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What ever happened to TV technicians?

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VK3DRB:

--- Quote from: ferdieCX on May 07, 2022, 06:04:51 pm ---
--- Quote from: VK3DRB on May 07, 2022, 08:02:17 am ---
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.


--- End quote ---

This information about France is very interesting for me, because the same approach is used at the technical university where I teach.
Do you have a link to some specific information about that ?
It can be in French, I understand it.

--- End quote ---

I was told this by a French engineer whom I worked with that he was required to qualify as a technician prior to becoming an engineer and that is the norm in France. Someone further down in this discussion elaborated on their system. Maybe something got lost in the translation with my colleague.

vk6zgo:

--- Quote from: tggzzz on May 07, 2022, 10:20:46 pm ---
--- 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.

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Ohh, you mean the guy that took 5 times as long!

Most problems with things like domestic valve radios can be relatively easily diagnosed by application of a lot of experience & a tad of theory.
All fault finding regimes stress "looking for the obvious" first, but that doesn't mean Techs don't have to use theory.

I have never worked in a TV repair shop, but for many years, I was basically, a TV transmitter "fixer upper", who as my "other identity", had to fix TV picture monitors, the odd TV set, & some other weird stuff that came across the bench.

It is hard to put EEs on a pedestal, when you see some of the design stuff ups made by those from quite prestigious companies.
This was often compounded by the propensity of some such companies to supply very poor service information.

janoc:

--- Quote from: VK3DRB on May 08, 2022, 02:43:54 am ---I was told this by a French engineer whom I worked with that he was required to qualify as a technician prior to becoming an engineer and that is the norm in France. Someone further down in this discussion elaborated on their system. Maybe something got lost in the translation with my colleague.

--- End quote ---

I very much suspect that to be the case, probably the stuff around what the French call the "license" and "brevet" as that doesn't quite have an equivalent elsewhere. Of course, they could have been required to take some particular course of study because of the specific requirements of the school they planned to attend, that's always possible. But it certainly isn't a general rule.

Also, in France they have different types of "baccalauréat" (the big exam at the end of high school - "lycee") with different "tracks" focusing in different subjects. And that is where if you want to study e.g. engineering you need to graduate with the right type of "bac" to be admitted. This is different from other countries.  Perhaps that's what was meant.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baccalaur%C3%A9at

porter:
When I was a boy, my Dad wanted me to fix the TV. As I recall, a couple of knobs released the back panel. I pulled the tubes out and brought them to the grocery store to be tested. Tubes were kept right in the tester cabinet. I don't remember if I fixed the thing. 

The things kids were allowed to do back in the day.  :palm:

HighVoltage:
For the German speaking people here...

... there is a funny older guy on Youtube that shows many repairs on older TVs and Radios under the name of  "Meister Jambo". He goes through the schematics and explains the old systems and explains pretty well, how it was in the old days as a TV repair technician.

Here he explains, how it was to be working in that field.

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