General > General Technical Chat
What ever happened to TV technicians?
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tggzzz:

--- Quote from: vk6zgo on May 08, 2022, 02:50:34 am ---
--- 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.

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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.

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Corporate culture overrides most things. "Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain" - Friedrich Schiller, The Maid of Orleans

Nobody should be pigeonholed and put on a pedestal.
Nobody should be pigeonholed and regarded as better than (or even equal to) another.
Pigeonholing is lazy, and leads to an us vs them mentality.

We all have differing competences and incompetences.
Vive la difference, and "trust, but verify"
tggzzz:

--- Quote from: janoc on May 08, 2022, 07:41:00 am ---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.

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Im the UK you will have had to have 3 appropriate A-levels, e.g. maths (pure and/or applied), physics and other STEM subjects. That means that individuals will have specialised for the last two years.

It is likely countries that were part of the British Empire have something similar.
David_AVD:
I've never been into TV repair, but have gotten back into consumer audio equipment repairs in the last few years.

There are fewer techs around and more people wanting their old (1970s' to 2000s') gear fixed now.
SmallCog:
They run racist newsletters (Louis Thereoux and the Nazis reference)

In all seriousness though at work we have an ex TV tech, he’s in his 60s and has been with us for about a decade.

He was one of the last to leave his previous employer and one of the younger guys there

I suspect many have retired, possibly after a slight shift in the latter part of their careers.
Circlotron:

--- Quote from: vk6zgo on May 07, 2022, 01:49:03 pm ---The thing is, they did have a solid background of theory, although not to an EE level.

--- End quote ---
I tip my hat to any old school TV repairman that understands the finer points of a vacuum tube horizontal output stage.
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