What was your first electronics project?

circa 1977. You youngsters with access to the new technology.

This is how we rolled with the 60s tech:

103: 4.5V Motor Set with Rubber Tracks
https://images.brickset.com/sets/large/103-1.jpg

So good that they relaunched it 8 years later with the additional Technic compatible PTO drive shafts and updated terminal locations:
https://images.brickset.com/sets/large/107-1.jpg  

Unfortunately the PC-Retro kit has sold out...

https://www.mtmscientific.com/pc-retro.html

This electronic kit toy sold in Spain gave me many hours of fun. My children have also enjoyed it after changing the capacitors

Nice!  I wish I had the foresight to have saved my Electronic Project kits. I had one something like this.

A lot of people cut their teeth on crystal radios it seems.  I remember that a prof I had also spoke of building one as a kid.  I am curious now whether the underlying technique behind the crystal radio was to down-convert into the highly selective crystal.  Put another way, is the crystal the intermediate frequency?

I won't flatter myself to present this as a 'first project' but this bit of misadventure fits the general spirit of the topic.  To any of you younger readers, this tale harkens back to the pre-internet era before we had easy access to things like YouTube.  It's also a cautionary tale showing what happens when you combine an unquenchable sense of curiosity with a total lack of knowledge in the field your particular project falls into.

Back when I was ten I had seen some experiments on TV where batteries were used to illuminate a light bulb.  I spent a good part of the day trying to replicate these results but the light bulbs I had access to could not be powered with the measly dry cell batteries I had salvaged from electronic toys.

I knew I had to bring things up a notch.  Why fiddle around with batteries when there was a unlimited supply of electricity hiding in the walls.

As a bit of foreshadowing I will have you know that a movie had come out around this time called Short Circuit.  So while the phrase had entered my ears I had no real concept of what a short circuit actually was.

Back in the 80s my aunt was in the armed forces and was stationed in Germany.  For Christmas she had sent me a decorative lamp along with the adapter to convert its European plug to a North American one.  This adapter was going to be the key to unlock my experiment....

I stripped a couple of garbage ties and jammed them into the adapter.  The other sides of the ties were secured to a trail of coins using clear Scotch tape.  The coins which were arranged on my carpet formed a trail leading to a light bulb.

I wish I had the intuition then to have run the coins in two separate paths.  One path leading to the light bulb and one path returning from it.  But no, shortly after my garbage tie connections I had arranged the coins to converge into a single path.  You could say that 'the trap was set.'

Around this time I had a sobering thought where the gravity of playing with AC power suddenly hit me.  Did I dismantle my setup and abandon the experiment?  No, instead I called on my little sister for moral support.

We sat there a moment before I summoned the courage to plug the cord in.  The very moment the plug engaged we were startled with a frightening popping sound.  Worse still a little flame, not unlike that on a birthday candle, had formed on my carpet.

Immediately I unplug the cord and begin to frantically blow out the flame.  Fortunately the little fire was extinguished before it could spread.  Miracuously enough there were no visible burn marks.

"This could be a clean get away," I thought to myself.  That is of course if I had my sister's cooperation.

Acting as the adult in the room, my seven year old sister finally says, "Okay, I won't tell mom and dad, but promise me you'll never do this again."

Even in recent times I make the odd error but if I look back to these humble beginnings I realize I've come a long way.  We all have.

You had an amazing introduction to electronics as a child.  So cool that you were able to communicate with your uncle in the Congo.

When I was 4, I decided to see what would happen if I plugged a hair pin into a wall outlet, so I crawled under the big stereo cabinet and plugged it in. The lacquer on the pin probably saved my fingers from some unpleasantness, but almost immediately the pin evaporated with a pop and flash of light. I was so surprised, I jerked up and bumped my head on the cabinet. Fortunately that was my only injury. I'm not sure how my parents found out, but I got a very memorable lecture on electricity that day.

Wow.  It must have had a profound impact.  You did, after all, carry this memory around since you were four years old.  At least it 'sparked' a life long interest in electricity.  

On a similar note, when I was 4(?) I collected all sorts of objects to play with.  I had several of these key-like objects that were used to open coffee cans (removing a coil spring like ribbon of metal to separate the lid from the can).  I liked to play with these keys, imagining that they could unlock things like my cars and trucks.  One day I guess I decided to 'unlock' one of those little plastic rectangles on the wall (outlets).  I carefully inserted two 'keys' into the openings. A remember a flash of light, a violent muscle contraction and then bandaged little fingers.  How I didn't electrocute myself, I will never know.