I got interested in radio in high school. HAM radio looked fun, but I never wanted to learn morse code, so I didn't pursue it. I got into broadcast and worked at several stations in my home town...and worked with lots of Ampex equipment.


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>My father started a radio repair business after WWII, in San Francisco. Television came in 1948 and he was soon selling five different kinds of TV's, and hired 5 people to help him. He brought home a different model each evening for at least two weeks, until he settled upon one - 17 inches - huge for its day! The wood cabinet was a work of art. It cost about $400 which was about 5-6 weeks gross income for the average senior electronics technician in our area at that time.
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>Radio was fun! You got to use your imagination. When I was 3 I asked my mother “How does the voice come out of the speaker”? I ended up becoming a radio amateur, electronics technician and then an engineer. My engineering career was spent at Ampex, and they invented many things for the audio and video world – video tape recorders, instant replay, and much more. Strange how ones interest as a child can lead to a profession.
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>When I was a kid amateur radio was a springboard to the world of electronics. Today the computer provides kids with a launching pad with many possible careers.
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>By the way Ampex did some "heavy duty" work in the ceramics field for the space program. What area of ceramics are you involved with? We had many ovens and they were over 100 feet long.
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>Tom