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#18
January 6th 06, 06:40 PM
posted to rec.radio.amateur.misc
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Really Hans, no call to be rude
On 03/01/2006 2:03 PM, Jeffrey Herman wrote:
On 1 Jan 2006 16:52:58 -0800, wrote in Now, if you want to "build from scratch" totally, you will have to learn to SUCK all the air out of the tubes you build for yourself (honoring the "tradition"). That's rather difficult (truly, vacuum sucks)...but much, much easier than first creating ultra-pure silicon and then doping the microscopic areas on it to become the solid-state device you need. [sorry you can't build "spark" transmitters...those being forbidden in these modern times unlike a hundred years ago] It's so easy to look up facts nowadays, I'm surprised that you were unable to find this: "A 17-year-old named Haddaway had built his entire station from absolute scratch, including the making of his own vacuum tubes...." QST February 1921. I love hearing about that sort of thing. I recall an article reprinted from a later era describing how an old-timer used to build his own passive components. I actually built my own variable resistor from a test tube full of water and some copper wire from the instructions. Hearing that people would roll (literally) their own capacitors from various conductors and dialectrics really impressed me. If the argument is that it's easier to buy a ready-to-use rig, so be it. If the argument is that this has made do-it-yourself somehow obsolete or less valuable, I have to disagree. QRP still has a lot of that same hobbyist appeal, even now that we have cheap, standard parts to work from, and a pile of modern tools to leverage them. To me, this only suggests that clever operators can design and build even more elegant solutions to the problem of sending an intelligible signal through the air. Doing more with less appeals to my hacker nature (I'm a software developer by trade). I understand this sort of thing has limited appeal for some people, however. As people are fond of saying, there as many ways to enjoy the hobby as there are hobbyists. Heck, even I'm a little afraid of the high-voltage valve guys! This doesn't mean I don't think what they are doing is valuable or interesting. Now, I _really_ need to work on getting my Basic Qualification so I can participate in some meaningful manner. -- cm |
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