[Elecraft] OT: High school drafting class, ~1975

[Mike Morrow]

I learned draftmanship in high school indusrial arts beginning in 1966.  I was good enough ar it that I was asked in my senior year to do detailed construction drawings for the annual project of the machine shop, even though I had transferred to a so-called college preparatory curriculum a couple of years earlier.  In actuality those high school drafting skills prepared me completely for the year of drafting courses that was mandatory at Geogia Tech in 1970.  I'd finish a lab drafting session in less than 45 minutes while my buddies needed the full three hours.  In those pre-calculator pre-computer days the only tools that an undergrad student needed were a good slide rule (mine cost $36 in 1969, about $260 today) and a drafting set.  To use the Univac 1108 campus scientific mainframe for Fortran IV programs, we submitted hollerith cards we punched using IBM 026 and 029 card punches.

I scraped and saved my summertime active duty pay to buy a Bomar 901 four-function calculator in 1972 for $150, about $950 today.  Hewlett-Packard had introduced their milestone HP-35 scientific calculator that year for $400, about $2535 today.  Extremely few students could afford that.

What a wonder something like a KX2 would have been.  I had a station I made from a 1950s Multi-Elmac AF-67 mobile AM/CW transmitter and a surplus ARR-15 receiver to get on 6970 kHz CW nets in the Navy-Marine Corps Military Affiliate Radio System, using a random wire antenna and a radiator ground.  Boy, could I tear up nearby stereos on several floors of Smith Dormitory.

Those really were the good ol' days...just barely a mere 50 years ago.  :-)

Mike / KK5F

-----Original Message-----
>From: Wayne Burdick <n6kr at elecraft.com>
>Sent: Apr 24, 2021 12:08 AM
>
> OK, I've really dated myself now. 
>
> Anyone remember "drafting"? A favorite class in high school:
> blueprints, mechanical drawings, schematics, straight edges,
> hand lettering, projections and elevations.
>
> Wayne
> N6KR