What is your real job?

[imsmooth]

I will start.  I am a cardiothoracic anesthesiologist, and I work in central New Jersey.  I have many interests: electronics, mathematics, vegetable gardening and just fixing stuff at home.  If I have the chance I love to water-ski.

Personal stuff like this should go in "Diaries".

[DamonHD]

Hmm, I work as a IT consultant/contractor in investment banking (which has been a little bit of a wild ride of late!), and interests include electronics, photography, and of course RE including optimising energy use ie conservation/efficiency.

Rgds

Damon

[KurtJ]

I retired from the Army in 2000 and am now the VP of sales for Line-X spray on bed liners and protective coatings.

[wpowokal]

OK I'm game as I'm a long way from most of you, most of my working life has been in Power stations, some 37 years actually. Diesel stations and thermal stations.

In 2002 I retired from power station as I had limited hearing left, and "retired" to my farm to grow fruit. I process my fruit and live off renewable energy.

This time of the year for 3-4 months I travel to the nearest regional centre to work fixing water pumps and asociated equipment, something I enjoy doing as well as enjoying the real money I earn.

Allan down under

[A6D9]

I'll bite,

I'm 27 soon to be 28

I currently work for Skillsoft.  before that owned my own business with www.mightyfredericton.com

Just bought a house last mth, it is currently grid tied  but it has a really nice waterfall and brook in the back yard.  (doign testign for #'s now till next dry season)

[gizmo]

Mackay Queensland Australia. I think I've had about 20 jobs in the last 25 years, from grease monkey to fledging internet company director, both which paid about the same! My first job was as an apprentice radio technician for the Ozy phone network. My most interresting jobs were in CNC processing, laser cutting, production management, that sort of thing. Currently I work 3 days a week operating big printers( 3 meter wide format! ) for a mate, pays the bills for now while I get my software business off the ground. I develop database intranet business systems for a few clients, and some web based systems when I need a change of scenery and a little extra cash.

My interrests include, other than wind, engine rebuilding, mechanical stuff, anything hands on. I have a 1973 Holden Monaro to play around with when I get the time, 350cu engine, dont make them like that anymore.

Glenn

[mikern]

I'm a Registered Nurse, work in a small county hospital  Emergency Room, raise goats for fun and meat, and play with RE with wind, and a listeroid 6 w/ st gen head on WVO, and grandkids!! Mike

[Basil]

I ashamed to tell what I do for a living after the problems with my first wind project. At the present I'm a maintenance supervisor in a foundry. I do all there PLC programming. Was a truck driver then electrician. Jack of all and master of none. Make money only at what I don't like doing.

[GeeMac]

I'm retired and lost my wife of 39 years to RA October 8th. Careers? Air Force, Radio, University, IBM, six years of care giving. I am seldom satisfied with my neural output and enjoy giving my neurons and synapses a workout. I believe the world is overdue for a new kind of engine, whatever it might be. I think about that quite a bit, but, no eurika moment so far. I enjoy pushing the boundaries of invention. I like producing as much of my own power as I can on my small pension. (Most recent power bill $28.71). If I could use my own electricity to heat AND power my house, I could screw the power and gas company out of cash at the same time

Keep having fun folks.

[Tritium]

 16 years semiconductor manufacturing (mainly photolithography and equipment engineering) with TI, Motorola, Signetics, National Semiconductor and Fluke.

 2 years with my own refrigeration business then 12 years Information Technology for my local telephone cooperative.

Currently about 3 weeks from age 50 and retiring to a real job of cattle ranching at years end (Lord willing).

My Interest and skill set is widely varied.

Thurmond

[pepa]

         Pepa here, I like the idea of learning more about the members and hope this will continue and more people will reply. I spent most of my life as a cabinet maker, furniture maker, and carpenter. For most of the last forty years as self employed general contractor. May 13 1991 I was in an accident on a job and destroyed my lungs with chlorine gas and given a year to live. Still here and kicking at 69. i have had a good life and its not over by a long shot. pepa

[jaskiainen]

I make neon signs and all kind of signs with lights.

Leds, fluorescent tubes, neon tubes... You name it, I make it.

RE is just a interesting hobby of mine.

Still got plenty to learn

Jaskiainen from finland

[spinningmagnets]

4 years Navy submarine mechanic, 4 years hydraulic mechanic on C-17 cargo plane development at McDonnell Douglas.

Economic downturn in early 1990's when communism collapsed and US military hardware cut back, got laid off. Went into construction driving water truck, dump truck, vacuum truck, etc. Still driving.

Once kids all grown/gone, left SoCalifornia for SW Utah. Half a century old.

Electronics and a womans mind are like Chinese calculus for me, but give me a hammer and a wrench...

"When you're trained to use a hammer, everything looks like a nail"

[FishbonzWV]

Fishbonz here from West Virginia.

Job title is Electronic technician.

