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Greetings!
My name is Fred, I am 50 years old, and I live in southern New Jersey with my beautiful wife Penny and two insufferable cats. I am also the proud father of two lovely and intelligent daughters, ages ten and eleven. I grew up on a farm in Chester County Pennsylvania, and was trained as an Electrical Engineer with an eye towards becoming a designer at the traditional age. However my career took quite a turn early on when I found out that working in an entrepreneurial environment better suited me. This was no doubt owing to the influence of my father, who was a self taught and self employed individual most of his career. Dad was a person who valued having skills in a number of disciplines, an attitude I learned to appreciate in time. With his help and guidance I got my start in the industrial instrumentation field, beginning while still in college. After school I reasoned that I would just keep this self employment model in place until I found a "real" job. But after a while things began to grow and take on a life of their own. And so it came to pass that for the past thirty years I have been self employed in this same area. My dad and I got to work together for much of that time, until his passing a few years ago. Time flies when you are having fun.
Currently, I am the CEO of a successful company involved with the distribution, engineering, and support of industrial instrumentation systems – specifically data loggers designed to map energy usage/savings and instrumentation to monitor and control valuable liquid inventories. www.MeasuringYourSuccess.com The technical background certainly has helped, as did growing up in that culture and around folks who enjoyed tinkering with interesting devices.
One of those people was my dear Uncle Bob Logan who was a big gun ham from way back. He had a dedicated shack at his farm that was nothing short of remarkable. The space was strictly off limits for little kids, and I remember that it had this weird designation etched on the glass door protecting it - “W3DRA.” The shack was just a magnet for me. Mysterious languages were in use here. Large antennas twirled about at the command of the inhabitants, pointing to distant lands and strange people similarly equipped. Sometimes sparks were emitted, and the lights dimmed. Sometimes there were high pitched squeals and chirps. Sometimes there were awful smells. All of these things made the room, to my mind anyway, completely irresistible. Eventually Uncle Bob invited me in, with the proviso that I not touch anything of course. I well remember sitting up with him late at night when he and my Aunt Gertrude were babysitting my brother and I. Sitting there listening as he turned dials and spoke Spanish to his South American friends, and working his regular schedule with his brother who lived overseas I was just overwhelmed. The room was aglow with tubes and humming with amps, and the whole place just seemed to be just awash in power! Strange looking coils and cables adorned the walls, and there were ominous labels in red letters with warnings like: "DANGER HIGH VOLTAGE," and EMERGENCY DISCONNECT” in strategic locations. Weird, distorted voices from faraway places came to life on the speakers, and he had wall after wall of QSL cards from places I’d never heard of, covered with stamps I had never seen before, and all kinds of plaques and awards. To me it was just a magical world. Unfortunately, my uncle never lived to see me get my license, something that I will always regret. But something about those early experiences stuck with me, and eventually I did manage to master 5WPM and earn my Novice ticket. I set myself up a decent shark on our farm back in the day and operated like that for a good number of years. And then, for all of the usual reasons (business, more schooling, kids, etc.) I went inactive. However I never lost my interest, or the memories of that long ago shack on my Uncle’s farm.
Well, one thing led to another. Since that conversation I have upgraded from Novice to Technician, and then to General, and we have also built a pretty decent ham shack here. I work mostly 20 meters using a Yaesu FT-840 and an ever changing group of antennas, mainly running inverted V mono band wires and an MFJ-1786 "High-Q" loop Omni. I have a matched and integrated Yaesu FL-7000 linear amp for the FT-840 with band switching and auto tuner, and have also recently added digital and SSTV modes to the mix. I am no “big gun,” but all works pretty well and I am happy when I key up and someone actually hears my signal and responds.
My daughters and I just finished a Ten Tec QRP kit and tested it out. They are studying Morse and for the Technician test at present, and we are planning to include some radio work into our boating and camping expeditions. Stringing up wire in some high places to see who we can work with 3 watts and setting up an HF Rig on our boat seems like it might be fun, and I expect we will do both this summer.
There are lots of other interests. I am a former pro motorcycle racer and have had a life long relationship with bikes and the wonderful people who ride them. Over the years I have participated in many different competitive and charity events related to motorsports, including an 8000 mile long off road raylle in South America from Cartgena Columbia to Buenos Aries Argentina. http://uk.truveo.com/Dakar-2009-TransAmazon-rally-1988/id/853742904 I am also a multi-engine, instrument rated pilot of 3000 hours experience, earning my license in the 1980's. Most of my time is in Senecas, 340's, 182's. and the like. We have a older but well kept 42 ft. boat, which was actually my residence for for five years when I was single. She's twin engined (800 HP) affair with genset, two staterooms, and two heads. Makes a nice family cruiser, and we have had many a nautical advrnture aboard her. Our family enjoys boating expeditions along the East Coast, as well as local jaunts near our home port in North East, MD to the many isolated beachs on the Chesapeake. One of our favorite things to do is to explore wildneress areas by dinghy on lazy afternoons with friends. Sometimes we even camp from the boat! Like ham radio the best part about these activities are the people you meet along the way, and I am looking forward to expanding my radio activities into the boating ands camping adventures.
I have not participated in any contests as yet, but who knows, I may want to give that aspect of the hobby a go at some point. I will however reciprocate a QSL card to anyone who is kind enough to send me one at my expense and I hope you will do the same.
It is good to be back in the fold. This is just such a great and diverse activity, and a wonderful way to meet new people, expand one's horizons, learn about different cultures, and build new skills. It is hard to imagine anything that is more fun. I hope to work you on the bands sometime, and to hear your story. Until then, 73, Fred KA3IRJ
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More recently, I was inspired again – this time by my ten year old daughter. She had seen something on Amateur Radio on television and mentioned it to me. When I told her I had a license she asked why I did not use it. Why indeed – that was a very good question!
