I recently returned to amateur radio after an absence of 50+ years. My interest in amateur radio began around age 8 or 9 as a result of encouragement by my father who had been a ham earlier in his life but had been inactive for some time. He brought home a military surplus receiver covering the ham bands and gave it to me to “play” with. He later obtained a set of WWII Army 78 rpm code practice records and helped me build a crude code practice set using a junk box transformer, a door buzzer, and a straight key fashioned from a metal strip cut from a coffee can. First licensed as a Novice in 1957 and upgraded to General a year later. General reinstated May 2017 and original call sign K8EZB reissued as a vanity call sign; Amateur Extra as of December 2017. Current amateur radio interests include software-defined radio technology and vintage HF SSB equipment, mainly Collins and E.F. Johnson.

First QSO as a Novice utilized a homebrew one-tube xtal oscillator built on a piece of Masonite and a borrowed WWII German (Siemens) military receiver. The transmitter power supply was constructed with parts salvaged from discarded broadcast receivers picked from the neighborhood trash. My only xtal was in the 80m Novice band; antenna was a 15m dipole because that’s what I had! Worked a station in Michigan from my Cleveland, OH QTH – DX as far as I was concerned, and QRP (by necessity) long before it became trendy. Moved on to a Heathkit DX-35, Johnson VFO, and a National HRO receiver which was ancient even then. The final station before life intervened was a Collins 75A-1 and a Johnson Ranger.

While in high school, I became interested in an aviation career, but soon found my uncorrected vision wouldn’t cut it with the military or airlines. For this and other reasons, I chose a career in technology (with this choice strongly influenced by my amateur radio experience), went on to complete a Ph.D. in computer engineering at Case Western Reserve University, and began flying as an avocation while in graduate school. While working on the Ph.D., I was invited by my faculty advisor to join a new company he was starting. Up to that point, I had assumed I would follow my graduate school colleagues to Bell Labs – seemed like everyone in my department was going to Bell Labs – to pursue a career in industrial R&D. However, a taste of the entrepreneurial life changed my direction in a major way. Finishing my degree, I had an offer in one hand to join a computer architecture group at Bell Labs, and an offer in the other hand to join a small Cleveland company doing innovative work in point-of-transaction systems as VP Engineering. I chose the entrepreneurial route and never looked back. Along the way, I took time off to do an MBA at Harvard. This led to a progression of senior-level jobs in marketing and general management in technology companies, including President/CEO of the E. F. Johnson Company of Waseca, MN.

EFJ, a well-known manufacturer of amateur radio and CB gear until the early seventies, left these markets well before I joined the Company. We were focused mainly on land mobile radio and cellular during my tenure there. In addition to developing and marketing the LTR family of land mobile products, we did cell site radios and subscriber equipment for AT&T AMPS (first cellular service in the U.S.) and air and ground radios for the Airfone in-flight phone service under contract to Airfone, as well as continuing the legacy components business (connectors, tube sockets, variable capacitors, etc) which was the basis on which EFJ was started in 1923. Edgar Johnson (founder) was still living but was retired when I was at EFJ and we had some spirited conversations. While no longer active on a day-to-day basis, he continued in an informal role of an elder statesman. After multiple reincarnations in more recent years, EFJ continues today as part of JVCKenwood and no longer has a presence in Waseca, MN.

The most recent 25 years of my career have been as a founding partner (now partner emeritus) in a venture capital firm investing primarily in startup companies in Silicon Valley and New England. I worked from an office on Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA (the heart of Silicon Valley) for much of the nineties, and later moved to the metro Boston area to establish an East Coast office for the firm. Over my time with the firm, we invested in several hundred early-stage companies in the areas of technology (telecommunications and computing), healthcare, and consumer products and services.

Active general aviation pilot since 1966; FAA Commercial Pilot certificate with Airplane, Helicopter, Glider and Instrument ratings, Douglas DC-3/C-47 type rating. Currently flying an Enstrom 480B helicopter. The 480B is a derivative of the TH-28 design which Enstrom developed in the early 1990s in response to an Army RFP for a new training helicopter. After losing this competition to Bell Helicopter,  Enstrom civilianized the TH-28 to create the 480B while retaining much of the military required robustness of the TH-28 design. The 480B seats five and is powered by a 420 HP Rolls Royce turbine engine. There are now several hundred 480s in service around the world, including as training aircraft with several foreign militaries. Dean Kamen, a well known local entrepreneur, owns two 480s, and at one time owned the  Enstrom Helicopter Corporation, as did note attorney F. Lee Bailey.

Shown below is the aircraft in which I did a DC-3/C-47 type rating, and it has a remarkable history.  Flying this legendary aircraft was quite a thrill. After several recent changes in ownership, this aircraft is now based in Europe, is still flying, but is no longer painted in the military colors shown here.  (A type rating is an aircraft type-specific FAA  credential required to pilot an aircraft with a gross weight above 12,500 lbs. Obtaining this rating requires a pilot to complete a rigorous oral exam and flight test covering all phases of operation, administered by an FAA representative. My flight test included an unanticipated ILS approach to  minimums in an unforecasted Spring snow squall – talk about pressure!)

Recently back on the air with an IC-7300 and IC-7610 (the SDR segment of my interests) and have discovered FT8, PSK31, and RTTY; with a newly erected multiband long wire I am having great success with these modes, working more DX in a few hours OTA than in my entire previous amateur radio experience.

Primary TX/RX: IC-7610/IC-7300/A1200S/04AT
Other TX/RX: FT-1000D/FT-1000MP/32S-3/30L-1/Pacemaker/Thunderbolt/Valiant II+SSB Adapter/Invader 200/75A-4/75S-3B
Antenna: MyAntennas EFHW-8010-HP long wire at 15 ft in horizontal “L” configuration
Software: DX Lab Suite, HDSDR, WSJT-X, JTAlert, PSK Reporter, WSPR
Other Equipment: TelePost LP-700, Heil PR-40, assorted vintage, and modern test gear
Memberships: ARRL, Nashua Area Radio Society (NH), Order of the Johnson Viking

Rick, K8EZB