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Ham Activities 

Here I am back with my Amateur Radio Technician License. Now what? Where will my radio take me? Amateur radio enthusiasts often explore several niches without limiting themselves to one genre of radio. However, their activities can be broken down into five categories: radio contesting, research, public service, digital and computer networking, and technical experimentation.

Contesting

Contesting refers to radio operators contacting others like a scavenger hunt. These can be at events, where the most contacts at the event is a winner, or collecting contacts of a certain category. Ongoing contests include getting all 50 states in the United States or contacting all the National Parks. Field Days are annual events that occur in June and October where contesting happens, but also many clubs set up in local parks to show off their gear to the public. I attended my local one a few weeks ago and one radio operator contacted a Park On The Air in New York. While these contests can be purely for verbal bragging rights, there is a tradition of QSL cards. These postcards show the call signs of the conversation participants and are exchanged as proof of contact. The most unusual are displayed as trophies. As a fan of postcards, I made a stamp of my call sign to create my own QSL card.

Research

Amateur radio enthusiasts are already science-minded individuals, so citizen science research naturally shoehorns into the hobby. By using a variety of equipment and transmitting in all weather conditions, radio operators can observe the propagation of radio waves in less than ideal conditions or even during rare phenomenon like auroras. Also by communicating with amateur satellites, radio operators can monitor weather patterns and gather data.

Public Service

To take this altruism further is public service. In the United States, the two major organizations for emergency communications via amateur radio are RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service) and ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service). These two organizations set up networks of volunteers who facilitate communication between the government and other groups. When cell phone towers are down and power is out amateur radio can still get messages through. There are even protocols in place to get messages from survivors to their families around the country.

Digital and Computer Networking

While amateur radio as a hobby is more than a century old, there are a variety of digital avenues to use for communication. Software-defined radio is an inexpensive way to use radio integrated into a computer. Other formats are Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), radio teletype (RTTY), and packet radio. Some of these can be used in conjunction with the other categories.

Technical Experimentation

As with other hobbies, amateur radio enthusiasts try to push the boundaries of the craft. There is the fairly obvious homebrew or do-it-yourself aspect of building your own equipment. For low power and high noise situations, radio operators use Continuous Wave (CW) and Short Wave (SW). CW often employs morse code instead of vocal communication. These modes can even be used to bounce waves off of the moon! Audio is not the only medium that can be transmitted either, there is Fast Scan television to send amateur signals short distances.

Currently, I have a handheld transceiver and an RTL-SDR dongle (for passive listening to software-defined radio). However, that is only the start of my amateur radio journey. I hope in the future to take you through some of these different categories of radio. This is Nicole KQ4BHO signing off.

Becoming a Ham:  Venturing into the World of Amateur Radio

 

Late last year I saw a post calling for individuals to sign up for a class to become an Amateur Radio operator.  In the back of my mind flashed the opening scenes of Contact starring Jodie Foster.  Long story short, I signed up.  The Make Amateur Radio Easier (MORE) Project was started by Dr. Rebecca Mercuri for Amateur Radio outreach in order to attract underrepresented demographics of radio operators and is backed by Amateur Radio Digital Communications and by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).  Through MORE I and my classmates will receive a hand-held 2-way radio, training, and pass the Technician exam (fingers crossed) to be able to Get On The Air (GOTA).

Dr. Mercuri

Amateur Radio, or Ham as it is affectionately known, is communication by radio waves for non-commercial purposes.  Radio operators use frequencies within a designated band to broadcast text, data, voice, and even images.  They identify themselves with callsigns, a combination of letters and numbers assigned by their home country’s broadcast governing body.  While their host country is in charge of licensing, a radio operator with the right radio and antenna can broadcast all over the world.  Referencing Jodie Foster’s character in Contact again:  she contacts Australia from her midwestern home, and later is part of the search for extraterrestrial life.

Shortly after the advent of telegraphy, amateurs began broadcasting.  Women were there too in the earliest days of radio as landline telegraph operators circa 1840s.  As maritime radio gained steam, cultural ideas about the fragility of women in emergency situations led to the ousting of women from professions in telecommunications.  When the rise of amateur radio occurred in the beginning of the twentieth century, the hobby attracted fans indiscriminately.  Mrs. M.J. Glass and Olive Hearberg were two of the first women to the hobby, registering in the 1910s.  In the lingo of Ham Radio, male operators called each other “OM” or “old man” in addition to their call signs.  Starting in the 1920s women used “YL” or “young lady.”  Young Ladies Radio League (YLRL) was founded in 1939 by Ethel Smith after seeing an ad in the membership journal of the National Association for Amateur Radio.  She became curious about how many women were Hams and wanted to reach out to them.  After writing a letter of her own to the journal, she created the YLRL that exists to this day offering scholarships and networking opportunities of all kinds.

