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. Too many to list, but built and flew RC gliders, electric aircraft, and helicopters for a good while. Custom-built and repaired racing and photography drones. All kinds of photography, film from way back, and digital when it became a thing. Video and audio production / editing. Of course, all sorts of electronics, building, repairing, and computers of all kinds in that mix as well.
However, for the past seven years, I have primarily focused on the ACARS project, as it seems to encompass many of those other hobbies that I've pursued 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 astro 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. 18 years programming Opto hardware to run the Ballarat hospital in Victoria, Australia. 17 years working at Opto22 HQ in Temecula, California.

Listen to all sorts of music, not a fan of country or opera (can't hear the words or follow the story), but by far and away, the thing that lights up my brain is electronic music. Moog synthesizers - old school analog ones - are my thing (built more than a few back in the day.
Huge Solarstone pure trance fan. Andy Blueman knows how to carry an uplifting, pure trance track that can rewire my brain.

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