We won't, of course, discuss those who ask this question with an implied "so why didn't you stay there!" 

   (From a different perspective, it's a question I've asked myself several times while trying to figure out how to buy a house in the year 2000 in the Bay Area.  Median price in Milwaukee, $110K.  In San Jose, $410K !)

   Actually, I'm quite amazed just how many people who are totally ignorant of the demographics of the state of California seem to have unwarranted, negative opinions about it.   Perhaps it's based on envy because CA has the 7th largest economy in the world (5th largest as of 2002) and makes up more than 12% of the economy of the United States not to mention 33 million of the 270 million people who live in this country.

   On the other hand, perhaps it's because of Hollywood's image or stereotypical ideas about "Valley Girls" or Bay Watch "babes".  The state is perceived here in the midwest as "Liberal" even though Ronald Reagan and two other Republican governors headed the state for much of the past 20 plus years and Orange County has been the home of some of the wildest, right-wing groups in the nation.

    To be sure, with 33 million people there will be some portion of them who are "wierd".  Good weather and generally better tolerance of those who are different than you does promote a certain "diversity" in the state. On the other hand, may I observe that people who paint their bodies green and gold and wear no shirt in zero degree weather at a Packer's game qualify  as "wierd", too!  Northern Wisconsin is not without it's "wierdos" shooting up the woods with at least as much vigor in the name of "the militia's right to bear arms" as any equivalent "pot" farmers in Northern California!!

   The 1999 crime statistic, by the way, show San Jose and even San Francisco to be safer cities than equivalent sized Milwaukee, WI.  Murders in San Jose = 29.  SF =  58. Milwaukee = 111.  Population of all three cities was about the same, by the way.

  Well, I degress.  To get back to the original issue,  the short answer as to why I am in Wisconsin is that "Allen Bradley made me an offer I probably should have refused".

   As with so many other product lines they have purchased over the years, AB ultimately backed way off from having any RFID development effort and "eliminated (my) position" in 1994.  I guess I should find some solace in the fact that I was only one of about 80 engineers and others "downsized" at the time and that I was the last of the RFID development engineers let go out of about six. 

A few dodged the bullet by transferring into other areas within AB but most of those are no longer doing engineering.  In fact, as of March 1999, the last of what was once known as Intelligent Sensing Products Division (ISPD) was cleaned out completely.  This had been a fairly sizeable department which included Bar Code, RFID, and Vision product lines.

    The longer answer is that California is a very crowded state, cost of living is high, and that rf electronics jobs in the Monterey Bay Area are scarcer than the number of people looking to find them.  Commuting from the coast to "Silicon Valley" is frustrating and long, over 1-1/2 hours each way on a good day.

   Moving to "The Valley" would have been very expensive and since I'm not really an urban person, I wasn't interested in relocating there at the time. Milwaukee is about the same size as San Jose was then, but most of the cities around Milwaukee are much smaller, typically between 10,000-30,000 people compared to 50,000-150,000 in the Bay Area. 

At the time I moved to Milwaukee, true "country" living was available less than 30 miles away... only slightly over a 1/2 hour's drive during rush hour traffic. 

(Note: This has changed dramatically for the worse in the past several years which played a part in my return to the SF Bay Area.  Most of the "nice drives in the country" I used to enjoy four or five years ago have become cluttered, unplanned housing developments.. "house farms", if you will.)

   Furthermore, when AB closed the "Santa Cruz Operations" in 1987, the stock market had just crashed and no one was hiring for at least six months afterward.  I, in fact, had interviewed with several SF Bay Area companies prior to the crash since we already knew AB was going to move the operation, but none of them called me back until after I had been in Milwaukee for about six or eight months!

   Unfortunately,  the AB lay-off five years later produced a bit of a problem for me since the Milwaukee area has only 4 or 5 companies doing any RF work and only about two have RF work as their major focus.  I applied at one of these but the other wasn't hiring at the time.  The company I applied to hired someone with a Master's degree who was apparently willing to work for about ten thousand dollars less than I was.  Considering that I only have an ASET plus a BA from a Bible College, there was really no contest! 

    While I had a few job possibilities come up outside of the area, none were close enough to commute to reasonably. Since my teenage daughter was in her last couple of years of High School.. it was not really a fair time to move her again after having moved her to Wisconsin from Northern California in the middle of her Junior High years.