Owning an amateur radio involves more than just knowledge of antenna and equipment, there is a whole language and etiquette involved.  Morse code no longer is required for United States licenses, however, there are many Hams that still use it.  The International Phonetic Alphabet is useful for intelligibility, especially when many phrases are shortened to acronyms.  In turn, the acronyms are useful when a broadcast signal is full of distortion.  Often local Ham radio clubs offer mentorships to encourage new Hams to keep broadcasting.  Other advantages of clubs include access to more advanced equipment and opportunities to broadcast from unique locations like lighthouses.

I am excited to participate in the MORE course and find another way to marry my electrical and audio worlds.  To be fair, I am also excited to emulate Jodie Foster in some way.  Well, I need to jump off to study for my Technician exam, wish me luck.  I don’t have a call sign yet, so this is Nicole, final clear.

For MORE information: n2re.org/m-o-r-e-project

Dr. Rebecca Mercuri, Grant Administrator, rtmercuri@ieee.org

Dr. Rebecca Mercuri interviewed by SoundGirls here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAOEL-VR6yc

Website for Young Ladies Radio League:  https://ylrl.net/

2022 Leading Women in Audio

The Sound of Strength Conference

On a surprisingly mild February weekend, I attended the 2022 Leading Women in Audio (LWIA) conference at Elon University in Elon, NC.  The theme for this year was The Sound of Strength focusing on the voices that one can hear in performances and the silent voices that create the art.  In the current era of COVID-19, this conference was held as a hybrid event of in-person panels and live-streamed attendance options.  Panels and presentations were recorded for future viewing opportunities.

In changing the face of audio, the LWIA conference focused on High School and College students.  Students were invited to attend a studio tour, a conference dinner added to the ample networking opportunities for presenters and students to mingle, and there were panels for alumni and early career professionals to bridge the gap between dreams and starting out in audio.  In the past I have attended student-centric summits while enrolled in college, but this time I went as a guest of Christa Giammattei, both a presenter and vendor at the conference, to help out her Command + S Apparel booth.

Sabrina Smith, a sophomore from Elon University, who volunteered as the Public Relations Director for the conference, helped me gain insight into the event.  While it was also her first time attending the event, this is the LWIA’s 4th year.  Smith noted that it’s empowering to bring a variety of women in demographics and industry together to push through the stereotypes and to see what we are capable of in highlighting our contributions.  The panels that caught Smith’s eye were Jasmine Battle’s “DJ Techniques” and Marcella Araica’s “Mixing Vocals.”  Networking was also important to Smith, both with peers and panelists.  In the future Smith wants to DJ and to give back to her local community in Charlotte, NC.  Just like the people she grew up with, Smith wants to show people there’s always a way for you to belong.

In many of the conferences I have attended before (the exception of the SoundGirls conference) the only all-women panel was also the token diversity panel.  At LWIA the “Diversity, Equity & Inclusion” panel was less about how hard it is to be a woman in the Audio Industry, but instead how to thrive in a positive environment.  The entire career arc was covered from having a day job and leaving a toxic workplace, to defining success and avoiding burnout.  However few work alone and as panelist leader, Aurelia Belfield stressed, “You heard of the boys club?  Make a new club.”  There’s plenty of work to go around, recommend your peers who are better for a certain job.  Have each others’ backs, our failures, and successes happen as a team.  LWIA gave me lots of hope for the future of Audio.  We are in this together, let’s help each other up.

Review of Behind the Sound Cart

 

If you are looking for a master class in production sound, Behind the Sound Cart: A Veteran’s Guide to Sound on the Set by Patrushkha Mierzwa is just that.  From gear to career development this book covers it all.  With her many years of experience as a Utility Sound Technician (UST), Mierzwa provides more than tips and tricks.  Packed in each chapter is a guide to best practices and the reasons why.

