[BC] Educating callow youth

[Harold Hallikainen]

I haven't been following this thread closely, but thought I'd comment. For
about 5 years I've been working with a guy who is now 16. Once or twice a
month I spend an afternoon working with him on some electronic project.
He's a champion dumpster diver and has accumulated a lot of broken stuff.
He brings it in and we try to make it work. Yesterday was a 12V 20A
regulated power supply. No schematic, but we tracked it down to a bad 723.
He replaced it and got it working. He's built a microcontroller based
generator control system that handles load switching between a generator,
inverter, and external AC power. It also handles generator start and stop.
He did the hardware, but I ended up doing the C code based on what he
wanted it to do. I'm working on getting him more comfortable with
programming. As soon as it was legal, we hired him as a test technician
when he is not in school. He starts again on Monday doing production test
and debug of control boards for dental curing lights.

Back when I was in 4th grade, I would bicycle from school to my father's
shop. My first job was sorting hardware. They had a big collection of
hardware that had gotten all mixed up. So I had to measure each screw and
put it in the proper cabinet. I got 25 cents per hour. My father explained
the he had engineers who didn't know screw sizes. I would know them! Later
I moved to electronic assembly. I used a HEAVY American Beauty soldering
iron to hand wire vacuum tube circuitry. Assemblers had to provide their
own tools, so I bought a Kennedy tool box and a bunch of tools. It took
forever to pay that off. I still have that toolbox. Eventually the
California Department of Labor sent a letter to my father pointing out
that it was not legal to employ a minor. I still have that letter. After
that, my father and I would spend every Friday night in his shop working
on my own projects. He had a set of Ameco 78RPM code practice records. I
worked on getting my code up to speed and eventually got my ham license.
My brother and sisters finally figured out this was unfair, so we set up a
rotating schedule as to whose "turn" it was to spend Friday night out with
my father. We had a calendar in the kitchen with the schedule. More info
on my father's company, including all the company newsletters, is at
http://www.hallikainen.org/hi .

So, about 45 years later, I'm still bicycling to the shop, but it's now
after a 40 mile commuter bus ride... It's still fun.

Harold


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