3 Generations of Larsen Hams - from July 6, 2003

Encouragement from David Larsen KK4WW to family members obtaining amateur radio license

Excerpts of letters to son and grandsons - 3 generations of Larsens

(David, Sr. KK4WW, David , Jr. KB3JZJ and sons Zachary KB3JZK & Jacob KB3KAD Larsen)

Amateur Radio Operators

July 6,2003

To Zachary (also fashioned to Dave, Jr. and Jacob):

Zachary  ham radio activity will benefit you in many ways you can’t foretell at this time.   The radio activity is really a great science project that will not end and you can use it your whole long life.  You will learn many things about radio -electricity ­-  antennas- communications - and of course meet many really nice and helpful people.  Hams experiment with all known forms of communications -TV-satellites- digital and internet uses -voice -code- video - FM-AM-SSB and the list just does not end.   In fact the reason that amateur radio is allowed by the US Government is for the educational benefits-- experimentation with new and unknown methods of  sending information from one place to another and emergency uses to help save lives and property.  You will learn a lot and the use of amateur radio will introduce you to new people and places around the world.   You may not be able to see it now but when you  start working in your  career - whatever it may be - it will provide that extra knowledge that others don’t have and will help you  advance faster, do a better job, make more friends and more income. This will be true if you become a minister, engineer or a poet.

One of the nice things about amateur radio is that is has no bias in human terms. You will find included as amateur radio operators lawyers - MD’s - engineers - teacher - janitors - all colors of folks and all countries- Presidents of countries ( The King of Jordan was JY1) - senators- ambassadors- fisherman - farmers - housewives - very poor people ( Remember Joseph J73JT in Castle Bruce, Dominica), Rich folks and ordinary people from all walks of life. One of my favorite hams is Walter Cronkite - he is very famous as a newscaster (If you have not looked at the CD I sent about ham radio please do as Walter narrated that one).  When you meet someone who is a ham you  will have a new friend at once and can share radio experiences .  Well I could go on and on for a long time about the advantages but I think this will give you the idea of the new world that is now available to you for the rest of your life.

Just to give you an idea of how amateur radio can be an advantage I want to share some things that have happened during my 64 1\2 years that most likely are a result me being a licensed  amateur radio operator.  

To begin - my interest in radio and electronics started when I was about 10 years old and I  built a simple crystal radio set. I could listen to the local radio station with earphones.  My mother and father did not have any radio skills -- they were old fashion farmers-- but they did encourage me just like your mother and father are doing.   When  I was about  12 years old I learned about amateur radio and thought it would really be the neatest thing to talk to someone in  a foreign country from a radio set on our farm.  I started to learn and study and in 1953 when I was 14 I obtained my first license WN7VZW. That was the start and it has not ended yet.    In high school  at 17 years old I joined the Navy   and because I had the ham license I was given the rank of E3 that is 3 up from the bottom where most start out in the navy. I did not go on active duty for one year while I finished my senior year of high school and I made one more advancement during that year to 3rd Class Petty Officer (E4) and then went on active duty.    Well to my surprise I did not go out on a ship as most sailors do but because of my electronic experience (Ham Radio) I was sent of to computer school.  I have the certificate from that school “1957” in my office in Floyd now.  After getting out of the Navy in 1959 I went to college at Oregon State University for 4 years. During those 4 years I always got a good summer job in electronics because of my radio work and the Navy experience.   After graduating from college with a major  not in engineering but Business and Technology  my first job was as electronic supervisor building two way radios for ships. This job did not have much to do with my 4 years at college but really a result of my many years of radio experience as a ham.

This first job developed into other job during the next 4 years ending up as a field service engineer for Varian Associates in California.  Again these jobs had more to do with my experience in radio and electronics than the college degree.  I do not want you  underestimate how valuable  college is and it was a combination of the two that worked for me . With out both the radio experience and the College degree my life long career would have been much  different and most likely would have excluded the exciting field of electronics.

When I was in high school I thought teaching would be a great career but at the university level. I did not really feel that I would get the opportunity to do this  until  I started to look for a university that may be able to use the  experience  I had as an  instrument engineer at Varian Associates.   In 1967 the exact type of teaching job appeared in the Virginia Tech Chemistry department ---- as a full faculty member teaching electronic instrumentation.  Remember now I only had this Bachelor of Science degree -- no engineering degree or high level degree.  Now if you want to teach at a university you will need a PHD -- this will take about 8 or so years beyond high school.  I leaped all the requirements to teach at the university  -really and truly- because I had the extra experience over the years of  my ham radio work .

I loved my teaching at Virginia Tech  from 1967 until retiring  from teaching in 1998 for 31 years.  Now you should ask during the 31 years was the ham radio any help or advantage.  The answer is and for me looking back it was an advantage beyond my wildest  imagination.  There were many times that it really paid off but let me just tell you a few of the big ones.    In the early 70’s  I became associated  with some other fellows and we started to write educational books in the area of electronics and  computers.  There were several fellows however the really important ones  were Chris and John Titus  - both of them received there PHD’s in my department.  During a 12 year period we taught several hundred professional seminars in many places around the world-- of course good old USA - Russia- Switzerland-Italy -Ukraine-Bangladesh- and others I have just forgotten  In addition to the teaching at VT and the seminars the group  of  Chris- John and myself produced a series of  books called Bugbooks and the Blacksburg Continuing Education Series.  We ended up with about 85 books in the series with some published in several foreign languages.  Over all I think about 2 million books were published. The royalty payments for these books more than paid the full college expenses for your dad and aunt Lisa.  In addition to the books the group designed electronic and computer trainers to work with the books.  As I remember 4 or 5 millions dollars worth of these trainers were sold.   You may want to see some of these books and sometime you may even want a copy to help you remember “POP” in your retirement years.  I will be most happy to share some of these  books  with you. Chris and John are still  good friends of mine and John hopes to retire soon and move to this area -- maybe even Floyd.  You may get to meet him--- guess what ? he is also an amateur radio operator.

Ham radio also was responsible for the international work  I did at  VT during the 1990’s.  I was working with the VT Vice President of  International Outreach. During this time I arranged dozens of trips for faculty and students  to and from VT from places like China, Russia, Ukraine, Guyana, Lithuania and other places. However in all these places we were working with amateur radio operators who made our arrangements.   For this  work over the years I received the first University award for International Outreach (This award came with $1000 and that was  passed on to FAIRS).The plaque for this award is now in my Floyd office.

During the international travels for VT  GayGay and I we were meeting many interesting hams. To  make this work more effective we needed an official Amateur Radio Foundation. In 1992  GayGay and I formed and founded the “ Foundation for Amateur International Radio Service “  FAIRS.  We continue to run this foundation from Floyd.   You and your dad  were part of one of our FAIRS trips to Dominica in  April of this year.  

Well the list of things and benefits I have had as a result of being a licensed amateur radio operator  is very long and it continues to be a great benefit and wonderful experience. 

I think the best is that you, Jacob, and your dad now have  your  amateur radio licenses.

I could go on for a long time about the advantages you will have as a result of becoming a ham.

However just a big congratulations for this great group you have joined as an  “ Amateur Radio Operator or Ham”

I have put copies of my old ham licenses and my first QSL card on the back of this paper. I could not find a copy of my very first license the “Novice” about 1952.

I hope you will save this letter and over the years you will learn how true  these things are I have written in this letter.

Love , Pa Pa  Dave KK4WW

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