[NJARC] Repair Clinic

[David Sica]

Eugene,

I am always enthusiastic about stuff like this, but with a huge dollop of
caution and skepticism too.  I've seen too many good ideas crash and
burn. Please don't be put off by what I have to say; I'd love to find out
that somebody can figure out a way to make what you have suggested work,
or at least try it. But I do wonder how well it would work.

Phil Vourtsis has been taping the "Tech Talk" presentations at the club
meetings for many years. This material is available in the club library
and although it's not "highly polished", it's very valuable stuff. At the
very least, it's enjoyable to be able to see what you missed if you
couldn't make it to a meeting, or to review a meeting you really liked.
As someone pointed out just recently, as a learning tool, it's a poor
second to actually being there and able to ask questions, etc. But it can
come in handy to have it available (and it's certainly better than
nothing!)

I put together video presentations for a living, including instructional
programs. I know that unplanned, unedited stream-of-consciousness video
documentations of events like the repair clinics end up like watching
grass grow. Of course, anything is better than nothing, so it might be
worth a try. But the value you'd get from a simple recording of repair
jobs would probably be minimal -- if you could even bear to watch it! And
the amount of effort to plan a genuinely useful such program would
probably be beyond our resources. 

Don't get me wrong, it's one of my "pet projects" to be able to put
together something like that. I've explored a couple of areas, but
without the time and money to do it right, and with little expectation
that such an effort would even recover minimal costs let alone ever turn
a profit, it's been hard to get anything off the ground.

There are at least a couple of fairly well made videos commercially
available and I'm pretty sure the club even already has one in our
library. I think watching one of those would be vastly more rewarding
than watching a bunch of our experts, as good as they are, poking through
a radio in real time.

However, if Phil or anyone else wants to tape a repair session, or if
anyone sees a great way to do this that I'm simply too dull or set in my
ways to envision, I might get behind that effort. But if you haven't done
it, don't underestimate the amount of work it takes to turn out something
watchable, or the excruciating lack of watchability of a program where
nothing really happens for long periods of time.

And as Ray Chase recently suggested, don't forget about good old
fashioned book learning. There are some great books out there that
present a lot of useful, understandable information. I particularly liked
Joe Carrs' book, and I'm sure everyone has their favorites. 

We are looking at the possibility of leveraging the club's video
resources as a way of generating some additional revenue. Stay tuned,
keep coming up with ideas, and don't let naysayers like me turn you away
from any potentially good ideas :-)

--Dave Sica

 
On Thu, 06 Apr 2006 17:34:12 +0000 "Eugene Hertz" <ehertz at tcaf.org>
writes:
> Visit our web site - See http://www.njarc.org
> _______________________________________________
> my 2c...
> I have yet to make it to one of these famed clinics, although I've 
> been trying to for years! I have a ton of old radios, mostly 20's 
> that need repair. I am not interested in getting a njarc member to 
> fix my radio (feed me a fish), I am interested in learning how to 
> repair radios (learn to fish). 
> My only comment about this is, would it be possible for some members 
> who own camcorders to video tape a few of the repairs during each 
> clinic? We can see some interesting sets, hear the comments from the 
> owner, hear the diagnosis and perhaps even see some repair 
> techniques. The club could compile these onto a DVD or even a set of 
> DVDs for a) posterity, b) me I could learn a lot without attending 
> every session) and c) could be a good source of revenue for the 
> club. I'd pay $100 for a decent set of DVDs (perhaps a few years 
> worth of radio repair clinics). The beauty is the club could resell 
> the same stuff over and over and really leverage the effort that 
> went into repairing the radio in the first place. 
> Surely it wouldnt look all that highly polished but it sure could be 
> useful.
> my 2c...
> Eugene
> 
> 
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