About Me
I’m originally from downstate Illinois, where I dropped out of high school and went to college. From time to time I have bounced around between four continents. In my free time I enjoy scuba diving, international travel, excellent writing, and the great outdoors.
Above:
I also enjoy ham radio, and made a WSPR (low-power) radio beacon with a dipole antenna and a
Raspberry Pi in my apartment. This image shows a sample of contacts it made in a one-hour
period at a wavelength of 20 meters, while consuming 2 watts— just a little more than a MacBook in sleep mode. (Image generated by http://wspr.aprsinfo.com/.) It’s amazing how far these signals can travel under the right ionospheric conditions.
Other contacts include sundry locales like the Canadian High Arctic, Iceland, Finland, Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean, Brazil,the German research station Neumayer-Station III in Antarctica, and the icebreaker Polarstern.
Above: I taught math and physics at a secondary school somewhere in Kenya
for a couple years. Here are some of the very memorable second-year students.
Above: A day in the neighborhood. One of the men in the background
is Naning’o, one of the school watchmen. Frankly the place was one of the more interesting
town-and-gown setups I’ve experienced during my time in academia.
