My background...

Vocational School, Radio Repair, Göteborg, 1960 - 1962

A very good school, "hard knocks" where theoretical and practical subjects were taught 8 hours a day, 42 hours a week, 11 months a year. The school did not even have a playground, located by Järntorget in central Göteborg. I have never heard of anybody learning a hard subject playing basketball anyway. To my opinion, this kind of school system, as well as an apprenticeship system would greatly benefit today's societies.

That's me!-------------------------V

Many years later my mothers cousin, Dr. Hans Lennart Lundh, was given the task of re-naming vocational schools after people that had been important to the country. He asked me if I had an idea for a name for this school. It was just called "Yrkesskolan vid Järntorget" meaning "The Vocational school by the Iron Plaza." The new names should be of the type "Joe Smith's Gymnasium." I proposed to name it after Sven Wingquist, the inventor of the spherical outer race for ball bearings. So, Sven Wingquist's Gymnasium it is. Ball bearings have long been an important business to Göteborg. SKF started there over 100 years ago and still have their headquarters there. One part of them spun off to become VOLVO, which means: "I am rolling" in Latin.

Military service, Royal Swedish Navy, 1962 - 1963

15 months of radio repair on bases and at sea. A rewarding and useful experience.

Chalmers University of Technology, Electrical Measurements Techniques, 1963 - 67

Magnus Koch, Jochen Wagner, Christer Falkenström and Rune Hedberg were nice enough to put up with the brat and to strew their pearls. What they did not know about measurements was not worth knowing. I have great use of it yet today. Thanks, you guys!

 Trying it out as a consultant.. 1967 - 1969. Not a good idea.

Tekniska Gymnasiet, Göteborg, TGG, (Polhemsgymnasiet) 1969 - 1975

A classic institution in Göteborg. I am proud of having been admitted. I did not do too well in math and a few other subjects, but the technical subjects were OK. The last year's teacher, Ingvar Svensson, is an institution in himself. If all teachers were like he, this would be a much different (and better) world. Birgitta Christensen taught us French with a lot of patience and English with some success..

Chalmers U of T. 1975 - 1976

Here it became all too obvious that my math was not what it ought to be, so I quit after a year and went back to consulting. One great side effect (of being a student at Chalmers) was the ability to join the student exchange program and work for E. F. Johnson, Waseca, MN during the summer of -76. Stu Spatz, David Wilde and Dr. Gary O. Svarstad were the ones having patience with me this time. Gene played the piano at the company BBQ. (pictures when I find them). Got to meet Mr. E.F. Johnson himself! Every year they have a BBQ for all present and former employees, with families!. There was several thousand people there, I will remember 10,000 but may be wrong.

The EFJ Picnic Orchestra.

Consulting again..1976 -1982

This time I had a bit better foundation. Through SETEK AB, Göteborg, I got to work on Volvo's industrial robots. There should be some pictures of it too somewhere...

    Here: a break bench I designed for to measure the mechanical output power on drive wheels of the robots.

One interesting device was this three-wheel robot I designed and built in two weeks. Wheels are baby carriage wheels! The gyroscope on top was completed over a weekend! The robot was used for evaluation of the steering, guided by wires in the floor carrying an alternating current. It proved to be a good platform for evaluating different antennae as well as steering and signaling systems. Jan Kiessling built the electronics racks. The gyro could take over for quite some distances so the robot could leave one system of loops in the floor and go over to another one by itself. I used heavy bunker oil for damping; hope they have not turned it upside down…

Three windshield wiper motors are used. One for steering and one on each rear wheel for drive. A bank of relays, some of which switch the drive motors in series/parallel for various speed requirements. Since it is permanent magnet motors, it was interesting to observe how they formed a "differential" when connected in series. Same torque on each wheel as long as they have grip. In parallel the "differential" was "locked". Both wheel runs at the same speed, regardless of if the other gripped or not.

The bed was built to fit exactly one case (5 x 5 = 25 bottles) of beer. With a full load of beer and sandwiches, the introduction to the customer was a given success.

I also got to work with the guys at the Anatomiska Institutionen, Götebors Universitet on very interesting projects as automatically counting lymphocytes through a microscope, measuring capillary leakage in a rat's behind and the design of other research instruments.

