When I was 9 years old, a neighbor gave me a set of books titled "Audell's Electrical Guide." I was hooked. I scrounged parts from the junk bin behind a radio repair shop and tinkered together a "short wave" radio. It worked! Trouble was, everything was in Morse code. I learned the code and worked to get my speed to the requisite 13 wpm to obtain a ham radio license, but I had to wait for the war to end before ham radio transmission was allowed again. Since that modest beginning, I worked at the Stanford High Energy Physics Laboratory. Later, I became part owner of a research company and then owned an industrial motion picture studio. For the last 11 years of a varied career, I produced and directed video programs for the Westinghouse Marine Division. Now retired, I live with my wife on the Washington Olympic Peninsula, writing, teaching emergency communication and ham radio licensing classes, and manning the ARES Resources radio net for Clallam County.