Part I Where It All Began

It's going to be a few months before I hit the high seas again. Every year I always contemplate changing the scenery but at this age, I am in the “too experienced” zone. Which is legalese for “you are too old” to hire. Besides it would be difficult to find a position or employer who can match the salary I make now. The problem is my physical requirements is that of a 25 year old man at which I have not been 25 for who knows how many years! I do know but don't want to say it! As for retirement, it's a few years away but I want to be in the position where I can retire but have a choice whether to continue or hang it up! I'll let my seniority do the talking and retire on my own terms. I'm sure there is a younger tech who thought like I did years ago wishing the old man would hurry up and retire to enjoy the fruits of his labor. I had no idea how the older man felt until now because I am the older man! I think former Tonight Show Jay Leno said it best on his last show during his second come back. Unlike Mr. Leno, I never met famous people he did nor was influential in changing anyone's lives but towards the end where he talks about letting the next generation take over because he was now the “old guy” was spot on! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tmQ2ROnq38

How did I become an electronics technician? Started with a portable Sony transistor radio that my grandfather in Japan had given me. It had short wave bands on it and in 1968 the Vietnam War was escalating again and the Cold War was getting hotter. The propaganda machine between democracies and communism were expanding. I don't recall what short wave station I first heard but we were living at Clark Air Base in the Philippines at the time. It could have been Voice of America or Radio Hanoi. After we were transferred back to the US we eventually graduated to bigger receivers and heard Radio Japan on 15 meters on a receiver used as a trainer for correspondence courses from National Radio Institute. My mother was thrilled to hear her home country. Since the radio dial was not the usual analog display we marked the spot where we heard the broadcast. The old Sony was still being used with open air feedline to a long wire on the roof and an alligator clip attached to the aerial. The Sony's dial went up as far as 25 meters, 12 Mhz and covered the “Tropical Bands” in the lower spectrum of short wave.

One day my father surprised us when a large box was delivered to the house from Benton Harbor, Michigan. It was a Heathkit SB-310 “Professional” short wave receiver in kit form. My father assembled it with my brother and I looking over his shoulder to get a glimpse of what he was doing. After several weeks the receiver was assembled and the “smoke test” applied. The reception of countries on the radio improved still using the same long wire but this time had coax attached to it for minimal signal loss. What a difference eleven tubes made compared to the Conar receiver (trainer) and the old twelve transistor Sony that was primarily designed for AM radio and Japanese FM frequencies. I couldn't wait for Friday night in a nerdy fashion so I can stay up all night and listen to different radio stations around the globe. I was aided by articles from Popular Electronics and Electronics Illustrated magazines to catch rare DX that I could hear only on the Heathkit. During hourly headline newscasts broadcasted on the car radio, I would hear about “US Radio Monitors” listening to broadcasts from China, Vietnam or Cuba. They were reporting on political events from those countries. Since the US had no embassies or news bureaus in Peking, Hanoi or Havana we depended on short wave radio broadcasts. I wanted to be one of those “US Radio Monitors” though there were no official application to be one. I sent 50 cents to Popular Electronics and received a call sign, WPE5FGB, and an official radio monitor certificate! I received QSL cards from different places and plastered my wall with those cards from radio stations as well as awards from Electronics Illustrated and Popular Electronics! At this time I was getting interested in ham radio as well.

The Air Force base in Albuquerque had a ham radio/MARS station on the east end of Kirtland Air Force Base. It was obvious by the four element quad, phased verticals, diploles and inverted vees that were standing. The club building was made of solid steel. Location was perfect to combat television interference since there were no residential abodes in the area. The club was conducting Novice license class and in early 1970 I received my novice ticket and weekends were spent again in nerdy fashion. I was at the club with my father making contacts on the ham bands using equipment donated to the club. Novice licenses at the time were good for two years, non-renewable and limited to 75 watts and frequency selection were crystal controlled. All contacts were done in CW (continuous wave or Morse Code in laymen's term). Living in New Mexico at the time made me a “rare” amateur radio station since New Mexico did not have a large ham population. It was fun to be sought after. Many hams were pursuing the “Worked All States” award offered by the American Radio Relay League. New Mexico, Wyoming and Montana were chased by hams needing contact and verification from ham operators in those states to complete their “WAS” and get that prestigious award.