I enjoyed doing it a lot more back in the days of chasing zero's and one's across the 7400 series chips, programming the 4k ferrite core memory with a paper tape you coded with a teletype in ascii.

I mostly maintain Greyhound bus size machines now with about a thousand bearing blocks, five hundred belts, twenty different sized motors, eight computers, and fifty processing boards. All this is networked on a national basis.

Two months away from being retirement age.

I enjoy working with older equipment. Currently have a 1953 Ford tractor (restored), 1954 Feathercraft aluminum boat (next project on the list), 1948 Craftsman hobby lathe (restored).

Got into RE because of a remote farm with no utilities. Now there's running water hot and cold, and can turn on the lights in the morning without starting a generator.The next project was a wind turbine to get rid of the generator, but sorry to say the farm's being sold.

So the RE will go on because I've contracted this incurable disease.  :-}

[DamonHD]

I dread to think what you do with the hammer, wrench and naughty electronics, never mind the woman's mind...  Bv<

Before the 'peace dividend' I used to edit a supercomputing trade rag, but it died when the Iron Curtain fell and the NSA stopped buying quite so many big machines...

Rgds

Damon

[SparWeb]

I've been an aeronautical engineer for nearly 10 years now.  Not in the major companies, but with a small independent contracting company that "solves problems" and ensures safety in the design.

Upgrades to helicopter and aircraft components, extensive repairs to primary structure, and modifications that convert aircraft for special missions (airborne survey, firefighting, heli-skiing) all sorts of things like this get "engineered" in offices like ours.

Ironically, some of the airborne survey equipment I see gets used to find oil...

I live on a patch of paradise in southern Alberta, Canada.  Plenty of room for the wind turbine, but my wife won't let me cut into her horse paddocks!

When I drove through the wind farms in the Crowsnest Pass in 1998, I was hooked.  It wasn't until I moved out of the city that I could indulge and start raising whirlygigs of my own.

[wooferhound]

I do so much stuff that I don't know where to start . . .

I've been doing Sound and Lighting for Live Events since 1968 when I was 11 years old, the equipment that I learned on had vacuum tubes in it.

I guess that my main job is a Stagehand and Spotlight Operator. I work at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville Alabama. We have a 10000 seat Arena, a 2200 seat Concert Hall, a 600 seat Playhouse, Plus plenty of Exhibition space and Dining Halls.

http://vonbrauncenter.com/

I also belong to the I.A.T.S.E. #900 Stagehands and Projectionist Union which is based out of the Von Braun Center.

http://iatse900.home.mindspring.com/index.htm

I Own a Sound and Lighting company called "Wooferhound" which is where I get my User Name from. I have 50 stagelights and a 3000 watt sound system that I set up all over North Alabama.

http://wooferhound.home.mindspring.com/index.htm

I own a Nightclub called "Home Port". It started out as an International Bar and Deli but has changed to mainly Rap music.

http://homeportbar.home.mindspring.com/index.htm

I built a Church for my Russian Wife. It is called the "Russian Chapel of Saint Xenia Blessed". I mainly do Building Maintenance there now.

http://stxeniablessed.home.mindspring.com/index.htm

And my other interests are: Electronics, Photography & Darkroom, Computer Programming & Building, Carpentry, Electrician, and many other interests that drain all of my money away...

 

[frackers]

Originally an Electronics designer I moved to real-time software development about 25 years ago. Currently working on digital radio systems here in New Zealand where we have a 10 acre lifestyle block (read hobby farm!!) which is half walnut trees (200 of them!) for our retirement fund and the other half garden for pleasure and veggies and paddocks for stock that is destined for the freezer.

The RE is all about reducing our outgoings whilst I'm still earning so that I can afford to retire in 5 years or so. So far its only the 10' turbine,  50sq m of solar on the swimming pool and the tunnel house but domestic hot water is on the list next.

[David HK]

Hong Kong Police retired and still living in Hong Kong. Mechanically minded since birth and love metalwork, woodwork and basic electronics. For the rest of my days am into renewable energy and devoted to teaching it to up and coming young people who should know more about it.

Have sailed around the China Sea and visited most uninhabited reefs, nearest thing to paradise is Scarborough Reef - pure blue ocean and its easy to see the sandy bottom at a depth of 60 - 80 feet.

One biography I am hoping to read is that of 'Flux'- a very interesting man. Must live somewhere in the West Midlands (my old home patch).

More pictures on my first finished Hugh Piggot turbine to come which will include a stubby yaw mount, an adjustable thickness stator casting mould, and an RPM sensor for temporary attachment.

If you have too much wind where you live please send me some.

David HK

[Chuck]

Former Musician and Musical Instrument Maker, now contracting for a major electronics firm doing Linux testing on new computer hardware/firmware. But that's just to make money. I tend to take my personal interests and passions and turn them into jobs until I burn out.

What I spend my time on is designing and building houses with RE and passive solar elements and trying to figure out how to make money at that. My current house is 100% PV powered with an old Jacobs sitting in the back yard waiting to go up. So far I haven't needed it.

