The Spark That Led Me to Become an RF Engineer
The Gift of Radio
I was just about to turn seven years old. I had always been fascinated with my parents’ radio, and this interest led them to give me a special birthday present.
The year was 1960, and things were very different in the land of broadcasting in those days. On my 7th birthday, my mom took me to tour a local radio station, a small market AM station in Killeen, Texas, licensed as KLEN.
As a little kid, I was fascinated with the workings of a more-or-less “live” studio operation. The station didn’t have tape cartridge machines; this innovation had only been introduced the previous year, so there were (what seemed like) gigantic transcription turntables that handled records with all of the advertisements. The station manager even gave me an old vinyl record to take home, though it didn’t fit on our record players.
Automation in radio was still years away, so I got to watch the announcer “live” on the air. The whole thing left quite an impression: the glass windows into the studio, the sound-absorbing tiles on the wall, the vast audio console with a gazillion knobs (remember, I was seven years old), and VU meters with the bouncing little needles… It was all spectacular and left a tremendous impression on my young mind.
Improvisation and Antenna Experiments
Since my birthday is ten days before Christmas, my parents also bought me a radio-themed gift as a Christmas present. Dad was in the Army at Fort Hood, and money was tight, but the little Rocket Radio they got for me might as well have been made of solid gold.
The Rocket Radio was a simple crystal set AM radio receiver in the shape of a small plastic rocket. A ball at the top pulled in and out to tune the radio’s frequency via a ferrite core inside the radio’s tuning coil. A wire with an alligator clip on the end of it would let you hook up to an antenna, and a simple earphone was used to listen.
Crude but effective, I found all kinds of things to hook up to the radio to use as an antenna. The bedspring of my bed, the barbed wire fence out in the backyard (that worked quite well because it was so long), and anything made of metal became fair game.
A Lifelong Journey of Curiosity and Innovation
Eventually, I found a way to take the rocket apart and was fascinated by what was inside. But, of course, taking things apart is what little kids do, so this wouldn’t be the first time, nor the last, that my curiosity would lead me down this path. That Rocket Radio was the first spark of interest in radio technology, which eventually fanned the fire of my passion for electronics and engineering. I kept experimenting with radio technology throughout my teenage years, you can read more on that here.
While there are plenty more stories to come, this early moment in my childhood reminds me that we often discover our passions early in life, yet so few of us can pursue those dreams throughout adulthood. That curiosity I discovered at age seven still drives me to lead my team at Radio Design Group to find ways to be creative and innovate “impossible” solutions for our customers. Get in touch with us today to see how we can create the impossible for you!