As most of you know, i have never claimed to be a licensed broadcast engineer. In fact any electronics knowledge I possess is self taught.
As most of you know, i have never claimed to be a licensed broadcast engineer. In fact any electronics knowledge I possess is self taught.
For years I have kicked my self in the butt for not changing courses in vocational school from broadcasting arts to the electronics course offered across the hall. If i had take that course instead, then yes I probably would have gone to college and studied broadcast engineering.
So any post’s I make on this or any other part 15 related forums are based on either real-world experience or hypothetical.
Sometimes the greatest inventions of all time are born from the craziest notions. The Wright Brothers, Henry Ford, Edison, Nicola Tesla etc all these names started off their careers with silly notions.
Where do silly notions come from? Obviously not from a Silly Notions Fairy.
Imagination! That’s where! And humanity has prospered from these imaginations working over time to make life on Earth more interesting.
The reason I post this is I received an email the other day in response to my post on this thread http://part15.us/node/2142
The email was not offensive nor was it an attack on my post, rather it was sent to point out that my theory on the ground plane would not be compliant. The ground wire I mentioned would radiate and the groud plane would not benefit the antenna system.
Again, my post was a theory.
I wrote: But if i was able to do something like KENC has here, i would probably go with a ground plane made up of copper or stainless steel rods…. (probably was the key word) though i guess it was too vague.
Next post i make will have the word “Theory” in the body somewhere.
LOL BTW this email I mentioned was not even from a member of this forum and I have the utmost respect for our members here at part15.us
Just a reminder
That no disclaimer is required and our members’ ideas are always welcome. This is a venue for discussing a hobby, not a platform for theoretical electronic dialectic – we’re here to have fun!
We’re not splitting the atom here, no life or property will be put at risk when there is a sincere effort to comply with Part 15 and you summed up the philosophy of this community perfectly when you said “Sometimes the greatest inventions of all time are born from the craziest notions.”
Of course you may respond to emails you receive about posts on Part15.us in any manner you please but there is no need to feel that you are accountable to anyone but yourself and our forum guidelines when posting here.
Rock On!
Rock,
I think SCWIS said quite a mouthful and I agree. I just want to add a bit to this.
I have formal electronic engineering training but this happened after I, as a kid, had played with radio and part 15 broadcasting and did things by trial and error (oh so many errors). Most of what I learned about part 15 happened before I went to school. It was nice to learn why what I had done worked. So, my approach may be different than that of other engineering practitioners since many times I just try things to see what happens. I worked in a research environment where this approach is not only tolerated but encouraged. I use theory to explain and guide what I do rather than to limit what I do. When you propose or describe your escapades I always learn something, then I try to explain to myself how it works or doesn’t. Often, the theoretical view improves the project but the critical point is where someone asks “What if?”.
I hold three patents and each resulted from some “crazy solution to a problem” which was later explained and organized by theory. All of these resulted from me going on “gut instinct” and when successful, theory confirmed what I had done.
There is no need for you or anyone else here to hesitate to post your ideas and experiences. I will be the last one who tells you that it is theoretically impossible but as you have probably observed I do try to tie these things into a theoretical framework in order to either explain or improve the results. Intuition, experimentation, and theory taken together are unbeatable. Never be hesitant to express an idea nor to consider the theoretical input from some of us which you may receive.
Rock On!
Neil