Believer, Maker, Musician, Father, Grandpa,.. okay, that’s a little broad…

I am the son of a Maker and have to constantly be doing something with the right-side of my brain (that art/music side) to be happy. Oh sure, the left-side is always checking my work — no getting around that.

Recently I retired from a 40+ year career in Electrical and Software Engineering. The middle of that career included a couple of decades of owning and operating a product development business, creating various solutions for market segments including; medical-device, agriculture, automotive, energy and consumer. There’s more on that topic at LinkedIn.

Ham Radio was always a “license to create” for me. I wanted a license so that I could experiment, design and build my own gadgets and prove the work by receiving “5 and 9” feedback from someone far away.
It is a rush! — and difficult to explain to the non-nerd.

My first amateur radio license was earned in 1976 as a Novice, WN9OSZ. In 1988, I rediscovered the hobby with my brother Mike, WO9Z (ex WA9NPM) when my wife and I bought a house down the street from his family. With his “Elmer-ing” I received an Advanced-class license that year, N9ITD. In 1990 a friendly competition between brothers ensued to see who could get one of the “cool 2-by-1” callsigns left in Nine-land. So in 1991, after going to the mailbox daily, for several weeks, in great anticipation, I received the FCC envelope with my new Extra-class callsign: WR9R.
(All these years later, I still get excited just talking about it.)

73,
Larry