KL7UW - Personal Info
I was born in up-state New York in 1944. Both my parents come from farming families. My father's
family is from english-scotish-french ancestory reaching back to pre-revolutionary times in America.
My mother's parents emigrated from Lithuania around 1900, arriving at Ellis Island, NY in 1902.
They left Lithuania in their late "teens", eloping, and my grandfather avoiding the Russian Army draft.
They escaped over the Polish border and booked passage to Hamburg, Germany from Gdansk.
They got as far as Scotland when they ran out of funds, living for two years where their first two
children were born. They worked in the coal mines of Pennsylvania for thirty years saving their
money so that they could buy a farm. My mother is the youngest of their nine children.
My folks both grew up in the Chenango Valley of New York. My father was in the
Navy for my first two years of life when I lived with my mother in New York state.
After my Dad returned from serving with the occupation forces in Japan, we
moved to Detroit and later to Lansing while he attended college at MSU for his
teaching degree in Agricultural Science.
In 1949 we moved to a small town north of Lansing when my Dad got his first
teaching job. We moved to Mayville, Michigan in 1953 where we lived until
moving in 1959 to Sandusky, Michigan when my Dad took a job in the
Cooperative Extension Service.
My folks in FL 1999 (Click to see larger image).
In 1956 my Dad bought a small farm and began his Christmas Tree business. He also leased other
farms in the area to plant more acreage to trees. He says that his original intent was to raise enough
funds to pay for my college but their business thrived beyond their expectations so that my Dad was
able to retire from teaching when he was 58 years old.
They continued to operate the Christmas tree farm into their 70's,
and now are retired with a nice new home overlooking a pond on a
corner of the farm.
I have two sisters born in 1954 and 1956. My oldest sister, Laurie,
is married to a retired MSU college professor who operate a
Christmas tree farm near East Lansing, Michigan. My other sister,
Linda, is married and they both worked for Disney World in Orlando,
FL until recently when my sister took a job with Coca Cola in
Atlanta. I have one niece, Trista (daughter of my older sister)
who lives in Florida.
Christmas 2003 Photo: (back-row: myself, Laurie, Trista, Mel, Linda, Eddie, Front-row My parents)
In 1962 I graduated from Sandusky High School and entered college at MSU as an electrical
engineering student. I graduated in 1968 with a BS-Math, minor in EE. Elsewhere, I have covered
my life and career before to moving to Alaska.
In 1979, I made some mid-life decisions. I had lived and worked in the city for ten years and
reached "burn-out" in that live-style. I was active in outdoor activities like skiing and hiking and
hunkered to live in a more natural environment. The north has intriqued me from reading books
of gold miners and trappers when I was a kid. So, after having thoroughly explored the western
states, I was convinced that one needed to get a little farther "out".
In spring of 1979, I learned that my job would disappear at JPL, so I made plans to move to Alaska.
I left on August 22, 1979, traveling up through Montana into the Canadian Rockies and from there
into British Columbia. I decided to take the shorter Cassier Hwy versus the full-length of the
Alaska Hwy.
I spent nearly two months on my trip, taking in several side trips
to make it a vacation to remember. I arrived in Anchorage in late
September to look for work. On the weekend, I explored a small,
former "gold-rush" town on the Kenai Peninsula, called Hope.
I ended up renting a one-room cabin with no electric, no running
water, and heated by wood. I lived in Hope for the next ten years.
Vida and me in front of my cabin in fall of 1980.
My first few years I was able to find seasonal work as an electronic technician with the BLM in
Fairbanks, a Marine Radar Shop in Homer, then jobs in Anchorage and Bethel, Alaska. I got to
see a lot of the bush on these jobs traveling as far north as Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean and
Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands.
Hope was 78-miles by road from Anchorage so I made that trip about once a month for groceries
and to fill the tank on my diesel International Scout truck. This led to joining the Anchorage Amateur
Radio Club and in 1982 volunteering to operate from a remote village during the Iditarod Sled Dog
Race. To do that I needed to have my General Class license for operating HF. That was how I got
movitivated to up my code speed to qualify, and then took the Advanced Exam while I was at that.
