On Oct 25, 5:41*am, sorry-spammers ""w9wi\"@(sorry-spammers)" wrote:
Yep, this is an off-the-wall question.....

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.

Of course, in Western culture we also read and write from left to right. *I suppose we learn to look for the beginning of a story on the left side of
the page.

And of course, in some other cultures, people read and write from *right to left*.

When people from these cultures become involved in radio, do they draw schematics (and build gear?) in the same direction Westerners do? *Or do they
work "backwards"?

--

Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View, TN *EM66

I don't know about how other engineers from other cultures think about
schematics and how they should be drawn, though I suspect that they
are biased more by the idea that schematics are a whole different
"language" than their native written language. Those engineers I have
known from cultures where the written language "goes" in a different
direction than mine still seem to draw schematics pretty much like I
do.

These days, I use computer programs to capture schematics, and they
support multiple page hierarchy. The result is that I try to keep
functional blocks on the same "page," but the order of the pages is
not necessarily consistent from one project to the next. The left-to-
right flow on a page is strongly influenced by the fact that symbols
for parts like transistors and amplifiers that have an "input" and an
"output" all come in with the input on the left and the output on the
right. I have to rotate or mirror the symbol to have it go the
opposite direction. Sometimes I indeed do just that: for example,
I'll draw a differential amplifier stage with one transistor in the
native orientation, and the one to its right in the mirrored
orientation.

I wonder if anyone would complain if I made a point of drawing a whole
schematic package "backwards" with inputs on the right and outputs on
the left... and maybe make things flow more from bottom to top...

Cheers,
Tom