David Larsen

It seems almost a mystery to me how I became an amateur radio operator (ham radio operator). My parents were old-fashioned farm folks, both born before the turn of the century (in the 1800s). They had no knowledge of electronics or radio, so I was on my own. I had always liked mechanical gadgets and began reading the magazine Mechanics Illustrated at about age 12. The magazine had interesting articles about how you could receive radio signals with a simple device that required no power. Just a tuning coil, crystal detector, earphones and a wire antenna. I managed to get the parts and build one and it worked like magic!My interest in how radio worked took off and it has been a lifelong interest and career. I received my first amateur radio license in 1954 and took electronics classes throughout high school. I was an electronic technician in the Navy and several jobs after college including Raytheon, Fairchild Semiconductor, and Varian Associates. I then taught Electronic Instrumentation and Automation as a faculty member at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA for 31 years before retiring in 1998. I was active as a radio ham all those years and am still active here in Floyd, Virginia on a regular basis.