Where Now! (In despair)

[Philip Hirst]

Apps if wrong group.

I'm in despair.. What to do now?

I am 47 and have been repairing all kinds of domestic electronic equipment
for over 30 years.
Specialising in Audio, Video, equipment domestic and professional. And can
confidently say I could fix anything!.

Where has it all gone.?.
Gave my own business up in 2000 as repairs were getting less an less. People
where just buying new, and trashing there old stuff. There is no jobs
advertised I can find for electronic repairs of any kind..

Out of work now & broke, and missing taking something apart to repair it.!
Missing Transistors, Ic's, Caps & diodes etc.

All those years spent becoming an expert at the Art of electronics, only to
find it's all gone away?

Where now?

Thanks,
pjh

 

[Michael A. Covington]

Computer network administration! It's the rats' nest of the new century...

 

[James Sweet]

Apps if wrong group.

I'm in despair.. What to do now?

I am 47 and have been repairing all kinds of domestic electronic equipment
for over 30 years.
Specialising in Audio, Video, equipment domestic and professional. And can
confidently say I could fix anything!.

Where has it all gone.?.
Gave my own business up in 2000 as repairs were getting less an less. People
where just buying new, and trashing there old stuff. There is no jobs
advertised I can find for electronic repairs of any kind..

Out of work now & broke, and missing taking something apart to repair it.!
Missing Transistors, Ic's, Caps & diodes etc.

All those years spent becoming an expert at the Art of electronics, only to
find it's all gone away?

Where now?

Thanks,
pjh

You can still probably get by fixing stuff, just look for broken things, get
them for free, fix them and sell them. You could also look into more
specialized markets, large screen TV's and high end audio, or vintage arcade
games, the latter of which I'm pretty much the only guy in my region who
works on them at a reasonable price, sometimes I get swamped.

 

[Jamie]

its not gone away.
there are those that have 61" HDTV's that cost $4299.
i don't think i will be buying a new one to replace this
one for some time.
high end is where its at.

 

[Jerry G.]

In the lower end products, which most people buy, there is no support for
after warranty service. When someone buys a VCR or DVD player for $69, or a
TV set for $160, would they pay the going labour plus the parts to service
it, especially when it is about 3 to 5 years old, and out of warranty???

Then there is the very expensive TV, VCR, and DVD equipment that costs
thousands of dollars. Most people who invest in this type of equipment take
out a long term service contract, as an insurance. This is now called an
extended warranty.

When the local TV service centre gets one of these in and is not authorized,
he is stuck to find the faults, if the problems are not a simple cold solder
connection or something that can be easily found with a simple scope and
meter. These sets are all microprocessor run, and are fairly complex. To
perform many of the repairs, the training, proper jigs, and diagnostic
equipment is required. Much of the repair is now board swapping, just like
when servicing PC machines. There is very little service done at the
component level on these boards. Most of the electronics is high density
surface mount component design, using multi layered boards.

--

What you can do where there may be a market in your area, is to start
collecting older used electronic devices and appliances. Try to service
these with used parts, and whatever you can scrounge. Once you get a good
number of items in good working order, you can go to any of the local
flea-markets and rent out the space to set up a table area. You can then
sell what you have been able to restore. There are many people who are
looking to pay very little for used home appliances, and home entertainment
equipment. Many of the older people, and those who don't like the new
technology devices would be more than happy to have older good working
equipment. I know of a few people who are making very good part time income
with this type of work.

My parents for example, don't want anything that is computerized for cooking
or appliances. They want a timer to be a simple thing with a knob that you
turn like these old timers on the older model microwave ovens, and toaster
ovens. They do not like the new digital timers. They like an off on switch
to be a simple click up for on, and click down for off. As soon as they see
digital displays, and other types of sophisticated operations, they shy away
from it. My father tells me that he doesn't want to have to take a course in
how to operate a toaster! I can see his point.

--

Jerry G.
==========================


Apps if wrong group.

I'm in despair.. What to do now?

I am 47 and have been repairing all kinds of domestic electronic equipment
for over 30 years.
Specialising in Audio, Video, equipment domestic and professional. And can
confidently say I could fix anything!.

Where has it all gone.?.
Gave my own business up in 2000 as repairs were getting less an less. People
where just buying new, and trashing there old stuff. There is no jobs
advertised I can find for electronic repairs of any kind..

Out of work now & broke, and missing taking something apart to repair it.!
Missing Transistors, Ic's, Caps & diodes etc.

All those years spent becoming an expert at the Art of electronics, only to
find it's all gone away?

Where now?

