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What is your daily job ? ... any hobbies ?

cistercian

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I started into this hobby as a kid first building crystal radios then Heathkits. I always loved audio and radios. I loved building Heathkits. Other kids were out playing baseball or whatever, I was building Heathkits or models (cars balsa-wood planes,..)

I am a software engineer focused on embedded, real-time systems. I had my own consulting company for a long time and I worked in almost every industry aerospace, medical, military systems, telecom, enterprise storage, virtualization, automotive, cellular,...

Right now I am managing a team of software engineers for a company that makes ion implanters (they are used to make semiconductors) for memory, logic, and processor chips.

I have too many hobbies, besides audio, marathon runner (I ran 30 marathons and hundreds of other races), triathlete, open water swimming, motorcycles, ham radio, and instrument rated pilot. I don't get to code much any more, but on nights weekends I try to work on my own Raspberry PI coding and electronics projects.
I love crystal radios and that is what started me into radio and electronics. I have built them for shortwave and was delighted to hear
Germany very well. So much fun!
 

Canuck57

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oops wrong thread
 

Biblob

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Mixed bag from me.

I spent my youth from the age of 11 renovating houses with my dad. Fitting doors, kitchens etc. I found it boring, but my dad would pay me £10 a day, so I spent most weekends and school holidays doing this.

I left school early feeling education, let alone academia was not for me. Dyslexia and memory issues were seemingly too large a hurdle to overcome. My family actively discouraged education anyway as they are members of a 'cult' or cult like group. This did not help. It did not help at all.

Having a family that renovate houses was a big influence, so from there I went into electrical engineering, but to progress, it required more education....ugh. 2 years of college on a apprentiship. I hated the job as I was treated poorly generally (mostly my fault, as I was rediculously passive due to my upbringing, and working with what I later found was a building full of ex cons) and as for education, I liked it even less than before. I had lost all confidence in myself.

So, I became an estate agent. No idea why.

As part of that work, I had a car crash that ended with a serious court case that was unusual to say the least. An old chap with terminal cancer decided to drive his car from the hospital while on oxygen..IN THE CAR, and passed out at the wheel, driving into me.

The police decided it was my fault by default without listening or investigating, (young driver in a sports car:facepalm:)

The old man died subsequently.

My insurance company (a small niche company) decided that my insurance was void, as they could not find the evidence that I had transferred my insurance to them from a previous company.

Under the threat of vehicular manslaughter at 18.:oops:

Over a year later, I won the court case, with the judge even going as far as to say I should sue for damages by the police for negligence. I didn't. I just wanted out of there ASAP.

The insurance company 'found' my insurance documents..just after the court case.

I was broken.

The saving grace was my girlfriend at the time was weirdly interested in getting involved in any way she could. No idea what she saw in me....apart from a challenge!:D

She went out and worked out all the distances for the incident, angles for vehicles, speed traveling etc, everything! Even the legal stuff, she knew more than the solicitors did, and corrected them several times.

After all this finally finished, I was a nervous wreck but still, I needed a job. A quiet, secluded, simple job, where I could disappear into the background, and just 'servive'. I had developed various nervous issues and was generally a bit 'hyper-aware' of danger.

I married the girl (at 19!) And am still happily married to this day 15 years later.:) At the time, she was at uni gaining a degree in English, and worked part time in a school. The school she worked for was looking for a technology technician. It was perfect, and the start of things going right for once.

9 years later, I had a degree in engineering that I gained in my evenings and weekends online. (Learning to read, write and spell to a reasonable level at the same time as completing degree level work was a bit of a baptism of fire in year 1)

Parallel with Uni, I started running... A lot. I listened to music while doing it. This helped keep me calm and focused, but also was great for loosing some weight I had gained through some poor habits for managing stress. A year after finishing uni, I was running 10 miles a day in preparation for a 30 mile run over a mountain range. People thought I was gifted. Truth be told, I was fueled by pure rage while training.

Once I ran the marathon, I didn't feel I needed to run anymore (a bit forest gump no?:D). I felt better.

By year 4 of uni, I was 'good enough' and completed my course top in my year.