I decided to change my call sign to AL7EB at that time.
In 1982 I bought an acre of land in Hope and lived in a platform
tent while I began building a two-story log cabin. I wanted to
try dog mushing and bought a seven month-old puppy in Fairbanks
in 1980. It didn't take too many litters of puppies before I
had a team. I local musher sold me a lead dog and a sled in 1984
so I finally had a working team. I will relate more about
mushing and sled dogs on the sled dog page.
I sold the cabin in 2003.
I did not have much money in those first years in Alaska, but did manage to set up a satellite
stations to work AO-10. I bought my first computer (a Commodore-64) for running a tracking
program. My station consisted of a TS-180, IC-211, and MM432/28 transverter. I used two
Cushcraft satellite beams with a totally "armstrong" az-el rotation scheme. I rotated the mast
for azimuth and lifted the cross-boom fitted with a ordinary hinge with a rope and pulley.
Since I had no commercial electricity, I ran a gasoline generator to charge a marine battery.
My cookstove and lights were propane fueled. I even had a 7-inch 12-volt TV!
After 1985 Alaska's economy "crashed" and I went four years without employment. I tried
to find work by prospecting radio work on the fisherman's piers in Seward (80-miles from home),
and fixing TV's and toaster-ovens. Those were pretty lean times. I made most of my income
from the $125 rent of a cabin on my property. In 1987, I started my own satellite-TV dealership
and did OK until spring of 1989.
The wreck of the Exxon-Valdez and subsequent oil-spill had major impact in Alaska in 1989.
I got a job as a radio dispatcher and had a real income for the first time in a decade since leaving
California. I came to the conclusion that it was unrealistic to continue living in Hope, and
decided that I would move to find regular work. After working a year in Valdez, I found work as
a radio technician in Soldotna. I worked there until taking my current job with Cook Inlet Spill
Prevention and Response as their communications technician in March of 1994. A year later
I bought my present 3-bedroom home with a barn on 5-acres in Nikiski.
After 59 years as a single man, I decided to look for a wife. I met her on my second day
searching an on-line dating service and a year and a half later we were married. Last spring I flew
to Mississippi to help her move, driving her mini-van north with her Border Collie, Freckles.
{this story is not finished}
My folks both grew up in the Chenango Valley of New York. My father was in the
Navy for my first two years of life when I lived with my mother in New York state.
After my Dad returned from serving with the occupation forces in Japan, we
moved to Detroit and later to Lansing while he attended college at MSU for his
teaching degree in Agricultural Science.
In 1949 we moved to a small town north of Lansing when my Dad got his first
teaching job. We moved to Mayville, Michigan in 1953 where we lived until
moving in 1959 to Sandusky, Michigan when my Dad took a job in the
Cooperative Extension Service.
My folks in FL 1999 (Click to see larger image).
In 1956 my Dad bought a small farm and began his Christmas Tree business. He also leased other
farms in the area to plant more acreage to trees. He says that his original intent was to raise enough
funds to pay for my college but their business thrived beyond their expectations so that my Dad was
able to retire from teaching when he was 58 years old.
They continued to operate the Christmas tree farm into their 70's,
and now are retired with a nice new home overlooking a pond on a
corner of the farm.
I have two sisters born in 1954 and 1956. My oldest sister, Laurie,
is married to a retired MSU college professor who operate a
Christmas tree farm near East Lansing, Michigan. My other sister,
Linda, is married and they both worked for Disney World in Orlando,
FL until recently when my sister took a job with Coca Cola in
Atlanta. I have one niece, Trista (daughter of my older sister)
who lives in Florida.
Christmas 2003 Photo: (back-row: myself, Laurie, Trista, Mel, Linda, Eddie, Front-row My parents)
In 1962 I graduated from Sandusky High School and entered college at MSU as an electrical
engineering student. I graduated in 1968 with a BS-Math, minor in EE. Elsewhere, I have covered
my life and career before to moving to Alaska.
