Issue #42: Traits of Our Radio Innovators

[QUOTE="WY6K, post: 6938313, member: 129758"

Whether or not innovators die poor is a matter of their business focus. Most people die broke. Most people are lousy businessmen. Why would it be any different among innovators?/QUOTE]

Yes and no. Its a matter of risk taking. I don't need to lecture you on that. But others may not look at their own philosophies in that light

Three inventors I knew and or worked with had fairly or very low risk profiles; JA Pierce; Barney Oliver; Jerry Lemelson.

Jack was highly risk adverse because he lived for a long time with a chronic injury which mentally enforced limitations. He never saw any money from LORAN C, OMEGA, or his co-invention of the modern phonograph needle. Jack (not J.R. Pierce) was W1JFO.

Barney could write the book on risk and risk management. He probably got a lot of that at Bell Labs before he went to HP. Barney was well off when he passed. Didnt like ham radio BTW....

Jerry (and his reputation)got raked over the coals, especially after he died. I found that really abhorrent. Your opinion may differ. Much of Jerry's 'risk' was taken by his attorneys. One might argue they over-extended. I am agnostic to that myself. Obviously Jerry died very wealthy. I mentioned ham radio to him once and he just ignored the comment.,

73
Chip W1YW

 

Still funny!

 

It really is one of my favorite movie lines. I always say it a little wrong, but close... I actually tried it once on an immigration official, but he wasn't amused...

 

You know, I had all but forgotten about Barney Oliver. I only knew him to shake hands once or twice a long time ago. But I hired several guys out of HP Labs and heard a bit about him from them - all of which was positive. It wasn't terribly easy to get guys to leave HP Labs.

Almost none of the key guys I've known over the years had a good opinion of Ham Radio, whether in the technical or finance communities. I learned to hide my interest in it quite early. We are generally considered troglodytes. I came along a generation too late to work with people who thought radio or vacuum tubes were interesting.

I was just reading the book Crystal Fire recently. It goes into a lot of detail about the internal politics at Bell Labs when the transistor was invented, including the way Shockley treated Walter Brattain and John Bardeen. Bob Noyce was, of course, one of the guys Shockley hired into Sh0ckley Semiconductor and, later, one of the "traitorous eight". Bob invested in my first company and was on my board for a number of years and we spent a lot of time together. He is the closest thing I ever had to a mentor. We shared a number of interests, including flying and fine red wine and music. We owned a couple of planes together - and even a hang glider. We invested in several things together. Bob only talked about Shockley when Shockley would do something that got him in the news - like his views on race and IQ. Bob was always incredulous that he would say such things and, despite one's thoughts on the subject, one wonders "why anyone would he say something like that?" Bob was clear that they set up Fairchild to be anti-Shockley in nature. I heard quite a bit about that from Gene Kleiner too. I got the sense that Shockley had generated some bitterness in Gene. But I never got the sense that Bob Noyce had any great dislike for Shockley. It was more like pity - the kind of thing you must feel if you have to watch a family member go nuts and get in trouble. Head shaking. But none of the 3 that invented the transistor(s) made any money from it. Bardeen was, I think, the most successful academically. If I remember correctly, he got two Nobel prizes along the way. But I don't think any of them died in actual poverty. Shockley tried to cash in, but crashed instead.

It's hard to think of a more pivotal innovation than semiconductor electronics. I am still in awe. But again, I came along a generation too late to be a factor. I joined National Semi in 1972 or so. I didn't contribute anything wonderful to the growth of National. I worked for and with the guys who did, who built the company. But I was just a bit too late. Got a few options, made a few interesting things while there, but nothing fundamental. I worked for Pierre LaMonde and worked with Don Valentine and Widler and Dobkin and Dale Mrazek, et al. It was my introduction to an entrepreneurial environment and to Silicon Valley. I have only good memories about it.

Fun to remember these things - thanks for getting this going!

 

Michael,

I am glad you made these comments public!

Too often the excitement AND the rough and tumble of innovation and business are whitewashed or distorted in books, for example. Your comments give many here a sense of what this is like. Thanks for doing that!

BTW... very few here know who Bob Noyce was, despite the fact that every one of their radios after 1975 has his creation in them. In fact, heck, everything has'em!

Hope they follow thru and look him up on the web. Quite the guy


73
Chip W1YW

 

You are right about that. Bob is still the king of Silicon Valley. Not only did he invent the integrated circuit, he also established THE Silicon Valley management style, including stock options, hiring people who are better than you are, providing everyone an upward growth path, strategic planning, timed development steps, no offices - just dividers.. He guided Intel through the transition from memory company to microprocessor company, and much more. He also made sure there were always a couple of "seed round" VC firms around. His philosophy was that "good engineers" should always have money to work with. If no VCs would do it, he would give them seed money. He was also a great guy.

 

I knew someone years ago who was an inventor. His entire life revolved around the next scheme, finding money to build a manufacturing plant, and selling his products to a large industry full of well-connected and well-heeled companies that would be glad to take his product and make it themselves. He passed away broke and possibly a little crazy from all of it. My point in bringing it up is that "it all depends". It depends on the individual, it depends on how realistic they are, it depends on how savvy they are, and it depends on if their invention makes any sense at all.

IMHO, innovation is far more exciting, and I think it's alive and well in the amateur community. From the musings on the Ham Radio Workbench and SolderSmoke podcasts, to the articles found in many publications such as ER Magazine, QST, and the Spectrum Monitor -- innovation is everywhere. Hams are integrating available ideas and products into solutions that solve problems. For example, it's not necessary to reinvent the Si5351a chip -- but there are, however, countless opportunities to integrate the power of that chip in useful ways.

73 - Steve, KW4H

 

Thanks for the comment Steve. We've had some great conversation in this thread. Happy to have picked this topic for T&E this month. I agree with you that there is lots of innovation going on in the amateur community. It's not all "plug and play" . . . yet.

Dave, W7DGJ

 

Maybe I should host a seminar entitled "How to get wealth out of your Innovation (and avoid dying in poverty)". $25k per ticket, one (or maybe two) full day(s), here in Dallas, unlimited number of implementation follow up sessions over the following six months.

 

I simply wanted to commend Dave for his excellent article.

It's interesting that I chose the 2000 Italian lira bill as my avatar without knowing this much about Marconi. 2000 lira was about $1 at the time of the conversion to the euro. One was lucky to get a cup of espresso at a coffee bar with 2000 lira!

So then I suppose that the Banca d'Italia had a great esteem for Marconi, given that his bill was so widely circulated.

Again, thanks.

73, Jordan AB2T

 

Marconi played the mamba. Listen to the radio! Don't you remember?

73 de Jim N2EY

 

Please list some of these recent—say within 5 years— innovations in ham radio

Not FT8 variants… those are not recent.

73
Chip W1YW

 

Look at the T41EP SDT developed by AC8GY and W8TEE, along with several hundred through open-sourcing and further developed by K9HZ with available boards. This is a good example of what hams can do.

 

Hi John, good suggestion. The whole Ham open source community is really amazing. I had an article a few issues ago about Open Source and Michelle Thompson really nailed it on some of the major issues that we have going forward in OS development, but the T41EP is a good example of an innovative kit. I'm not sure it represents any giant step forward in terms of SDR technology . . . perhaps you could clarify. I'm not being difficult . . . I just don't have the knowledge base to understand where the big innovation is on this unit. It's clearly unique in the kit business, that's for sure. I think it is super cool looking as a side benefit! Dave, W7DGJ

 

I think it has more to do with the use the software, in combination with AI, and DSPs. The imagination of hams drives the growth of the project on what a transceiver can be, growing the technology