Mr Carlson’s Lab

Mr Carlson’s Lab is presented by Paul Carlson, a Canadian electronics expert and amateur radio operator. The videos are filmed in his lab full of vintage and modern test equipment.

The channel covers electronics repair, restoration and theory. Many videos restore old radios and equipment, while others explain why a particular component is used in a circuit, with real examples on the bench. He explains each step slowly and clearly, and shows measurements on an oscilloscope. Some videos are very long restorations, while others answer a single question in under 20 minutes.

Some highlights include:

He recovers recordings from an old wire recorder, an early way of storing sound on a thin steel wire.

An explanation of why a capacitor is sometimes placed across a diode, shown with real circuits and measurements.

A look at why diodes are sometimes connected in both directions, with practical examples.

The channel has around 544,000 subscribers.

Mr Carlson’s Lab is a very good way into electronic engineering. It teaches how to think through a fault, use test equipment and understand what each component does. These are core skills for electronics technicians, repair engineers and circuit designers, and they connect to apprenticeships as well as degrees. Watching him trace a fault from symptom to cause is a lesson in logical thinking that any engineer can use.