[BARC-List] Electronics education?

[Bill Ricker N1VUX]

> Is there anywhere else I might be overlooking?  

The typical engineering sequence spreads useful electronics over many
semesters.

The shortest useful class is Harvard Extension's Physics 123, which is the
course for which "The Art of Electronics" was written.  It's all of analog and
digital electronics in two semesters, including machine code.  Mark KE1L can
provide details, since he's recently taken the course. Great course for a ham,
I gather ... but it moves fast, since it aims to teach a budding physicist
everything they need to know to build an experiment's instrumentation and
connecting to the main computer in two terms. One critique is it doesn't seem
to do much at RF frequencies let along microwaves, but what do you expect for
only 2 terms.

If you're considering career change, the certificate with theory requiring
calculus will have more street cred with hiring types at *some* firms.  The
caculus required is probably just exponential decay for RC circuits and d/dt
SIN = COS for AC circuits, plus some hand-waving around the derivation of the
Fourier transform wrto DSP if your lucky or spectrum analysis if not.  You
should check how "theory"-happy it is before rejecting it.

I wonder if the NU certificate you're looking at is with either of the
programs for which I once taught software (NU SOA and NU COE ET/LIS).  I think
the NU COE certificates are pretty well respected; the motivation of our
students was in general excellent. The SOA certificates are possibly less
endowed with street cred?


73

Bill N1VUX