The NESDA legacy: sixty years of independent service, now part of PSA.
Before there were service apps and extended-warranty portals, there was a national association of shop owners who met every year to trade fixes, fight for fair treatment, and certify the people doing the work. In 2026, the National Electronics Service Dealers Association joins the Professional Service Association. This page honors NESDA and the members who built it.
One lineage, several names
The association members knew as NESDA went by different names over six decades, but its purpose never changed: help independent servicers succeed in a changing industry.
It grew into both a parent organization and a home for dealers repairing consumer electronics, appliances, and computers. Under the same umbrella, ISCET represented professional technicians in every field. Together they counted thousands of members across the United States and abroad.
Its headquarters in Fort Worth and later Hillsboro, Texas became a hub for the trade's certification, education, and recognition programs.
1964
The first National Professional Service Convention convenes in Detroit, Michigan.
1969
Members of the National Electronic Associations (NEA) found the Electronics Industry Hall of Fame in Nebraska.
1970
The International Society of Certified Electronics Technicians (ISCET) forms as a division to advance the CET credential.
1973
NEA becomes the National Electronics Service Dealers Association — NESDA.
1985
NESDA brings in the National Association of Television & Electronics Servicers of America (NATESA), becoming the leading voice of independent electronic service dealers.
2002
The Hall of Fame returns home as a function of NESDA in Fort Worth, Texas.
NSDA
Operating as the National Service Dealers Association, the organization represents appliance, computer, and electronics dealers under one banner.
2026
NESDA and its members join the Professional Service Association, uniting the independent service community under one national home.
Two trades, one bench
NESDA began with the people who fixed radios and televisions. Over six decades its members also took on appliances and computers, and the line between the two trades has nearly disappeared. Today a refrigerator runs on a control board and a washer talks to Wi-Fi. The servicers who understood both got there first.
Electronics
Signal, circuits, and components. The electronics tech diagnoses what can't be seen.
- Tools of the trade: meters, oscilloscopes, signal generators, a steady soldering iron
- The fix: trace the signal, find the failed component, repair at the board level
- Credential: CET, the Certified Electronics Technician, advanced by ISCET since 1970
Appliances
Motors, heat, water, and refrigeration. The appliance tech keeps the household running.
- Tools of the trade: meters, gauges, refrigerant equipment, and the truck stock to finish in one visit
- The fix: diagnose mechanical, electrical, and sealed-system failures in the customer's home
- Where it's going: electronic controls and connected appliances that need electronics know-how
Every convention, on the record
From a Detroit meeting in 1964 to Louisville in 2023, the National Professional Service Convention moved across the country. Select a city to see how often the trade came back.
Years without an entry are not listed in the NESDA convention archive.
The Electronics Industry Hall of Fame
NESDA's Hall of Fame honored people whose sustained work advanced the electronics industry, across six divisions: scientists, inventors and engineers; business and industry; communications; association executives; industry association members; and outstanding individuals.
Working service professionals were inducted into the same institution as the pioneers whose discoveries made the trade possible, including:
- Thomas Edison
- Nikola Tesla
- Guglielmo Marconi
- Alexander Graham Bell
- Michael Faraday
- Benjamin Franklin
- Edwin H. Armstrong
- Lee de Forest
EHFInductees earned the right to use the letters EHF after their names, recognizing the honor across the industry.
Recent honorees
- 2017Michael Snead, EHFBusiness & Industry
- 2016Randy Whitehead, CSM, EHFIndustry Association Members
- 2014Faye McCann, EHFIndustry Association Members
- 2013Larry Parnell, EHFIndustry Association Members
- 2012James Fellows, CET/CSM/MST/CSR, EHF · Wayne Markman, CET/MST/CSR, EHFIndustry Association Members
- 2011Jim Teeters, CET/CSM, EHF
- 2010Leo Cloutier, CSM, EHFIndustry Association Members
- 2008Mack Blakely, EHF · Ernie Curtis, CET, EHF
- 2007Chris Fabian, EHF · William H. "Bill" Warren, CET/CSM, EHF
- 2005Robert "Bob" Masa Sr., CSM, EHF · Glen Wolfe, CBET/CET/BIET, EHF
- 2004Walt Herrin, EHF · Malcolm "Gerry" McCann, CET/CSM, EHF · John Eubanks, CET, EHF · Fay Wood, EHF · George Weiss, CSM, EHF
What carries forward
PSA is proud to welcome the NESDA community and carry its work into the next chapter: the same commitment to the independent servicer, now under one national home for the trade.
Certification
The professional credentials NESDA and ISCET championed, including CET and CSM, remain a mark of a technician or manager who has proven the work.
Recognition
The tradition of honoring the people who build this industry lives on within the PSA community and its national convention.
Community
NESDA and NSDA members have a home at PSA, with education, advocacy, certification, and a national convention built for service professionals.
Visit the archive
Photo galleries from past conventions and the original NESDA records remain online.