Since the 6^th grade I have always been interested in electronics.  I still remember my first project, a cat whisker radio. There were a number of electronic surplus stores around where I lived and I visited often on my bicycle.  While in high school to make a little cash I would work at my family’s produce market.  There was an older gentleman who would drop by every now and then to sharpen our knives.  Knowing I liked working on electronics he asked if I would like a couple old radios to work on. I replied “Yes!” and almost forgot about it until one day he pulls up with 4 1940’s full console radios.  To say the least, I was excited.  One was in pretty bad shape so I used it for part, but the other 3 were repairable.  After cleaning up, replacing some components (i.e. capacitors, tube, etc.), a tune-up and a little cabinet polish the first radio both looked and sounded great.  As a thank you I returned it to guy who gave it to me.  My older brother liked how the first one turned out and asked for the next one.  With one last unit to go, this one was going to be mine.  I was almost finished when the flu hit me.  As a note, I rarely get sick so when I do I’m miserable (and a very poor patient). After I recovered, I returned to my garage, but the radio was gone!  Puzzled I asked around and found out that one of my older sisters had taken it.  Wait it gets worse!  I told her I wasn’t finished fixing it and she said that it was OK because she had “other” plans for it.  Her story was that while I was sick (and near comatose) she asked if she could have the radio.  She interpreted my faint moans as yes.  By the time I caught up with the radio, she had gutted it, toss out the electronics, cut up the cabinet and turned “my” radio into a plant terrarium.  I eventually forgave her and have since restore many old radios, but still think about those throughout my life who have encouraged me to explore the things I love to do.

Gordon Margulieux

HW/SW Design Engineer, 38+ years

Not mine, but looks alot like it!

The best electronic gift ever was actually something I didn't get.

For Christmas 1978 I only wanted one slightly expensive gift- A Heathkit H8 Computer.  My dad infamously is quoted to say, "Computers will never be anything more than toys on engineer's desks."  Many years later, he admitted he was wrong.

In an effort to prove to me how difficult and useless computers would be for individuals, my Christmas gift that year was the manuals for the Heathkit H8 computer.  I would almost be willing to trade a brand new Raspberry Pi for a replacement copy of those manuals.  They were complicated and technical and for an untrained kid with an interest in computers and electronics, they might as well have been written in Greek.

Of course, I had to prove my dad wrong.  I spent the next six months learning how 1's and 0's relate to Binary and computer code.  I learned how Hex Code translates up to almost readable Assembly Language.  I taught myself what bus structures and pull-down resistors and octal NAND gates are good for.  I built my own breadboard computer with a 20-key keypad and a 2 line ASCII display.  It wasn't an H8, but a lot of the programming was similar.

My career has taken me a lot of different directions since then, but being well grounded in the basics of electronics and computers has always served me well.  What I wouldn't have given back then to have a Raspberry Pi and a working copy of Zork to prove to my dad that computers aren't toys.  Well, at least not JUST toys.

Learning can change everything !

My mind starts to dream about infinite chances as soon as I receive this gift... some years ago...

There was room for innovations... and in the last 50 years, we've seen the growth of computers, telecommunication technologies and infrastructures, mobile phones...

What will be the next generation challenge ?

Maybe Raspberry PI community will produce the answer...

Let me be part of it...

Best gift I received was from my eldest sister.  One Christmas when I was 13 and getting into electronics, she gave me a shoebox full of electronic starter kits.  Everything from a soldering kit to robotics kits and FM transmitters, everything needed to get into it. 

That gift kept me busy all holidays (so about a solid month).  I still have those parts, tools and kits now that I’m 27 and have plans to introduce my kids to electronics with them when they are old enough.

Those kits got me to where I am now as a computer technician, fixing and building computers and with a degree in electrical engineering.

Merry Christmas everyone

My best Xmas gist that was electronic based was about 30 years ago, my parents gave me my first build a robot set, which was a motherboard and leds, resistors etc. I loved it and boy did it ever start me on my life of wonder.  Lol.

Merry Christmas to everyone and good luck!

The best electronics related gift I received was a blue remote controlled car. It was a pretty robust model with suspension and rubber tires, but more importantly, it had a button on the remote that would open a hatch on the car and then you could fire little foam darts from the car. I loved the car as a toy. Then when I got a little older and curious I started tinkering with it. I took it apart and looked at how the dart firing worked. Then when the dart portion broke, i removed the outer casing of the car, and added an old CD drive motor and a chain from a pen and made almost a remote controlled robot string trimmer. My mom was not happy when I buzzed her foot with my little machine.

I loved that car and it inspired a life of tinkering!

THe raspberry pi is a great computer and I have a rack of 4 of them to do some AI work.  I can always use the new model 4 too.

Dave Freeman

dave@no-wimp.com

One of the best electronics related gifts I received was a Radio Shack Realistic DX-160 shortwave receiver. I spent many hours listening to SWBC stations around the world and then later amateur radio. It introduced me to radio and electronics...antennas... And all the things that go along with radio: science, solar propagation, foreign cultures with news and music, mathematics, electronics. Spent some time bonding with my father as we listened and talked about what we heard. It led into my interests in radio and electronics since I was about 11

I was 6 and it was the first Christmas with my Father.  My mother had dumped me in an orphanage and it took him several years to find and get me.  He had given my stepmother the money to buy gifts for all the kids but when he got home christmas eve, she had not gotten anything for me, instead she spent all the money on her kids.  My father headed out and all he could find was a short wave radio kit at Radio Shack.  He bought it and made some calls.  On Christmas morning, when my new siblings were ripping open present after present I opened my one.  I spent the day with my dad and his friend building the kit and hooking it up to his friends antenna.  I got to talk to the astronauts on skylab that christmas.  BEST DAMN Christmas ever.  I now teach math and run a stem program because of the love that Christmas present built in me.

Growing up, I didn’t have direct access to electronics through my parents. In fact the only thing my father wanted me to do was sports. I couldn’t stand being out on the baseball field when all I was thinking about (when I was in right field) wasn’t how the dandelions grew, but instead what fun things I could do with my electronics kit when I got home. This was an electronics kit given to me by my Grandfather (on my dad’s side no less) who was my connection to electronics. I don’t remember the model number of the kit and it’s long gone (sigh) but I guarantee it came from Radio Shack. Grandpa and I spent many a weekend tinkering around with that set, I made sure it was in my suitcase every time we went to visit. I’ll never forget the one weekend my parents didn’t let me go to Grandma and Grandpas and so I decided to take apart my sister’s alarm clock that weekend. I got it back together and heard music, but she was still late to school on Monday; I guess I missed some connection…

One of the devices I made was an infrared keyer (morse code/CW) for an Amateur Radio transmitter. The best part, I built it in a lego structure to make it look super cool! Now I’m trying to carry on the electronics legacy with my daughter who loves working in Arduino and built her first robot car that she got for Christmas. It sure is a joy to hear her come to me and say, “Dad, let’s Arduino!”