About Me

My name is Todd Harrison from Mesa, AZ.   You can reach me at todd r harrison at gmail dot com.

This blog  is dedicated to subjects that interest me at any given time.  Things I build, do, read or experience.  But mostly it will be about hobby electronics.  You can follow this blog by visiting or by subscribing via RSS (see link on sidebar).

I’m currently working as an Oracle and SQL Server Database Administrator but I spend my free time doing a mix of activities such as (in order of interest): Playing video games with my son, playing piano, hobby electronics, building computers, welding and metal work as well as fixing old cars.  I’m also into hiking, rock climbing and Taekwondo with my son and daughter which we do some mix 3 to 5 times in any given week.

I received a BS in Engineering Physics from North Dakota State University in 1993.  I never really used my Engineering degree, which was specialized in electronics and optics, but I also never lost my love for it over all these years either.

Since college I have tinkered in electronics but in the past few years I have really connected with some online groups which share so much of their experience and knowledge that I have been able do more than I could have ever dreamed of doing a decade ago. 

In college my Engineering classes focused on theory and how electronics got discovered, improved and functioned mathematically, but they never really taught you how to use the stuff.  We never really learned how to approach an engineering problem and use electronics to make a device to perform a useful task.  We had the standard labs but they were never focused on critical thinking, but rather to just build a diagrammed circuit and fill in the blanks at the end of the lab. 

For anybody reading this and currently taking Electrical Engineering, I would suggest to them to do their best in class and lab but spend all your free time on electronics sites, blogs and forums which share detailed real life application electronics.  For starters try some or all of the links you see in my “Blogroll” at the sidebar. 

I also recommend you get the books by Forrest M. Mims III as listed in on my page “Links for Beginners in Electronics” and read them often, over and over again, as you progress through your education.  Plus, do as many of the projects in these books as you can. Pick one project each weekend as a goal and you will be so surprised what you will learn from building and, more importantly, trouble shooting the projects.

And of course the bible of electronics:
The Art of Electronics 2nd edition by Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill

And for no cost at all you can’t beat the online learning slide show tutorials at:
http://electronics.wisc-online.com
http://www.allaboutcircuits.com