Ted Ryan, WB6JXY, was the Electric Shop Teacher at John Burroughs Junior High School ("JB") in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. (now called John Burroughs Middle School) from 19xx-19xx. He also taught classes in Amatuer Radio. He licensed hundreds of people during that time. He was on of the most proflic ham radio teachers of his day.

Mr. Ryan was a very kind man. He liked to be called "grampa." He often told his students he loved them.

Mr. Ryan was tiredlessly devoted to his students. He came early to school, driving his beige Mustang II with his ham license plates "WB6JXY," and stayed late. He also had us over to his house in Panorama City on Saturday mornings for tutoring sessions to help us get or upgrade our licenses.

Mr. Ryan was the faculty advisor to the John Burroughs Junior High School Amatuer Radio Club. I was the Club President for a time. Mr. Ryan was also trustee of the club's callsign, W6TDM. In other words, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) which regulates amatuer radio, issued the license to him and held him responsible for the legal operation of the station. W6TDM was a memorial callsign. It was first held by Edward Tapscott, a friend of Mr. Ryan's. Edward was an African-American man who was blind. I never knew much about their friendship

The station was in a room in the electric shop. The shops were in bungalows on the east side of campus. Wood shop was across from electric shop. We had as an HF transciever, a Swan 260, which was a tube radio with some transistors in it. Back in the day, transistors had only been invented a decade or so before. I do not recall what kind of 2 meter rig we had, a Tempo perhaps? Mr. Ryan had as his personal radio a Tempo FMH, the first solid state 2 meter hand-held transciever.

Our HF antenna were on the roof, a 10-15-20M tribander. The Mosley antenna rotor was often broken by kids who were not authorized to be in the station. I recall we had a dipole for 40 meters, and maybe we also used it for 80 meters. I do not call having antennas for 160 meters or 6 meters.

Mr. Ryan passed away in 19xx of .

Mr. Ryan taught and licensed hundreds of young hams over the years. Here is a partial list of people he taught and their first callsign and year of licensure: (partial)

If you can help us fill out this list please let us know. Looking at this list, it is apparent that all on it were boys. Back then few girls took shop. They usually took Home Economics. Mr. Ryan was welcoming of all who wanted to learn.

In those days WN6 callsigns indicated the ham was a novice class ham (morse code only, 75 watts of power on the low bands). Most of us earned this license first. Many went on to attain higher licenses.

Many young hams Mr. Ryan taught went on to study electrical engineering.

During the American Bicential (1976), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) which regulates amatuer radio, celebrated by allowing ham to use a special prefix. If one had a "WN6???" callsign, then one could use "AK6???."

Mr. Ryan was fond of telling us that amatuer radio saved the lives of his students during the Vietnam War. He told us the ham license qualified his students who were drafted for a safer job in the signal corp rather than a more dangerous one in the infantry. This happened to his son Roger.

One of the important values Mr. Ryan taught us was public service. Amatuer Radio is more formally called the Amatuer Radio Service. We help people, particularly in time of diaster. We provide a communications network to local governments and humanitarian organizations in the event of earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and so on.