WhaleFarm

This user is a member of WikiProject Electronics, an attempt to provide a standard approach to writing articles about electronics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.

I have a background in electrical engineering, with experience that spans from vacuum-tube circuits to modern integrated circuit design. I grew up around an engineering school environment, my father a professor, where electronics discussions were part of everyday life. That early exposure shaped a long-standing interest in how electronic ideas begin and evolve over time.

My formal training included laboratory work with vacuum tubes. The lab classes switched to transistors the next year. I was lucky to have inspirational mentors in engineering school and then in business who emphasized rigor, first principles, and intellectual honesty. They made it clear that good engineering depends as much on understanding the roots as it does on innovation.

Over the years my work expanded from analog hardware into numeric, digital signal processing, and mixed-signal systems. I’ve always been interested in the mathematical modeling of physical devices, and how signal theory translates into real silicon. Sampling, modulation, feedback, quantization, and control are not abstract ideas to me.

I continue to read classic engineering texts and proceedings, especially those from 1920-1960. I’m particularly interested in the historical development of circuit and signal-processing topologies, and how ideas reappear in new forms as technology evolves. Vacuum tube theory, push–pull stages, cascodes, early digital logic, modulation systems, impedance matching, and delta–sigma modulation all have histories that can teach us what to do next.

In my work I’m regularly exposed to young engineers who often begin a design by checking Wikipedia. That reality motivates me to make the material technically correct and responsibly sourced. I did the same when I was younger, except the sources were on paper and a lot more work to access. I hope that, beyond accuracy, some of these articles can also be clear and inspiring to engineers who are just starting out.

On Wikipedia, I focus on improving technical accuracy, sourcing, and historical clarity in articles related to audio engineering, radio, signal processing, semiconductor devices, and data conversion. And vacuum tubes. I believe that preserving and presenting technical history is pure mentoring. We stand on the shoulders of giants.

Projects:

Superregenerative receiver – promoted to Good Article, April 2026

In 1960, one of my father’s grad students helped me make a superregen radio to listen in on 6m ham transmissions. I was taken with the concept of one transistor making a radio. I had no idea what I was doing. It was decades before I really got what an elegant, complex subject this circuit was. I’m trying now to make the article into a clear, useful teaching tool.

Superheterodyne receiver

Carrier telephony for eventual inclusion in 12-channel User:WhaleFarm/Carrier telephony User:WhaleFarm/Carrier telephony2

Details

I am an US citizen with Canadian influences. I use the metric system. I'm comfortable with valve or tube. Hobbies include puzzle solving and slight of hand. In other words, engineering.

User:WhaleFarm/sandbox DAC working page User:WhaleFarm/DAC

sandi smith page User:WhaleFarm/Sandra Smith

gettting vietnam stuff

user:WhaleFarm/VN Older, more verbose: User:WhaleFarm/VN old fauriol user:WhaleFarm/Sandie

making Houck page

user:WhaleFarm/Houck

building early superhet

User:WhaleFarm/early superhet User:WhaleFarm/early superhet theory mixers - part of a superhet, but has it's own article. User:WhaleFarm/mixer sandbox

Building tube page

User:WhaleFarm/tube characterization

building crosley

user:WhaleFarm/Crosley Radio Corporation