♦	SERVICE RECORD:
	Service in general electronics since before 1960 Repairing exclusively Beta VCRs since 1975
♦	TEST AND REPAIR EQUIPMENT:
	Tektronix dual trace scope, Sencore all format VCR VC93 analyzer, Leader 408NPS NTSC/PAL/SECAM pattern generator, Sony SL-5151 video head tester, Sony KR5-1G and KR5-1V alignments tapes, Sencore vector scope, Sony BMCJ-888U signal converter, Sony SL-0003C and SL-0004C torque meters, plus various secondary support apparatus such as the EDS capacitor checker, All Tone transistor checker, VOM meters, digital flow meter, signal tracer, signal generator, Sencore "Handy" resister/capacitor proxy, performance tapes, specialty alignment wrenches and drivers, etcetera.
♦	REFERENCE MATERIALS:
	Service manuals with updates for most all of the Beta VCR manufacturers Service manuals with updates for most all of the Beta related accessories

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     The service person (and the designer and developer of this Website) has been active and involved in electronics service work since before he entered high school. This is a brief profile of my exposure to the world of electronics.
     I have been very lucky. My father, in addition to being the electrician's supervisor for the Chrysler Corporation when I was growing up, was also in partnership with another individual, both operating one of the first television repair shops in our city (of 150,000+). This was back in the early fifties when television was still in its infancy. And so was I, at the beginning of this story, being around ten years old. The nearest transmitter (TV station) we could receive was over a hundred and fifty miles away. Anyone in our not-too-small city who wanted to see Uncle Milty (The Milton Berle Show) or The Ed Sullivan Show had to have a big directional rotating antenna sitting on top of a tall tower. You aimed the antenna at the station you wanted to pick up using an electric motor, called a rotor. Television shows back then were only in black and white and were only broadcast for just part of the day. They signed on in the morning (usually 6:00 AM) and signed off at night (some as late as midnight). The TV sets back then used vacuum tubes, and everything inside got very hot. There was high voltage too. Ah, those were the good old days. (I remember them best as being addicted to Howdy Doody and Bozo the Clown early, then later on Superman and Science Fiction Theater.) TV was young and mysterious. So anyone that needed repair of these picture radios called my dad. He understood electronics.
      I said I was lucky, because my dad would let me go with him on television service calls. He would let me operate the tube checker. This seemed to amaze his customers (I was very young, after all.) I was never allowed to touch anything inside the TV set though. Dad didn't want to risk frying his son. Something that would not have made my mom very happy. (I remember my Dad's way of driving home the point of why I didn't want to reach for anything inside the TV. He would pull out the high-voltage probe and test the 50,000 volts created by the high-voltage section. (For the old picture-tube type TVs extreme high-voltage was needed to spread out the electrons hitting the phosphor screen inside the front of the tube.) Once you saw one of these probes crackle and light up, you instinctively knew to keep you fingers out of harm's way.) I had a great time, and this is why I developed an interest in all things electronic. As in: taking things apart and putting them back together. Sometimes I needed help getting thins back together. I think my mom frowned on all this.
     My Dad trusted me, though, and even let me build some of his test equipment. This all came about from an ad he saw in an electronics magazine for a kit building company called Heathkit. They designed and sold electronics kits that contained all the parts used to assemble a particular piece of equipment, along with instructions on how to put it together. Simple really, since the instructions told you where everything went and you did it in a particular order. But he saw this as a way to cultivate his son's interest in the technical side of life. Together we were one of their better customers. Some kits didn't require a lot of skill to get them running, but others could be a challenge. Buying the test equipment in kit form worked out well for Dad. Not only did he end up with a technical tool, but it also saved him time. Plus I got to make it for him, then set it up, test it and adjusted it to meet specs. The instructions also included information on how to use the new equipment. Later Heathkit expanded their lineup of kits and began to offer home entertainment products, including some really exceptional color televisions. I eventually built one of these and had the pleasure of aligning the electron guns so they would produce a great picture. Perfection paid off for the test equipment too. Since they were being used to test and check consumer electronic products, they had to be right. It all gave me a special understanding about how important it is to have your equipment working on-the-money.
     Dad eventually divorced himself of the repair business when it got too big. He found out he couldn't handle two jobs and still keep an eye on his partner. He kept most of his regular customers, and he still repaired all things electronic. By now in his new spacious garage and office. It became more like his hobby though. We still went on a few service calls together. But now I was in high school, and he was now the plant maintenance supervisor. We both still played around with building electronics and even put together a few TV kits and test pieces, but for me electronics had begun to take the back seat. After all, I had being a teenager to go through.
     My passion for everything electronic never went away. When Beta came along, it was love at first sight. For that story and how I "MisterBetamax" came to be, you will have to read my Betaphile autobiography found elsewhere in my Website. Or you can just click here.