I then became a teacher.

We bought a deralict house and I now either spend my spare time working on it, or trying to give my 4 year old daughter the life I never had. She loves building with dad, so the HiFi room under construction as we speak!:D

I now run the engineering department for a specialist engineering school as well as writing qualifications and setting up/designing new schools and uni's.

My favourite thing to do now is watch the various trades ppl try and pull a fast one on the school with overcharging etc, and calling them on it. The confused look on their faces when the teacher in the sharp suit tells them 'you don't need a new RCD for that' or 'there's no need for an isolator there.', or 'I spec'd EPDM' - that's not EPDM'. Little did they know the humble beginnings. Priceless!
Happy to hear you found your way, it's an inspiration. Be welcome here, having uplifting spirits around, is always a good thing.
 
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EdW

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Retired EE. Started as a hobby building crystal radios, Heathkit then my own audio amps, with EL34 and KT88 O/P pairs, using ex WW2 surplus power supply components. Learnt very quickly that oil filled paper caps of 16uF charged to 500V hold their charge a very long time :) . Output transformers weren’t on surplus and cost a lot though . . KT88 pairs make good guitar amps without a doubt.
EE degree followed by a couple of years in aerospace then 43 years as analog and mixed analog/digital IC designer. The usual stuff, telephony, high speed ADCs for the military, delta sigma ADCs, 10GBit/s transimpedance amps, laser drivers, clock & data recovery. All work in a major telecoms research lab. Then in 2000 went into startup. I worked on GPS receivers and Silicon Germanium WiFi power amps and got taken over as our WiFi was good. Many upmarket cellphones or tablets have, or have had PAs to which I had contributed. Quite challenging to make sure your bg band WiFi doesn’t intermod with low band LTE and block the 1.575GHz GPS at -162dBm.
Other interests - attending classical music concerts (>1000 available per annum in Cambridge, pre Covid) and skiing the steeps in Val D’Isere.
 

zelig

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I'm a bum. I sleep in the same trousers every night and wear cheap cologne to mask the smells. It kinda works, depending on the ambient temperature. I test antiperspirant for a small but aspiring chem-tech start-up and listen to musak on my Goodwill iPod speaker dock via a bluetooth adapter and my Net10 smartphone.
 

paddycrow

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I'm a retired engineer, I worked 35 years in the auto industry. My official retirement started January 1, 2020 but because of vacation and holidays my last day of work was in November. I can now tell you that retirement is NOT over rated!

I have numerous hobbies. I'm an avid golfer and woodworker. I'm also involved in dog rescue.
 

Sal1950

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There's a little rifle & pistol shooting at the range.
KOOL, another firearms enthusiast, there's quite a few of us here.
Keep your powder dry. ;)

I love crystal radios and that is what started me into radio and electronics. I have built them for shortwave and was delighted to hear
Germany very well. So much fun!
Did you do that with a cat's whisker?
Wow, that brings back memories, I haven't played with them since the very early 1960s.
What fun!
 

cistercian

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KOOL, another firearms enthusiast, there's quite a few of us here.
Keep your powder dry. ;)


Did you do that with a cat's whisker?
Wow, that brings back memories, I haven't played with them since the very early 1960s.
What fun!
I used everything for diodes! Iron pyrite, galena. I found the hottest ones were the diodes used for the mixer
in old uhf tv tuners. I have no good ones like that anymore. I have a big stash of good silicon ones
and a few germanium diodes.
 

Sal1950

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I used everything for diodes! Iron pyrite, galena. I found the hottest ones were the diodes used for the mixer
in old uhf tv tuners. I have no good ones like that anymore. I have a big stash of good silicon ones
and a few germanium diodes.
I wonder if we could get @amirm to do a sinad rating to a couple. :p
 

cistercian

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I wonder if we could get @amirm to do a sinad rating to a couple. :p

They are noisy:p I really used to build a lot more in the past. I don't like working with SMC for fun!
I built a few with big loop antennas that were fun. I used to have a crystal set running a horn so there
was the local station 24/7. Silicon diodes worked better for driving speakers. The horn driver is an ancient one
from the early days of radio meant to be driven by a small triode. About 5k ohm impedance. Metal diaphragm.
I am certain it would fail a spinorama and frequency response is old bell telephone like. Headless panther for sure!
I used it for years pressed to my ear as a headphone for crystal sets. The little piezos work much better and load the set
less for sharper tuning. I have also used an old microwave oven HV transformer so I could use high fi headphones!
It worked pretty well!
 
