stupid question - likely ot

[jferg977]

During my late, somewhat unlamented career, I hired architects and
engineers.  At some point I started asking interviewees what was the
dumbest thing they ever did in construction and what did they do about
it.  I wouldn't hire anyone who hadn't done something dumb and in some
cases I even hired people who hadn't been able to do anything about the
mistake,  but had some good ideas of what should have been done.  I got
one really great story out of this practice and some pretty good ones
and will retell the astonishing one offline if anyone is interested.

BTW, this wasn't my idea,  Clauswitz (politics is war by other means)
apparently used to do something like this when he was looking for
generals in the early part of the 19th century.  Sorry, but if you
haven't ever done anything dumb (or made a mistake to put it more
charitably) likely you haven't done anything.
Happy New Year to the great people who frequent this reflector.  I take
elements 1, 2 & 3 on Saturday here in Marathon, FL and hope ot be
joining you all mid month.

John Ferguson

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[Simon (HB9DRV)]

Connected the 12 volt 25 amp power supply to my Drake TR-7 the wrong way -
blew it to kingdom come.

Simon Brown, 1st class Electronics degree !!!
---
http://blog.hb9drv.ch/

----- Original Message -----
From: <[hidden email]>


> During my late, somewhat unlamented career, I hired architects and
> engineers.  At some point I started asking interviewees what was the
> dumbest thing they ever did in construction and what did they do about it.
> I wouldn't hire anyone who hadn't done something dumb and in some cases I
> even hired people who hadn't been able to do anything about the mistake,
> but had some good ideas of what should have been done.  I got one really
> great story out of this practice and some pretty good ones and will retell
> the astonishing one offline if anyone is interested.
>
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[Jim Sheldon]

John, Simon et al,
I Probably shouldn't continue this thread, but it contains too valuable a
lesson. I taught electronics for the US Army for a little over 10 years
during my 20 year career, and the first thing I told each new class of
students was, "There ain't no such thing as a dumb or stupid question,
except the one you needed the answer to and were afraid to ask because YOU
thought it was stupid."  

No one is immune to this either.  If anyone says they haven't done anything
stupid because they always knew the right answer, then they are either lying
or too embarrassed to admit it hi hi.  

My most memorable contribution to the stupidity files could even have caused
me to be a candidate for the Darwin awards to boot. It consisted of using an
incandescently lighted bench magnifier on which I had replaced a damaged AC
plug with a non-polarized one.  I was working very close to the main circuit
board in a Motorola business radio which was powered up (the negative lead
of the power supply WAS grounded)in an attempt to find a cracked trace.  I
got a non-insulated jeweler's screwdriver between some part of the radio's
circuitry and the shell of the light bulb.  The plug, of course, was
inserted so that the shell was on the hot side rather than the neutral of
the line, and not only did it completely destroy the radio, but it knocked
the bejesus out of me as well.  

Lesson learned:  NEVER use a workbench lamp with exposed parts, unless all
exposed parts are firmly at ground potential and check all newly purchased
things of that nature to insure that the plugs are indeed polarized, and
that the wide blade of the plug is connected to the shell side of all lamp
sockets.  Eliminates a whole lot of grief.


Jim Sheldon, W0EB
K2#4338, KX1#1268

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [hidden email]
> [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Simon
> Brown (HB9DRV)
> Sent: Monday, January 02, 2006 10:13 AM
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] stupid question - likely ot
>
>
> Connected the 12 volt 25 amp power supply to my Drake TR-7
> the wrong way -
> blew it to kingdom come.
>
> Simon Brown, 1st class Electronics degree !!!
> ---
> http://blog.hb9drv.ch/
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <[hidden email]>
>
>
> > During my late, somewhat unlamented career, I hired architects and
> > engineers.  At some point I started asking interviewees
> what was the
> > dumbest thing they ever did in construction and what did
> they do about it.

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[Joe Malloy]

Ah, yes, what was the stupidest thing I ever did as a
ham...lessee...there's so much to choose from.  I'll start with the time
when I built my first transmitter (a Lafayette KT-390 "Starflite") from
a kit and accidentally swapped the two different three prong terminal
strips--one of which had a grounded center lug and the other of which
didn't.  When I fired 'er up, I was very pleased to note that it seemed
to work fine but there seemed to be an oddity that I eventually (after
many shocking experiences!) traced to the fact that it depended whether
you put the two-prong AC line cord in one way or t'other. The "engineer"
in me was careful (ha!) to usually plug it in the "correct" way but I
wondered why they hadn't warned me about that in the manual...Well, come
to find out, it *does* make a difference which type of three-pronged
terminal strip goes where and that I had (you guessed it!) put the one
that had the center lug grounded in the *AC  input*.

That's just the first one...then there was the time I got quite the
shock from the B+ line on my college radio transmitter (I was the
"chief" engineer -- we were great at using grandiose sounding titles
just because they did so in the real radio -- oh, did I tell you I had
earned a first class FCC radiotelephone license by then?)  But I digress...

They say that confession is good for the soul...

Yours in electronics experience,

Joe, W2RBA


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