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

[Ken WA8JXM]

In 1967 I started work as a Draftsman Trainee in the Engineering Division
of P&G.  My group leader told me "There is a timesharing computer terminal
(Teletype 33) down the hall that we are not using.  Find out if we can do
anything with it."  That started my progression to programming and
eventually microcomputer evaluation and support.  I retired in 2001.

BTW, we never did "pen and ink", pencil was used and then converted to
mylar drawings.  Items like paper machines (Charmin, Bounty) are done in
right and left pairs (mirror images).  The drawings were flipped over to
get the identical mirror images.  Printing was erased and redone in
readable form.

Ken WA8JXM

On Sat, Apr 24, 2021 at 2:05 PM Dave Fugleberg <dave.w0zf at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks for the memories Wayne! My High School drafting class was just a
> couple of years after yours, and I remember it fondly. Everything from
> drafting pencils (with lead of various sizes/hardness) to technical ink
> pens on vellum.  I enjoyed it so much that I persuaded the instructor to
> let me check out one of the old drafting machines for the summer break (I
> think it was a Universal).
>
> Just a few years later, in my first real job as an electronics technician,
> I was introduced to electronic schematic capture tools, specifically the
> Daisy Systems Logician and some Mentor Graphics systems. I spent hundreds
> of hours drawing and updating schematics for the EEs at that company. Those
> machines were over $100 grand each at the time, with 10MB hard drives.
> Then the wirelists went to automatic wirewrap machines, or later, to
> specialized board routing/layout machines that were even more expensive.
>
> Now we have free or cheap schematic capture software on PCs thousands of
> times more powerful for use as hobbyists.  Amazing. Yes, a lot has changed
> in less than 50 years.
>
> On Sat, Apr 24, 2021 at 12:10 AM Wayne Burdick <n6kr at elecraft.com> wrote:
>
> > 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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