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Project Forum? - etech - 01-15-2009 04:02 PM
Hi Ron,
I was thinking the other day, (yes, I know that could be dangerous
), would it make any sense to have a 'Project or How To' type of forum here on the Philco Phorum? The thought occurred to me that we are getting lots of valuable project threads that are just kind of scattered about, at this point. We have Randal's loop article, and there is my article on the coil winder, and we have information on how to clean Philco dials and chassis. There is also information by various authors on how to restuff capacitors. We have Syl's articles on cartridge rebuilding. Anyway, there is a plethora of valuable information that I have seen in the relatively short time I have been on the Phorum. It would be nice to have a way to organize it so that it could be easily found. Take this FWIW! 
Regards,
Ed
Re: Project Forum? - Ron Ramirez - 01-15-2009 11:28 PM
Hi Ed
Good suggestion. What say you, Phorum members? Yea or nay?
Re: Project Forum? - Dave D - 01-16-2009 12:11 AM
Ron & Ed, This is a definite YEA. There are so many great suggestions on this site, but when you get as old as I am it is hard to remember where I saw them. More work for you Ron and I thank you for all you do.
Once again, this is a great place to spend a lot of time.
Dave D
Re: Project Forum? - Michael Dennis - 01-16-2009 01:23 AM
I'd definitely opt for yea.
Re: Project Forum? - DeckApe - 01-16-2009 02:15 AM
"Hi! I'm Bob Vila, and welcome to This Old Radio. Today we've got a Philco Beam-Of-Light-type chassis with a dirty dial. Norm, how do we handle that?"
Deinite yea, by the way. It would be like having an encyclopedia... in addition to the information you are looking for, there's the added fun of getting sidetracked with all the other how-to.
Re: Project Forum? - Uffda - 01-16-2009 03:19 AM
Oh yeah, and the more little arrows in the photos the better.
Re: Project Forum? - Doug K. - 01-16-2009 05:31 AM
A tutorials section if you will... Sorted by model # of radio or task being performed ?
Re: Project Forum? - codefox1 - 01-16-2009 07:52 PM
Well there is already an electrical restoration and cabinet restoration section where specific models are discussed. I learn something each time I catch up on the thrreads. There's just a ton of great information that pertains to any of the gear we all enjoy working on.
Maybe there ought to be a "techniques" section where general how to questions and answers could be posted.
Another thought would be to create a "download and links" section where the many non commercial and free calculators, references, etc... could be exchanged.
That's my 2 cents worth.
Re: Project Forum? - exray - 01-16-2009 09:26 PM
codefox1 Wrote:Well there is already an electrical restoration and cabinet restoration section where specific models are discussed. I learn something each time I catch up on the thrreads. There's just a ton of great information that pertains to any of the gear we all enjoy working on.
Maybe there ought to be a "techniques" section where general how to questions and answers could be posted.
Another thought would be to create a "download and links" section where the many non commercial and free calculators, references, etc... could be exchanged.
That's my 2 cents worth.
I lean towards what codefox1 says. Basic tutorials are nice but they never apply directly to MY radio...and thats MY question
Specific "techniques" like Syl's cartridges or Randal's antenna, or replacing caps in IF xfmrs, or restuffing caps, or that Philco cap with a coil around it, the 3-wire cord idea, etc. merit a place in the forefront since these questions come up so often. At a minimum it gives a place to point to rather than readdressing the same topics over and over and consequently befuddling the newcomer.
Arf tried to make a "wiki" page that didn't pan out. I guess no one really wants to sit down and dare write an unequivocable 'article' per se. I figure that even on this small forum we could usually agree to "send a copy of that thread to the techniques archive" because of its merits and the fact that the question is well known. There's newbies and oldies and we see things different ways. What seems simple to me may be a Pandora's Box to someone with more experience and vice versa.
So yeah, I'm all in favor of something along that line. A big key is to re-title such topics to where they are recognizable to a newcomer and findable with a 'newbie' worded search.
Re: Project Forum? - Syl - 01-16-2009 10:13 PM
My idea on the subject: What we need is a piece of software that will categorize the articles after they are posted.
Posts could be tagged with specific hidden headers then retrieve through a search engine optimized for this forum.
Actually, I had a similar idea maybe 7 or 8 years ago. Categorize and tag all posts (well, after filtering of course),
create a huge knowledge database with an optimized search engine. At the time I got the "well, Google does it".
Actually it doesn't because it does not filter the "noise" and you get biased results from Google, i.e. paid advertising.
I am making a living developing e-commerce, inventory and secured databases so I might be tempted in
developing such an engine in my (little) free time. Since this Forum is built on PHP and MySQL, it would
be easy to retrieve, parse and categorize the data using a technical words database.
Would anyone like to invest a bit of their time to hrlp me create categories and parse forums messages to identify keywords?
It is not difficult. Just need to identify keywords such as: phono, cartridge, capacitor, rebuilt, rebuild, rebuilding...you get the idea.
I believe such a database and search engine could also be used to retrieve information from other forums and create
a huge technical database available by all. Then readers could give ratings on the _quality_ of the data retrieved.
Feedback?
Syl
Re: Project Forum? - exray - 01-17-2009 12:10 AM
Thats a pretty good idea, Syl. You have a handle on what would make for a good search and how to manage it.
I'd recommend excluding keywords like "what is it worth" and "my grandma inherited it from the Civil War" and "my neighbor was an old radio engineer" to cull out the tire-kickers.
Don''t blame Google. Many people find their radio interest satisfied on groups like this one. That door should remain open, and even encouraged.
Sure, if there is a concerted effort to create the type of thing being discussed you know I will play my part.
Thats why I made the comment about re-labelling posts. Some posts start talking about Grandpa and turn into worthwhile comments about old radios. That seems kind of 'hands-on' for the owner and I wouldn't ask or expect Ron to do that duty on a regular basis. But I bet 3 or 4 guys occasionally saying "hey, thats a really well presented explanation, lets get it moved to the "permanent" tips forum.
Re: Project Forum? - jayoungs - 01-17-2009 02:29 AM
I completely agree with the original idea about a project forum. Personally, I view the electronic and cabinet restoration sections as a place to ask questions to solve specific problems. The project forum could well serve as a repository for best methods/how-to's and save the other sections for specific ad-hoc queries. Just my 2 cents worth...
Re: Project Forum? - Texasrocker - 01-17-2009 06:45 AM
You bet! Go for it! We need a "new inventions" thread also? With abit of help from the techs here, I bet we could all come up with a new phone-box gizmo that would "zap" telemarketers incoming hidden phone call numbers!
My idea is this, a new phone box that is placed before the phone ( similar to old caller ID box). When a telemarketer calls your number with his rtn # blocked ( IE: unavailable, no info sent, 800 # B.S.) the new "telemarketer-zapper box" ( patent-pending), will not even ring Your Phone!! Instead, the new device automatically re-dials & fwds the telemarketers call to a preset phone # for each States Attorney Generals Office (telephone-calls- harrassment- division)!Let the A.G.s office(s) deal with all the telemarketers individual calls instead!!( hee hee) Good idea or what?
Re: Project Forum? - BDM - 01-21-2009 03:16 AM
Tips tricks & projects. Yeah, I could go for that
Re: Project Forum? - Ron Ramirez - 01-21-2009 05:42 AM
Syl, I like your idea very well. Now all we need is the time to make it happen...