[BC] Re: All American Five-plus

[WFIFeng@aol.com]

In a message dated 07/09/2005 6:40:07 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
tosenkowsky at prodigy.net writes:

 > She told him that it was the teacher who issued the
 >  challenge and I had the confidence in my work. He tried to say that the
 >  teacher is the only star in the classroom, etc but he wasn't too successful
 >  that day.

Interesting that there would actually be anything negative they could say
about what you did. In my Electronics shop, the teachers pretty much gave 
me free
reign. I'd finish my assignments well ahead of the class, then I could delve
into much deeper, more advanced stuff on my own... and I did.

One of our assignments was to breadboard an AM radio. I had mine built, but
it wasn't working. Others had soon discovered the same problem with theirs.
After some discussion with the teacher, verifying that I had built it 
correctly,
I started troubleshooting it. Turns out the local osc wasn't running. Hmmm...
transistor was fine. Turns out that the manual specified a bias resistor value
that was too low! It called for 2.2K. When I subbed a 4.7K, the radio came to
life! The teacher then told everyon to modify the schematic in their manuals
to use 4.7 K in that spot. One after another, radios started coming to life in
the class.

Once I completed the textbook assignment, I decided to "hot rod" that radio.
(With teacher's permission, of course.) I added an additional IF stage and an
audio power amp. I had it picking up a station out of Albany loud and clear,
and cranking 55 watts out.  (The school, Bullard-Havens, is located in
Bridgeport, CT.) The look on the other's faces (even the teacher) at 
picking up that
Albany station was priceless!

Willie...