight up. Those really high frequencies are zipping by so
fast that they hardly need any wire to get to TOSP (Take-off speed)

Wow, I have reached true enlightenment...............


Funny that you brought this up today, Mike. I happened to hit my local
RadShack yesterday in search of a Cinch-Jones power connector. I told
the salesman what I was looking for, an 8-pin Jones plug/socket set. He
asked if I was looking for a microphone connector. I explained what the
Jones plugs looked like and told him that they used to be standard fare
in at Radio Shack and that they stocked them in 2, 4 and 8 pin
varieties. He told me that he'd never seen nor heard of them.

I told him that I could likely use a strip of the European-style nylon
electrical connectors with screw terminals. He'd never heard of those
and said RadShack didn't stock them. I walked to a different section of
the store and pulled two of them off the rack.

Sigh.... and then a few months later RS pulls the parts because "no one
is buying this stuff", and puts up more cell phone posters....

All because some doofus doesn't know inventory. 8^(

I don't want to diss my local shack too much tho'. They are the nearest
one to the local University, and they keep a pretty fair stock. Probably
because the Electro-geek level is a little higher than some other
places.I shop there when possible to help keep it going.

I've gotten into several heated discussions with audio weenies over
oxygen-free cable, gold-plated connectors, carbon vs. metal film
resistors and mylar vs. paper capacitors. All of these guys swore up
and down that they could hear a difference in one item vs. the other.
I've offered to set up blind tests to see if they could, but none would
ever take me up on the offer.

It's just like testing ESP, or spoon bending. Something in the testing
process just changes something. You might ask those weenies if they have
any of those rocks that you are supposed to place someplace or another
to make the sound better.

- Mike KB3EIA -

Radio Shack and my education
 

Iitoi wrote:
Michael Coslo Wrote:

Turns out that different frequencies travel at different speeds down the
cable. Good cables have special formulations of wire that compensate for
this.



You can increase the velocity factor (and shorten the antenna) by using
a good grade of Carnuba automobile wax to make the antenna slipperyer,
which (because of skin effect) allows the signal to accelerate faster.

If you want a multiband, should you only wax portions of it?

- Mike KB3EIA -

Radio Shack and my education
 

Cecil Moore wrote:
Dave Heil wrote:
I told the salesman what I was looking for, an 8-pin Jones plug/socket
set.

I made the mistake at RS of asking for a Molex connector.

They actually have a few of 'em, Cecil. Our area stores keep them in
metal drawers now rather than hanging them on the wall.

Dave K8MN

Radio Shack and my education
 

"Cecil Moore" bravely wrote to "All" (24 Nov 05 17:16:53)
--- on the heady topic of " Radio Shack and my education"

CM From: Cecil Moore
CM Xref: core-easynews rec.radio.amateur.antenna:220329

CM Dave Heil wrote:
I told
the salesman what I was looking for, an 8-pin Jones plug/socket set.

CM I made the mistake at RS of asking for a Molex connector.

But I'll bet they could have found you a Molex/RCA adapter! ;-)

A*s*i*m*o*v

.... Sho-ping. Martial art using technique of kew-pon.

Radio Shack and my education
 

Dave Heil wrote:
Cecil Moore wrote:
I made the mistake at RS of asking for a Molex connector.

They actually have a few of 'em, Cecil. Our area stores keep them in
metal drawers now rather than hanging them on the wall.

Oh, they had them hanging on the wall but said they didn't
have any. When I found them, they asked, "How do you know
that's a Molex connector?" :-)

Adopted from the IC-22S 30 years ago, I still use the 4-pin
version for low current 12 volt power in my shack and in my
pickup.
--
73, Cecil http://www.qsl.net/w5dxp

Radio Shack and my education
 

Cecil Moore wrote:
Michael wrote:

From my son's perspective, a teacher must really know something to be a

teacher. Sadly, this is far from true.

When I was student-teaching in the early 60's, the regular
physics teacher told his students that transistors were
made out of geranium. :-)

Everybody knows they are made out of humurous ex-convicts [silly-con].

But, in the 60s I was production engineer making 'geranium' transistors.

Radio Shack and my education
 

Michael wrote:
My son took and electronics course ...

Michael, check your computer clock. Is it set
to PM instead of AM?
--
73, Cecil http://www.qsl.net/w5dxp

Radio Shack and my education
 

Phil Wheeler wrote:

Michael wrote:
My son took and electronics course at Benson High School in Portland Oregon.
The teacher was totally clueless and just made things up as he went along.

Ah yes. I attended Bensen Tech (so it was called then) in the Fall of
1953. We were taught to check light sockets for electricity be removing
the bulb and putting our fingers in them. Harmless fun :-)

I couldn't wait to be old enough to go to tech so I tried the light
socket test at home at age 7. Thus begun my lifetime love of communications
and electronics! The results of the experiments proved so valid that I never
again had the need to revalidate!

Irv VE6BP
--
--------------------------------------
Diagnosed Type II Diabetes March 5 2001
Beating it with diet and exercise!
297/215/210 (to be revised lower)
58"/43"(!)/44" (already lower too!)
--------------------------------------
Visit my HomePage at http://members.shaw.ca/finkirv/index.html
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--------------------
Irv Finkleman,
Grampa/Ex-Navy/Old Fart/Ham Radio VE6BP
Calgary, Alberta, Canada