The AM Forum

I waste way too much time on you Tube.  My auto corrects won’t let me write it as one word. Being that a lot of the AM community tends to work more with vintage equipment and with the exception of all but the oldest of us who had the benefits of growing up with the vacuum tube and home built or in my case military surplus they do not have a strong understanding of the art. No one teaches Tube or much analog electronics these days so I am assuming that much the younger generation has to learn from You Tube? I remember back when it was web pages or blogs.
That being said would like to know what people think are the best videos and people on the Tube for learning the black art of AM and tubes? And what are the worst?
No good reason for this, I know I have a personal opinion and views but wanted to try to get a sampling of what others think, If the sites that have huge followings and sometimes huge egos or the plethora of Ham radio blog videos with people who desperately want to be celebrities are popular.
So, let’s see your recommended best and worst, and because I always like to self-promote my junk this is a sample of one of my videos that’s related to AM

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLIwxZaF61k&t=265s

And no, I don’t get any money from You Tube.

Ray, this is not a YouTube reference, but it is a very comprehensive site that would be excellent for those interested in starting to learn tube technology, and the content should even be interesting to those with more advanced experience in audio circuits.  Also included is info on simple superhet receivers, including homemade IF transformers.

There is a link in the content to the sister site which focuses on transistor circuits.  Perhaps some of those on the forum may benefit from the data posted by Max, K4ODS.

https://www.angelfire.com/electronic/funwithtubes/index.html

I learned vacuum tube technology from books. Books do have their pluses.

I entertain myself with YouTube by watching people do stupid and dumb things and maybe watching an occasional concert. I don't consider it a learning tool.

Between social media and YouTube, in maybe a hundred years or less, the world will be full of knuckle draggers  ;D Overall writing will be poor, punctuation will be poor, and if you don't have a smart phone in your hand at all times, you probably aren't alive.

Ray,

One of my favorites is Mikerowave1 who is Mike Murphy WU2D one of the local New England AMers. Mike does a great job of explaining the fundamentals of RF design through various projects. He also reviews vintage ham and military radios in a very entertaining manner.

Please post links so I don’t have to do anything except point and click!
Books are cool, think I may have read a book once or twice.
Back to the subject, in addition to good and helpful videos I also like the real bad ones. I have a thing for the AN/GRC-106 transceivers and have done a couple video on them and like looking at others videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH5mYFnkXIc

In this video they have the safety cover removed from the PA tubes exposing two thousand volts along with placing the radio in Tune that applies the HV and drive and then changing bands with high voltage and drive applied. Fortunately, the amplifier has a safety lockout that removes HV when the drum cycles so only limited damage occurs when he does that.

   I haven't ventured much into amateur radio/electronics instructional videos, but I'll admit that I've found YouTube very helpful for more mundane mechanical tasks, like rebuilding the carburetors on my lawn tractor and wood-chipper. None of that stuff is rocket surgery, but there's nothing like actually watching someone do it. Of course, the presentation is often given by a guy with a notable scarcity of teeth, spitting tobacco juice into a can between turns of the wrench, but once you get past that, it can be quite instructive.
   A friend of mine makes "unboxing" videos for amateur gear, and makes decent money doing it. Every time I'm at a hamfest with him, people are constantly coming up to him and saying, "hey, I know you, I love your videos!" It drives him crazy because he's not the sort who craves attention in public.

for breadboarding hollow state devices:
https://www.qrpme.com/?p=product&id=MET

  Okay, this thread did pique my interest, so I took a quick look on YouTube and found this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7C5sSde9e4
  Apparently, the guy has quite a following. At first, I figured he was quite the jerk, but it soon became clear that his theatrics are well planned, making the whole presentation quite entertaining.
  He didn't teach me anything I didn't already know, but I'll admit that it was fun to watch, and I might just look up a few more of his videos.
  As an aside, the video made me think of an episode of "Modern Marvels" that I saw once. That's usually quite a good show, but sometimes—maybe in a misguided attempt to be simplistic enough for the average non-technical viewer to understand—they do a full face-plant.
  I forget the episode's title, but it was about the AC distribution system. Trying to explain why AC is used rather than DC, they had a guy showing a moving graphic depicting electrons—direct current—leaving the generating station, traveling along miles of wire, passing through the load, and then returning to the station, followed by another graphic depicting electrons wiggling back and forth in the same circuit—alternating current—and explaining that the line losses were lower because the electrons didn't need to return to the source, but simply wiggle back and forth. I wonder if anyone ever actually called them on that? Amazing that the producers wouldn't bother to do such a basic fact-check.