I grew up in the time when vacuum tube radios and TVs were still being made, although
Solid State electronics were becoming more common. All of our TVs had tubes and I remember
looking in the back and seeing all the tubes lit up and wondering how the heck they worked.
My Dad had an old 1952 RCA bakelite set that he let me listen to: I was amazed how many stations
around the country I could pick up at night. I used that set up into the 80s when it got left
behind in one of many moves. I added Short Wave listening in 1971 when my Dad bought a Sony multi-band radio
In 1991 I took a job at NASA here in Houston after a few years in electronics manufacturing. After being
bored with the pace, I wanted to learn more about electronics since I had lots of spare time at work.
After reading a few books on modern electronics, I put that idea on hold since it didn't interest me much.
In 1997 I got a job with another NASA contractor where I met an Electrical Engineer who was into old military
tube communications radios. He told me how easy they were to work on so I got online, found and bought the exact
model RCA radio that I had listened to many years back. After replacing a few capacitors, it worked like new!
I discovered eBay around that time and was off and running buying anything I could afford that had tubes in it.
Along the way I became a member of Antique Radio Forums
which proved to be a great place to learn about repairing and collecting antique radios, phonos, TVs and audio equipment.
I am also a member of the Houston Vintage Radio Association.

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