memories (was: RE: Pretty quiet around here lately)

[Greg Montalbano]

Awww, you kids were spoiled.... back in MY day, we didn't even have solder
-- had to melt two components together over an open fire.
Tools?  WE couldn't afford tools;  had to bite pieces of metal with our
teeth.  And WIRE??? WE had to stretch our OWN wire from old bits of junk
copper.....


>	>So if you start like I did, a broke teenager who wants to
>	>build some synth modules, you'll have a much easier
>	>time today than in 1970. I could not get perf board,
>	>so my first synthesizer was made on unperforated
>	>phenolic board, and the component holes drilled one
>	>at a time for each component. Suffice to say, things
>	>are a lot better today.
>
>For me it was 10 years later (around 1980), but "broke teenager"
>would be a perfect description as well.
>
>CA3080 ? Too expensive. Started to explore discrete transistors
>(often unsoldered from broken HiFi stuff) for VCAs instead.
>
>Veroboard was unreachable for me as well. I made my first
>PCBs with thick enamel paint and a tiny brush on the raw copper,
>and got the right chemicals somewhere to etch the boards.
>(After getting *very bad* results with nitric acid - which I
>stupidly thought the only acid to bite copper (;->)  )
>
>And then I remember I had the whole layout in mirror image
>rather than right. Helped myself by bending all the opamp's
>pins upward and soldering the ICs in bottom up. (Ouuuch - not
>recommended !)
>
>Those were the times in a little German town without a proper
>electronics shop ...
>
>JH.
>
>