On Sat, 12 Jul 2003 20:59:09 -0400, Radio Amateur KC2HMZ wrote:

I wonder if any of the engineers who worked on developing surface
mount components were hams...or the engineers who took computer CPU
chip clock speeds from mHz into gHz. Oh, and didn't the hams who
happen to be NASA Mission Specialists, some of whom undoubtedly have
engineering degrees and who took ham equipment into space, contribute
anything to the hobby by doing so?

If so, they were hams working as engineers, not engineers working as
hams. Being up here in The Silicon Forest, I have come to know a
whole pile of ham-engineers at Intel and Tektronix. I daresay that
very few of them have so intertwined their professional engineering
and amateur radio activities to the point where one cannot
distinguish one from the other. Most of the ham EEs of my
acquaintance prefer to keep a very distinctive line between the two,
many under pressure of their employer.

Those who have successfully blended their specialties are folks like
Dr. Dave Leeson, W6NL/HC8L, a real DX hound who is the founder and
CEO of California Microwave and Professor of Electrical Engineering
at Stanford University, and who serves as an Expert Witness when we
go to the California legislature or into litigation over amateur
radio issues - that is if he's not off on some DXpedition or world
radio contest or other.

Another example is Phil Karn, KA9Q, who, besides our being taken for
each other because of the similarity of our names, is a whiz-bang
guru of data transmission systems with Qualcomm and has developed a
whole bunch of software for digital data transmission specifically
designed for the amateur radio service.

Finally, myself and several others across the country are a "three
way mixture" of lawyer, engineer, and active ham, all so intertwined
to make our professional lives an E-ticket ride.

In all the above situations, there is input -directly- into amateur
applications per se, not development of some system or device which
has such general application that it -could- have application in the
amateur service "somehow".

A fine - but finite - difference.

--
73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane
ARRL Volunteer Counsel
ARRL Volunteer Consulting Engineer

From a Clearing in the Silicon Forest
Beaverton (Washington County) Oregon