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The first book for me was saving for months for a 1957 copy of the "Ham's Bible" as the handbook was nicknamed My uncle bought a subscription to Popular Electronics in 1956 for my Christmas present. Best present ever, read every article many times, followed the exploits of Carl and Jerry and a year later had saved enough for the handbook.
Later, in 1957 I got a subscription to QST. By getting a basic overview through the magazine and experiments, I was prepared to read the entire section of physics and electronics at the library...it was a small library. Luckily, there was still a lot of war surplus around so I did not start with consumer tvs to take a part but real heavy duty gear that was made beautifully and had parts that would last a life time of experimenting. Most of my early study was directed towards RF, particularly short wave.
I was in a vacuum however, no one I knew was at all familiar with electronics so it was all self taught and finally in 1959 was able to find a ham operator who could give me the code and theory test to get my ham license. After taking over my bedroom with wall to wall experiments, transmitters, receivers and test instruments, I took over the roof and slowly took over one bathroom and the garage.
By 14, I had a massive amount of home made and surplus equipment and test equipment, with 1000 watt home made transmitters and extensive test gear including an early Tektronix scope.
I opened a real repair shop in 8th grade which was in a small office I rented behind the library telling the owner that I was acting as agent for my father who wanted the office but was "out of town". I repaired radios, phonographs and hi-fi but refused TVs. That lasted until I graduated from HS and I moved by myself to San Francisco on money I got when I sold Audio Lab to my only employee's parents.
When I got to SF, I was really a nerd and had no interest in music but it was all around and you could not help but be influenced by it. Band members discovered a nerd kid living alone in an apartment on the hill overlooking the Family Dog Ballroom at the beach and I started getting knocks on the door, asking to fix their amp because they had a gig at the Fillmore or Carousel Ballroom in a few hours. I did not charge for it, it was fun and they were such simple circuits that it was easy. That started a number of long term friendships with musicians who become household names, and eventually into recording. I left SF because I could not get into Berkeley's engineering program so went to Sac State and got a EE. It was surprisingly boring however, since I had been working with electronics for most of my life by the time I entered the state university.
My parents were pretty cooperative, and did not say much when I took over such large portions of the house and 100% of the garage. We were allowed a lot more risky behavior, like multi-day hiking trips in the mountains or working with high voltage as kids then, now there would be a law against kids having that much freedom.
When asked where to learn about electronics I suggest the fundamentals are needed so everything else makes sense so read everything in the library before doing anything else. Building something and not knowing why something is being done is not such a good learning tool, focus on fundamentals and then anything new in electronics will be easy to learn.
When aspiring recording engineers would ask how to get started in that, where they expected some book or workshop recommendation I would say not to waste their time. If they had not already, on their own devoured every book in the library on acoustics, electronics and physics, they were not motivated enough to make in such a highly competitive field.
Same with techs, although there is very little competition in tech'ing. A hobby does not need such a solid grounding in fundamentals but if they want to be a pro, it is essential.
Later, in 1957 I got a subscription to QST. By getting a basic overview through the magazine and experiments, I was prepared to read the entire section of physics and electronics at the library...it was a small library. Luckily, there was still a lot of war surplus around so I did not start with consumer tvs to take a part but real heavy duty gear that was made beautifully and had parts that would last a life time of experimenting. Most of my early study was directed towards RF, particularly short wave.
I was in a vacuum however, no one I knew was at all familiar with electronics so it was all self taught and finally in 1959 was able to find a ham operator who could give me the code and theory test to get my ham license. After taking over my bedroom with wall to wall experiments, transmitters, receivers and test instruments, I took over the roof and slowly took over one bathroom and the garage.
By 14, I had a massive amount of home made and surplus equipment and test equipment, with 1000 watt home made transmitters and extensive test gear including an early Tektronix scope.
I opened a real repair shop in 8th grade which was in a small office I rented behind the library telling the owner that I was acting as agent for my father who wanted the office but was "out of town". I repaired radios, phonographs and hi-fi but refused TVs. That lasted until I graduated from HS and I moved by myself to San Francisco on money I got when I sold Audio Lab to my only employee's parents.
When I got to SF, I was really a nerd and had no interest in music but it was all around and you could not help but be influenced by it. Band members discovered a nerd kid living alone in an apartment on the hill overlooking the Family Dog Ballroom at the beach and I started getting knocks on the door, asking to fix their amp because they had a gig at the Fillmore or Carousel Ballroom in a few hours. I did not charge for it, it was fun and they were such simple circuits that it was easy. That started a number of long term friendships with musicians who become household names, and eventually into recording. I left SF because I could not get into Berkeley's engineering program so went to Sac State and got a EE. It was surprisingly boring however, since I had been working with electronics for most of my life by the time I entered the state university.
My parents were pretty cooperative, and did not say much when I took over such large portions of the house and 100% of the garage. We were allowed a lot more risky behavior, like multi-day hiking trips in the mountains or working with high voltage as kids then, now there would be a law against kids having that much freedom.
When asked where to learn about electronics I suggest the fundamentals are needed so everything else makes sense so read everything in the library before doing anything else. Building something and not knowing why something is being done is not such a good learning tool, focus on fundamentals and then anything new in electronics will be easy to learn.
When aspiring recording engineers would ask how to get started in that, where they expected some book or workshop recommendation I would say not to waste their time. If they had not already, on their own devoured every book in the library on acoustics, electronics and physics, they were not motivated enough to make in such a highly competitive field.
Same with techs, although there is very little competition in tech'ing. A hobby does not need such a solid grounding in fundamentals but if they want to be a pro, it is essential.
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