Been interested in electronics since a very early age as a hobbyist (when I first started valves were not uncommon in handed down audio kit – and a source of electric shocks!) – other than high school projects much was modifying audio kit from stuff what would otherwise be discarded, as I didn’t then have the cash to buy lots of new stuff….
Also during the 1980s it was not uncommon to have to solder your own connection/interface leads for computers, as there were many different standards, and even to carry out component level maintenance/modification on the machines themselves (particularly power supplies and video output circuitry)/
from 1998 to 2001 I worked as a project engineer for a company making equipment for many worldwide TV and radio stations. This sounds much more glamorous than it actually turned out to be – and although it was an obvious good source of some components and resources, it actually killed some of my enthusiasm for electronics as I seemed to be doing a lot of fairly boring routine work and the work I did was often ultimately creating equipment what was taking jobs away from people within the BBC/Anglia etc so it wasn’t exactly good karma…
but of course you don’t forget your basic knowledge and I am regaining the enthusiasm now, and there is so much new kit and much more affordable – things like digital scopes you connect to laptops, which would have cost thousands just 10 years ago…