Behind the Sound Cart is divided into chapters based on topics beginning with an overview of the UST’s duties.  Also known as 2nd Assistant Sound, they work on everything sound-related not covered by the Mixer or the Boom Operator, even then the UST might have to use a second boom, or even cover for the mixer.  In light of how flexible the UST must be, it makes sense to use them as a focal point for a guidebook on production sound.  Mierzwa has the reader follow her footsteps through nearly every scenario a UST might face.  I cannot believe I ever set foot on a set without Behind the Sound Cart.

Mierzwa stresses the importance of safety with every chapter.  Current events show us that this emphasis is always necessary.  However, safety is not just protection from a dolly running you over:  heat, stress, and fatigue can also be deadly.  Don’t skip the sections on first aid and COVID protocols either.  Gear cleaning and maintenance fall into this category as well.

From cover to cover, Mierzwa leads by example of professionalism and integrity.  Do not expect this book to be full of celebrity anecdotes.  Part of being a respected UST is respecting the cast. One might expect a book on the basics of production sound to be dry without juicy gossip, but there are plenty of stories and jokes peppered through each chapter.  Attached in the appendices are forms, paperwork, and other documents used throughout the film production process.  Those alone are worth the price of this book.  Refreshing is the way Mierzwa uses “she/her” as the default pronouns over “he/him.”  Sure, a more neutral pronoun like the singular “they” would be optimal, it allows one to imagine a film crew that is more diverse than the “industry standard.”

I recommend Behind the Sound Cart to anyone looking to succeed in the film industry.  That includes early career professionals, as well as students and production assistants.  I would even recommend this book for fledgling directors and cinematographers.  Patrushkha Mierzwa has put a career’s worth of information into a manageable package, and it should be in every production sound engineer’s library.

Editing Women into Wikipedia Part 3:  Notability

There’s nothing more disheartening than to create a Wikipedia article only to have it instantly flagged for deletion.  Even with hours put into finding sources and carefully formatting every section to fit Wikipedia’s style, there is one major issue that can doom the best of intentions:  Notability.  Let’s say that you want to create an article on your favorite SoundGirls Blogger.  You might be able to find an interview, a picture, and maybe even their IMDb page.  However, it takes more than that to qualify.

Notability

Means a subject that stands out from the crowd.  An event that started a movement, a company that pioneered a technology, a person who did something for the first time, these are all subjects that are deserving of note.  Celebrity status can help a person acquire notability, but it does not guarantee that they are worthy of a Wikipedia article.  In my previous articles, I stressed the importance of reliable sources of information.  By using books, journal articles, and interviews there is added longevity and importance.  A social media star usually misses these in their 15 minutes of fame.

Wikipedia editors often choose topics they care deeply about, however, Wikipedia is not the place to deep dive into a given topic.  Just like their predecessor, the encyclopedia, they are a place to start a research journey.  Every article is there to give a taste of information.  Categories are for a summary of knowledge in a selected field.  By flooding Wikipedia with the mundane, it drains the usefulness of the website.

What guarantees notability?  As mentioned before: reliable sources.  Books, biographies, interviews all contribute to the information contained in a Wikipedia article, but also add to the subject’s notability.  Notable people win awards.  Grammy night is a great time to edit Wikipedia.  Academics, while not famous, can be notable if they publish groundbreaking research or books that influence their fields.  Specifically for the field of Entertainment, notability means having worked on several popular works:  films that get released to theatres and festivals, songs that chart, tv shows on network tv, or streaming platforms.

There is a reason why Wikipedia encourages new editors to edit articles over creating new articles.  Finding a subject that fits the notability requirements can be tricky.  Luckily my user page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Lyrelyrebird (as mentioned in my previous Editing Women into Wikipedia articles), as well as Wikiprojects, have lists of suggested subjects to get you started.  Remember to be bold and cite all your sources.  Happy editing!

Editing SoundGirls into Wikipedia

SoundGirls Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon

The Plumage of Punk: Review of Violence Girl

I don’t know where I first heard of Alice Bag, but it must have been when doing a deep dive into Riot Grrrl.  What I heard stuck with me:  a woman my mother’s age hitting just as hard as any punk band in their prime.  I wanted to know more, but I only found bits and pieces here and there.  An interview of anglicizing names, mentions of her influence, nothing until I was looking for more books to review for SoundGirls.  Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage to Hollywood Stage by Alice Bag is an action-packed cruise through the first part of the life of Alicia Armendariz (Alice Bag’s birth name).

