Are you a “Gadget Guy” (Girl)? My Lifelong Passion for Tinkering

Remember the old Meccano Kids sets?  Well, that was never enough for me. I remember receiving Christmas gifts and immediately taking them apart with a screwdriver, driven by a need to understand their inner workings.

There was the time I caught a world of hurt from my father after I wired my entire bed with 120 volt lightbulbs.  They were tiny, but I thought it looked space-age.  When dad came in, he saw what I had done with his snap-on lights and then he stared at the live wires, wholly unimpressed with my technical savvy as he contemplated the house burning down or his kid getting zapped.  Still, I know he appreciated the initiative - or at least that’s what I told my 10-year-old self.

My father and I even built our first computer system, at a time when we were among the few in our city to even own a computer. We soldered every chip on the board, and I learned basic programming at the age of 11 or 12. Even a pinball machine wasn't safe from my curiosity; I disassembled it to understand and manipulate its controls.  Of course, whenever friends and cousins came over to play the pinball machine, I would always win, knowing the quirks I had programmed into the system.  The pinball wizardry was rigged - by me. 

Using Southwest Technical Corporation's S100 bus, which employed a cassette tape to load the OS, we upgraded its 2k memory to 4k, a significant achievement at the time. We also converted a teletype machine into a printer.  We thought it was so cool back then.  We even experimented with early forms of communication, using packet radio to send messages before the advent of email.Today, this early interest in packet radio has evolved into a mesh network used in emergencies when cell signals are unavailable. This network, known as AReDN, is accessible to any amateur radio enthusiast.

From a young age, I was surrounded by a world of gadgets. While my twin brother pursued a career in the Coast Guard and my younger brother delved into the economics of spectrum auctions, my path was always clear: I was destined to be a gadget guy.   The passion wasn't just a hobby; it became the cornerstone of my professional life.

That boyish pursuit of tinkering, and love for electronics and gadgetry, have not only shaped my career in power quality but have also kept the childlike wonder of exploration alive within me. So if you have a kid who loves tinkering with gadgets, maybe ignore the mess he or she is making and just let them explore.  You never know where it will lead.