Re: hobby electronics

On 02/07/2024 17:28, john larkin wrote:

 It's my opinion that there are few hobbyists that really work with
parts and make circuits, and most EE grads are EE/CE dual majors that
code more than they solder, and don't have instincts for electricity.

There are still a few, but it has become a very minority interest today. Partly because everything is so heavily integrated and surface mount.
When I grew up you could get dead ICL 1900 boards full of TTL chips for and bags dross coated transistors at start of line for pennies. Today there is no equivalent source of cheap easily reused parts.
Back then there were also electronic kits for build your own computer etc.
A lot of it today is plugging new mass produced modules together. Raspberry Pi has done a lot for that and to encourage electronics hobbyists though so it isn't all bad news.

 Here's a youtube on the subject:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLnolhyT5SI
 Some of these guys blame surface mount, which seems wrong to me. There
are lots of thru-hole parts and parts kits around.

Surface mount has rendered modern kit all but impossible for the home user to repair. I cut my teeth mending transistor car radios back when chassis earth was chosen randomly by each car manufacturer to be either positive or negative and people blew up their brand new car radios.
The other big earner was mending teenage wannabe rock stars amplifiers that had their output transistors fried or a pint of beer in them.

I'd like to hire a few kids who love component-level electronics, but
they are hard to find.

Go looking at maker-spaces or whatever they are called in the US. Most of them will be trying to make electric guitars but they will be showing at least some skills with small pickup coils and low noise amplifiers.
Back in my day a lot of our physics practicals were essentially electronics based - characteristics of a FET, various oscillators and a substantial digital electronics and logic course with a finishing test of making a digital dice (it may still be the same course even now).
I'm pretty sure the previous generation did the same experiments on thermionic valves and relays but that was discontinued on H&S grounds.
--
Martin Brown