''''I m from western NY and live in the midwest ''''...
welcome-- are you interested in meeting forum members in person?
if so- please add a location into yr profile so anyone going there will see & know-- HOWEVER it would have been better if you had a location in your intro thread
TITLE.
Others near MAY see that and reach out.. odds are MUCH better w/ location in yr title as well as in your profile--we are NOT mind readers.
You can edit the title afaik and add that OR make a new 'intro' thread with location where many more will see it. Normally we frown upon double threads.
BUT for this you have our 'OKAY' to make a new intro...
As only an example-- have you metered your collection??
want to?
a local member w/ a LPM will be very happy to do that for you.
And you can do that for others if/when you get a meter. I have been blessed meeting 100 + laser 'folks' (some are forum members and others are friends/family of members who attend free at most LEMs.) -- you are fairly close IMO to SELEM .... from Houston we drive 17 hrs to attend SELEM mid aug in Newton N.C. Now grown to a 5 day affair -- go once and you will want to never miss another LEM.
Even with 5 days many 1st timers say they wish SELEM had lasted even LONGER.
Search 'SELEM Laser'
These happen world wide -- and SELEM is organized at the 'show forum' (see the links you get by search)- 'Might' be a NYLEM this year. for sure one or two in Orlando (FLEM)- Some on west coast and the great NW-- MANY members live in Or. most in Portland where they also hold LEMs.
If you can only do one LEM make it to SELEM-- to go you must contact 'buffo' at the show forum and get on the list-- in your searches you will see lots on LEMs- ytube vids etc
When you make an intro thread --['when' is not that important-- I did mine months after joining & I have seen 'intros' from members years after they joined[, you should get 'greets' from members near you.
The LPF format we just replaced was helpful with that as our locations appeared under our usernames every time we posted-- this new does not have that I can see the forum will not be 'as good' as it once was.--- so that makes having your location in your profile as well as your intro title.
Hope to meet you some day--=Len in Houston.
Apologies for the typical new poster "introduction" coming after a new thread/post in a regular forum!! I've already learned so much reading various threads here and look forward to a new lifelong hobby. I've always like physics and am a physics student, though optical stuff always scared me until recently - I survived my Jackson's E&M classes so nothing scares me anymore! I'm from western NY and live in the midwest right now for school. I have a 532 nm laser (50mW, from optotronics) and a 450 nm laser from Dragon Lasers. That one is 30mW. I have some broad goals in mind for things I want to get and do with lasers, and am in the process of carefully mapping and budgeting that out. And of course, as soon as I knew the power range/wavelengths of my first purchases, I got the glasses from survival lasers (they're great, thanks to the owner, who I know posts here!)
I hope I learn a lot on top of what I already have and can eventually become a contributing member of this community.
