I learned draftmanship in high school indusrial arts beginning in 1966. I was good enough ar it that I was asked in my senior year to do detailed construction drawings for the annual project of the machine shop, even though I had transferred to a so-called college preparatory curriculum a couple of years earlier. In actuality those high school drafting skills prepared me completely for the year of drafting courses that was mandatory at Geogia Tech in 1970. I'd finish a lab drafting session in less than 45 minutes while my buddies needed the full three hours. In those pre-calculator pre-computer days the only tools that an undergrad student needed were a good slide rule (mine cost $36 in 1969, about $260 today) and a drafting set. To use the Univac 1108 campus scientific mainframe for Fortran IV programs, we submitted hollerith cards we punched using IBM 026 and 029 card punches.
I scraped and saved my summertime active duty pay to buy a Bomar 901 four-function calculator in 1972 for $150, about $950 today. Hewlett-Packard had introduced their milestone HP-35 scientific calculator that year for $400, about $2535 today. Extremely few students could afford that. What a wonder something like a KX2 would have been. I had a station I made from a 1950s Multi-Elmac AF-67 mobile AM/CW transmitter and a surplus ARR-15 receiver to get on 6970 kHz CW nets in the Navy-Marine Corps Military Affiliate Radio System, using a random wire antenna and a radiator ground. Boy, could I tear up nearby stereos on several floors of Smith Dormitory. Those really were the good ol' days...just barely a mere 50 years ago. :-) Mike / KK5F -----Original Message----- >From: Wayne Burdick <n...@elecraft.com> >Sent: Apr 24, 2021 12:08 AM > > OK, I've really dated myself now. > > Anyone remember "drafting"? A favorite class in high school: > blueprints, mechanical drawings, schematics, straight edges, > hand lettering, projections and elevations. > > Wayne > N6KR ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
