I have an adult son who has been heavily into music since the clockwork music box on his first pillow, and is now completing post-grad studies in musicology, with extensive research using analogue recorded music.

On a recent phone call he asked me what projects I was working on and I mentioned a radiogram restoration.

He said, "What's a radiogram?"

He was born in the era of component audio systems and considers my 1970s Luxman system to be laughably antique, though he agrees it produces better listening quality than any digital device he currently uses.

I've a mind to force him to give a home to a bulky radiogram, for his own good.

Maven

If the radiogram you give him has an AUX input, that would accommodate audio from his ipod, smartphone or other such digital source. He may like the sound he'd hear.

If he's into 'loud' music, JB HiFi does sell LPs and a fair few of them.

I wish they'd bring out more of the mainstream albums on vinyl as it would give me some encouragement to restore the Astor Super Six I have here.

I wish they'd bring out more of the mainstream albums on vinyl

Red Eye Records at 143 York Street, Sydney has a pretty large collection of vinyl.

Check the vinyl boxes in this search function and select genre(s):

https://www.redeye.com.au/adv_search.asp?reion=USA&artist=

Sad eh they don't know what a radio gram is these days, I never thought id see the day !

Then of course can't expect much from this generation coming in , most are that dumb they think Eggs benadict '' is an italian gangster !

Ive had them come to me age 20 see a console radio ask gee what's that '' I replied its a bird feeder ok '' and those buttons on the back , if you wire in your mobile phone it charges it up for free ''

This idiot actually thought that was gospell ( its times like that you really need to get away from the moron generation'' )

Maybe they just teach them nothing at school ? This 20 year old didn't even know there was a WW2 and the japs were involved - he had no idea! how would you give them a job ? if there mobile phone dies !! they die with it lol !


Young guys these days 17/27 no - no hope - the girls simialar age they are worse , just nothing up top there is nobody home, the lights are on)))) but no one there to turn them off.

God help us all - we are surrounded by idiots!

I remember being taught about valves in physics in 1st form and in 2nd form there was (perhaps strangely) a unit of the English syllabus devoted to how radio began in Australia. Yep, in 1984 and 1985 I'd pretty much learned about the sealed set, how a valve works, that many of the first radios had more than 1 set of batteries, that listening to a radio required a licence, and so on.

For seven years I once worked at a private school as its maintenance foreman and at times I'd have to enter classrooms to evaluate their state of repair. I'd look at some of the stuff on the blackboard, sorry, whiteboard, and think to myself, "what the hell is all that crap?" It was usually material that I do not remember studying at school and I am fairly sure that today's students do not receive any instruction in valve technology.

When I first started that job, a long time ago now, I was gobsmacked by how much classrooms have changed over the years. When I was at school classrooms were fairly bland places with floorboards or parquetry floors, a platform for the teacher to stand on and coat racks around the walls. Desks and chairs were also timber, with some still containing grooves for pencils and a place for the inkwells of the 1940s. The teacher had a textbook in one hand and a strap in the other so there was little, if any, mucking about.

None of that exists these days. Classrooms have designer furniture, bright lighting, comfy gaslift chairs, on demand internal video systems, video projectors and 'smart' whiteboards in every room. Some schools have introduced 'open learning' areas and modified buildings or built new ones to accommodate it. Are students better educated? I don't think so. There's no doubt they are being taught different things but I doubt there's a real improvement in the standard of the education received.

I certainly wouldn't expect students to undergo the equivalent of an electronics apprenticeship based on obsolete technologies. That would indeed be a waste of time. But without an insight into the path to today's technologies how do students obtain an understanding of why we do things the way we do today and into the future?

Speaking of old time school, here's a picture of Mrs. Murphy's 4th grade class back in the mid 60's. Someone installed TV sets in each classroom, as a public educational TV station just started up in the area. The teachers never used the TV sets, note that this TV is sitting in the back of the classroom. And the teachers used blackboard pointers to hit kids back then...


"Young man, TVs were black and white when I was your age..."

Well I am building restoring a valve radio for each of my son's. I know my 17 year old can't wait to get his hands on his. I feel proud that he may carry on with interest in these old girls.
And in reality if they ask you what is this and what is that then tell them and give them a bit of history because my oldest son has indicated to me that he wants to learn about the old technology.

Comment deleted by Administrator - (Play nicely please)

Geez Steve! That's a tad rough.

I have two kids. One (daughter) appreciates the "kit" of my youth, JUST AS I APPRECIATE HERS. She's a journalist, mainly print media, but due to lack of relevant work in our area, she is out working two jobs.

My son has always been very proud of his Dad and his achievements, as I am of him and his (ex-editor at the ABC, now into the I.T side).
He has built vavle amps (he is aso a musician), tuners and the like and is now into much more progressive and relevant kit such as Arduino-based controllers etc. Gotta be up to date!

He loves t spend time in "our" (my) garage working on and discovering bit an pieces from my past. And finding ways of re-using them.

A while ago he turned 21 and decided on a fancy dress party. He made his own costume (Star Wars storm trooper I think).
A lot of his mates were very impressed, and when asked (during his speech I might add) where he got it from, his reply was:

"I made it". Someone asked where he got the parts, He added: "We have the Mythbuster's Workshop at home!"

Dad was beaming with pride I can tell you!

From what I have seen of my kids' generation, I am really confident that we are in very good hands indeed.

Working on the coal face of IT we just RMA everything the second it's faulty. It's nice to spend my off week repairing things that were designed to be fixed. I've just turned 30 (ouch) but I remember tearing VCRs etc.. apart to figure out how they worked in my youth. I guess nuture makes a difference. We never had a radiogram, but I saw enough on verge collection to know what they were.

From what I have seen of my kids' generation, I am really confident that we are in very good hands indeed.

Ditto.

Unfamiliarity with relics of generations past has no bearing whatsoever on intelligence or capability.

A few years ago I was helping a boy,~14 YO, from India with his English. I had to explain what a radio is. He could use a smart phone and a smart TV but didn't know about radio or what a BC receiver is or even why one would want one.

...BC receiver is or even why one would want one.

First good reason is that one doesn't pay for downloads on them.