A minor story to add!
This is about a visit to my Uncle Jack* and Aunt Margaret's around 1976.
I was 20 and was enjoying my somewhat carefree non academic life. I
repaired domestic radio and TV equipment, and enjoyed electronics as a
hobby, studying "TV Mechanics."
I paid a visit to Blofield near Norwich for a weekend in spring 1976.
(By coach Northampton, Bedford, Cambridge, Norwich... odd what you do
remember!)
Uncle Jack and I spoke about many technical things - one topic was
Lecher Lines. In televisions they are used to select the desired TV
station, to tune BBC1 or BBC2. Lecher Lines look like rigid silver
plated metals bars – “Surely they would short out the weak TV
signals?” This was something that Uncle Jack knew about: Transmission
lines. He explained resonances were very real – especially his
experience of researching problems with transcontinental electrical
power transmissions lines. Switching stations would fail at certain
distances from other stations - catastrophically - with lots of
sparks! He was tasked to investigate.
So this dear old retired clergyman knew more about my subject than I did!
Whether it was only Uncle Jack, or also college lecturers telling me I
was wasting my time at the “Tech” – “Nick: Do the Telecoms course!”
“Do you think you’re going to repair radios for the rest of your
life?”
So 1976 saw me switching to a more challenging course that introduced
me to computer design – and the rest is, as they say, history.