December - International Society of Certified Electronics Technicians

Sharing Electronics Knowledge with Future Servicers in Honduras (Continued)
Jeff Smith will continue to help set-up
an electronics training center in
Tegucigalpa, Honduras in late December.
above Tegucigalpa. 1600 squatters, 800 of
which are children, have relocated to this
barren hillside above the Capital. Water is
available by truck, if you can pay for it, otherwise
you must resort to capturing rain
from your roof. There is no sewage, and
unreliable power. The unemployment rate
is 75%. A full day's construction labor pays
$4 a day – when you can get it. In spite of
this, the people are smiling. The children
truly are precious.
"Freddie is a hard worker. I was
impressed by his construction skills, but
most of all, I was impressed with the fearless
ease with which he climbed the utility
pole and hand wrapped a bare copper line on
hot electrical for service. I was impressed
by how meticulously he wired the 20 amp
breaker box, single light bulb, and two outlets.
Since this house had two doors, I suggested
a three-way switch. That is when the
light went on – so to speak.
"During a break, I showed Freddie how
to do three-way and four-way switches. He
had questions about car charging systems.
So I went through diodes, bridge rectifiers,
and AC to DC conversion. Freddie asked
questions about power amplifiers, transistors,
and "integrados." I don't speak much
Spanish, and his English is lacking, but we
had a common language and passion for
electronica. All we had was a carpenter's
pencil and a slab of wood to write on.
PAGE 20 –
December 2004
"All we had was a carpenter's
pencil and a slab of wood to write on."
[Editor's note: Jeff now keeps this slab of
wood in his office as an ongoing reminder.
It is pictured above in the middle column.]
"The following day we put on the roof.
During a break and a light rain, Freddie
brought in a black briefcase. He carried it
like he carried Brian – his four-year-old son
– with great pride and a certain softness.
You could tell it was precious.
"Inside there were five items: a circa
1990 Sears multimeter with a shattered
LCD, a plastic sandwich bag with electronics
parts from scavenged radios and TV's, a
1993 IC Master catalog, and what looked
like a seventh generation copy of a training
manual from an electronics class in
Tegucigalpa. The pages of the IC Master
catalog were bent indicating the identification
of the "interados" in the plastic bag.
Freddie had memorized the pinouts of each
of them, and asked me questions I could not
answer about the Audio Amplifier SIP that
needed to be replaced to fix the stereo he
found in a dumpster in the city.
"A few months later I arrived with an
oscilloscope, books on TV repair, 3 electrical
and electronics training systems from
CES, and 40 pounds of nails. This time we
built a house (12 feet by 16 feet) for
Freddie's family. Another family was out of
the mud. Freddie was thrilled and has set up
an electronics repair and training lab on the
first floor of the feeding center we built on a
previous trip.
"Water is available by truck, if you
can pay for it, otherwise you must
resort to capturing rain from your roof."
"I am heading back to Honduras on
December 26, 2004. Freddie has sent me a
list of NTE parts he needs to repair radios
and TV's. He has started a business, and is
now training some of the others. The young
boys are curious and excited about the oscilloscope
and training systems.
"A seed has been planted. I set up a
website for Freddie, not bad for a self-taught
electronics guy with only six years of formal
education, and am hoping to provide wireless
Internet access and a laptop computer
for his service facility so he can access the
information that is online. The kind people
at NESDA/ISCET have graciously provided
training materials and electronics books.
Chiquita Banana will allow us to use an
empty 40-foot container to be sent in late
January. We will fill it with kitchen equipment
for the feeding center, hopefully a
medical and/or dental chair for the clinic,
wood and metalworking equipment for the
shop, and electronics repair parts and equipment.
Merry Christmas!"
If you are interested in coming to help in
this endeavor, helping finance the work, or
have materials, parts, or equipment to
donate, please contact Jeff Smith at
SensorLogic, or Hope for Honduras,
www.hopeforhonduras.com .