As I indicated on my opening page, I am a Ham Radio Operator. I am also heavily into computers. I am 45 years old, and I work as a Manufacturing Engineer for a defense contractor here in the Los Angeles area. I have been in the Burbank area since 1988, where I purchased a house in 1994. I have lived in the southern California area all my life. I know, no big deal, but, hey, it IS home. I was born in Culver City.

I also love dogs. I have two now, though I have had four up until recently. My best and favorite bud in the world, my chihuahua, Mickey, died on July 9th 1999 after a battle with some rare bacterial pnuemonia. Click here to visit my tribute page to Mickey, or here to visit his memorial at the Rainbow Bridge.

Losing Mickey left a pretty big hole, and actually, I had not anticipated getting another dog right away.
However, I was looking for a book on Chihuahuas at the local Petsmart store, and I ran across their pet adoptions sponsored through the Los Angeles Animal Shelter. I spotted this little Chihuahua/Minature Pinscher mix and that was it. I named him Riley. Click here to see pictures of him. I have been interested in electronics since I was 8 years old. I received a crystal radio receiver set as a birthday gift, and I was hooked. I would scrounge the trash in my neighborhood for discarded tube or transistor radios or old television sets. I would bring them home and tear them apart to try to understand how they worked.

When I grew older, I was able to take electronics shop classes in junior high school. I remember in one class, the instructor showed us how to make an electric pencil with a wire coil, a nail and a battery. I was not impressed. So when I got home, I decided to make an electric pencil from an old AC line cord, a broom handle with a nail in it and a steel plate. Boy, what a shock. It worked, but my Mom was not too impressed since it blew out the circuit breakers. I was grounded for a week. But it did neatly weld the nail to the steel plate. Hmmm...

I graduated from Ulyssess S. Grant High School in Valley Glen, CA in 1973 with a diploma in Industrial Education.