Hi everyone,
Yesterday @branko told me that I had become Outernet’s VFOV (Very First Official Volunteer)! I’m really pleased to be supporting this excellent project and, at the suggestion of @branko, I’m writing a few words of introduction about myself here.
First the personal stuff. I’m 53 years old, British, and I live with Christine, our three kids and seven cats in a small village in the county of Suffolk, which is in East Anglia (the easternmost part of England). I’ve been interested in radio and electronics ever since I built my first single-diode “crystal” radio back when I was about 8 or 9. I hold a ham radio licence - G6EYY - although the last entry in my log was probably 20 years ago! I used to be able to write computer code by hand-punching Hollerith Cards, and I also used to hand-assemble 6502 microprocessor machine code - so as you can see, I am something of a tech dinosaur!
Professionally, I am a Chartered Engineer, having first studied electrical and electronic engineering, and then specialising in satellite communications systems engineering. I worked for British Telecom between 1979 and 1990, when I left to start working as an independant consultant. Since 1993 I have been providing consulting, engineering, software and training in the satellite commincations fileld, specialising in link engineering, interference analysis, spectrum managemnt and regulation through my company RPC Telecom.
I am especially interested in the satellite and radio technology aspects of Outernet, and I hope that I might be able to contribute something useful in these areas.
That’s enough about me, I guess, but do feel free to AMA if you want to know anything more. I look forward to other volunteers joining me here and to working with @syed, @branko and the rest of the Outernet team to support this project.