Wayne Green was a crackpot…but he was a great one.
For those of you who aren’t as old as I am, Wayne Green, W2NSD, was not only the publisher of 73 Magazine, but also the founder of Byte and other PC magazines in the early days of personal computing. In 73, he would write these long, rambling editorials. Often, he would take the ARRL to task, criticizing what he thought to be some lunk-headed policy or another.
Just as often, he’d be encouraging hams to take up some new technology. He was, for example, one of the guys driving hams to set up repeater systems.
He would often exhort hams to get started in their own technology-related business. I remember one column where he urged hams to get involved in the home-security business. And, of course, when personal computers became popular, he wrote that hams should think about getting into that business. His reasoning was that our knowledge of electronics would stand us in good stead in those businesses.
Today, I think that he would be telling us to get more involved in with technologies like the Internet of Things, WiFi, or whatever other wireless technology is coming down the pike. “Wireless” is the key word here. These networking technologies are based on good, old radio, and who better to push these technologies forward than guys like us who understand radio.
This point was brought home to me last week as I was interviewing an executive of a wireless company for an article that I’m writing. He said to me that many of the companies he works with are taking a software-centric view to their wireless products. They simply use the reference designs provided by the wireless chip makers and expect those designs to work flawlessly in their products.
While they often do, he gave me an example where simply using the reference design was a colossal failure. In one case, he said, the company mounted the board inside a metal enclosure. Since the antenna was part of the printed-circuit board, the enclosure acted like a shield and the device had little or no range.
He went on to say that he thought that there was a real shortage of experienced RF guys in the wireless industry. Does that sound like an opportunity to you? It does to me. I’m going to make like Wayne Green here and exhort all you guys to get out there and take advantage of it.
This is not only a business opportunity, but a way for amateur radio operators to fulfill a couple of the “purposes” of amateur radio, as set forth in Part 97.1 of the amateur radio regulations. Part 97.1(b) says that one of the purposes of the Amateur Radio Service is “Continuation and extension of the amateur’s proven ability to contribute to the advancement of the radio art.” According to Part 97.1(d), another purpose of the Amateur Radio Service is “Expansion of the existing reservoir within the amateur radio service of trained operators, technicians, and electronics experts.”
Let’s do it!
Scott WZ0W says
I totally agree, Dan. I think amateur radio mesh networking, for example, is going to be a big part of our hobby’s future.
Bob K0NR says
Wayne would probably be all over cool technology such as Raspberry Pi, Internet of Things and mesh radio networks. Then he’d go off on some crazy talk about his latest conspiracy theory or quack science.
Dan KB6NU says
What? You mean we’re not going to have cold fusion reactors in place by 2025? :)
Frank WA8WHP says
One thing that hit us here, drones. We have a local start-up company that wants all their employees licensed. I haven’t looked at the rules yet, but all drones over 0.55 pounds must be registered and I think the pilots are to be licensed amateurs.
Don N4KC says
Great points, Dan. I often write in articles and books and tell groups that amateur radio is great training, not only for a lifetime career but a mid-life or post-retirement career change. That is also true of non-technical careers. What we learn about communicating…and simply learning to learn…can help us in myriad ways.
Wayne was quite the interesting character. I had the pleasure of introducing him as speaker at our local hamfest banquet in the mid-70s and he had the audience enthralled. Many don’t know that he was also a WWII vet, serving aboard the submarine USS Drum.
I don’t know what beer he drank but he could easily have been the world’s most interesting man!
73,
Don N4KC
http://www.n4kc.com
http://www.donkeith.com
Mike K8XF says
What would Wayne do? Thats a great question. He was always shooting off his big mouth in his long editorials in 73 magazine about some strange thing. He was the guy that once said the astronauts never went to the moon, and that the lunar program was a trick by the U.S. government to secure more money for the Vietnam war. I remember back in Detroit, many hams despised this guy.
Dave, N8SBE says
My personal Wayne story:
As I was nearing my graduation date from college, back in the 70’s, I was tinkering with 8-bit micros and dreaming up interesting ham radio related projects with them. I thought it would be neat to start a business making kits or assembled units to sell to the ham community, but being a poor grad student (who also didn’t get his hair cut very often), I thought that Wayne could put me in contact with some investors that would funnel seed money to me so I could buy enough material for my first 100 units (usually the first quantity discount level for components in those days). Wayne was speaking about the future of computers at the Atlanta hamfest/computerfest, and so I listened to his talk, and approached him afterwards. After explaining what I wanted to do, I will never forget his reaction:
“First thing you do, shave off the beard, cut a haircut, and put on a suit and tie. Because like it or not, those are the kinds of people you will have to deal with.”
That’s it. No business cards of well-heeled investors. I was crushed.
Funny, though. When I left school, I ended up working for IBM, doing micro projects in a product assurance laboratory, and went from there to several small high-tech firms doing embedded controller projects, leading to a 30-plus year career of embedded software development.
Now, I work at a large automotive OEM, but my deep background in RF (licensed since I was in high school), networking, and embedded systems have led me to an automotive technical specialist position in RF and cyber-security.
Was that what Wayne had in mind? Who knows? I’m not sure if he ended up influencing me or not, since I’ve gone back to wearing a beard…
Sam W5KF says
Everything that you wrote about Wayne Greeen was right on. Back in those days, I kinda had mixed feelings about Wayne. As a medical professional, I was particularly worried with his promotion of colloidal silver, as it is far from harmless, but to say that he pushed the envelope in life would be a vast understatement. He was entertaining at least, and he was certainly thought provoking. I do miss Wayne….
Bruce K8RQX says
I remember Wayne, and he was a ham that always pushed the envelope. One thing, he was never afraid to speak his mind. He did push the envelope, and his greatest gift was causing people to think. As a young kid, I looked forward to reading 73 magazine each month. Wayne and 73 magazine (along with many others) are part of our radio fraternities history. We’ve grown because of them.