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Originally Posted by karmaman
Yes, I know for a fact I am going to get into a career involving electronics. However, I really don't know what. I love fixing things, there's just a satisfaction to it you can't get anywhere else, but fixing computers/electronics is pretty much useless now with things like the Geek Squad and the "it's broken, let's just buy a new one" idea that seems to have taken over. Communications and Engineering sounds very interesting to me, do you have a link with any info?
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I will send ya a pvt message with some info for you. When I was your age and still in High School, I used to hang out at 4 different local TV shops. (2 were in my town and 2 in neighboring towns) Unfortunately only one of them is still in operation, but back to my point - two of the shop owners tried to talk me into buying their business when I got out of school. I seriously thought about it, but in the end, declined due to the very fact that their business is dwindling because people don't get things repaired as much as they used to. One of the shops was a satellite dealer, and had tons of established c-band and DBS customers, so perhaps that wouldn't have been so bad of an investement, but still, even though I love working on electronics, I couldn't take the plunge. I guess the point i'm trying to make is, that you're better off looking elsewhere in the electronics industry for a career instead of consumer equipment repair. That's just my opinion though, but in reality, there are tons of electronics related fields, and are lots of choices for careers, so even if this particular type of electronics work is on it's decline, don't let that discourage you.
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Originally Posted by Chad Hauris
Yes, broadcast is one of the few places where real electronic repair is still carried out, especially on transmitters. Most of the studio stuff is computers/IT work now except for the microphone though!
I am not in that business anymore but I can remember when tube type equipment was still used in the studios and there was tons of maintenance work that would need to be done in the studios such as cleaning cart machines and reel to reel machines, repairing tube type audio equipment etc. that just isn't around anymore.
A lot of the new transmitters especially AM are solid state now though there are many tube type units still operating.
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You're right, the IT industry is pretty much everywhere in broadcast engineering work. So many facilities are changing over to an IT based workflow. It's funny how the trade mags that I get offer tons of courses and webinars for the senior engineers who haven't had a lot of computer experience can learn networking and computer fundamentals.
There is a lot of newer equipment at my facility that I can't do component level repair on, because either I don't have service manuals for, simply don't have the time, or that my time is better spent on other projects so it's easier to just ship it off to a repair center.
...Yes there are tons of tube type transmitters out there. Tube type exciters are a thing of the past though, generally what you'll see is older transmitters outfitted with newer exciters. So basically you're IPA and final will be tube. The fully solid state transmitters are great though and truly are an engineering marvel. One of my favorites is the Harris DX series of AM transmitters, and their "digital modulation" scheme.