The Amp Hour

An Interview with Charles Alexanian

Feb 11, 2019 · 1 hr 27 min · Episode 429 · 76.8 MB
0:00-1:27:37

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Welcome Charles Alexanian of Alexttronics!

  • Headquartered in Fresno
    • 0h 0m 36s
  • History
    • 0h 1m 7s
  • Family business
    • 0h 1m 20s
  • Father was a QC engineer
    • 0h 1m 25s
  • Night scope
    • 0h 1m 44stel
  • Irrigation work in Fresno
    • 0h 2m 21s
  • Assembling clock dials as a 4 year old
    • 0h 4m 26s
  • OEM mfg of timer and controls
    • 0h 5m 0s
  • Load sharing of pumps
    • 0h 5m 51s
  • Family business - everyone helped
    • 0h 8m 22s
  • Reading schematics from an early age
    • 0h 12m 35s
  • Helped out on product in 92
    • 0h 15m 34s
  • Telrite in Fremont for MFG
    • 0h 16m 45s
  • Fear and doubt are a factor in any business
    • 0h 17m 36s
  • Started looking outside the business in case it wasn't viable
    • 0h 18m 24s
  • Pedals and amps
    • 0h 18m 59s
  • Opened a repair business for amps and pedals
    • 0h 19m 34s
  • Manufacturing replacement parts for amps
    • 0h 19m 50s
  • Tube amps
    • 0h 21m 23s
  • Screen resistor
    • 0h 26m 0s
  • Got in contact with studios in town
    • 0h 26m 49s
  • uBid
    • 0h 27m 31s
  • Thomas register
    • 0h 28m 4s
  • War era catalog
    • 0h 28m 44s
  • Getting parts was always an issue
    • 0h 30m 10s
  • Led in two directions
    • 0h 30m 15s
  • Speaker manufacturing was bad
    • 0h 30m 25s
  • Don Schmidt sourcing parts
    • 0h 30m 53s
  • Sourcing 10" speakers
    • 0h 31m 32s
  • Got burned on sourcing into the market
    • 0h 32m 25s
  • Closed up the repair shop
    • 0h 32m 46s
  • Kept a couple customers at studios
    • 0h 32m 58s
  • Went to school for electrical contracting
    • 0h 33m 42s
  • Getting into tubes
    • 0h 35m 6s
  • Bought mostly from New Sensor
    • 0h 36m 6s
  • Ronnie Elsbury - MU incorporated
    • 0h 37m 0s
  • What is a vacuum tube
    • 0h 38m 22s
  • Edison effect
    • 0h 39m 32s
  • de Forest father of the vacuum tube
    • 0h 39m 57s
  • Added the grid
    • 0h 40m 19s
  • Certain applications still need tubes
    • 0h 42m 5s
  • Radar and microwave requires tubes because of power levels
    • 0h 43m 5s
  • Traveling wave tubes
    • 0h 43m 33s
  • Varian brothers
    • 0h 43m 57s
  • Klystron
    • 0h 44m 7s
  • Ion implantation uses tubes
    • 0h 44m 40s
  • Ronnie visits Charles
    • 0h 45m 40s
  • Ronnie factory does last time buy
    • 0h 48m 56s
  • Starting making tubes
    • 0h 50m 11s
  • Glasswork is very difficult
    • 0h 50m 55s
  • Charles' talk at Supercon
    • 0h 51m 4s
  • Charles' original article on Hackday about tube mfg
    • 0h 52m 39s
  • BA ionization gauge
    • 0h 52m 53s
  • Most basic form of tube used for measurement of vacuum
    • 0h 53m 0s
  • Philips glassworks videos from the 30s
    • 0h 55m 15s
  • Mullard glass video from the 50s-60s
    • 0h 55m 22s
  • Videos from bell labs
    • 0h 55m 37s
  • Glass slinger on youtubes
    • 0h 55m 53s
  • Adam Carolla podcasts
    • 0h 58m 8s
  • Fitting out a studio
    • 0h 58m 26s
  • Started working in exchange for hanging around racing
    • 0h 59m 23s
  • Carolla digital
    • 0h 59m 45s
  • Sourcing parts as a small manufacturer
    • 1h 2m 9s
  • Spall - the surface falls off
    • 1h 4m 4s
  • Ceramic caps
    • 1h 5m 49s
  • "Farmers are not a trusting group"
    • 1h 8m 16s
  • Small growers are pushing for monitoring in agtech
    • 1h 11m 48s
  • MQTT
    • 1h 14m 10s
  • Highwire
    • 1h 21m 47s
  • brokenspeaker9@gmail.com
    • 1h 25m 52s
  • NeoDen4
    • 1h 27m 36s