About

I'm Jim. K9DTV is my electronics playground - a place to document what I'm building, what I'm learning, and what I find interesting enough to share.

I've been taking things apart since I was about eight years old. My father had a doctorate in physics, so there was always something interesting on a bench somewhere, and I grew up wanting to know what was behind the curtain. I never stopped. I'm retired now, self-taught, and still poking at hardware most days.

My center of gravity is digital - computers, FPGAs, microcontrollers - but I wander. Linear circuits, high voltage, RF, and fiber optics all show up here too. The RF streak is no accident: I hold an Amateur Extra class ham license. I'm currently spending a lot of time learning FPGAs, which is a polite way of saying they keep humbling me.

The name K9DTV comes from a few places at once. I'm a lifelong Doctor Who fan, and K9 - the robot dog with the laser nose and the dry wit - has always been a favorite. I'm also a dog person. I've always had a cat or a dog for as long as I can remember, and the house feels wrong without one. So the name is a nod to the show, to the dogs, and to the idea that a good machine should be loyal, useful, and occasionally sarcastic.

It is also my Amateur Extra callsign. I got my first license when I lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma, so I chose K9; the DTV was for Digital TV. I later found there was no such mode available - which is fine. The letters still mean something, just not what I first intended.