Violence Girl is a memoir told in brief anecdotes, like memories, and arranged mostly chronologically detailing her life until her early thirties.  We are first introduced to her parents and in a way, East L.A.  Born to Mexican immigrants, Alice feels like an oddball not quite fitting in with her classmates or her Mexican cousins.  From an early age, Alice begins to realize the world is complicated when domestic abusers go free and police both protect and battle against innocents.  In describing her life in school, Alice documents her love affair with music.  While Alice does end up becoming a musician, it is by becoming a hardcore fan that sets her future in motion.  The combination of the outcast, the fighter for justice, and the crazed fan is an alloy of punk at its most concentrated.  By the time Alice Bag forms The Bags, she is ready to rip the world to shreds.  Alice and the rest of the L.A. Punk crew have formed a movement.

I see some of Alice Bag in me.  The self-directed anger and aimless wandering through life, the outcast, the mom, the straddling of multiple genres.  Her story resonates with me, by laying bare each facet of her life, she makes her life accessible.  Embarrassment and shame have long gone.  Her confidence in who she has become is contagious.  Regrets occur, but they do not stop her from her fight.  By her side is a who’s who of L.A. Punk, but L.A. Punk is its own character as well.  Through Alice Bag’s memories, the reader is a fly on the wall of the formation of the Go Go’s and the rise of Black Flag.  These bands are mere appendages to the pulsating mutant, centering around select locations in L.A. and even San Francisco and gorging on the actions of devoted fans.  As memories do, some sections blur through a string of concerts and events, and in doing so build upon the scene as its own entity.  This mutant is greater than the sum of its parts, and can only exist when everyone is doing their part.  Fans are there to support any and all bands, venues and derelict apartments host the orgies (both of music and not), the bands are not the only puzzle piece.  The cohesion fails when the fans are cast aside or the venues disappear, and the music cannot exist in a vacuum.

Punk is more than the Angry White Boy image that has taken hold of it.  It takes us all to make a scene rise from its seed.  The roots pull from the variety of individuals, and it cannot flourish without that variety.  Violence Girl is more than an autobiography, it is a study of Punk as a community from the eyes of its biggest fan.

Available at the SoundGirls Lending Library

More on and by Alice Bag

The Women of Rock Oral History Project

Alice Bag’s Women in L.A. Punk Archives

Turn it Up

Review of A Short History of Electronic Music and Its Women Protagonist

 

Built from author Johann Merrich’s blog, A Short History of Electronic Music and Its Women Protagonists, presents the technological and philosophical developments of Electronic Music through the stories of those who created them.  Originally published in 2019 in Italian, the English version was released this past June.  Johann Merrich is an Italian musician and freelance researcher focusing on electronic and experimental music. Her blog, Short Stories focuses on creating an intersectional account of the music she is passionate about.  When I received this book to review I was excited, I cannot get enough of stories from audio history, especially one that highlights diversity as does this book.  Artists, inventors, benefactors, they all have a part to play in the chronology.  Among the names of Leo Theremin, John Cage, and Robert Moog are the names Ciani, Derbyshire, and Carlos.  It doesn’t stop there either:  layers are peeled further to unearth stories hidden from the public eye, until now.  Sisters, wives, and others who had their stories overshadowed by more stereotypical heroes finally receive the spotlight.

 

It reads more like a nonfiction novel than a textbook.  The sections are grouped together by cultural background or by artistic movements.  It allows for each character to be introduced by the one preceding, a stream of consciousness that seamlessly follows the evolution of Electronic Music at each stage.  Be prepared with a notebook nearby, for this text is a deep dive that features many unappreciated musicians and artists that are worth discovering.  It starts with the birth of Experimental and Electronic Music, covering its growth through radio and television before branching off to regional niches such as Japanese, Italian, and even Eastern European.  From there it focuses on the fringe and the mainstream before tying the past with the future:  computers.

No other book intertwines different movements in Electronic Music with the variety of perspectives that A Short History of Electronic Music and Its Women Protagonists accomplishes.  As its title suggests it is a timeline of Electronic Music, focusing on women.  It claims to be a new narrative, inclusive and inquisitive, and it succeeds.  Because of the care put into researching, no one name stands out as unworthy, each story has its place alongside another.  I feel as though I am walking through their studios and concerts, piecing together what is Electronic Music.  What a journey it is.

