KM6XZ - sounds like interesting story. Wouldnt you write more ? Why did you move to Russia ? 
It was a great time for geeks in Northern California, where the combination of so many high tech hardware companies were located all within a few miles of each other so there was an unusually large percentage of all the engineers designing test equipment anywhere were in the same vicinity. The discussions around the breakfast snack booth probably accounted for more career moves, new ideas, or collaborations on new start ups than any VC conference. Just about everyone had worked at some time in their career for HP or Fairchild which in turned spawned hundreds of engineer created start ups in the first wave of Silicon Valley which was hardware.The second wave of Silicon Valley was the web and computer software which took over as hardware production wound down.
I was pretty familiar with all the test instruments so if I saw a module or sub assembly in a pile it was pretty rare that I did not know what it was and what it came out of. Before that, as a kid growing up close to a surplus disposal site, where sales and auctions were conduction regularly at MacCellan Air Base north of Sacramento, I grew up on surplus gear and knew probably every piece of military communications or test gear from WW2 on.
As soon as I was old enough to ride my bike to the air base surplus sales I was using my meager earnings from odd jobs 10 years old, mostly fixing neighbors radios or hi-fi, or CB radios, and collected enough to fully take over a 2 car garage, my bedroom and a spare bathroom for equipment and parts. Looking back my parents must have been very patient. I had already taken over 1/2 the backyard and all the roof for my ham radio antennas. Much of it was really dangerous to be messing with,since most was tube transmitters and some running 1500volts or more. Being surrounded by the surplus communications gear and test instruments, I learned a lot about how well made gear was different from consumer products.
I later moved to San Francisco at 17 the day I graduated HS mid term in January in 1967 by myself using money I received from selling a repair shop I ran from age 13-17 that primarily hi-fi and ham radio repair. I talked my way into a nice small office rent at 13 telling the owner that my father sent me to find an office for him "since he was away on a business trip" I remember it was $68/mo in a moderately high traffic area which was a lot of money for me but it quickly became profitable for a business that was only open after school and weekends.By 13 I had plenty of test gear, mostly surplus GR, HP and Tektronix.
Moving as a kid from the white suburbs to San Francisco in '67 that was in the middle of a cultural revolution, was a exciting time and I ended up repairing amps for local musicians who were in famous or about to be famous bands. I rented an apartment on a hill overlooking the beach in San Francisco that was pretty high end for a kid, that just happened to be at the top of a hill where at the base was one of the famous rock ballrooms, the Family Dog Bllroom. Word got around quickly that a kid up the hill could repair their gear on his kitchen table.
It was not a business, just something I did for fun if they hauled their amps up the hill. I was not into music yet. My second repair that way was from a kid about my age who had come from Mexico and he needed it done fast because he had a performance that night at Fillmore. His name was Carlos. He was pretty good. Carlos Santana. Within 6 months I knew all the bands that had gear or they knew me. Ended up going back to Sacramento to get my EE, which was pretty boring by that time since I had been designing my own transmitters and high performance receivers for 7 years and had 2 patents. Designed and built all the gear to be a very early Moon Bounce success where the other end was the Cornell Unv. managed 1000 ft dia radio telescope at Arecibo P.R. at 16.
Then returned to the Bay Area for a career in recording as engineer and eventually owner of a large successful studio that did some of the great hits of the 70s and 80s
I was traveling a lot and seeing the world I had only talked to by ham radio and one of the trips was to the USSR to see Moscow and Leningrad in 76. I fell in love with Leningrad, which later was returned to its original name of St Petersburg. I visited as often as I could, a unique city and culture focused on the arts, science, education and one of the great cultural centers of the world.
I was not really a city person but it felt like it was part of me. Finally, after the record industry collapsed in the early 90s I opened a service center for pro audio as a one man shop for consulting and it quickly grew to be the largest in the US. By the early 2000s I felt like a stranger in my own country, suddenly on a flight home from St Petersburg where I had purchased an apartment since I was visiting so often, I decided that I was missing too much of life. By being stuck supporting all the things I had accumulated and fun and close friendships only when 7,000 miles away I, like almost all Americans really were missing out of life. I vowed to give everything away and move to St Petersburg. 3 weeks later I was standing on the main street of St Petersburg with 2 suitcases with no clue where I would stay, or how to support myself.
That was 15 years ago and it was a great decision, and has been fun, exciting, stimulating and filled with great friends(almost all are beautiful young women). The city is the most educated and cultured of any on earth. The life is low stress, with very low cost of living, lots of opportunities, safe, and 5 million things to do. That is why I am here. I started a couple companies, and have done fine, and now getting back into traveling because my 34 yo GF is crazy about foreign travel. I have been in 87 countries and she has only been exploring for 3-4 years but is catching up with me. She is a very attractive young lawyer, yoga instructor, licensed tour guide, and author with 2 high degrees. I doubt if I have meet anyone here in this city who does not have a university degree.
I used to go back a couple times a year to see family and each trip I put 1-2 pieces of test gear in my suitcases and after a while had enough to do pretty much any sound system or RF system(below 1Ghz) with test get left in my storage unit. I kept 1 car, 1 house and a bunch of gold and platinum RIAA award records, and a couple dozen test gear items. mostly 80s era HP, Tektronix and Sound Technology. So I keep my fingers in repair, design and mostly help local musicians with their equipment, as a side hobby job, in addition to two incoming tour operator companies I started. We don't watch TV at all, so we have time for an amazing array of business, cultural and relaxation activities. It really is a nice place to live and with almost none of the stress that is part of life in the US. One thing that struck me from early on was how distorted the media in the US is about Russia. I doubt if I have seen any place so different than the opinion of those who had never visited.
Long story but the background was needed to explain the reason I am here.
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