My Name is Richard Arndt. As I read your stories, I find myself smiling as though you are long lost friends, kindred spirits from ages ago :-) I was bored to death back in elementary school (1960's). My teachers said I was a smart fella but that I could not stay focused and was always day dreaming... This is true!!! I was bored to death. I didn't want to sit, I wanted to do something with my hands. Fortunately the second time through 4th grade, my teacher took a special interest in me and introduced me to crystal radios. That's when it all started for me... my first love! I built a Knight-Kit CB radio in 7 grade... got my Amateur Radio License in 8th grade... proctored the students Morse code test for my teacher Charles F Rockey (W9SCH) in my 9th grade electronics class... got my FCC First Class Radio Telephone licences in 11th grade... then got some lucky beaks along the way ending in a 40+ career as a hardware/software engineer doing some fun things. Later I even wrote a technical article "SuperSCAF and Son" in QST which resulted in a small business for several years. Most of my career however was spent in the telephony industry designing modems, telephones and telephone systems... all thanks to a 4th grade teach who took a special interest in me, and my mother who supported and encouraged my interests.
In 2010 I got caught up in a layoff of 200+ engineers, which began some sole searching. Over time, as we entered the the 90's "Information Age", hardware development and manufacturing migrated to countries with greater economies of scale for this sort of work, which meant I was mostly writing software. I was growing tired of staring at an LCD screen punching keys all day, while trying to meet unrealistic schedules with insufficient budgets and minimal man power. I was missing the days of being locked up in a lab at my work bench with the oscilloscope, signal generator, voltmeter, tons of electronic parts and the smell of molten solder... and of course... a few burn marks and cuts on my hand! My sole searching lead me to teaching at a university. I am now facing students, not an LCD screen... and teaching basic electronics and micro-controllers (I love 8-bitters)... and I have a lab again!!! OH... and by the way... I have made several one tube Nixie Clocks, which I call "OneNixie". I even made one using Dalibor's tube, which was on display at Hyder Art Gallery here in my home town. I recently designed a single digit mechanical 7-segment display clock which I call "OneVane" :-) The only problem with OneVane is that it displays hours::minutes one digit at a time... and listening to it drives me nuts!!! Click... click... click... click... click... etc... like a dripping faucet. If only I could tether it within a vacuumed bottle (Dalibor?) ! https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardarndt/ Regards, Rich On Wednesday, September 19, 2018 at 11:03:23 AM UTC-4, neonixie-l wrote: > > Ladies & Gentlemen,,, > > We are getting a steady stream of new members - it'd be great if, instead > of just lurking, you could introduce yourselves with a bit of detail about > your interests, what you've built or intend to build/dream of building. > Even what gets you up the morning and makes you smile! > > Even existing members (there are over 1,000) could chip in - there's some > great stuff around... > > Welcome, one and all to this great community! > > Nick > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send an email to neonixie-l@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/6860658f-96c0-420e-9964-43bc294bd25f%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
