About the Author
My name is Todd Klassy and this is my blog. I live in Madison, WI and spend most of my time managing the day-to-day operations of SkyLink Networks where we provide site acquisition, engineering, and construction related services to the wireless telecommunications industry.
I began my employment in the wireless industry when the cell phone was still just a novelty. At the time the only person I knew who used a cell phone was J.R. Ewing on the T.V. show “Dallas". I guess that makes me an old-timer.
Since then I have owned two dozen or more cell phones, including the Motorola DynaTAC, the world's first commercial handheld cell phone (affectionately known as ‘the brick’), the Motorola StarTAC (who didn’t), and the Qualcomm QCP-1900, the world’s first CDMA handset. In those years I have seen the cell phone evolve from something only the wealthiest of Americans could afford to a tool every consumer must have.
Before making my foray into wireless industry I studied journalism and political science at the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater. Somewhere in the middle of all that I met a sales executive at NBC-TV. He convinced me to change my studies and to think about what industries would blossom in the years ahead. An article I read in a 1989 edition of Crain’s Chicago Business and a job opening at a small tower company in southern Wisconsin sealed my fate.
I began my formal “studies” in the field of wireless telecommunications when I began working at that small tower company called Broadcast Communications Systems. Years later I worked for a company called PrimeCo Personal Communications. I tell people that I got my undergraduate’s degree in wireless telephony at Broadcast Communications Systems and my graduate’s degree at PrimeCo. Both companies have long since disappeared from the landscape of the wireless industry, but they were very important to my career.
When the tech bubble burst in 2001 I started my own company and I haven’t looked back since. Sure, the hours are long and the challenges are great, but it has been a wonderful experience and I am very proud of what we have accomplished so far here at SkyLink Networks.
Looking back I can see that neither I nor my industry is as young as it once was. I don’t feel like it, and I don’t like to admit it, but more than 15 years have elapsed since quad maps, zoning presentations, CAD software and hard hats first became the tools of my trade.
In a nut shell, that’s me.
About This Blog
“Latitudes” is created using the Movable Type 3.2 weblog publishing software. It was also published with the help of Sekimori.
Location
Most of the time I will be making my entries from my office in Madison, WI. Occasionally, however, I may have to log in using my laptop from an obscure hotel room on the road somewhere in America.
Schedule
I will try to update “Latitudes” every other day, Monday through Friday. However, I will publish something only if I have something worth saying. My goal is to focus on quality and not quantity.
Photographs
I am an amateur photographer. And while I spend most of my time taking photographs of tower sites for candidate packages and for work related reasons, I began to take photography more seriously.
The camera I most often use is the Canon EOS 20D DSLR camera. My collection of Canon lenses include the EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM, EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM, EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM, EF 50mm f/1.8 II, EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM, EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM and a Sigma 8mm f/4.0 EX fisheye lens.
On the opposite end of the spectrum of cameras I also own a modified Holga 120N, which is little more than a Chinese-made toy with a plastic lens. It cost $20 (a far cry from the Canon 20D), yet it produces wonderful, edgy photographs in black & white. I also have a Russian built Zorki 4K. In the age of digital photography where crystal clear, digital photographs are the norm, the Holga and Zorki are a nice departure.
I typically shoot photographs in RAW format and use Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 for post-processing. If you want to see more of my work you can find them at Flickr.com.
Other Interests
I have many other diversions that consume the remainder of my days and weeks when I’m not working. They include:
Lisa · My Family · My Friends · Chicago · Buck’s · “Everybody Loves Raymond” · Weber Performer Grill · Green Bay Packers · Classic Rock n’ Roll · Walking · Pappadeux’s · AM Radio Electronics · Cholula Hot Sauce · Texas Hold 'Em · Wiggies · UW Athletics · Reading Magazines
Contact Me
SkyLink Networks, Inc. Copyright © 2005. All Rights Reserved.
