And
The Stockings Were Hung From the Chimney With Kits!
As
presented in The Printed Circuit, Newsletter of the Tallahassee Amateur
Radio Society, December 2012
[Updated June 2023]
By Mike Maynard, K4ICY
Read more Hamified
Articles and Stories from K4ICY...
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[Back in 2014, the holidays were rolling
around and it was time for me to create December's cover image for the
TARS Newsletter and I found myselfpondering the type of scene you’d
find around the holidays. Since we were a growing club, part of me
felt my work editing the newsletter opened the club up to all walks of
life (though some would question,) I wondered if a "Christmas" scene
was too much… would I have to keep things in the image along a
‘generic’ line so that I wouldn’t offend either Gentile or Jew – should
I have kept things ‘commercial’, displaying images of ham radio lucre
such as the fanciest and newest radio or antenna? But then a flood of
memories came to my mind of my Christmas youth. One memory in
particular perhaps defined my whole current enthusiasm with radio and
electronics – the moment where my own personal interest in the world of
technology was kindled. No worriesabout showing too much “Christmas,” for my painting (above) is of a true ham radio story!].....
The holidays are upon us again, and for me, I can't help but
welcome the fond memories of childhood - Christmas vacation, and going
to grandma's house in Ft. Walton Beach, FL. The oddest details seem to
permeate my nostalgic thoughts the most; from the aroma of coffee and
bacon, to the intoxicating perfume that was grandpa's Camel brand
cigarettes - forbidden items to me even now, but then they meant "the
grandparents’ house"... other details mark the location: the sea shells
used as aggregate in the asphalt and the white beach sand that always
traipsed in with you on your feet. However, more visceral to me than
the myriad sensory inducers, was that anticipation for the bounty to be
ours the next Christmas or Easter mornings, and the trouble of falling
asleep to the muffled TV sounds of Hawaii Five-O and Barnaby Jones on
the other side of the dark bedroom wall as me and my brothers were left
wide-eyed with theadrenaline of holiday insomnia. We get presents in the morning!
Was it to be another decadent display of painted plastic lucre
with the full panoply of Star Wars actions figures like two years
before? ...an Erector set? ...Radio Shack walkie-talkies - always cool!
No. This one year in particular it was a flat box… a white clothing
gift box, obviously from Gayfer’s or J.C. Penney’s, with gold printed
stripes appeared from the wrapping… oh-ugh, a sweater? Thank goodness,
no. Inside was another box, a Radio Shack "50-In-One" Electronics
Project Kit! Oh, the smell of "new"! It has always been known to
kid-kind that several qualities were the hallmark of a better gift, one
being the size and the other, the number of included goody bags. There
were wires and other odds and ends inside of a cellophane bag… this
really cool little green light bulb, and wow, a solar cell! This thing
had parts I had only seen my dad work with, who was a TV repairman. It
had springs for connection terminals and a bin of colored wires to
connect the many discrete components. Even the bowl-cut hair-dewed
kids printed on the box cover itself exuded sheer pensive anticipation
barely masking their consummate joy! This was no toy – it was a grown-up’s electronics laboratory!
[So I can't for certain remember if I got a pair of Walkie-Talkies
that year, but most likely because we seemed to get them about every
other year. I do remember getting a pair of Radio Shack Space Patrol
Walkie-Talkies between me and my brother. I was eight or nine years
old and he was less than a year younger, but it was great fun running
around the outside of my grandparent’s small brick house in Ft. Walton
Beach discovering the magic of radio communications while trying
this “Morse code” thing with the orange button deciphering the
hieroglyphs in raised code on the front panel. And they had a whopping
50 foot range!] As much as I wanted to get started
with it, I wasn't allowed to jump right into the kit. My Dad, being
wise in the Confucianism of De Forest, Kirchhoff and Ampere, who basked
in the daily holy incense of 60/40 lead solder smoke had a subtle
guiding hand that every good “Elmer” should aspire to. I was carefully
taught many of the finer details and inner-workings of proper
electronics handling and theory... the tutoring was well worth it, for
within a year or two, I was interpreting schematics by myself from the
old GL/Tab books and soldering my own transistorized homebrew project.
I walked into fourth grade with a light-sensing morning alarm that had
its own 120v-to-6v power supply! Though, I do remember Dad coaxing me
on to figure things out for myself, I’m sure he really gave his fair
share of help in the construction process. Even though radio was not
the particular branch of electronics my father followed, I quickly fell
in love with the magic of crystal radio and transistor amplification.
I do know that I subsequently developed a hunger for electronics kits
and useful projects.
..
After several years of tinkering in
the back of junk radios, listening to the shortwaves, building
home-brew projects from scraps and mastering the ethereal mysteries of
my more advanced "200-In-One" electronics lab, one of my most treasured
childhood objects that I begged my dad for so insistently that he
convinced the Radio Shack store clerk not to close up shop for a bit -
the natural course of action was to enroll in the Electronics elective
once in high school. This is where the fun really went to a higher
plateau! Our instructor, Mr. Filkins was a ‘salt of the Earth’ Korean
War Navy vet, in charge of teaching both metal shop and electronics.
