anti static geekery (TT242)

Blatantly copying Davidc's idea I have gone for my hobby of electronics.

My mum bought me a Philips Electronics kit, and after building all of the circuits again and again over several years my father made me the Demo Deck from Everyday Electronics in 1971.  I still have the Philips instruction book and the original magazine  :-)  I used the BC109 transistor in David's blip,  to build a variety of things and that led to a 30+ year career in broadcast and telecom networks.  I do still repair things, but most of my electronics is now computer based, hence the anti static mat and the small screwdrivers which tend to get used for tasks like replacing hard drives.  Come to think of it, I have a history of failed hard drives which probably explains my obsession with backups :-)

Edit: have added scanned images of the magazine & Philips book as extras.  The Philips kit used a piece of pegboard with springs to connect the components together, and a card overlay to show what went where. The demo deck had turret tags (looking like small rooks from a chess board) which the components were soldered to.

I'm not a PC expert by any means - but with assistance from my son and son-in-law I can get most things done.

Thanks to KangaZu for hosting.