Just an introduction

[Leftyretro]

Hi Group;

I just joined your site a few days ago and today received the authorization to allow posting, so I thought I would introduce myself.

I'm a 59 year old that was born and living in the San Francisco, California bay area. I work as an Instrumentation analyst at a local oil refinery and plan on retirement this summer. I have had a life long interest in all things electronic and have made a successful living from it. After retirement I plan on being more active in home brewing of electronic circuits and devices.

While I'm a licenced ham operator (WA6TKD) I have never been very active so that might be an area I'll get back into. I also want to learn PIC programming as that seems to be such a cost effective avenue for small projects, although I bleed hardware and always considered software a necessary evil. I also like restoring vintage (70s) hi-fi equipment and am a active charter member of the audiokarma.org web site. If any of you have any interest in old or new hi-fi gear I can strongly recommend that site, very friendly and helpful group.

I also like acquiring and building test equipment and have been assembling quite an assortment in anticipation of post retirement. However I don't look forward too much to building with SMD devices as I find their size and my aging eyesight not real compatible!

Having scanned through many threads over the last few days I get the impression that there are a lot of members from the EU countries and this is not a USA centric site, but I hope you will welcome me anyway as Californians kind of consider ourselves a country onto ourselves.

Lefty

 

[RadioRon]

Gee, your story sounds familiar. I've been sort of retired for about a year and a half now and am enjoying every minute. I also started acquiring test equipment the last few years and now have a nice collection of stuff. Here's a tip for you, don't shy away from SMD projects. Just invest in a few tools. For example, I stumbled across a good deal on a stereo microscope (10x) which is an absolutely essential tool for all SMD and is really great for removing wood slivers too! You should be able to get a good one for the price of a new benchtop soldering iron. You also absolutely must invest in a selection of tweezers with fine tips. I'm working with 0402 parts and managing pretty well, but prefer 0603 where size isn't critical, and not having much problems with SMD at all. Some of the parts you might want to use in the future may only be available in SMT. I also got myself one of the those dorky looking magnifying lense headsets but don't use that nearly as much as the microscope.

73
Ron VE7COR

 

[3v0]

There are a few of us here from the USA.

I am a retired software engineer. Over the years software development has become a bit on the Ho Hum side. The digital hardware end (not too hard core) is where I get most of my jollys.

I am not much into audio as my hearing is going and I can not tolerate loud sound. I do have a 17 year old Pioneer receiver that mostly just hums. Thinking it needs some new capacitors.

In regards to collecting equipment. Tools are 75% of the fun.

Regards
3v0

 

[stevez]

Welcome aboard. 55 yr old mechanical engineer here - been able to advance my hobby (electronics) rather nicely thanks to this forum and some local experts. WA2EKL is the call and just recently bought the PICkit2 from Microchip to learn more about PICs as I recover from back surgery.

 

[AllVol]

Hello, Lefty,

Sounds like we're all in this together (pun).

I can only agree with what the others have said, although I am the eldest of those checking in so far (pushing seventy). I too was afraid of SMD, but I'm managing with a good magnifier (a swivel job with light) and, most important, a good soldering station.

I'm Xwb4kpj and I learn something new every day. Right now I'm having good success with the PICaxe line of uC. Easy to use, and most features of the others, plus the added benefit of already knowing the language from many years of playing with Tandy's ColorComputer II.

Welcome to the playhouse.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Having scanned through many threads over the last few days I get the impression that there are a lot of members from the EU countries and this is not a USA centric site, but I hope you will welcome me anyway as Californians kind of consider ourselves a country onto ourselves.

Welcome, nice to hear from you - the site is actually administered from New Zealand, but is a worldwide site.

 

[Cypher]

Hi guys, thought i'd join the post

Im a 19 year old Systems Analyst from South East England. Since a young age I've always been interested in seeing how things work, first of all finding myself doing software programming (PHP, ASP, SQL, VB, Perl, Python) since about age 12 then deciding to advance my knowledge of computer networks. I now work in a logistics/mailing house doing just about anything and everything including fixing broken computers, programming new systems and looking after the company network (Windows 2003 Domain, ~20 Servers, ~70 Workstations).

My theory has always been to try and find out. I learn much better by experimentation. This and my desire to know how all things work led me to creating my first circuits around a month ago, then starting to learn PIC Microcontrollers about 2 weeks ago. I've mostly learnt my electronics through my father (who used to work at Solartron Electronics) and through many searches at Google.

At the moment I'm just doing this in my spare time and I'm loving it! I have many projects up my sleeve and am more than looking forward to creating them

 

[ericgibbs]

hi leftyretro,

You are still a youngster at 59, your'e as old as you feel

On the really small items I use a bench mounted 'angle poise' 5inch dia magnifier with inbuilt fluorescent tube.
It makes the soldering iron bit look like a chisel!. Works fine.

I think we should start a 'wrinkly' section for us old timers.

As they say Use it or lose it.

I'm on my 75th Solar Orbit.

Regards
Eric