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

[David Wilcox]

I took the classes but was never considered “COOL”....... mostly a “NERD”.  Print shop too, but I knew I was going to college so they didn’t send me to the manual arts school down by the river. Still a “NERD” but happily so since 1960 and before really. I still break things so I can fix them.

Wayne, Bless you, building a mountaineer.  I didn’t have the courage back then. But I made it through medical school.  My wife of 48 years thought I was “COOL” then but I think she might have changed her mind since then. Right after we were married I built an HW7 that went beep, beep, beep in the night.  It’s been downhill since then.

Dave K8WPE

David J. Wilcox’s iPad

> On Apr 24, 2021, at 4:02 AM, Joe K2UF <joe at k2uf.com> wrote:
> 
> In 1955 we were the cool guys with a slide rule in a leather case hanging
> from your belt and india ink stains on your hands.
> 
> 73  Joe K2UF 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Wayne Burdick
> Sent: Saturday, April 24, 2021 1:09 AM
> To: Elecraft Reflector
> Subject: [Elecraft] OT: High school drafting class, ~1975
> 
> 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. We invented things to draw that weren't real, but looked
> like they should be. Did all the math by hand -- on a slide rule, if
> necessary. Day-dreamed about what we might one day build.
> 
> 45 years later, we're using tools we couldn't have imagined. Modeling
> circuits and objects with millions of parameters and vectors, realizing them
> in virtual space, manipulating them in real time. Testing finished products
> before they're even assembled.
> 
> The transformation is mind boggling. Yet the best part now, as it was then,
> is the occasional burst of creative energy that propels an idea forward. The
> feeling of pieces falling into place. Or forcing them into place out of
> sheer necessity. 
> 
> Most of the time, we think of our new tools and techniques as advances in
> the state of the art. Things we can't live without. But those same defining
> moments happened just as often in simpler times.
> 
> Case in point -- my first real project, a rendition of W7ZOI's
> Micro-mountaineer. Carefully documenting it took several sheets of
> 4-squares-per-inch grid paper, which may still be in my cellar, beneath a
> lifetime of such drawings. With the schematic, I took a lot of pride in
> making the circuits look well-organized, as if that would somehow improve my
> odds. On the PC board, I drew large traces and pads with the etch-resist
> pen, as if that would somehow appease the electrons. 
> 
> I etched the PCB, soldered two dozen parts, and connected a 12 V lantern
> battery. Thanks to my paranoia about what would happen if I did it wrong,
> I'd taken my time and done it right. 
> 
> I was rewarded with a hiss of band noise and a few CW signals on 40 meters.
> 
> Here's to those moments, and to that timeless pursuit: turning abstractions
> into reality.
> 
> 73,
> Wayne
> N6KR
> 
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