Thanks,
pjh

 

[JVC dude]

Sounds like things over the pond are similar to here in Blighty (thats the
UK to those who don't know)
To make ends meet you have to specialise in some niche area, plus you need
to be able to quick fix products. Its no good plodding for 2 days on a
sticker only to charge a few quid to fix it. you need to diagnose in 5
minutes and then know where to get the bits required for coppers.
To those of us who have spent perhaps 20yrs in the trade we can adapt to
this using the hard gained skill. Its the youngsters trying to get into our
field that can't do / cannot be taught this.
This is why group help like this newsgroup is becoming more and more
useful/necessary.

A Wilkinson

 

[Bob Shuman]

And Wireless is growing as well, so maybe wireless network administration?

 

[Tim Morley]

Sounds like things over the pond are similar to here in Blighty (thats the
UK to those who don't know)
To make ends meet you have to specialise in some niche area, plus you need
to be able to quick fix products. Its no good plodding for 2 days on a
sticker only to charge a few quid to fix it. you need to diagnose in 5
minutes and then know where to get the bits required for coppers.
To those of us who have spent perhaps 20yrs in the trade we can adapt to
this using the hard gained skill. Its the youngsters trying to get into our
field that can't do / cannot be taught this.
This is why group help like this newsgroup is becoming more and more
useful/necessary.

A Wilkinson

As a timeserved electrician, now working (after 15 years fixing printing
equipment right up to high speed newspaper presses) I find the comment;

"Its the youngsters trying to get into our field that can't do / cannot be
taught this."

very offensive. I am not trying to flame anyone here, but surely you learnt
this skill at some point? Maybe when you were young too?
Surely these skills need to be passed on with an open mind to the
"youngsters" ?

Tim

 

[JVC dude]

I'm not trying to offend anyone, but perhaps I am too impatient trying to
teach these skills to 'learners'
I am trying to teach my 14 yr old and whilst there are some areas of the
trade that come easily,- mechanical probs- others faults seem to totally
defeat him. Over the years I have tried to teach new 'assistants' (not just
youngsters either!) for myself to ease the work load- and in general even
after much tuition theres little spark of inspiration on where the fault
lies. They spend what seems like ages plodding along totally off
track.....etc..
What is clear is that those of us who can do this are not given the due
reverence we deserve (as say an equivalent engineer in another industry) .
As a result the industry is not seen as glamorous, you are merely providing
a quick and simple service, not a high tech, industry. In todays world of
ever cheapening product that is becoming ever more unrepairable, how is this
going to change?
I do accept that there are many other 'budding geniuses' out there who are
capable of learning our skills, but perhaps the pace of technology will
render their entry into our trade unnecessary. Look at computers- every one
is now an expert at assembly, configuation and fault diagnosis of these
'high tech' machines.
Our trade may in time die out. Certainly people like my father who began it
all with valve equipment cannot find/make a living out of that nowadays.

AW

 

[James Sweet]

Our trade may in time die out. Certainly people like my father who began it
all with valve equipment cannot find/make a living out of that nowadays.

Those who started with valve equipment may actually have an advantage today,
relatively few know how to work on them, even though I'm quite fluent with
electronics in general I still would hardly know where to begin diagnosing a
vacuum tube device beyond checking the obvious. There's some *very*
expensive tube equipment out there and plenty of vintage stuff still being
used, sooner or later it'll need work, somebody has to do it.

 

[Mark D. Zacharias]

Those who started with valve equipment may actually have an advantage
today,
relatively few know how to work on them, even though I'm quite fluent with
electronics in general I still would hardly know where to begin diagnosing
a
vacuum tube device beyond checking the obvious. There's some *very*
expensive tube equipment out there and plenty of vintage stuff still being
used, sooner or later it'll need work, somebody has to do it.

Not enough to keep one in business, however. One would have to pursue it as
a hobby or a sideline, except possibly in a very large metro area.

Mark Z.

 

[PaPaPeng]

My parents for example, don't want anything that is computerized for cooking
or appliances. They want a timer to be a simple thing with a knob that you
turn like these old timers on the older model microwave ovens, and toaster
ovens. They do not like the new digital timers. They like an off on switch
to be a simple click up for on, and click down for off. As soon as they see
digital displays, and other types of sophisticated operations, they shy away
from it. My father tells me that he doesn't want to have to take a course in
how to operate a toaster! I can see his point.

Double jeopardy. Not only do you have to find antiques (equipment)
that can be fixed you also have to find antiques (people) who like and
will buy them. There isn't enough volume in that kind of restoration
to make a living.

On other posts that recommend network administration, wireless etc.
that's even worse. To even consider qualifying for such work a 47
year old tech level guy must go back to university. That's a minimum
four year commitment and a $50 thou debt not to say of lost earnings.
By the time he finishes school he will be 51 and even less employable.
There are lots of smart grad professional engineers in EE, CS, etc.
who can't find work in those fields. Those who do are scared stiff
that whatever they do they cannot depend on their job lasting for more
than a few years.