About Me

      I was a teenager during the dawn of the space race. I was fascinated with technology, and studied electronics. I actually did work in the aerospace industry for a decade. Some of it was early weather satellites and the Hubble Telescope. So W2OY would probably consider me a space cadet.

      I also worked on music electronics (guitar amps and electronic organs), a calibration lab, the packaging industry, power conversion technology, S100 desktop computers, medical technology, commecial 2 way radio and repeaters, and consumer electronic repair. I worked for the small J-Omega Company in Mountain View, California that Bob Weitbrecht, W6NRM, a deaf ham, used to produce the first commercially successful telephone TTY device. The TTY unit we manufactured used 88 mH telephone toroids for the filters and employed a military surplus RTTY keyboard and was a straight up copy of some of what he used on the ham bands. Bob Weitbrecht and Wayne Green often chatted on ham radio by RTTY. I also worked at international telecommunication and FCC lobbying. I have been active in legislative reform locally. I have written articles which have been published in 73, CQ, and Electric Radio magazines.

      I lost a spouse to cancer and I raised our child on my own for over a decade.

      Then after some medical problems, I was able to reinvent myself. Since then, I have been trying to become more active in ham radio and other pursuits I had to postpone until I could refocus after taking care of family obligations.

      I like vacuum tube radios, but I have solid state vintage equipment also. I enjoy AM, CW, digital, and occasionally SSB operation. I am not much of a contester, but I enjoy field day often. I also do the vintage CW and AM boatanchor rallys.


AB2RA Vintage station, Ithaca NY
      My primary interest is restoration and building. This website will share some of the problems I encounter and the solutions I have found or devised myself to solve them. The presentation will strive not be just a dry "heres the schematic", but a discussion of the relative merits of various approaches to attack a task. I will try to spare you the thetas and betas, but you may find that sort of thing also.

      I hope you find it helpful.
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73,
Janis
AB2RA

Some more pictures of me. You can click on them to view them full size. Also, you can visit my gallery.