The "deadline" for the death of analog TV has been postponed twice already. I doubt that it will be postponed again since a few large corporations have been drooling over the 700MHz frequency spectrum that will be vacated by the analog TV broadcasters (channels 52 to 69 get reallocated). The company that I work for has been selling 700 MHz capable public safety radios for years but the frequencies have not been vacated. The FCC auctioned off a chunk of this spectrum last year which went to Verizon for wireless high speed internet, but it remains to be seen if even Verizon can afford to build out a 4th generation network in the current economy. Another 4th gen company has faltered with their Wimax plans leading to 350 people being laid off where I work. More layoffs next week.
At least I had a bicycle! Back then you could go to the trash dump and all of the dead TV's were in one place, and my neighbor brought a tool box.
Today we are supposed to take our unwanted electronics to a "recycling center" so that all of that "harmful lead" won't go in a landfill. I'm sure that several people have seen the TV news program that revealed where the "recycled electronics" actually goes. There is usually a goon at the gate of the recycling station that allows stuff to check in but not check out. Most recent production TV's aren't worth the time, but I did talk the goon into letting me relieve an old Zenith of its tubes and power transformer about 5 years ago. I had to take the whole 25 inch TV home, gut it and bring it back though.
It was a great pleasure for me to read these posts : exactly my own history 
The first amp i built was an ECL82 B/W soundstage that i saved from a philips set ...with eliptical alnico speaker ... 30 years ago ? I saved mountains of sweep tubes , ECL86, EF184 and some others as i discovered they could be used in place of overpriced EL34, EF86 and EL84 ... Components were hard to find, or very expensive for my 12 years old pocket. In Paris, some shops had WWII NOS surplus parts and i remember the purchase of $0,10 /pc of 6SN7, 6J7....As internet appeared, rec.audio.tube was a great source of information as Frank Philips website . Ipay was a great source until 3 years ago , just before the ROhS directive : tons of leaded NOS components were sold for dirt cheap . Now , game is over : too many tube lovers on the net Pierre
The first amp i built was an ECL82 B/W soundstage that i saved from a philips set ...with eliptical alnico speaker ... 30 years ago ? I saved mountains of sweep tubes , ECL86, EF184 and some others as i discovered they could be used in place of overpriced EL34, EF86 and EL84 ... Components were hard to find, or very expensive for my 12 years old pocket. In Paris, some shops had WWII NOS surplus parts and i remember the purchase of $0,10 /pc of 6SN7, 6J7....As internet appeared, rec.audio.tube was a great source of information as Frank Philips website . Ipay was a great source until 3 years ago , just before the ROhS directive : tons of leaded NOS components were sold for dirt cheap . Now , game is over : too many tube lovers on the net Pierre 
Re: I wish I got into tubes earlier
Hey now, let us not get too crazy. Tubes are cool and all, but there is a time and place for chasing university girls too!
Back in the day (80s) an old copy of the ARRL book was something I read over and over and over again. You could still find an odd and end book at the library, too.
Also, I experimented more than I do now.. it was just a try it and see what happens. People you met at the hi-fi shop would tinker every now and again...
Not as convenient as now, but all the info was still there...
duderduderini said:
Hey now, let us not get too crazy. Tubes are cool and all, but there is a time and place for chasing university girls too!
Back in the day (80s) an old copy of the ARRL book was something I read over and over and over again. You could still find an odd and end book at the library, too.
Also, I experimented more than I do now.. it was just a try it and see what happens. People you met at the hi-fi shop would tinker every now and again...
Not as convenient as now, but all the info was still there...
Before the 'net there was Lee De Forest! His was my first "text' on tube electronics. The mags already mentioned here, Olson Electronics, The (real) Radio Shack, Heath, Lafayette, Allied Electronics, etc. Places where you could walk in and drool all over everything. Tubes, tube testers and reel to reel tape in every corner drug store. Record and tape stores and some of those sold cartridges/styli and tubes too. Hi-Fi shops that sold stuff that wasn't made almost entirely out of plastic. No mp3's!
The diy audio world was flourishing back then in the 50's, 60's and the early 70's. Then came the mass produced Japanese audio market and punk. Now we have the internet and everything is just a few Google clicks away. I'll say the 'net has one good thing going for it, it allows us fellow DIY'ers to communicate, share information, our know how (well some of us like to think so ), our failures and successes with one another and the rest of the world. Oh yes I miss those days! I just wish somehow it were possible to have both. Just imagine!