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Currently studying law. Hobbies are playing soccer (the real football haha). In my youth (so basically 6 years ago) hoped to become a professional player until an injury. Also Audio (obiously), Anime and keeping myself fit in general. No technical background here besides what I read on Forums for the last few years. Got into Hi-Fi beacuse I am allergic to bad sound reproduction...Ah and I play trumpet and the piano from time to time.
 
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richard12511

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Day job: diagnostic medical sonographer, specializing in echocardiography. I do ultrasound exams on the heart.

Hobbies: home audio, home theater, and powerlifting. It was an easier hobby when I first started..its pretty easy to get strong when you are very weak. As in literally, I got stronger every workout, 3x/week. Now, it takes several months of smart training, good nutrition, good recovery(sleep), and a little luck(not getting sick), to add a very small amount of weight. Very much a multi faceted hobby that requires tremendous dedication, commitment, physical and mental will power. So basically I find it very challenging not only physically but mentally and also intellectually due to the intricacies of programming and nutrition as you become a more advanced lifter. Being strong is also a very healthy lifestyle as it keeps ones metabolism high, prevents injury, and keeps one independent into very advanced age. I was inspired in part by a Canadian powerlifter who is now well past 80 years old, just a little skinny old man, about 150 lbs soaking wet who can still lift over 400 lbs!

I currently compete in the 183 lb weight class at a height of 5'8" tall. Yep, I'm about 30 lbs overweight according to BMI haha.

The main reason I took up this hobby is so that buying clothes would be the most excruciatingly difficult task one could ever imagine. Just bought a pair of dress pants...its an hour drive away and just made my third trip to attempt getting them tailored to fit properly.

Steroids can fix many of those problems ;)(and give you a few new ones).
 

Bear123

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Steroids can fix many of those problems ;)(and give you a few new ones).
Yeah, gyno, acne, and going bald have never made it up very high on my list of priorities somehow. :p
 

jhm

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Asset finance lawyer (cruise ships, oil tankers, ferries, LNG carriers etc). My interests wane on and off over time but have included:

* Computers (starting with a Commodore PET and Apple ][; dial-up modem BBS's back in the day; Linux from version 0.11; functional programming; etc)
* Amateur radio
* Frequent flyer/hotel points and travel
* Watching modern dance and opera
* Languages (bits of French, Japanese, Korean and Mandarin but not fluent in any of them)
* A Chinese musical instrument called a pipa (too difficult for me)
* Tom Bihn bags
* Food (eating rather than making) - I'm lucky enough to live in one of the most multicultural cities in the world
* Audio (most recently)
 

naviivan

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Photographer by day /audio tweaker by night.
Home schooling dad these days with Covid lockdown in Melbourne.

Latest hobby is taking old furniture and doing lots of sanding and staining but with kids constantly at home I haven't had a chance to go into the shed and work on my hobby.
 

GeorgeWalk

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Hello I am a 44-year-old man with no education, & I am living on a pension, my hobbies are PC & Audio.:)
From Zealand in Denmark.:oops:

Cool! My daughter just moved to Denmark. Her husband is Danish they met in school. She is living in a house on the beach in Vordingborg.
 

BostonJack

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I'm a former EE, now doing mainly software. Did a lot of time in supercomputer, networking, and semiconductor industries. About to start a new job doing test automation/system integration testing for an analytic chemistry instrument company. Should be fun.

Pastimes: cycling, skiing (<- true love), sailing, reading just about anything and following politics/volunteering for campaigns.

Oh yeah, and dream work (analysis). I'm in a couple of Jungian based dream groups. With covid quarantine, I'm afraid that my dream life is more interesting than my awake life!
 
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