Ever since I was young I was fascinated by radio. My early recollections were of me watching Adam-12 (1968 – 1975) on TV. What fascinated me the most about the show was the use of the radio, and the pragmatic tone of the dispatcher using radio language.

I so wanted to be a cop just so I can talk on the radio. There was also a real fascinating show call Emergency (1972 – 1979) with more radio use and language that for a kid seemed rather strange.

The 70’s also seen the explosion of the popularity of CB radio. My first venture into CB radio was one Christmas morning when I received the best gift a father could give a son. Walkie-Talkies!!

I turned them on and the noise was deafening and addictive at the same time. All of these voices from all over the place talking to each other was amazing. I didn’t know it at the time but the 70s was a peak of the sun spot cycle and the ‘skip’ as it was called was very good. I could hear stations from all over North America, but why would they not answer me when I called them? I had so much to learn.

Needless to say I was hooked and radio communication would become a lifelong fascination.

As an amateur, I’ve noticed that many hams have similar interests. In the 80s, I put down the soldering gun and started with my first computer, the VIC-20. I moved up to the Commodore 64, and with the assistance of a programmer, we complied my first Scanner book for Manitoba. It wasn’t the greatest creation with limited computing power, but it was a very good learning opportunity.    

To this day, I’m still heavily involved in I.T. I’ve been involved with PCs, since the early 8086. I moved up to the 8088, the 286, the 386, 486, Pentium, and so on. Oh, the memories.

Radio is a passion, and so is aviation. I’ve always wanted to get my PPL. Well, I always wanted to fly a 747 but that wasn’t going to happen. Pilots often talk about their proud moments in their career. For me, it was my solo flight in April 2006. Something I will always remember.

Around the same time, I wrote my first novel about the next 9/11. It was based on an aviation theme of course. The book is called ‘Today Is When’ and is available on Amazon. I have on the back burner a few other books with an historic look on a few subjects. Maybe one day I’d like to bring these to light.

For the last many years, along with family (all grown and gone now) radio, I.T., photography, I’ve been researching many subjects. Not only am I fascinated on how electronics works, I’m also very curious on many other subjects as a Christian, wanting to find answers for the big questions.