Keeping Afloat with Postpartum Depression

Content Warning: Discussion of mental disorders and suicide.

April Tucker has written some great articles on pregnancy and working as a mom in the Audio Industry, however, I want to focus on something specific:  Postpartum Depression (PPD).  Currently in the United States parents have been hit hard by the lack of affordable childcare, parental leave options, other childcare support infrastructure, not to mention the earthquake in the Entertainment Industry from the COVID pandemic.

PPD is a mood disorder that affects parents after childbirth.  Symptoms can occur regardless of gender and type of birth and start during the first year after birth.  While it is not possible to know for sure if you will develop it, there are several risk factors: family or personal history of mental and mood disorders, addiction, lack of support, complications with pregnancy, and childbirth.  Symptoms are low self-esteem, doubt, mood swings, irritability, emptiness, exhaustion, lack of concentration, inability to make decisions, poor memory, fear of the baby, thoughts of self-harm or suicide, thought of harm to baby or partner.  PPD is more than just “baby blues,” it is a real and serious disorder.

You are not alone

It is estimated that 15% of women have PPD, and I am part of that 15%.  My pregnancy and delivery on paper were healthy and tame.  I had a great medical team assisting me, and my husband had enough medical savvy to calm any worries leading up to and during the big day.  My family is full of healthy and supportive people.  However, I had no local support network of friends or family, had no close “mom friends”, I upended my career to become a mother, and my birth experience traumatized me.  PPD can happen to anyone, and there is no shame in that.

First consult your team: Doctor, Midwife, Doula, Lactation Consultant, Therapist, Psychologist, your child’s pediatrician.  Ask whomever you already have on your side.  They have the medical knowledge to help you, they want you healthy.  Strength lies in knowing when to ask for help.  I used the depression questionnaire as the opportunity to bring it up at my postpartum follow-up.  Even with a diagnosis, life goes on and appointments don’t happen every day.  Being a parent is more than a full-time job, and often parents have another job on top of it.  Sometimes it can be hard to keep your head above water.

In those moments there are little things that can make life bearable:

Find me on the SoundGirls Audio Moms group, reach out.  Also check out our video Breaking Norms: Moms in Audio and The Music Industry.

Circuit Bending: Learn Something Useful by Failing

 

Ever wonder about the strange noises that electronics make?  Capturing that weird and turning it into music or art?  Welcome to the world of circuit bending, where consumer gadgets are hacked into one-of-a-kind synthesizers.  Officially circuit bending has been around for as long as circuits have existed.  However, the popularity of coaxing music from frankensteined electronics paralleled the rise of synthesizers in the 1960s.  Reed Ghazala’s name pops up in 1966, when he coined the term, as the leading figure in the movement.  He has written about (Circuit-Bending: Build Your Own Alien Instruments, 2005) and taught techniques for circuit bending, and his builds have been made it on recordings by artists such as Tom Waits, and The Rolling Stones.  Circuit bending is a chance art form.  It relies on imperfections and momentary occurrences or happy accidents.

In order to learn more about circuit bending, I interviewed Chris Bullock, a location sound recordist who also makes music as Bone Music.

What got you into synths?  And what led you into Circuit Bending/Circuit Modding?

I was working for a YouTube channel and the main talent asked if I had any use for a small synth he’d been given as a thank you for helping out on a crowdfunder. It turned out to be a Korg Monotribe, which is a gorgeous small monophonic analogue synth. I was doing a sound production module at a local college and started using it in some sound design elements for that. I found it really satisfying, there’s a meditative quality to making a synth drone, which appealed to my sensory-seeking nature. I’m autistic so playing with drones while watching a lava lamp is relaxing on another level! Ultimately, there are some limitations like the Monotribe doesn’t play unless you press a key. I ended up doing weird things like keeping it playing with my foot while using my hands to make other sounds, so I started looking at more flexible synths.

My first mod was to add MIDI capability to the Monotribe. It’s an easy thing to do, no soldering required, but it reminded me how much I used to love building electronics kits as a kid. So I started to learn electronics again, this time with a focus on music and an intention to better understand what I was doing. I also got into watching Look Mum No Computer (LMNC) videos on YouTube and really enjoyed his weirdness and enthusiasm for building strange instruments.

