Who or what is N2UHR?
Hello there! 'N2UHR' is the license or 'callsign' that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
assigned me when I passed my Technician Class amateur examination. An Amateur Radio, 'HAM', license
allows a person access to many types of communications on many sets of frequencies, called 'bands'.
N2UHR is also me, David G. Wandell. I live in the hamlet of Copiague, on Long Island NY (IOTA NA-026).
I now 'hold' a General Class FCC license and I am working towards my Extra (Highest class) license.
Other Interests:
COMPUTERS:
'TOYS'
Besides amateur radio I have always had a curiousity in computers. The first was a very sophisticated
'educational toy'. My younger brother got it for a Christmas present. It was in the early '60's.
He was ~7 and I was ~10. It was a mechanical digital computer that had physical 'gates' to let the
marbles through. You would program it by aligning the gates in various ways. He took to it right away....
I was a bit behind, then as later.
KITS
In the 6th grade, my Dad bought me an 'Eniac' computer kit. It was made from fibreboard with
rows and columns of drilled holes on the lower half its 18x24 inch breadboard. On the upper half,
there were four sets of concentric rings of holes, where fibreboard 'disks' with their own holes
for contacts were placed, as switches.
To 'program' this device, you would run wires from brass contacts that you would place in the upper
section, to the lower section. From there you would attach wires to other swicthes and in the end
they would in turn connect to a 'D' cell and a set of 1.5 volt lamps, your 'read-out'.
One project I assembled, was a 'Decimal To Binary Converter'. It was entered by my 6th grade
teacher into the 7th grade (and up) Math Fair. I got a Bronze Medal for Third Place!