One of the most colorful characters to be found, somehow had a knack
for bringing the most boring and esoteric electronics theories to life.
And with his class came hand-on learning, the opportunity to 'let out
the magic smoke', and ye, the kits! Yes, the Chaney
Electronics kits! Cheap and plentiful like the sweet Minute Market
candy that would later bring on a root canal. We got to order a
different kit once a week if we wanted to and the best thing was; we
got to spend class time building and testing them out! For me it was
like striking gold. I already had the soldering down, and I already
knew how to utilize a Volt-Ohm meter and basic oscilloscope operation,
heck, I had those things at home and at dad's work! Plus, my buddies
were there, and we got to "shoot for the moon," as Mr. Filkens used to
put it, with ever-advancing kits, and the additional teaching
question answering to give us the knowledge of a kit’s inner-workings.
Later I would graduate to solderless breadboards. I
never stopped building kits. When I got my ham ticket, the education
that came from the many related books, magazines and practice lessons
got me into building radios like the SW+40 QRP transceiver and all
manner of gizmos for the shack. Later, I would get into the world of
Arduino microcontrollers and the kits full of wonderfully complex
peripherals, sensors and display devices. Why buy toys when you can
create them? [The 50-in-One Lab was perhaps my most
beloved gift of my childhood second to my bicycle. Gifts are not so
pedestrian these days as kids expect technologies under the tree that
rival those seen on Star Trek [both the original series and The Next
Generation.] If anything besides electronics fundamentals are taught,
a kid has to face the challenge of learning the lingo of Arduino,
Raspian and AI Tensor Transformers, but they still make the basics of
electronics the same old way and with a solderless prototyping
breadboard and some simple parts, the same experiments and lessons can
be taught. My dad’s been gone for about a quarter
century now and I'm older than he was when he passed, but he once was
known as perhaps Tallahassee most proficient television repair man.
Many of my childhood memories contain visions of my dad and myself
going over to countless peoples home, many white, many black and so on,
but most of them elderly for some reason. You learn how to serve
others by such an example, how to communicate and as a bonus, how to
enjoy the inner-workings of technology as it serves to bring humanity
together.].. Are you new to ham radio or
Arduinos and don't know too much about electronics other than what you
had to memorize for the radio Tech test or back in grade school? It’s
okay if you don’t - Getting into a tech-related hobby is your golden
opportunity to learn all about electronics and what you can do with
them. Building kits is not a pastime relegated to youth, but yours to
enjoy today no matter hold young or how old! There was
a day long ago in my youth when you could waltz on down to your local
Radio Shack and behold walls stuffed with kits and project labs of all
kinds... those days are long gone! [In fact, actual Radio Shack stores
are long gone! Unless you live within driving distance of your
regional MicroCenter,] today, you must rely on the Internet and UPS to
bring home the kit-building joy. Not to worry, there are actually
quite a few companies online that offer affordable kits, however,
not all of the kits you find online have good instruction in mind, or
English for that matter. And selection at some sites can be kind of
sparse. One of the greatest suppliers of kits with a focus on
electronics education is still the "good ol' trusty," Chaney Electronics. Chaney Electronics,
the king developer and clearing house for educational electronics kits has been
around for over fifty years. They boast a catalog of over 200 kits
that range in complexity from "starter" to extremely advanced. That's
not counting the "labs" which are kits with plug-in breadboards, some
allowing you to build 50 or more projects, all with the goal of
learning the basics of electronics and electronics application in mind.
They’ve designed their kits and instruction manuals with a real focus
on education and serve the STEM requirements of many schools. Not a
blind parts warehouse, Chaney intends for teachers to be involved in
the kit-building process, so that students come away from building with
something new learned and
something in their hands to proudly show off. If you’re a
teacher, they provide a wealth of courses and training programs.
. Though, they do focus their marketing and sales to schools and educators, yes, Jocelyn, a customer rep at Chaney has informed me they
do allow individuals (regular folks like you and me) to purchase kits
on-line or by mail for a small minimum. Recently, Chaney "merged"
with an online electronics clearing house, Electronic Goldmine, which, to your benefit opens a
expanded supply source of parts. You can download their PDF catalog and
order Chaney Electronics kits and parts
at:
https://theelectronicgoldmine.com/pages/chaney-electronics
Chaney does provide everything under the
'electronic' sun a budding electronics enthusiast could imagine getting
in their Christmas stocking. There's a myriad of kit flavors;
from simple Morse code practice oscillators and blinking LED attention
getters to full-blown robotics and kits with surface-mounted
microprocessor chips! Chaney even has a dozen solar-cell projects
including a 54 project lab. But get this: they’ve got five separate
Geiger counter kits and I counted over 16 robot kits in their catalog
alone. And yes... they do have basic radio and IR communications
labs and kits which makes a great introduction for the youngin' (or new
ham.) Many of the great kits I built in my youth are still in
stock. I recommend the "Transistor Tester Kit" (C6448) a kit I built 25
years ago and still in use at my workbench today! [Kit
availability may change over time from this posting.] If you’re
brand new to soldering and basic electronics theory, Chaney offers a
whole line of simple kits designed just to teach soldering and
construction techniques, and as a plus you'll have something neat to
show off for your efforts.
