The SCADA and Greenhouses stuff sounds cool. I'd like to hear more about that kind of integration.
When I got the GROL, it was rather ironic, since by that time I was an ARRL VE and I could have given myself the test, lol. I didn't study for the radar endorsement but I took it anyway (threw away $50, lol).
I love CW. Had the pleasure of being invited to participate in an experiment at MIT with Morse code. I have 238 countries on CW with 100 watts only. I had a 3 ele yagi on my roof. It was a trapped 15m/20m with an interlaced 10m 3 ele in between, and the 10m was fed with a hairpin. This is a very old photo taken with one of the first digital cameras:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/C9STNk9k14Rkd45V6
I was invited on an Antarctic DXpedition back in the 90s but I had to decline due to a terrible back injury. I was chosen to be on the CW team.
When the no-code tech license came out a lot of the old-timers were upset by that. I had personally met Bill Potts, the lawyer that took the 22o band away from amateur radio. He said it was "easy" because the ARRL doesn't understand how to make successful arguments for keeping all that spectrum. Realistically, Morse code proficiency was the single most important factor in separating the general public from ham radio operators. Otherwise, all that spectrum could be converted to some general FRS or VHF CB (which would solve the "skipland" issues with CB).
When I got my license, there were 5 license classes. I went from Novice in February to Extra in November. It was a fun ride.
I moved to Taiwan in 2004. Feb 5th is my 17th year. I run a small YouTube channel called TaiwanLiveTV (just like that, no spaces). Later this evening (my time) in around 30 to 45 minutes from the time of this message, I'll be doing a live stream as I walk around one of the more interesting places in East Taiwan. Maybe I'll see you
I've thought of becoming a VE (Volunteer Examiner, though maybe it should be "Veteran Examiner" with all the gray/white hair around), just need to find the time. I'm currently preparing for the commercial drone license exam since some of my clients now want me to provide transmission line inspections since learning of my drone experience - one thing leads to the next - it's always been that way in my life.
I can understand old-timers not liking the elimination of the CW requirement, especially for the higher licenses. Conversely, you have people like me and friends who have the technical background, wanted to become Hams since college and yet felt that CW should be an option rather than a requirement. After all, you do get access to additional band space for CW, and you can use it anywhere in any band, so it's not as if the requirement doesn't come with a reward for the effort. But to require it for a technical license level never seemed fair. I'm old enough to remember that before the Tech license, you couldn't get any Ham license without CW. Finally, it's hard enough attracting people to become a Ham these days because of the technical requirements that it's good CW isn't yet another obstruction. We've got a lot of valuable bandwidth I don't want to see us lose and the only way to keep it is to build the ranks further. It's not all that different from making music: many want to participate, but the gear isn't cheap and it's extremely difficult to make money at it these days. Even then, younger generations don't appear to appreciate live music as much as before unless it's from big time acts. The only way to break in now appears to be to start by building a channel on line to get enough followers. I played professionally for years, but I never would have gotten into it if I had to build a channel first - that doesn't interest me whereas I still compose, play and record my music, and even sit in with a band now and then, but it's getting rarer as the music keeps changing; my biggest musical passion is the blues, not hip hop or such.
You went quickly through the licenses, and that included the Advanced. I got my Tech and General last May and at the test session learned that the Extra would get revised in 5 weeks with new questions. There was another test session in 3 weeks, so I got my Extra 3 weeks later with some additional study in between the tests. My knowledge of Smith charts and such had faded since college. Of course, it's certainly easier for people like us already in the field with much of the theory already under our belt. I learned a few things studying, but most was a refresher for those areas I had learned years before but hadn't used. Refreshing is far easier than initial learning. If the code requirement were still there, I would have stopped at the Tech license because it's all I needed for using higher power on my drones and I would have never gotten on the air. But because CW wasn't required, I did go higher, am now on the air, was on a tips program last evening on Echolink, and am considering becoming a VE, etc. It drew me into this world whereas CW would have forever kept me out.
I'll be occasionally catching your channel - thanks for its name! And Wow! The Antarctic DXpedition sounds so cool! Too bad you couldn't go.
Ok, as for your comment of interest: SCADA stands for "Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition" systems. It's what are used by electric, water, and gas utilities to monitor and control their operations. Most of my clients are electric utilities and we use such systems to monitor substation and generator operations, such as transmission and feeder volts, amps, watts, volt-amps, power factor, etc. The system is also used for operating breakers, adjusting set points for generator output levels, whether they're also used to put out VARs to compensate for a bad power factor, etc. The systems also monitor diesel generator engine parameters such as oil and water temps and pressures, RPM, emission control system parameters, etc. I get hired to design such systems, which today is more of a system build from purchasable components, doing software programming, and lots of network switch, router, and firewall configuration because everything is IP these days. I only need to design actual circuits for those applications for which a device cannot be purchased or for interfacing otherwise non-compatible equipment with a system.
As for my greenhouse work, I've been creating SCADA systems for small growers and a few large ones - these are circuits I design and program using micro-controllers, regulators, gates, PLCs and such. There are SCADA systems now for large greenhouse complexes, but they're too expensive for small growers - my devices fill that niche. But I'm finding lots of other applications for this kind of system so I don't plan to ever retire. I love electrical and electronic engineering as well as the software and networking components and one of my favorite activities is creating new algorithms to measure hitherto difficult to measure parameters and characteristics of the growth environment. So I'm essentially being payed to play and I don't think that excitement will go away anytime soon.
Do you ever get on the air or use Echolink?
