Passion for Electronics overtook my Passion for Art

My original passion for art was eclipsed by my passion for electronics. From about 16 years old I was very heavily involved in electronics. So much so, myself and another amateur radio operator, Maynard Nelson, operated the high school repair shop. Back in those days (really old school) people repaired almost anything electronic, including toasters, irons, virtually all other appliances.

From Chicago I was able to talk with well over 100 countries by the time I was 17. It was interesting using code too and talking with Russia and Cuba while the U.S. was having a cold war with them. It certainly didn’t affect our radio communications.

I was somewhat lucky, later in my 33 months in the Army (101st Airborne), to have my own communication truck where in my spare time I made even more friends using the Army radios in my truck. It was a secret communications setup so I was never disturbed. Back out the Army in California I spent several more years with my own amateur radio sets talking locally and worldwide again. It was very interesting and I made a lot of friends. Somewhere during that time I was president of PCC (Pasadena City College) amateur radio club.

During the 10 years from about 16 to 26yrs or later I must have built at least 200 pieces (low estimate) of electronic instrument, radios, radio transmitters, lasers, and other electronic gadgets. Some of that was the Heathkit instruments myself and another person built for the electronics lab in the high school (Dunbar Vocational) in Chicago that I attended.

I still have some relics of that time period – some radio transmitters, a transceiver, and an old Hallicrafters SX101, a very popular and excellent shortwave radio receiver.

There is a lot more, but for now I have to cut it short.