Who (what) is tbg?

thebaldgeek is, well, a bald geek that stokes the dumpster fire of ACARS.

This is his personal blog site.

tbg has a lot of nothing to say about non-ACARS topics now and then.

I've moved house 35 times. Mainly in Australia, but 3 times in the USA.
The song "I've been every man" hits a little too close to home.

Loved electronics and radio since pre-teens. I first took my ham radio license test when I was 12. I failed, but I got it later in life. VK3TOP. VK3GR. K6TBG.

Collected hobbies for a long while, but for the past seven, I have just been doing the ACARS thing since it seems to wrap up so many of those other hobbies over the years. RF, satellite communications, networking, software, websites, and aircraft - no wonder I've stuck with it all this time.

Run the Grand Canyon twice. Hiked it 6.5 times, rafted it once, and flew in a helicopter out of it once (at the end of the rafting trip, NOT due to running it).

Driven a Range Rover across the Simpson Desert. Climbed Arys Rock before it was a thing not to climb it. Got bogged on the side of a mountain in Tasmania. Blew up a transmission on the top of the aptly named Mt Terrible in Victoria.

Spent many cold nights staring into the eyepiece of a telescope and hours in a darkroom developing photos of all kinds.
Was a docent at the Palomar Mountain Hale Telescope for about four years - it seemed like the right time to hang up my astronomer's beanie when Caltech decided they did not like public tours.

Married the most amazing gal on the planet - not a single other person would put up with me for 37 years and still make me laugh.
Two kids. One grandson.
Sadly, I lost my mum too early in her life to cancer.

Most of my working life has centered around a company called Opto22 and industrial automation.

Dyslexic, bipolar, introvert, and somewhat on some spectrum somewhere - ie, perfectly normal just like everyone else. Was once told by a co-worker, "you're the only person I know that is fueled by anger". My grandson calls me 'Grumpa'.