This blog is run by me, Philip Trew. I retired from full time work in an IT related role in 2012, but have not lost my enthusiasm for all things related to engineering, electronics & computing.
I think my interest in ‘electricity’ began at about the age 13, when I started scavenging for old broken TVs and other discarded electronic items. These would be promptly dismantled for useful looking components.
All this dismantling brought about great dexterity with a soldering iron. At a young age, you learn to use an iron quickly when you have badly burned your fingers a few times ! Can’t remember many of the things I built with these scavenged parts, but I do remember building a microphone pre-amplifier using a valve (sorry, ‘tube’ for US readers).
My father used to encourage my interest and would occasionally buy me “Practical Wireless” & “Radio Constructor” magazines, which were always full of home construction projects and a wealth of educational information.
By the time I started work at the age of 16, I had already encountered transistors, and had built a 7 transistor radio from a kit, and even managed to understand much of how it worked. So at my first job interview, I already had a fairly good grounding in elementary circuit theory and constructing electronic circuits
As luck would have it, at my first job interview, one of the interviewers asked me, the 16 year old young lad : “Can you tell me the advantages of a Superhetrodyne radio receiver over a TRF receiver”. He probably thought that question would baffle me, but the answer just rolled out. I was home and dry :-))
So here I am 50+ years later, still highly enthusiastic about engineering and technology, and starting a blog. What am I going to post on it ? I’m not entirely sure, I’m probably a ‘jack of all trades’ rather than an expert in any particular area, so be prepared for anything related to engineering and technology !
This blog is starting its life in 2019, which is a very special year, as it is 50 years ago that Neil Armstrong uttered his unforgetable “One giant leap for mankind” words from the surface of the moon . I have always been extremely passionate about space exploration and the technology behind it, and like many people, was riveted to the TV during those first lunar surface broadcasts.
But before that first landing by Apollo 11, there was a dress rehearsal by Apollo 10 which performed almost a full mission except for the final touchdown on the moon’s surface. As I write this, Apollo 10’s command module returned to Earth 50 years ago today (26th May 1969). In 1976, that command module was loaned to the Science Museum in London, UK and has been on exhibit there ever since.
Naturally, I was there to see it as soon as I could, so my first post to this blog contains some photos I took at the museum some 43 years ago. Please have a look, as although they are not perfect, they do show some detail that is not easy for the average museum visitor to discern these days.
So here is my first post : A look inside the Apollo 10 Command Module