I carried a pair of wire cutters and I only had to walk around the corner.
Of course now you could get arrested for having "burglary tools"!
Wayne
The diy audio world was flourishing back then in the 50's, 60's and the early 70's. Then came the mass produced Japanese audio market and punk. Now we have the internet and everything is just a few Google clicks away. I'll say the 'net has one good thing going for it, it allows us fellow DIY'ers to communicate, share information, our know how (well some of us like to think so
), our failures and successes with one another and the rest of the world. Oh yes I miss those days! I just wish somehow it were possible to have both. Just imagine!I carried a pair of wire cutters and I only had to walk around the corner.
Of course now you could get arrested for having "burglary tools"!
Wayne
In Hong Kong, there is a street named Apliu Street. In late 70 and 80s, Hong Kong was still the major electronics manufacturing country and also the electronic parts trader. Apliu street, at that time, filled with different electronics parts and surplus from factories. Even today, this street is still very amazing. If you have a chance visiting HK, try take a look.
I miss Apliu very much after I move to Toronto : ( It is too difficult to get suitable parts in here...
Leo
I miss Apliu very much after I move to Toronto : ( It is too difficult to get suitable parts in here...
Leo
Richard Ellis said:
I totally forgot about Norvac,I've still never been in there,I think it still exists,atleast it did the last time I drove by there a year or so ago.
It's funny you mention the 30" EV....There are two 30" cones/voice coils hanging on the wall at Jamac..IIRC,he said they came out of an organ of some sort. They are Big Beasties!
A few years ago,A friend told me about another shop in town,somewhere around 50-something and Glisan? I don't recall exactly,but I've been meaning to go there for 5+ years now! It might not even exist anymore.
Before the 'net,I was relegated to Radio Shack,the Library (they have quite a few good electronics-related books),and Radio/Popular Electronics magazines.
On another kinda OT note,As a teen I was once arrested for a curfew violation,and the officer told me I had to register my belt and keyring as concealed weapons before I could carry them on my person again... Yeah,Right.
EC8010 said:
Perhaps he was secretly a member of the Timson family (you have to be a Rumpole fan!).
The great thrill from the early 1960's was the arrival of the Allied Electronics catalog -- almost 50 years later I still find myself ordering from them. When I was 13 or so my dad got me one of their 100-in-1 kits with which I made an A.M. transmitter, an audio amplifier, code practice oscillator, etc. I still have parts from that thing lying around the workspace.
The monthly arrival of QST was also a delight -- it always arrived on Saturday as the postman read it for a few days --
I remember too when the Viet Nam war was raging the price of RG-58/U amd RG-8/U cable shot up dramatically
The Boys Book of Electricity- I think the first edition was written in the late 1800s… Showed me how to wind my own coils, and make microphones from 10 penny nails. I grew up with AxMan surplus in St. Paul- that tiny building was packed to the ceiling with components and tubes. I didn't start building anything resembling audio gear until I moved to Florida, and began to hang around in the service shops around town, looking for flybacks from tube type TVs.
I met some crazy do it yourself types from Tampa, and traded an old Sansui tube integrated to one of them for an old Dynaco PAS 3 into which he had cobbled the "Last Pass" circuit from Audio Amateur. I took it all apart, and rebuilt the board using bits I had gathered from my electronics class in high school, as it had been executed rather poorly. Shortly after, I took the unit down to the local dealer to try out on the amplifier I was looking to buy, and they hired me as a repair technician. The road downhill had begun.
I never even looked at the net for much, up until the last three years, or so. Its a great resource, though nothing like actually making something yourself. There is so much talk up here about building, I wonder how many of us have the time left over to get around to actually do it.
I met some crazy do it yourself types from Tampa, and traded an old Sansui tube integrated to one of them for an old Dynaco PAS 3 into which he had cobbled the "Last Pass" circuit from Audio Amateur. I took it all apart, and rebuilt the board using bits I had gathered from my electronics class in high school, as it had been executed rather poorly. Shortly after, I took the unit down to the local dealer to try out on the amplifier I was looking to buy, and they hired me as a repair technician. The road downhill had begun.
I never even looked at the net for much, up until the last three years, or so. Its a great resource, though nothing like actually making something yourself. There is so much talk up here about building, I wonder how many of us have the time left over to get around to actually do it.
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