I had occasion to look at some family photo albums this past week and I spotted a photo of my youngest son soon to be 42. This photo was taken when he was about 13 years old yet is a defining moment in his lifetime.
Son, Nick is looking at a project we built together and while it looks like a pile of junk is a homebrewed robotic arm on a gantry. We had to figure out how to build the gripper which is a slider crank mechanism and how to use a lead screw to raise and lower the gantry. We only had one controller, so we had to switch between axes to affect a Three D movement.
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Why is this a defining moment for Nick? This is his day job today, designing robotic inspection systems for the semi-conductor industry. He will tell others I have been doing this for almost 30 years (although soon to be 42) and we can see the proof. When you know stuff, you can do stuff. He is a Mechanical Engineer and somewhat of a leading expert in this field.
This is a great example of how a father son project turned into a life's work. This was built when I lived in St Louis and have fond memories of our Saturday jaunts to Gateway Electronics where Nick would peek and poke at the various bins of surplus parts finding a treasure here and a treasure there. You are never too young or too old to learn new technologies!
Big Contest Weekend!
Right in line with the IARU, this weekend is chock full of operating and a ARRL contest. What a great time to pull out one of your rickety rigs and gloat over all the 5X9 signal reports you will receive from DX stations. I love it.
Actually, the idea of a DX contest this very weekend (March 1 & 2) some have suggested is a setup by the ARRL. So, you participate in the contest and have less than sterling results which all boils down to you need a new rig. In just two short months the Dayton Hamvention (which is not in Dayton) is where all of the ham radio manufacturers showcase their new products and a chance to buy the very latest technology right off of the convention floor. Watch the digital QST over the next two months and observe the hype. Basically, you are being set up!
A Rickety Rig from the early 1960's
With our rickety rig above it is really hard to tell you are 40 Hertz low or high -- at best about +/- 1 kHz is as close as you can see.
But with my homebrew SDR and QUISK I can put my rig dead nuts right on frequency and I can see it on my HDMI Screen.
Hint! Hint! Time to move to the digital side of the world. Just like Nick did some 30 years ago, this has given him a path to job satisfaction, technical fulfillment and a nice 401K.
73's
Pete N6QW