[HBR] Cost Of Homebrewing?

[Dr. David Newman W3HYM]

I've been reading this thread, and now shall put  in my two cents......


Amateur radio, as I know it, reflects the times.  I began in 1962, with 
first license in 1963.  I built my transmitters.  Mainly because I could 
not afford a new one, but also because I was interested in building them

Prior to amateur radio, I built crystal radio set, at age 7.  One tube 
radio receiver at age eight.  Anyone remember this receiver, for one of 
the Cub Scout Arrow Points?

In the 1950s, Lionel trains was king of the hobbies.  And a lot of 
technology for a bunch of youngsters.  From a Lionel locomotive, 
remotely controlled by a transformer, one learned about a servo system.  
More about lighting, relays, solenoids, electromagnets, etc.

These were our technologies.  I remember attending a special seminar for 
high school students, on computer basics in 1963.  A person from Digital 
Equipment Company (DEC) had each of us make a flip-flop on a printed 
circuit board. 

The toys of the time, industry of the time, education of the time, all 
reflected the technology of the time.

Today, the technology IS Pentium 4 computers, with memory far beyond 
anything that I would have guessed, ten or twenty years ago.  I remember 
a 300 Megabyte hard drive, from the 1970s, the size of a washing 
machine.  Now we have 40 Gigabyte hard drives, the size of a pack of 
cigarettes.

I learned a lot in my amateur radio days, from building and repairing 
the so-called boat anchors.  But the technology has changed.  Vacuum 
tube  receivers, multi-ganged (section) tuning capacitors, and a chassis 
with metal can IF transformers are technology of the past.  Some of us 
in amateur radio, still enjoy the old technology, just like some black 
smiths enjoyed caring for horses after the Ford Model A and Model T.  
But we old timers in technology, will die out, with the newer stuff, 
technology, replacing our beloved relics.

David
W3HYM