Your Questions For Fran

I can't think of a question but just wanted to wish Fran a happy pi day ^_^

DeuxVis

Toxic materials? How do you / have you mitigated? (Hasn't affected me at all ;-) Mercury whetted relays, solder (see previous question from James Smith), Radium, and sharp fragile glass. Maybe talk about how desires to be responsible appear in practice. And maybe how Philladelphia actually does/does not recycle and dispose of HazMat.

Is there a book you would like to own but haven't found at a justifiable price (or at any price)?

Michael F Barushok

Hi Fran, I'd like to hear your thoughts on old retro computers, such as the Commodore 64?

Hi Fran - What type of solder do you use? I use 63/37, 0.020 leaded because it's easier than lead free. However I always feel like I'm doing something bad.

Hi Fran...Hope all is going well. What are your recommended/favorite/best user Oscilloscope, DMM, Frequency Counter, Frequency Generator, Spectrum Analyzer and LCR/ESR meters? And Why.

Bruce Rose

What are your thoughts on "Old Time Radio"?

I remember those Radio Shack amplifiers, and the telephone pickups, too! I tried to make an electric kazoo by gluing a magnet to the diaphragm of a kazoo and putting the telephone pickup above that. Didn't work very well, but it was fun!

Circuitmike

What’s the best and worst Christmas present you ever received?

Santa Claus

If there's a particular feature, subject or activity of your channel you'd want us Patreons to plug to others, what would it be? Also, I'm compelled to ask - had any good fish & chips lately? ;o)

Zygmunt Dean

A physics question - so much science fiction relies on faster than light travel, warp drive, hyper space, star gates, etc. Are any of these theoretically possible?

David Peaker

In your long experience in electronics, also related to guitars, do you have a preference between shielded and unshielded guitars?

Has anything ever made you laugh out loud so much that you lose your composure? There has been many a time that a silly little thing would set me and others off . At times we would have trouble catching our breath and were gasping for the others to stop so that we could regain our composure. Silly but fun.

John Russell

I was recently describing how 3D printers are one of the most interdisciplinary products, in that they require expertise from many areas of engineering that must work together. (Software, Electronics, Electromechanics, Mechanical, Structural.) Do you have an example of something relatively common demanding MORE combined disciplines that a 3D printer?

BobC

The Smithsonian just called and offered you your dream job. Tell us about it. Be sure to mention if HazMat gear would be needed.

BobC

In the halceon days of Radio Shack, they had a gray plastic box containing a 2 or 3 inch speaker and a 9V battery powered amplifier w/vol cntl. input was a hi-z AC coupled with a goodly amount of gain and a 3.5mm input jack. a stick-on phone mag pickup Would drive it well and served as a dandy mag field hum sniffer. a resistor, Capacitor and a 1n34 diode stuffed inside a BIC pen body with a alligator ground lead made a spiffo signal tracer probe that could also find alternator hash. i had several i used as components and i dearly miss being able to buy those these days. haas anyone else taken up the slack and sells such useful little goobers? the plastic box is important because it comes out of the tin as a useful thing. i fully expect such things are out there but damn if i can find them in the useless advert thicket “recommendation-based search” has become. Maybe we need a web site where folks can post pointers to reasonably well-behaved sources for such things. then put a search on top of that and do a modicum of curation as to behavior, quality, etc. vote up/down, etc. Call it “Laffalot Electronicals” or “Dearly Departed Frey’s” or I GOT IT - “Radio Row” - like Akihabra but witjout needing jet fuel. thoughts? -mo

Mike O'Dell

(while you didn't ask me- I'm not Fran- I can't help but think that Dick Cavett would be the only one that would bother to try to learn and understand the topic!)

Mike Stubbs

This question is asked of experts every few years and the answer will, or course, always evolve. With your unique blend of diverse technical and social knowledge and experience, what do you see coming as breakthrough technology in the next 10 or 20 years? For example, room temperature superconducting motors would at least double the interest in electric transportation.

James Baloun

It’s the 1970s and you, Dr. Fran Blanche, have made a major scientific discovery. After publishing your results to the acclaim of your peers in the science community, it’s time to take your story to the people at large. Which 1970s talk show (Johnny Carson, Tom Snyder, Dick Cavett, Merv Griffin, or someone else) do you agree to appear on and why?

Christopher Isert

What inspired you to get interested in corsetry and start make it your profession? Did you already have a lot of experience in sewing, fashion design etc. before you even started making your first corset, and how did you learn corsetry itself - was it all from books etc., or did you work with someone who would teach you? What is the story behind Frantone Model A? AFAIK you made it around late '90s. Were 300B tubes so damn expensive at that time too? Why not some other tube e.g. EL34? Have you made hi-fi or guitar tube amps before? Any interesting projects to talk my thermionic emission loving ear off? Got soooooooooooooooo many more questions. Ha.

Keri Szafir

What was your first microcomputer

FennecTECH

I want to know your top 5 albums. Your desert island picks.

Hi Fran, if you were to design a general audio filter, let's say a band pass filter, no restrictions on price / availability of components, which technology would you use? Integrated circuits? Transistors? Vacuum tubes? A mix? Which ones? Thanks! Erik

Erik Broeders

Are you ever just totally not in the mood to do electronics/tinkering/the cool creative stuff that you do? What do you do when that happens? I find it very hard to sustain interest in something for long enough to actually finish it. I get excited for a while and then never get the energy to go back and finish, so I have a lot of half-finished projects. For a while, things were getting a lot better for trans people, but the current legislative attacks are incredibly frightening and in many cases unprecedented. How optimistic are you for the future in terms of trans rights? What advice would you give to trans people, especially kids/teens, as far as how to survive this hostile environment? Are there any displays that you have always wanted to get your hands on but haven't yet? Do you still use your Selectric?

Robyn Banks

What are your childhood memories of the US Manned Spaceflight Program.

Hi Fran, since you have built guitar pedals for so long and seem to have a great background when it comes to finding historical information with obscure electronics questions: do you have any idea as to why guitar pedal DC barrel jacks tend to use reverse polarity (negative on center pin) compared to most conventional barrel jack DC connections we find today?

Odie Coyote

If you could collaborate with anyone on a project, who would it be, and what would the project be?

fluffy