Edward J. Shortridge, who was born in 1920, had a good memory of events throughout his lifetime and having political opinions as early as 1928. In and around 1932, radio and electronics captured his imagination. From that point on, he began to study and build radio equipment.
He became an Amateur Radio Operator in 1938 extending 79 years and he worked many stations across the world.
After high school, he attended a top rated industrial school, prior to enrolling at the University of Pittsburgh. At that particular time, the family income ceased, when his father lost his high-level job and that ended his college hopes. There was still a bad depression in Pittsburgh in 1938 and jobs were hard to find.
He joined the U.S. Naval Reserve as a Radioman and was in Key West for 2.5 years before heading overseas with the "5th Amphibious Force" as a Chief Radioman during two plus years of combat. After the war, he started diligently studying electronic engineering with two separate correspondence courses, attended many electronic seminars and developed all types of radios and a diverse line of products as Chief Development Engineer during a period of 44 years.
He made pencil line and computerized drawings of three different homes that he had built at different times throughout his life after the war.
He wrote 25 articles for an online Antenna Magazine, developing many antenna designs written about in a series of three technical books and now is presenting this book, which covers the better part of his lifetime. At the age of 97 and being legally blind, he continues to be alert, very inquisitive and looking for new challenges to overcome.
