I have often wondered...what EXACTLY is a TV Engineer.....how long do you study at Universities to earn the right to call yourself an "Engineer"...
There's never been (as far as I know?) a degree course in becoming as TV engineer, courses for it were run at local technical colleges - a course that I never completed (I dropped out, as it was just a waste of my time).
More details - in my day the course was called ETV
(Electronics and
Tele
Vision), and was a four year 'day release' course - so you were released from work one day a week to attend college, and usually had to attend one evening as well. Previous to that, it was called RTV (
Radio and
Tele
Vision), and used to be a six year course.
Anyway, I skipped ETV1, as I already had Physics O Level I was allowed to start directly in ETV2 - I completed ETV2 (with high marks, can't remember what). I then did ETV3, where I scored the highest mark it was possible to receive (Distinction Grade 1), and as a result 'skipped' ETV3 and moved to a Technicians course (T3) - where we met the people from the old RTV course, now on at least their
SEVENTH year
The course started in the Autumn, and we spent part of the afternoon in the 'heavy machines' lab, a scary place with big motors everywhere and bare live brass terminals on the walls carrying 3 phase 440V mains
Amongst things we did were phase shift measurements - using wires from the afore mentioned bare 440V terminals, with the resistor and capacitor coming in floor standing metal frames mounted on wheels? - scary stuff.
This seemed a little strange to me, but no one else seemed bothered by it, so I persevered for the time being.
However, a few weeks later they had us dropping a magnet in a coil, and watching a galvanometer go 'weeeeeee' - so I was just just sat staring at it, and the lecturer came up and asked me what I was doing, I replied I wasn't doing 'this load of crap', and that I did it back at school when I was 11, and that this was supposed to be a technicians course with people in their seventh (or more) year doing electronics. He wasn't a happy man
and stormed off (at least he didn't cry), presumably to get me thrown out of the college - note that not a single other person had complained.
This caused a huge upset at the college, the result of which was that they admitted they had made a huge mistake, and had sent the class to the wrong room and the wrong course - good job at least I noticed
Anyway, I gave it till Christmas, I was still learning nothing I didn't already know - so I never went back after the Christmas break.
Here in South Africa, the term "TV Engineer" is unheard of...
Please enlighten me. And advise me what route I need to take to qualify as a one. I also want to be able to call myself a "TV Engineer" one day.
You just need to be able to do the job
I've certainly always thought of you as a TV Engineer.