Electronic Technician
or radio mechanic ?

I am often ask (especially by my wife) why I spend so much time restoring these old electronic relics. Why take so much time cleaning, making sure your soldering & wiring is neat etc...why not just make it work as quickly as possible and who will know.....who will care? Well...my answer is I will and I do. I was told long ago by one of my mentors, "if you are not proud of your work...no one else will be either". I also learned from this person the difference between an technician and mechanic:

• A technician will make every effort to understand that which he is working on so when something is not right, he will take the steps to diagnose, locate and replace the faulty components. When he comes across something he does not understand, he will seek advise and understanding so he will better himself as a technician. The advise and understanding may come from a more knowledgably person or reference material. After a job is done, he will check all functions and make sure all is working properly.
   

• A technician will replace these components with care and neatness. A good job will result in neat clean solder joints & replacement parts as close to the original look as possible. By being neat, removing old components, wires and leads (not just clipping the wire off) will make additional and future service much easier.
   

• An electronic mechanic does not understand how the circuit he's working on functions, makes little or no attempt to learn. He starts by replacing parts hoping that by doing so, that will make it work.  He'll usually do this as quickly as possible, often sloppy, making wiring mistakes, choosing wrong values and sometimes leaving the old components still wired in the circuit.
   

• When this "shot-gun" effort does not fix the problem, the mechanic is lost and does not know what to do next as he has no skills in diagnosing and trouble-shooting. He now gives up or seeks help (usually in the form of quick fix advise rather than trying to understand and diagnose the problem). Often the project still has the original trouble plus the mess he has made of it. This makes for a tough job to resolve when he sells it as-is or turns the job over for someone else to straighten out.

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