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Nice. 65-in-1 & 200-in-1 Ratshack. Dad and grandfather, who were both auto mechanics by trade, did a bunch of HeathKit projects including oscilloscopes and a co
by 1letterunixname 3y ago
Nice. 65-in-1 & 200-in-1 Ratshack. Dad and grandfather, who were both auto mechanics by trade, did a bunch of HeathKit projects including oscilloscopes and a color TV. We were effectively poor and didn't go on vacations because dad was tight with $. HSC and Ratshack parts were somewhat affordable. Fast forward 35 years, I bought a JBC clone soldering station, a proper fume extractor, a Siglent scope, Agilent PSU (I refurbed it), and a trinocular microscope w/ polarized light from China during the pandemic. Only thing splurgy was a Fluke 289 (before they hiked prices) since I've never had a proper DMM that wasn't a $10 POS. And some Louis Rossmann flux. |-:] Managed to teach myself microsoldering even with monofixation syndrome and tremors.
Sweet. I had no such access to remote computing power except over ZMODEM for some minutes of friends' BBS sysops machines running DesqView. 90% of my minimum wage money went to computer books at Computer Literacy Bookshop of San Jose because there was no Google'ing for datasheets, specifications, or APIs back then as some of us old codgers remember. ;]
- JohnFen 3y ago> Only thing splurgy was a Fluke 289 (before they hiked prices) since I've never had a proper DMM that wasn't a $10 POS. Heh, once I had the money, I bought a very nice bench DMM too, for this exact reason. Not because I really needed it, but because I had an emotional need to counter decades of cheap multimeters. > I had no such access to remote computing power I had no remote access from my home. To use the computer, I had to take a 45 minute ride on the city bus. It's funny how I get more nostalgic of the rougher times than the easier times.