BRIEF HISTORY OF W7FTT
James Whitney Young was born in Emanuel Hospital in Portland, Oregon on January 24, 1941 to Bernard Frederick YOUNG and Mary (Vreeland) YOUNG. Jim was raised, along with his brother, Michael Frederick YOUNG at 423 NW Skyline Blvd from 1941 to 1954 before the family moved to Seattle, Washington.
Both Mike and Jim attended Sylvan School, and were both active in the boys' choir of Portland's Trinity Episcopal Church.
In the winter of 1950, their father returned from a business trip to California and introduced both boys to astronomy with an issue of the "Griffith Observer", s small pamphlet from the Griffith Observatory that had a map of the constellations on the back. Both Mike and Jim fell in love with what would become an active life-long hobby for both, and professionally for Jim. They both studied astronomy, reading countless numbers of astronomy books acquired at the Portland Library. Their father gave them a small telescope and Mike built an equatorial mount and tripod to support the telescope. During the summer months, the two would actively observe night after night in the dark skies west of Portland.
In August 1951, the family took a trip to California, expressly to visit several of the world's leading observatories (at that time). Lick Observatory near Jan Jose, Griffith Observatory of Los Angeles, Mt. Wilson Observatory in the San Gabriel Mts. and Mount Palomar were all visited.
This set the tone for Jim's intense interest in pursuing astronomy as a career. The family moved to Seattle and both boys joined the Seattle Astronomical Society. Jim became the 'junior' president of the Society, and later became the President. Jim also later became the junior representative for the Northwest Regional League of the Astronomical League (National). He was later appointed Vice-Chairman of this same Northwest League. He gave many lectures at various astronomical societies, as well as many civic and church organizations before his 18th birthday. He activated many junior astronomers by organizing a trip to the Dominion Astronomical Observatory in Victoria, Canada.
In 1956, Jim's father introduced to the family, Neal Frost, W7ACU, who in turn interested Jim in amateur radio. With the help of Sid Lough, W7VL (now a silent key), Jim became first a novice, WN7FTT, and soon had passed his technician exam: W7FTT.
Jim's interest, still focused on astronomy, took an added emphasis when the Soviet Union launched 'Sputnik' in October, 1957. The day after sputnik was put in orbit, his school allowed him to go home and monitor the radio signals on his new radio, a Hammarlund HQ-100 his father had bought him when he got his 'ham' ticket.
In 1959, upon graduating from Seattle's Roosevelt High School, Jim joined the United States Army Reserve. While waiting to attend 'boot' camp, he continued his pursuit of astronomy by attending the University of Portland (Portland, Oregon). Jim then went to Fort Ord, California to 'boot' camp, then on to Fort Knox, Kentucky, where he attained MOS 051, High Speed Radio Operator.
After returning from his active duty training, Jim tried his first real job at the Bank of California (branch in Seattle), first as a messenger, then as a clerk in the Trust Department in early 1962. But in April, a long time friend of the family encourage Jim to apply for a position at the Seattle World's Fair. Jim applied. He was hired as a technical guide for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) exhibit. He was trained by a NASA official, along with the 32 additional young people to talk to people about NASA and the space program. Because Jim had an extensive background in astronomy already established, NASA had Jim teach a short basic astronomy course to the other guides. Jim became the Lead Technical Guide for the NASA exhibit in August, and soon had great chance meetings with VIP's that came to the NASA exhibit; Russian cosmonauts, John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, Vice President Lyndon Johnson, Prince Phillip, and yes, even Elvis Presley!
Just before the doors were to close at the Seattle World's Fair, a NASA official of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) suggested to Jim to apply for a position, since JPL was building its own observatory at Table Mountain, some 50 miles from the Los Angeles area. He applied, and three days after the 'Fair' closed, Jim was flown to JPL for an on-site interview at the observatory. Ironically, there was a JPL Open House for families to visit the new 16-inch telescope at the Table Mountain complex. Jim really never got much of an interview, because the drive mechanism for the 16- inch telescope broke in the middle of the Open House. Jim's mechanical prowess, taught him by his father, soon had the telescope running smoothly once again. Oh, and yes, he got the job. On November 12, 2003, Jim celebrates 41 years of service at the Table Mountain Observatory!!
In 1970 and 1971, Jim was hired to teach an astronomy course for the University of California Extention Services, the first non-degreed person to do so in the history of the University. He was appointed the Remote Planets Recorder for the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO) from 1969 to 1977.
Over his 41 year career at the observatory, Jim has worked with several telescopes, and manages the 24-inch Cassegrain/Coude instrument built in 1965. He became the site's resident astronomer in 1971, and has the full responsibility for telescope optical alignment and mirror coating tasks for all telescopes at the Table Mountain facility. In 1968, Jim was the first person to optically aim a laser beam to the Surveyor VII spacecraft on the surface of the moon. Further laser aiming tests for optical communication experiments as recent as 1995, makes Jim the only person to have successfully aimed laser beams to the moon, near earth satellites, as well as the deep space probe Galileo.