A rat that just has laid his ass on the altar of science.

He did so for Magnus' work on his doctoral thesis, measuring how lymphocytes clogged capillary vessels. I designed the infusion pump servo. The Rat, who made the greatest sacrifice, was given the Purple Paw posthumously and rests now at the Darlington Cemetery.

Ulf Bagge, P-I Brånemark (who invented and pioneered the Titanium implant technology) and Magnus Braide. A great crowd! Ulf and I found out that we have the same birthday, although a year apart. Later I learned that we also share it with Raymond Chandler. As I informed Ulf about this pertinent fact he made a dry comment: "I knew there had to be something." Also did work for Docent Anders Tjellström (Sahlgrenska Sjukhuset) designing the worlds first fully implantable hearing aid for bone conducted sound.

The re-chargeable battery was the reason for abandoning the project. Although it worked, (I have recorded sound, picked up with a transducer from this piece of bone!), it was deemed too risky to have a battery built in so close to the brain. A short circuit could be a harrowing experience!

Anders during surgery on the middle ear. Some patients gave us their permission to conduct measurements of the sensitivity to bone conducted sound during a pause in a middle ear surgery like this. A small transducer was temporary glued to the bone behind the ear in the patient, under local anesthetics, and I played test tones from a battery operated tape recorder (Uher 4400). The patient adjusted the volume for each tone to barely audible level, and we recorded the results.

At about 1977 I moved to Lindebacken, a farm 45 km north of Göteborg, or "East of Edet" (the municipality Lilla Edet) as I used to call it. The community is Prässebo. A name fit for a small consulting firm as well. In Sweden I had enjoyed the benefits of the "free" medical care and educational systems, but when the government tried to get 82% tax on my $5000 annual income I realized how they got the money for it. The $900 remaining would not even cover heating oil, or rent, or food, so I complained to the revenue board. They informed me that this was not their problem. "Who's problem is it then?" "It is yours I guess." I realized that it had come to an end for me in Sweden. I considered "resigning my citizenship until I could afford it" (Garrison Keillor, 1997) but solved the problem in April -82 by emigrating to the U.S.

While compressing it, I lost this picture of my motorcycle license plate. It says

and I will take a new one soon.

I think the license plate on my motorcycle (the BMW) sums it up. ("Thou free" in Swedish.)

After arriving in Santa Barbara, CA, I found work with Browne Medical. I designed instruments for urology. The company died two years later, and I got a job with Dow Key Microwave instead. After three years with them I had invented enough improvements for them to last a life time. Especially considering the rate at which they implemented the ideas. They ought to have a pile still. In 1986 this too ran out of juice. They decided that one engineer was enough. A few months after they had laid me off he died so they had none. This seemed not to make much difference to them.

I had just bought a house, met Alicia, got married, she got pregnant, (in that order) when I got laid off. We now have two healthy boys. More about them on their own pages. Enough of "Corporate managing", back to consulting!

Consulting, 1986 - present

With the exception for two short stints, Harris Dracon Division, (a concrete bunker with re-circulated air and no windows but for you know who), and Advanced Photonics Inc., I have done consulting for 12 years now. At API I had a wonderful boss, Dr. Mike Madden (now at a better place in San Diego), and I truly thought this was to be the place I was going to retire from. I had only been there for a few months until Mike got laid off for political reasons, and the atmosphere at the company went down the drain.

Above: Mike in one of the many elements in which he excels! On the right, one of the things I designed at API was this APD (Avalanche Photo Diode) Module. I had planned it to be a truly versatile instrument for detection of low light levels. One version even contained a lock-in amplifier. Polarized by 2500 V, the detector alone had a gain of about 1000x and one of every few photons could be detected. Very good dynamic range too. To my knowledge they do not even make it now, which is strange since I met and visited with several customers that needed something just like it.

They would have been better off kicking out Pat Holmes, the bean counter, but they kept him! The company has under his skilled guidance, successfully tried to find their new 52 week low.

 My success as a consultant has been mixed. The problem has been to find work, but things are looking up as RF engineers are becoming short in supply. Remembering the companies who did not even bother to return a phone call some years ago; I wonder if they find the engineers they need now? Although, what do I care!