June 1969 Electronics World
Table of Contents
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles
from
Electronics World, published May 1959
- December 1971. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.
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Here is a CircuitLab simulation of the back-to-back zener
diode circuit given in the "test." CircuitLab is a very nice online
simulator. Use is free if you don't want to save anything.
If you wanted a career as
an electronics technician at the end of World War II, the
world was your oyster - so to speak. Electronics and communications trade magazines
and publications like Mechanix Illustrated and Popular Science
ran a plethora of ads monthly that offered unlimited opportunity to men seeking
a career servicing the burgeoning market of postwar technological marvels. Even
though the enclosures were not yet being marked with "No user serviceable parts
inside," that fact was most people were not qualified - nor did they want - to monkey
with the guts of radios, televisions, and other household appliances provided ample
favorable circumstance to the ambitious wannabe technician. Of course the field
extended well beyond domestic products to military and commercial venues. Regardless
of a person's interests, financial security, prestige, and a lifetime of satisfaction
were a sure thing after successful completion of one of these training courses -
whether in a classroom or at home with a mail order plan. Believe it or not, there
is still plenty of opportunity today for electronics technicians who want to service
household appliances if they are willing to do business via Internet clientele;
YouTube is full of guys hacking their services for repairing vintage equipment as
well as modern equipment like cellphones and out-of-warranty audio/visual gear.
BTW, the answer given for Q2 is more correctly a 20 Vpk-pk
clipped sinewave, since
when the reverse biased zeners are conducting at 10 V, the forward biased Zener would
be at around 0.7 V. The total would then be 2 * (10 + 0.7) V = 21.4 Vpk-pk (see simulation above).
See also
How to Become a 'Non-Degree Engineer in the May 1966 Electronics
World,
Cleveland Electronics Institute Electronics Slide Rule Advertisement
in the August 1967 Electronics World,
RCA Institutes Advertisement in the June 1969 Electronics
World, and
Engineering Level Opportunities for You in the February 1970
Popular Electronics.
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