    But things have worked out.  I worked for a year as a service technician at Amateur Electronics Supply in Milwaukee with Miles, John, Ken, and Russ.  Miles is still there as the Service Manager, but John now works for Badger Meter, Ken finished his BSEE several years ago and now runs the EMC/EMI testing lab for LS Compliance, and Russ heads up the two-way radio department for the City of Sheboygan.  I ended up working at RF Technologies.

    John, by the way, was the VHF/UHF radio expert.  Usually if you told him the problem you were having with any VHF/UHF radio or HT, he would tell you "Oh that's... x, y, or z".   About 80-percent of the time he was right.  John could whip through 14-16 radios per day... on a bad day!  As those who have done service work for a living know, it's not what you know so much as what you know that counts.  Interpretation:  it's experience with a given radio, not theoretical knowledge, which brings speed to doing service work.

   Ken was the high power amplifier expert.  This probably comes from his 6 meter, 2 meter, and UHF/Microwave Ham Radio DXing interests as much as from his vocation.  Ken operates 50, 144, 222, 432, and 1296 MHz from his location near Cedarburg, WI which is 30 miles or so north of Milwaukee.  He finished his BSEE a couple of years ago and now works for LS Compliance running their EMC/EMI/FCC/EC testing lab.

   Miles, of course, is the tube and "classic" HF transceiver expert since he's been at AES for over 25 years.  He knows all the electrical and mechanical problems associated with just about everything made during that period.

   Russ also worked on the HF equipment though he also worked on VHF and UHF equipment.  Russ is most famous for yelling out "I FIXED it!  I FIXED it!" after finding a particularly elusive problem in a radio (as if he wouldn't be able to fix it!).  Russ now works as the head of the communication systems for a community north of Milwaukee.  I hear that he and the fire chief where he now works trade practical jokes from time to time.

   Where I recenlty worked (RFT), the engineering technician is also a ham who is best known for his escapades operating bicycle mobile around Wisconsin using an Argonaut. Elroy, WB9GIE, works HF and VHF from his mountain bike and took a few weeks to circumnavigate a good portion of Wisconsin a few years back.  Elroy's other love is music and he is well acquainted with quite a few key Milwaukee area musicians such as Paul Cebar, John Sieger, and Robin Pluer.  He presently plays in a blues band around the Milwaukee area.  Check out his website for some interesting links.

   RF Technologies, by the way, has grown from a three million dollar company when I joined it, to around fifteen or twenty million, today.  They have expanded from 30 or 40 people in 1994 to over 100 today (2000) and they own a commanding market share in many of their product areas.

   If you want some other reasons "Why Wisconsin?", take a look at my State Parks, and other Wisconsin related pages.  For someone who enjoys nature, Wisconsin offers quite a bit. Birds which frequented our back yard include Cardinals, Finches, various Sparrows, Orioles, Blue Jays, Woodpeckers, Nuthatches and a variety of transient species such as Warblers.  In this region there are also Bald Eagles, Crows, Ravens, Hawks, Canada Geese, various wild ducks including Wood Ducks and even Loons.

   Insect life is abundant, which is both good and bad.  It's bad if your trying to do some gardening amongst the mosquitos.  It's good if you like things like Dragonflies, Damselflies, Butterflies and even such oddities as the Sphinx Moth, all of which are common.

   Fishing is great, what with some 10,000 lakes and numerous streams and rivers.  Canoeing is great.  Boating and waterskiing are common summertime activities and several free water ski shows are available each week on several Kettle Moraine area lakes.  Janesville, WI, in fact, hosts a large, national waterski competition each year. 

It is still possible to spend a few hours alone in a canoe or on a hiking trail within an hour's drive of metropolitan Milwaukee.  Unfortunately, uncontrolled suburban growth is now threatening this and some recent land purchasers have moved to close portions of the Kettle Moraine Ice Age trail to protect their privacy and/or property rights.  It's too bad, really.

   Wildflowers are another attraction throughout the state.  Whether prairie flowers or forest flowers or flowers overhanging a winding river, the state has a nice variety decorating the landscape from Spring through Fall.

   So "Why Wisconsin?"  As it says at the entrance to the main concourse at Milwaukee's Mitchell Airport, "It's a Great Place by a Great Lake!"  ;~)