Guess I'm a little late in getting our annual activity report
together. I usually try to complete it in January but my
only
excuse is too many other priorities.
In the fall of 2006 we made a trip to the Far East by sea. Great time
spending over 3 weeks visiting 3 countries and 7 ports.
We were very active in ham radio for most of the year. Setting up Public Service support activities in the Port Angeles area was lots of fun with the local "shakers & movers" having many words of thanks along the way. Our biggest event was the North Olympic Discovery Marathon. Much of the spring and summer is being used to prepare for the ARDF National and Region II radio direction finding contest at Lake Tahoe in late summer. ARDF stands for Amateur Radio Direction Finding and uses rules that are a cross between Orienteering and radio foxhunting. Its a lot of fun but has both a technical as well as a physical skill requirement. I've had to get in physical shape as well as hone my technical skills. I'm no athelete, so if I can just finish the required course I'll be happy. Attendees will be from all over the Western Hemishere. Some of the local hams are helping in my training plus I'll make at least one more trip to Victoria which has an active group.
Apollo continues to grow.
Of course, he's spoiled and
considers himself a lapdog.....he now weighs 89 lbs and spends
most of the time indoors. I poured a
large concrete pad to build him a "roomy" kennel with metal roof
raincover and then we decided that its too far from the house and he'll
get lonely!
.
Marsha asked why I didn't offer
him hot and cold running water and piped music while I was at it? She
calls it the "Taj Mahal".
I will say one thing, "He's sure a good watch dog". When people
come to the door, they have second thoughts about even knocking when
they
hear his bark. It sort of vibrates the ground! The kennel has now
turned into an expensive firewood storage facility........
On March 15, 2007 Ryan and Jennifer had the long awaited arrival of Emilie and Carter. We're so happy for them as it was a long road to reach that point . Both babys are doing great as well as their mom. Marsha was ecstatic as she became a grandmother again. Carter is our first grandson. The timing was great as Ryan and Jenn just finished their new house the previous year. BJ and Bailey (Beagles) are learning to adjust to the new arrivals. BJ has a tough time because hes lost his eyesight.
We've arranged a month long trip by sea from Greece through the Mediterranean and Caribbean in the fall of 2008.
Another month long trip in the spring of 2009. I've wanted to continue our adventures in the South Seas. I would like nothing better than to swim on the beach (at right) of Aitutaki as well as watching a total solar eclipse! Yes, geeks are weird.
In 1992, I left TEKTRONIX after 22 years for a more progressive company. I developed telecommunications products and high speed signal digitizers there and was once known as "Mr. Digitizer". They were used to record nuclear high energy research events, including weapons testing. When the cold war came to an end, no one wanted to set off anymore Nukes! In any case, I wanted to do something different with a better future. Telecom and wireless communications were showing signs of life and caught my attention. TEKTRONIX never had much vision in that area at the time so my future belonged elsewhere. It turned out to be a wise move.
During this period, Marsha was helping raise our two sons and working in the Special Education department at Newberg H.S., Newberg, Oregon.
I joined ATLAS TELECOM as an Engineering Manager & Project Manager to support the development of enhanced services for the Japanese PHS Handyphone. This really got me into wireless communications.
In 1995, I got a chance to do some serious work with radio product and system design. After 26 years in the Portland area and living in the same house for 22, Marsha and I were ready for a change. We moved to Seattle as I accepted a position with McCaw Cellular to form a new product engineering group. McCaw had recently been purchased by AT&T and saw an opportunity in Wireless Local Loop (WLL) technology. AT&T wanted to develop WLL which would compete with the local telephone company. The design was to be within AT&T rather than farming it out. The decision was to set up shop in Seattle. I was employee number 14 and offered the position of Subscriber System Development Manager. I was promoted to Director of Subscriber Systems Development in 1996. We finished our frist trials in Chicago, on time, and had the product deployed in six selected cities in the U.S. when I left for early retirement in Feb. 2001. I originally wanted to retire in the year 2000 (turn of the century) but decided to extend it one more year.
AT&T Wireless was later sold to
Cingular and then AT&T itself being purchased
by
SBC which included Cingular. In short, AT&T was pulled back
together again after being rescued by one of the "baby bells".
By
retiring early and using cashed out stock options to build our new
home, we
avoided all the
downfall the company went through. Hindsight has shown us that
our timing couldn't have been better. The ownership of all these
companies is complex but over the past year they have decided to retain
the AT&T name as it has such value. Hopefully such a complex
web is finally stabilizing.
Marsha went back to work at a RITZ camera store in Redmond, Washington in the mid 1990's and realized she had talent in sales. Something many of us told her for years. (Yes, she probably could sell an ice box to an Eskimo). She was promoted to open and manage the new Woodinville store in 1998. She took me to the Bahamas free of charge in October 1999 as part of her sales awards.
I had planned to leave the traditional workforce at around age 60
but postponed it one year. We started to look for a place to
build our retirement home in 1998. All options were open but we
knew we wanted to be around a marine environment. After narrowing
it to the PNW, we found 2 1/2 acres of waterfront West of Port Angeles
(PA) and knew the moment we saw it that it was what we were looking
for. We built our new home in 2000 Marsha left her management
position in January 2001 to promote our
PA move and prepare our Woodinville house for
sale.
I left AT&T
Wireless in February of 2001, taught wireless communications for TRA
clients for about a year and then decided to just bum around
doing
things
I've
always wanted to do but never had the time. I still consult but on a
limited basis.
Updated: Nov. 1, 2007