In 1979, I made some mid-life decisions. I had lived and worked in the city for ten years and
reached "burn-out" in that live-style. I was active in outdoor activities like skiing and hiking and
hunkered to live in a more natural environment. The north has intriqued me from reading books
of gold miners and trappers when I was a kid. So, after having thoroughly explored the western
states, I was convinced that one needed to get a little farther "out".
In spring of 1979, I learned that my job would disappear at JPL, so I made plans to move to Alaska.
I left on August 22, 1979, traveling up through Montana into the Canadian Rockies and from there
into British Columbia. I decided to take the shorter Cassier Hwy versus the full-length of the
Alaska Hwy.
I spent nearly two months on my trip, taking in several side trips
to make it a vacation to remember. I arrived in Anchorage in late
September to look for work. On the weekend, I explored a small,
former "gold-rush" town on the Kenai Peninsula, called Hope.
I ended up renting a one-room cabin with no electric, no running
water, and heated by wood. I lived in Hope for the next ten years.
Vida and me in front of my cabin in fall of 1980.
My first few years I was able to find seasonal work as an electronic technician with the BLM in
Fairbanks, a Marine Radar Shop in Homer, then jobs in Anchorage and Bethel, Alaska. I got to
see a lot of the bush on these jobs traveling as far north as Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean and
Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands.
Hope was 78-miles by road from Anchorage so I made that trip about once a month for groceries
and to fill the tank on my diesel International Scout truck. This led to joining the Anchorage Amateur
Radio Club and in 1982 volunteering to operate from a remote village during the Iditarod Sled Dog
Race. To do that I needed to have my General Class license for operating HF. That was how I got
movitivated to up my code speed to qualify, and then took the Advanced Exam while I was at that.
I decided to change my call sign to AL7EB at that time.
In 1982 I bought an acre of land in Hope and lived in a platform
tent while I began building a two-story log cabin. I wanted to
try dog mushing and bought a seven month-old puppy in Fairbanks
in 1980. It didn't take too many litters of puppies before I
had a team. I local musher sold me a lead dog and a sled in 1984
so I finally had a working team. I will relate more about
mushing and sled dogs on the sled dog page.
I sold the cabin in 2003.
I did not have much money in those first years in Alaska, but did manage to set up a satellite
stations to work AO-10. I bought my first computer (a Commodore-64) for running a tracking
program. My station consisted of a TS-180, IC-211, and MM432/28 transverter. I used two
Cushcraft satellite beams with a totally "armstrong" az-el rotation scheme. I rotated the mast
for azimuth and lifted the cross-boom fitted with a ordinary hinge with a rope and pulley.
Since I had no commercial electricity, I ran a gasoline generator to charge a marine battery.
My cookstove and lights were propane fueled. I even had a 7-inch 12-volt TV!
After 1985 Alaska's economy "crashed" and I went four years without employment. I tried
to find work by prospecting radio work on the fisherman's piers in Seward (80-miles from home),
and fixing TV's and toaster-ovens. Those were pretty lean times. I made most of my income
from the $125 rent of a cabin on my property. In 1987, I started my own satellite-TV dealership
and did OK until spring of 1989.
The wreck of the Exxon-Valdez and subsequent oil-spill had major impact in Alaska in 1989.
I got a job as a radio dispatcher and had a real income for the first time in a decade since leaving
California. I came to the conclusion that it was unrealistic to continue living in Hope, and
decided that I would move to find regular work. After working a year in Valdez, I found work as
a radio technician in Soldotna. I worked there until taking my current job with Cook Inlet Spill
Prevention and Response as their communications technician in March of 1994. A year later
I bought my present 3-bedroom home with a barn on 5-acres in Nikiski.
After 59 years as a single man, I decided to look for a wife. I met her on my second day
searching an on-line dating service and a year and a half later we were married. Last spring I flew
to Mississippi to help her move, driving her mini-van north with her Border Collie, Freckles.
{this story is not finished}