Alan Biocca Engineering is my small business. I have always been an inventor, and I’ve developed a few unique and useful products and this is the way some of them are marketed. This includes Pneumatic Antenna Launchers that are used to put lines over tall trees for emergency and ham radio antennas, and a Triple Ratio Balun that provides high isolation and impedance transformation for ham radio antennas. FDLog is a WiFi based synchronized distributed database logging program for Field Day operations that I wrote in Python and give away under a GNU license.
I decided to upgrade my callsign so I applied for and received W6AKB, previously I was licensed as WB6ZQZ and WN6ZQZ.
Alan’s WB6ZQZ Ham Radio Website (offline)
Another of my more recent passions is Electric Bicycles. I started building Ebikes for myself in about 2010 and put on thousands of miles each year, mostly commuting to work (before retirement). I have a small fleet of Ebikes and I have a website for them here.
Eric Williams (WD6CMU) and I have worked together on several projects including the Pneumatic Antenna Launchers. Eric designed and built the mounts and prepared his Zip Reel design for the Launchers.. Since the Zip Reels are no longer available I have started 3d printing Reels and Eric has moved on to other projects.
My wife Dawn (KB6LHP) helps out with bookkeeping. She has her own small business selling Jewelry and we often share a table at Hamfests, or I have a table but only at the flea market. So if you see me wearing a Hamfest badge that says something about her business now you’ll know why!
My son Chris (KG6LXL) helps out by making his own variant of the antenna launcher in the LPAL (Linear Pneumatic Antenna Launcer).
My daughter Jessica (KI6ELP) helps out occasionally with deliveries.
Miscellaneous Updates
COVID Update 2020 – Son and Daughter are both busy these days working in critical retail/pharmacy. I’m doing everything but the books, from new designs to ordering to making to shipping. Orders have grown and lead times for some components have increased. Lately the fires in California have caused difficulties as well. When the backlog grows I mark things out of stock, but if you contact me I keep a request list that I will notify when we reopen the catalog for ordering.
I retired from my day job in mid 2015. Now one might expect that would increase the time I have for making launchers, but as anyone who has retired will verify, retirement actually increases the number and variety of demands on your time. I keep this business going because it is an important tool for Ham Radio, but I have to limit the amount of time I spend on it. At times family demands priority and there is little time left for side distractions. Thanks for your patience.
73 de Alan, w6akb