Chuck

[halfcrazy]

37 years old master electrician and renewable energy installer

[Off grid in Tonopah]

I work at the local Atom Cracker in the fuels department moving the new and spent fuel and making electricity for the Southwest. 6 years as a Nuclear sailor, some time at a cryogenics plant and the Utility since than. Live off grid out in the desert near the power plant so I get to spend more time with wife and kids and not on the freeway commuting.

                                          Bob

[electrondady1]

i'm the king of spain

[kenputer]

37 years as a Drain Surgeon / Plumber, retired 10 years ago but still work to pay the bills :-)

Ken

[pvale]

I'm an electrical engineer and work for 30+years now designing power transformers, some up to 150,000Lbs. Handle up to 1,000,000 volts regularly, well, not handle really lol.

Impulse transformers to prove they'll withstand a lightning stroke. Not totally off-grid, the wife's life support equipment will always be on grid, with a battery back-up. Got 4 sets of HF solar panels now, and a ceiling fan in the midst of conversion to a small wind genny.

[dnix71]

Warehouse work, pick and pack for an employment forms company. We will make money this year, but I don't know about next. The world is being turned upside down by people greedy for money who don't want to work for it.

[ncblue]

electrician by trade, been working as a welder at a steel mill- got laid off last week so now i can devote more time to RE in the off season.

got to agree w/ dnix71 - this worlds being turned upside down by alot of greedy people who will do or say anything in order to have more than their neighbours (guess its the 'human element" in us all).

fellow down the highway from me has a wind generator and i used to check it out every day on my way to work- kinda got my intrest going. had a real bad windstorm one day and the next day i noticed it wasnt there anymore. it was laying on the ground, tower et al. kinda depressing to see. about 2 weeks later it was up and running. every day now the thing is buzzing along at a pretty good clip.

more into vawt's right now and been doing alot of experimenting with generators and different configurations, some designs-good, some bad.

ok so i ramble...

[ruddycrazy]

I'm a fitter/machinist/welder by trade and for the last 3 years I've overhauled industrial gearboxs for minesites etc. This xmas will be 5 years off the grid on our 85 acre farm and I simply luv playing with my bridgeport milling machine running off my 24 volt batterybank. Plenty of RE projects on the go but with work and farm work never enough time to devote myself to my projects. Only 44 yrs young and 6 yrs to go untill retirement.

Cheers Bryan

[thirteen]

912 days until retirement. Dozen jobs + I mainly operate hot asphalt plants, rock crushers, any heavey equipement. Electrical repair or installation I love to build things from nothing and watch them work. I can build you a house, bridge, or repair heavey equipement. I enjoy writting stories for children using an idea from them and make small hand carved figures that go with the stories. In 554 days all of my kids will be gone and in 912 days I will retire back into the mountains. My micro hydro system and solar system will be done and I will be able to stay on my 60 a. 1800 sqft 3 bdr house, heat with wood cook with wood, a small year round creek 25 ft in front of the house heavely timbered land, good hunting deer elk grouse turkey moose bear. 4000 ft elevation no utility bills there is no power or neighbors 1/2 mile away. 2-3 ft of snow in the winter, cool summers fishing 2 miles away. no traffic no cell phone reception, no TV, 1 radio station, good garden and small orchard.No one to tell me my lawn needs mowed or tell me it is after 630 and you cannot be makeing niose after 630.  Thirteen    

[luckeydog]

I am a Water God. "irrigation tech"

been doing it for over 24 years now. I am ready to move on to

 earning my living building, installing, playing with my

wind turbines.

Years ago my grand father built a VAWT and i have been hooked ever since.

I also have solar panels and I am planing on designing a hydro unit for

My fathers place. He has great water flow, It will be a neat project.

Luckeydog

.

[mbohuntr]

Used to be a welder/fabricator, Since our wonderful country started moving manufacturing jobs south, I now work at a electrical utility and hope to get back into maintanence. I sold all the acerage as taxes were killing me, but perhaps this bug will help me keep my sanity.  

[wiredwrong]

I grew up working on cars, tried my hand in construction after high school for a couple years then went to work with as a ground hand for a cable contractor, learned the art of splicing cable and did that about 8 years, switched to underground phone lines after falling 18 feet, decided I wanted to go back to cable but was told I needed to know more about computers for the position I wanted so I got my Comp Tia A+ certification, tried my hand as a help desk tech, could not stand it, went to work installing alarms to help a friend who had a broken collar bone, climbing into an attic I pulled something in my neck and lost all use of my arms. After 6 months of x-rays and test I was told I have degenerative disk disease, and sent to surgery at the age of 30 where they put a plate and 6 screws in my neck, after 4 years I still have limited use of my arms and can only handle working an hour or two at a time once or twice a week, I spend that time doing light work on cars in a family owned shop.

[DamonHD]

¡Juan!  ¿Como Estas?