In 1971 my father retired from the Air Force and we moved to San Diego, California. California had a large ham population and not sought after since the suffix “six (6)” was designated only to California. So when you hear a WN6 or W6 and K6 you knew right away the ham operator was located in somewhere in the Golden State. We bought our first transmitter and paired it with the Heathkit SB-310 modified to receive 15 meters. It was fun but not too exciting to be a ham operator from California. I took the test to upgrade to General Class but failed the theory. I let my first license lapse and took another Novice test two years later (1974) and was back on the air. However, at the time my interest had changed and wasn't on the air too much. That license expired in 1976 and a year later took the novice test at a club function and went to the FCC and passed the exam to upgrade to General Class. After that I was on the air again and with enthusiasm. After I joined the Navy, I was stationed at NAS Memphis and kept a regular schedule with my father until I returned to San Diego for my first duty station. It was through short wave listening and amateur radio that I got interested in electronics and eventually made it a career.

At age 21 I enlisted in the US Navy and was guaranteed to attended Avionics A1 School. It was the beginning of my professional line of work in electronics. Prior to going in the Navy I had worked as a line cook in a restaurant but didn't like the idea of working weekends and never-ending night shifts. Then smelling like hamburgers or fried chicken after an eight hour shift. But I had a big teen ego at the time and the compliments of being a “good cook” got to my head. It was the same situation that would affect career decisions again years later. I left Coco's Restaurant and accepted a position to be a cook at a ski lodge in Japan. My uncle had invested in a ski lodge and invited me. I had an impression I was going to be a hot shot first tier cook but when I got there they already had a genuine chef who was a master of French cooking. I had no idea what my role was to be though I was suppose to work at another ski lodge that the company owned but another cook was already there! I lasted for a year and returned to the US. However, I made wonderful friends in Japan and learn that I was not the cook I thought I was. So my culinary career came to an end! However, I do like to cook as a hobbyist today!

Upon returning to the San Diego I cooked at the same Coco's for a month before I decided I had enough! I landed a job through the state employment agency working as a box assembler. Nice to have a job working Monday through Friday with weekends off! My starting wage was the state minimum of $2.50 an hour! I was living at home so it didn't matter. The owner called me into his office a month later and said he liked the way I worked and gave me a ten cents an hour raise. The problem was I stayed at $2.60 an hour until I quit the company. When Christmas came around there were talks that we were going to get a Christmas bonus. During breaks we would imagine what we are going to buy for the holidays. For the guys that were married it was bicycle for the kids but for single guys like me, the money was nice and if I had a girlfriend a nice dinner and time together. Payday arrived and the day we were to receive our bonus. I envisioned a check of $100 (in 1977 it went further than $100 today) after taxes. I opened my envelope and the bonus was net of $7.98 after taxes! My Christmas bonus was a whopping ten dollars before taxes! Since bonuses were taxed around 25% at the time my take home would allow me to enjoy two Big Mac Meals at McDonald's. If I did have a girlfriend at the time I could imagine what she would have thought if I took her to Mickey D's for Christmas dinner!

I was working with older workers who were married and were paid a little more than me. Several did break the $3.50 an hour barrier but were very dissatisfied with what they were doing. Whenever I would work alongside them it was common to hear eight hours of complaining that they were not making enough. I was afraid that sooner than later I would be the same age and situation like them. Distressed about the situation I was in. I remember my father trying to talk me into going into the military after I graduated from high school in 1974 as the great 1974 recession took a toll on the construction industry where most of my graduated classmates had plans to enter into. But I didn't go into the military and worked in the food service industry wandering where to settle to make a career and now I was assembling shipping crates. I took a trip to the recruiting office and talked to the Navy and didn't consider other branches. Though my father was career Air Force he encouraged me to go in the Navy as he considered their training programs to be superior. After several weeks of talking and taking tests, I signed up and was to report to Naval Training Center Recruit Training Command in October. This was the military right after the Vietnam War and armed forces was not looked favorably by a war weary apathetic public at the time. Was I doing the right thing? Karma would dictate otherwise years later.