Hom: BEEP!

Basic Electricity/Electronics "P" School, that is.

I had three schools over the next six months, all of them in San Diego, with the first two right next door to the RTC on Point Loma. I don't remember any specifics about dates/lengths though. I could probably dig back through my old paperwork and get the dates, but for this anecdotal ramble I ain't gonna bother.

BEEP was the first, and shortest, school, and we were a mix of future Electricians, Electronic Techs, Radiomen, and every other rate that dealt with E/E and needed to learn the basics-according-to-the-Navy. (The USN taught Electron Flow Notation - that electrons flow from Negative to Positive in side a battery. Conventional theory teaches Positive to Negative internal flow. In Basic, they taught us that the "Navy Way" was the right way. At least they were consistent.)

BEEP was a breeze after Basic, with good textbooks and good teachers and a good mix of humor.

Humor. Like passing around capacitors for us to examine - CHARGED capacitors - so the first curious soul that touched both leads got zapped. It had a purpose, though, it taught us to be respectful & cautious of electricity, and it was funny as long as it happened to someone else...

Humor-based information tended to stick with us, too - like the color code for resistors.
The code:
Black Brown Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Violet Gray White Gold Silver None
The mnemonic:
"Batman's Blowing Robin On Yonder Gotham Bridge. Very Good. We'll Get Superman Next."

There were two mnemonics for the magnetic formula MFC - Motion, Flux, Current. Neither is repeatable here, let's just say that the Californians were taught one that started with "Mac's" and the rest of us were taught one using "Mary's".

Which reminds me - there was a kid named Longenecker that constantly razzed me about my last name - I didn't see where he had much room to talk.

Anyway, I passed BEEP with good grades and then went over to the "Electrician Mate's Class A School" to learn a heck of a lot more about motors and shipboard wiring systems.

TBC

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