Have your circuit-building activities led you to a career? I know Roy
does RF engineering consulting work and is most famous for NEC code
for antenna simulation. Any others? Is anyone here working at
Perkin-Elmer? OI Corporation? Or any of the numerous smaller
instrumentation companies? I can see what types of engineering
careers homebrewing can lead to: not only RF, but also
instrumentation/controls. In fact, many of the projects in the ARRL
books are electronic measuring devices.

I graduated with my BSEE from UIUC in 1996. If I had been a ham radio
operator and a homebrewer as an undergraduate in electrical
engineering, I would probably have invented a time machine by now.

In fact, if it were not for ham radio and the Northern Virginia QRP
group, I would have no business in EE today. Although I had
originally intended to study RF engineering when I applied for
graduate schools last year, I changed my mind and switched to the
control systems specialty when I enrolled. Working on simple
electronics projects (like a car battery tester and electromagnetic
field monitor) opened my mind to other parts of EE. I saw that
instrumentation and control systems are used in a much wider variety
of industries than RF systems. I saw instrumentation/controls as an
area that would have value in many areas outside telecom and defense.

Last semester, I designed and built a better SWR/wattmeter, one that
could handle 100W like the MFJ versions, provide good measurements at
QRP power levels, AND provide good resolution at high SWR levels. (I
owe a thank-you to those of you who helped answer my questions.)

I am scheduled to graduate with my MSEE next year, but I am willing to
delay my graduation for an electronic instrumentation engineering
position.

Jason Hsu, AG4DG