Paul Wesling (KM6LH)

The origins of Silicon Valley  - Roots in Ham Radio

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Why did Silicon Valley come into being? The story goes back to local Hams trying to break RCA's tube patents, the sinking of the Titanic, Naval ship communications requirements, World War I, Fred Terman and Stanford University, local invention of high-power tubes (gammatron, klystron), WW II and radar, William Shockley's mother living in Palo Alto, and the SF Bay Area infrastructure developed. All of the above factors pretty much paved the way so that the semiconductor and IC industries would be located in the Santa Clara Valley. 
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Paul Wesling, an IEEE Life Fellow and Ham, will give an exciting and colorful history of device technology development and innovation that began in San Francisco and Palo Alto, moved down the Peninsula (seeking lower costs and better housing), and ended up in the Santa Clara Valley during and following World War II. ​

​You'll meet some of the colorful characters -- Lee DeForest, Bill Eitel, Charles Litton, Fred Terman, David Packard, Bill Hewlett and others -- who came to define the worldwide electronics industries through their inventions and process development.  He’ll conclude by telling us about some current local organizations and movements that keep alive the spirit of the radio Hams, the Homebrew Computer Club, and the other entrepreneurial groups where nerds and geeks gather to invent the future.