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What ever happened to TV technicians?

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mathsquid:
I worked in a TV repair shop in the early 90s. I was 17 and had always been interested in electronics. I rode shotgun on service calls with a crusty old 70-something guy who got his start as a radio tech in WWII. He was a fun guy to talk with. The main things I did on those service calls were

* Helping him carry TVs and load them into the van. (Console TVs were still really common then.)
* Standing in front of a TV holding a mirror while he would adjust the picture.
* Running back to the van to get mainboards for Zenith TVs.
Zeniths were the only TVs that the shop would repair in the field, because they would swap out the whole mainboard and send the old one back to be refurbished. The 9-181 board was the most common one, I think. Other brands of TVs would need to be taken back into the shop.

I helped install a few big satellite dishes (my job was digging the trench for the cable).

It was also my job to break the back off of picture tubes before the trash collector would pick them up. Once I opened up a really old TV (made in the 60s I'd think), and there was an empty vodka bottle inside the TV! I've wondered if that's where someone kept it hidden, or if a previous technician left it in there.

Good times.

tggzzz:

--- Quote from: VK3DRB on May 07, 2022, 08:02:17 am ---
--- Quote from: tggzzz on May 07, 2022, 06:44:24 am ---...Smart in a limited practical area sufficient for their job.
They didn't need broad theory to do their job...

--- End quote ---

I agree in that control theory is perhaps the most useful things to understand in an engineering degree, that some technicians might not know of. However, it would be a big benefit if engineers had a fraction of practical experience of a TV technician. Some techs I know went on to do an engineering degree as adults after years of experience as a technician... they made top notch engineers. France has the right idea, where one has to qualify as a technician before embarking on an electronics engineering degree.

A friend owned a TV repair shop up until about 15 years ago. When the industry died, he trained and qualified to become an electrician where there is plenty of work in this highly protected industry. He is happy.

--- End quote ---

In general I agree. Theory without practice is mental masturbation; practice without theory is blind fumbling. Or, I suppose, if you have enough blind monkeys the new name is Machine Learning.

Just like doctors and nurses, engineers and technicians are both necessary; they have different abilities and inabilities. I know which I want to draw blood, and which I want to diagnose disease.

coppice:
I guess TV repairers went away when the market went flat. :-\

tggzzz:

--- Quote from: vk6zgo on May 07, 2022, 01:49:03 pm ---
--- Quote from: tggzzz on May 07, 2022, 06:44:24 am ---
--- Quote from: VK3DRB on May 07, 2022, 04:50:49 am ---Some of the smartest electronics people I knew were experienced TV technicians.

--- End quote ---

Smart in a limited practical area sufficient for their job.

They didn't need broad theory to do their job.


--- Quote ---What are the TV technicians doing now? Retired? Dead? Or gone onto other pursuits in electronics, or even completely other industries? Maybe some are in this forum. It will be interesting to know what you are now doing today, and maybe your thoughts on the demise of electronics repair and its impacts.

--- End quote ---

Repairing computers.

--- End quote ---

The thing is, they did have a solid background of theory, although not to an EE level.

--- End quote ---

When he was a kid, Dick Feynmann worked in a radio/TV repair shop. He became known as the person that repaired them by analysing the problem from theory, then applying the fix. The other technicians simply changed valves until the radio started working again.

vk6zgo:

--- Quote from: tggzzz on May 07, 2022, 10:12:39 pm ---
--- Quote from: VK3DRB on May 07, 2022, 08:02:17 am ---
--- Quote from: tggzzz on May 07, 2022, 06:44:24 am ---...Smart in a limited practical area sufficient for their job.
They didn't need broad theory to do their job...

--- End quote ---

I agree in that control theory is perhaps the most useful things to understand in an engineering degree, that some technicians might not know of. However, it would be a big benefit if engineers had a fraction of practical experience of a TV technician. Some techs I know went on to do an engineering degree as adults after years of experience as a technician... they made top notch engineers. France has the right idea, where one has to qualify as a technician before embarking on an electronics engineering degree.

A friend owned a TV repair shop up until about 15 years ago. When the industry died, he trained and qualified to become an electrician where there is plenty of work in this highly protected industry. He is happy.

--- End quote ---

In general I agree. Theory without practice is mental masturbation; practice without theory is blind fumbling. Or, I suppose, if you have enough blind monkeys the new name is Machine Learning.

Just like doctors and nurses, engineers and technicians are both necessary; they have different abilities and inabilities. I know which I want to draw blood, and which I want to diagnose disease.

--- End quote ---

If a piece of equipment has to be fixed "yesterday", I would go for the (Real*) Tech, every time.

EEs are mostly nice people, but many get sidetracked by interesting, irrelevant abstractions, whilst others, in contrast, have tunnel vision, & chase their "instant diagnosis" down the rabbit hole for hours.

* I say "real" Tech, because there are an increasing number of semi-skilled people who couldn't "fault find their way out of a paper bag"!

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