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. For you
hams, once you've mastered basic electronics theory and simple
soldering and kit building, you can move up to earning your ham radio
stripes: There are many kits available online that are purpose-designed
for ham radio operators, from QRP (low power operation) rigs to station
accessories. Many companies offer kits that are simple and are
great weekender projects, and rest assured, many are very advanced,
well designed and offer some of the best examples of ham radio
know-how. There are a few companies worth mentioning here, that
not only offer high-quality rigs and accessories in kit-form, but come
with the type of friendly tech support and assistance you'd expect from
your fellow ham operators.
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. First off, a large source of ham kits can be found by simply Googling the phrase "QRP Kits". Pacific Antenna (http://www.qrpkits.com/)
offers a half-dozen rigs along with accessories and simple test
equipment including SWR indicators, mini-tuners, digital dials and
signal tracers. A few of the kits have been showcased in QST at
one time or another. Dale Botkin, N0XAS, offers the
"PicoKeyer-Plus" Iambic Memory Keyer plus other accessories at HamGadgets (http://www.hamgadgets.com/). This is just a small sampling of what's out there but you can take a look at a good list of ham kit sites at The DXZone (http://www.dxzone.com/catalog/Manufacturers/QRP_Kits/) as well as on eHam.net.
If you're overwhelmed by the mention of all this
selection, fear not. Perhaps you should consider starting you and/or
your child off with a simple lab-style introductory electronics starter
kit like the Elenco EP-130 Electronic Playground 130 offered on their site (https://shop.elenco.com/consumers/electronic-playground-130.html) and at Amazon,
Walmart.com, eBay and others. If you're a member of any local
radio clubs, there should be plenty of “Elmers” available to answer any
electronics question you may have. Need to learn how to solder,
Local hams will help ya! Want to learn the difference between a
"resistor" and a "transistor," give an Elmer a shout!
START OFF SIMPLE!
As far as 'Arduino's are concerned, the amount of necessary
external electronics components are few for the beginner and most of
the action happens between the Arduino development board (the size of a
credit card) and the IDE (where you program) on your PC. As for
an Arduino board, supporting the Arduino project is always suggested
and you can visit them at https://www.arduino.cc/ to get started. As for a kit, Elegoo
is one of the more prevalent companies that sells Arduino (clone)
starter kits, stuffed with everything you need to do about anything you
can think of with an Arduino (ATmega328p) microcontroller, including
solderless breadboards, discrete components, sensors, displays of
various types, a power supply, LEDs, motors, RFID, Infra-Red
controller, gyroscope sensor like in your smartphone, wires, and on and
on! Everything in the Arduino learning universe is often wired
with headers and Dupont cables with no soldering if you wish. As
of this article's update (June 2023) Elegoo is our of stock on
everything, but Amazon and other sites are the best place to get one. [Click for a search here.]
They're in the $65 range for a Super Complete Starter Kit.
The Arduino world is ever rapidly advancing and because it and
other related platforms are 'open source' and thousands of (mostly
Chinese) vendors sell sensors, displays, components and etc. which are
broadly universal and extremely cheap. Just search Amazon, eBay,
AliExpress and others for whatever you need.
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For learning from the best mentors, YouTube is your best
source. There are a lot of YouTubers who specialize in Arduino,
Raspberry Pi's and etc., but a choice few will start you off from the
ground floor with every detail explained starting with the famous
"Blink Sketch" making an LED blink on and off using code your wrote.
[The blink sketch is like the Donut tutorial by Andrew Price for
Blender.] The first series of highly instructional videos I would
recommend are by an awesome fellow ham and teacher in Texas, Paul
McWhorter, KF5ZBY. You can see them HERE.
He'll suggest buying the aforementioned Elegoo kit and will walk
you through step by step. My second recommend YouTube teaching
channel in the Arduino arts is the Dronebot Workshop. From there, YouTube will give you unlimited recommendations.
If you're a ham, you are most likely so because of
your love for radio and the parts that make radio work. If you're
a tinkerer and DIY homebrewing inventor, then tech is in your
blood. You love your kids, of course, and understandably you want
to share your love for the radio hobby or STEM field interests with
them. Kit building is a perfect way to do it. If you're a
new ham or regular Joe off the street, perhaps these electronics parts
and circuits may both intrigue as well as elude your understanding.
Kits are a fun
way to get your hands dirty and help you get a grasp on them!
Santa's coming! And he's making his list...
let's make sure the stockings are hung with care and filled to the brim
with electronics joy.
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. Your kids may thank you someday!
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73! Mike Maynard, K4ICY
mikek4icy@gmail.com
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Updated
06/19/23
(c)2023
Copyright - Michael A. Maynard, a.k.a. K4ICY
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