Electronics Operation/TL and Electronics Repair/TL are the IQ/A skills for operating and repairing electronic equipment. They use the same, lengthy, list of required specialisations, which makes them easy to consider together. The actual technologies covered vary with TL as new devices are invented, and as - it seems - some older ones become so easy that an operation skill isn't needed any more. All specialisations default to each other at -4 within the individual skills. Electronics Operation defaults to IQ-5, Electronics Repair for the same specialisation at -5, or Engineer (Electronics)-5. Electronics Repair defaults to IQ-5, Electronics Operation for the same specialisation at -3, or Engineer (Electronics)-3. Electronics Repair also has a (Computers) specialisation defaulting to Computer Operation -5. Both skills take equipment modifiers, but the modifiers for unfamiliarity and variation defy brief summary.
These skills are Use and Repair skills within the Design/Repair/Use triads, but the Design skill for all of their specialisations is a single specialisation of Engineer, (Electronics). It may be that at higher TLs there will be fewer specialisations of Electronics Operation and Repair as everything they deal with becomes computer peripherals, but we'll have to wait and see.
Some activities that don't actually involve electronics seem to be treated as Electronics Operation (Communications), such as visual signalling with flag hoists, lights, heliograph, semaphore and the like. In the same way, wired electric telegraphy without amplifiers, as used at TL5, doesn't technically involve electronics, although the distinction isn't worth worrying about for game purposes. True electronics skills appeared at TL6 with the invention of radio, although there were a remarkable variety of ways of building radios before vacuum tubes took over in the mid-1920s.
Electronic Operation seems to get simpler as a given specialisation advances through the TLs. A would-be early 1920s radio listener with a crystal set probably needed to use Electronics Operations/TL6 (Communications) at a bonus to make it work, but there's no question of needing that with a modern radio. A modern Air Traffic Controller probably doesn't have Electronics Operation/TL8 (Sensors) or (Communications), although there may well be people elsewhere in the system using those skills. In much the same way, as equipment has grown more reliable, the proportion of electronics users trained in Electronics Repair has decreased. The military are an exception to that, because they expect equipment to get maltreated, and thus train many operators in at least the basics of repair.
These skills show up on lots of templates for high-tech settings, far too many to list. Action has a lot about which specialties you need for particular situations, with (Security) ever-popular for intrusion. Basic has the rules for operating parachronic conveyors, and for using Electronics Operation with the Telecommunication power. Bio-Tech has material on (Medical), (Scientific) and (Surveillance), and High-Tech and Ultra-Tech have toolkits, devices, and lots of details about how you use equipment with specialisations. PU3 and PU7 have lots of examples. Psi-Tech has a lot on (Psychotronics).
In the game, these are usually enabling skills, allowing characters to use or repair vital equipment. The large number of specialisations makes them one of the more grittily realistic aspects of GURPS, but it's easy to relax this by merging specialisations, or even discarding the concept. They can also be "sleeper" points on a character sheet: one character of mine invested a lot of training time in learning Electronics Operation and Repair/TL6+1^ (Psychotronics) before discovering that doing anything significant with that school of machinery required a talent he didn't have, but they've had assorted uses since then, and haven't turned out to be a waste.
What have you done with these skills that was electrifying?
These skills are Use and Repair skills within the Design/Repair/Use triads, but the Design skill for all of their specialisations is a single specialisation of Engineer, (Electronics). It may be that at higher TLs there will be fewer specialisations of Electronics Operation and Repair as everything they deal with becomes computer peripherals, but we'll have to wait and see.
Some activities that don't actually involve electronics seem to be treated as Electronics Operation (Communications), such as visual signalling with flag hoists, lights, heliograph, semaphore and the like. In the same way, wired electric telegraphy without amplifiers, as used at TL5, doesn't technically involve electronics, although the distinction isn't worth worrying about for game purposes. True electronics skills appeared at TL6 with the invention of radio, although there were a remarkable variety of ways of building radios before vacuum tubes took over in the mid-1920s.
Electronic Operation seems to get simpler as a given specialisation advances through the TLs. A would-be early 1920s radio listener with a crystal set probably needed to use Electronics Operations/TL6 (Communications) at a bonus to make it work, but there's no question of needing that with a modern radio. A modern Air Traffic Controller probably doesn't have Electronics Operation/TL8 (Sensors) or (Communications), although there may well be people elsewhere in the system using those skills. In much the same way, as equipment has grown more reliable, the proportion of electronics users trained in Electronics Repair has decreased. The military are an exception to that, because they expect equipment to get maltreated, and thus train many operators in at least the basics of repair.
These skills show up on lots of templates for high-tech settings, far too many to list. Action has a lot about which specialties you need for particular situations, with (Security) ever-popular for intrusion. Basic has the rules for operating parachronic conveyors, and for using Electronics Operation with the Telecommunication power. Bio-Tech has material on (Medical), (Scientific) and (Surveillance), and High-Tech and Ultra-Tech have toolkits, devices, and lots of details about how you use equipment with specialisations. PU3 and PU7 have lots of examples. Psi-Tech has a lot on (Psychotronics).
In the game, these are usually enabling skills, allowing characters to use or repair vital equipment. The large number of specialisations makes them one of the more grittily realistic aspects of GURPS, but it's easy to relax this by merging specialisations, or even discarding the concept. They can also be "sleeper" points on a character sheet: one character of mine invested a lot of training time in learning Electronics Operation and Repair/TL6+1^ (Psychotronics) before discovering that doing anything significant with that school of machinery required a talent he didn't have, but they've had assorted uses since then, and haven't turned out to be a waste.
What have you done with these skills that was electrifying?
[Basic] Skills of the week: Electronics Operation and Electronics Repair
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