What is Circuit Bending?

Circuit bending is manipulating a circuit to get an output that wasn’t intended by the manufacturer, like a new interesting sound. You can do this by making new connections on the circuit board using wire or even your fingers.  It’s really important to only use battery-operated toys and stay away from stages that have large electrolytic capacitors, which can store a lot of charge.  Often bends will be things like freezing or crashing a chip momentarily, or slowing down the signal coming from a clock source. Everything sounds better slower!

How do you approach a new project?

When I start a new project, I have a look around online to see how other people are approaching the same idea. Right now, I need to make some oscillators for my synth and I’m weighing up the options like whether to make something Arduino-based or to stay analogue. There are so many ways to do a similar thing, all with different pros and cons. What I’ll do is test a few ideas out on a breadboard before I build anything. Reading comments under YouTube videos and on forums helps with ideas, particularly when things don’t work how you’d expect.

Where do you get your inspiration?

My successes are built on other people’s experiments, I have to acknowledge that. But I also get a lot of inspiration from my environment. Every time I learn something new I’m wondering ‘will it noise?’ I learned about how inductors and capacitors can be made to resonate and my immediate thought was could you make some sort of one-shot reverberation based on this? I haven’t answered that yet. I pulled an ultrasonic range finder out of my Arduino box of bits the other day and thought Theramin! It’s not just electronics, I’m always listening to things in the kitchen or out on the street, good noises are everywhere.

I used to work with seismic data and I’ve thought about making an installation piece that uses a representation of the frequency content of layers in the earth to make music, but as we go deeper we generally just attenuate high frequencies. It’s difficult to make something geologically valid and sonically interesting. I’ll probably come back to that in the future.

What is your favorite piece of gear/favorite project?

It’s a small thing, but I made a version of the Smash Drive, which is a distortion pedal built around an LM386 amplifier chip.  It’s one of the first things I got to work on stripboard, so it was rewarding having success after a few failures. I made it inside an Altoids tin. It’s silly, but I’ve always associated those tins with hobby electronics builds. I had a long-standing dream to make an electronics project in an Altoids tin.

Tell me about the Koko/Furby Project.

Furbies are a popular toy to bend, although not that easy. I was looking on eBay and saw this Furby that needed TLC. He was dormant, hadn’t started up in a long time. I felt weirdly sorry for him, so bought him. I did some research and discovered you can kick-start Furbies by spinning their motors. I had to disconnect the battery compartment because it was so corroded, but when I attached a new battery pack and kick-started it, eventually he woke up and told me his name was Koko. He’s sleepy and stubborn, but I’m very fond of him. I put switches in his ears so you can squeeze them to make connections between points on his circuit board that make him stutter or crash. I tried to slow him down by replacing his crystal resonator with an adjustable high precision oscillator, but unfortunately, he doesn’t speak in deep demon-like tones when you do that, he just says his phrases really slowly. He’s given me a few scares, a fair bit of frustration, and a small fire but I seem to have developed some sort of weird attachment to him. I put an audio jack in him and grabbed a load of samples I use in other projects.

How does failure play into your process?

I fail all the time, I try to make things where I haven’t quite understood the entirety of how something operates or interacts with other parts, and so it doesn’t work. I actually have a bag I called the ‘bag of shame’ because it’s full of little dead circuit boards. I’m waiting for a particularly aesthetic chutney jar in my fridge to be empty because I’m making an art project called ‘we are lit by the light of our failures.’ It’s going to have some soothing colour changing LEDs running off an Arduino and a bunch of my non-functioning circuit boards in the jar. Sometimes all you get is a lot of frustration, but often you learn something useful by failing. Other times you end up with the basis of a slightly pretentious art project.

What advice do you have for someone just starting out?

Don’t be afraid to fail, but start small. If you have ideas for big things, write them down to get them out of your head for a bit and try a few small things first. Kit builds are good. If you are looking for toys to bend, look for older ones with discrete components where you can identify things like the processor, clock source, and memory. Look for information on YouTube and find a community of makers. Books are good – Hand-Made Electronic Music is inspirational.  Get a decent soldering iron, don’t open up anything mains powered or with a flashgun or CRT, and don’t forget to ask of everything ‘will it noise?’

Chris Bullock’s YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJtuQavcjxMAce8t17MEQNg

 

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