Changes

In 1967, I decided there was no real opportunity at ARRL Hq, and with my dad’s help, I decided to go back to college.  I took a semester of courses at Central Connecticut State College.  I didn’t know what I wanted to major in, so I took several classes I thought might be interesting.  I took an Accounting course and landed a job that summer doing bookkeeping, but that wasn’t it.

That fall, I went to the University of Hartford, where I majored in Psychology and became what is called a “Rat Runner.”  I did learning experiments with white rats, teaching them to press a bar for a food pellet and then extending that to add more steps before getting rewarded.  It was all interesting, but I had no clear future.

Now I was about to have a life-changing encounter, but I didn’t know it then.  I was having lunch with some friends in the cafeteria when I spotted this beautiful gal.  It was one of those head-turning moments.  Oh, who’s that, I thought.  I got my lunch and sat with my friends.  At that point, the young lady was at the cash register.  I asked my friend and his girlfriend if they knew her.  “Yes”, said my buddy’s girlfriend.  “That’s Bobbie.  But she’s dating someone.”  Sigh.

The Love of My Life

But, a year later, an opportunity arose.  Bobbie had parted ways with her boyfriend.  She had her mother’s car on campus and was heading home for the weekend, but the tail lights were out, and she needed help.  My buddy immediately told me and introduced us.  I proceeded to her car, got in the trunk, and checked the wires.  I traced the wires under the back seat, which I had to remove.  I found a bad connection which I was able to repair.  The lights were working once again.   Well, Bobbie was delighted and relieved. “How can I repay you?” she asked.  Well, I looked at my shirt and pants, which were all dirty from rolling around in the trunk.  I said, “Well, you could wash my shirt if you like, and I haven’t had a good meal in a long time.  Perhaps we could get together for dinner”.  Well, that was it.  Bobbie has been washing my clothes and making meals ever since.  This was the spring of 1970.  We both graduated in May.  Our parents came to graduation, and we all had lunch together.  On Memorial Day, 1970, I asked Bobbie to marry me, and she said yes!  Our wedding was on July 10, 1971.

A few of my contesting buddies kept contesting from their wives.  I wanted Bobbie to know how important it was for me.  She understood and became my partner, helping me with food and drink.  At one point, I decided to upgrade my antennas in NY.  I had a TH6 and wanted to change to mono-banders, which I built.  The big deal was installing a 70-foot tower.  I had to dig a hole for the base, and guess who was right there, helping me dig?  Yep, Bobbie!  I knew then she was the right life partner for me.

My Working Career

My first post-college job was as a technical writer for Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. I worked on the manuals (maintenance and overhaul) for the TF-30-P412A, the engine that powered the Navy F-14 Tomcat fighter—yes, the same plane that was a major part of the movie Top Gun. We lived in an apartment in Rocky Hill. Bobbie commuted to the schools in Durham, where she was a music teacher, and I to the PWA facility in Middletown.  Hamming was done on weekends with a long drive to Peekskill.

From PWA, I took a job at Veeder-Root in Hartford.  Veeder made counters of all sorts, and they invented the mechanical gas pump computer.  I wrote manuals and took photographs of products.  Somewhere along the way, we visited a friend who had a Radio Shack TRS-80 computer.  This really grabbed my attention and kindled an interest that really took hold.   That Christmas, I found a very large box under our tree.  Bobbie had saved and bought me a TRS-80!  I dove headlong into it, learning basic and programming.

By now, Bobbie had grown tired of music teaching, having to travel between different schools, and putting on winter and spring concerts—a great deal of work! She spent that summer as a tour guide at ARRL Hq and was offered a position as a PR person in the fall. She took it.

In 1979, the Winter Olympic communications committee approached ARRL Hq seeking help with communications for the Olympic Torch Relay.  The plan was for the Olympic flame, ignited on Mount Olympus, Greece, to be flown to the US and brought on Coast Guard vessels to Yorktown, VA, where it was given to the runner team.  From there, the torch was run to Washington, DC, Baltimore, MD, up through New Jersey, and over into New York.  Cross the Varazano’s bridge into Manhattan, then north to Albany.  From there, the team split and ultimately met in Lake Placid.  The problem was how to keep all the vehicles in communication.  No cell phones in those days, so the opportunity for ham radio operators to provide communications was born.  We had 22 hams, with at least one in each vehicle and one in the police car that would accompany us.  It was a complex process, but it worked like a dream.

My career took several turns with jobs at two advertising agencies, which were very painful.  Ultimately, I found a position at Northeast Utilities Corporate Communications Department, where I managed the marketing communications for the residential and commercial energy conservation programs.  It was pretty interesting stuff, which included working with an ad agency and creating print, radio, and TV advertising and brochures.  All the while, I made it a point to get to know people in the company’s IT department. I participated in some programs with them, too.  

In the 1990s, the company started a re-engineering program to develop new processes. One of these was New Business. The electric company is a regulated monopoly, which means it had no competition, but pricing and services were controlled by each state it served.  I joined the team to develop a process for new business.  The IT support systems would be needed for many aspects of this.  Well, I jumped into that with both feet.  Ultimately, a new department was formed, and I accepted a position in IT as a Lotus Notes Developer.  The new business department didn’t last long, but now I was in IT and was diving headlong into creating workflow applications for different departments in the company.  The following 15 years were the happiest of my life.  It was a great sensation to go into a department and look at everyone’s computer screen to see they were all using my application.

A New Home and Antennas

Contesting from Peekskill and living in Cromwell, CT, was difficult.  It ment a 1.5 hour drive each way.  In 1978, Bob and Ellen White quietly approached me and asked if we would be interested in buying their home.  The house was nothing special but it did have a number of items that Bobbie and I considered must haves.  There were two towers with beams, a short, flat driveway, a photo darkroom and everyting on one floor.  We bought the house and sold our condominium and moved in the fall of 1978.

The next year was spent settling into our new home.  Antenna work was needed, especially new coax.  The old stuff was pretty well shot.  I was able to get some 52 ohm hardline and make up some connectors.  The 15-10 duo-band yagi didn’t work very well, so I stripped the 10 meter elements off it and made a 4-element 15 meter yagi that lived on the 70 foot HBDX tower.  That beam turned out to be incredible as you will see.

The other tower was a crank-up with a 3 element Telerex on it.  That tower was on its last legs and when I was cranking it down, the cable broke and down it came like a piledriver!