In 1968, while attending an astronomical convention in Las Cruces, New Mexico, he was instrumental in the confirmation of a comet discovery. In Jim's presence, two convention participants discovered a comet-like object. Jim called the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and asked permission to make the confirmation sighting the next evening, usually afforded to a second party. The next evening, with rain in Las Cruces, Jim drove the discovery team north to Truth or Consequences, NM, and made the confirmation for Smithsonian, and drove back to the convention. The comet confirmation announcement was made during the banquet featured speaker presentation, entitled, "How to Discover a Comet"!!!!!
Jim's greatest interest has been with comets, meteors and asteroids. From the late 1960's to the early 1980's, Jim worked extensively on gathering photometric data for determining asteroid rotational rates. In fact, by the mid 1980's, Jim had gathered over 1/3 of all asteroid rotational rate measurments for the world's astronomical community. In 1985, Jim was honored by his peers, with the naming of asteroid 2874 as 'Jim Young'. Jim continues to work in the asteroid field, now working with the JPL Navigation Team on high precision positional measurments of asteroids, using a large CCD camera and the observatory's 24-inch telescope.
Jim has authored and co-authored over 50 astronomical papers during his 41 years at Table Mountain. Since 1956, he has also given over 210 presentations, lectures and public star parties to school, church and civic organizations in 8 states. He is a charter member and former president of the High Desert Astronomical Society. Many of Jim's photographs and drawings have appeared in magazines, calendars, and several newspapers all around the country, as well as several foreign countries. Many of his meteor photographs have appeared in astronomical books in the last 20 years. A picture of Comet Hale-Bopp has appeared on the Internet since March, 1997. In very recent years, Jim has become very involved with Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), most of which become Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs), and comet recovery for the Minor Planet Center (MPC), part of Commission 20 of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Jim is now doing extensive 'astrometric' (accurate positional measurements) of newly discovered NEOs and comets. Since August, 2002, Jim has made over 3500 astrometric measurements, involving over 200 NEAs, 16 comets (and 134 main belt asteroids he has personally discovered). To make these required accurate measurements, Jim uses software developed by Herbert Raab in Austria, called ASTROMETRICA. A large number of professional and amateur astronomers worldwide use this superior 'measuring' software daily, to provide the MPC with the required 'astrometric' data to keep track of all the NEOs and comets in our solar system, as well as other astronomical phenomena. Jim has also discovered 2 NEAs; 2003 BV35 and 2003 RW11. He was directly involved with the confirmation recovery of the long lost asteroid, 1937 UB - Hermes, not seen since 1937! Jim was recently promoted to a member of the senior technical staff of The Earth and Space Sciences Division of JPL. He is the chief resident astronomer at Table Mountain, and the Astronomy Team Leader at the observatory.
Outside of his astronomy interests, Jim is a Life member of the ARRL, QCWA, and the Heard Island DX Association (HIDXA). He was the director of the Southern California Area DXers (SCADS), an SWL group, from 1979 to 1981. He is an Official Observer(OO) for the ARRL and a Volunteer Examiner (VE) for the Greater Los Angeles Amateur Radio Group. Jim has been a continuous volunteer Wireless Operator for W6RO since 1986 aboard the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. Coincidentally, Jim's tour of duty, the fourth Friday of each month, on the Queen Mary had him pulling 'shift' with W7JL, James L. Young and WB6NFI (Jim's old callsign was WB6FNI!), Robert Center.
Jim has been a Boy Scout astronomy merit badge councilor, a citizen volunteer for a San Bernardino County Radio Amateur Corps of Emergency Services (RACES) and the at present, is the Net Administrator/Secretary/Awards Manager for the Triple H Net. Jim and his wife Karen have been active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints (LDS) for nearly 30 years, both being converts to the Church. Karen is a Primary teacher, and Jim is currently the Stake (Hesperia, CA) Employment Specialist. With the recent construction of a new LDS Temple in Redlands, CA, Jim was honored by being one of the 'Temple Construction Photographers'.
Starting in 1974, Jim was appointed an official station monitor for the Israel State Broadcasting Authority for 10 years. He is an honorary life member of Radio HCJB in Quito, Ecuador, Radio Budapest in Hungary and Radio RSA in South Africa.
Jim and his family have climbed Mt. Whitney 6 times training and taking 12 different people to the summit. With the use of their ham radios taken to the summit in 1991 (and on every climb), Jim and wife Karen, N6PJL, were instrumental in saving a man's life, after the man fell and seriously injured himself. A helicopter was brought to the summit to evacuate the man, by getting 'search and rescue' on a ham radio link. The man was in the emergency room in 10 minutes from the summit; he had four broken ribs. A climb down the 11 mile trail could have resulted in a punctured lung, and possibly bleeding to death was the prognosis by emergency room doctors.
Jim has four children: Jeffrey, age 39; Jennifer, age 38; Bryan, age 29; and Eileen, age 26. Jeffrey and Jennifer are from his first marriage with Frances Jean FISHER. Bryan and Eileen are from his second marriage with Karen Ann (HALBERG).
Jeffrey is married to Stephanie (Ewell), and reside in Highland, California, with their four children: Whitney (KI6ABM), age 15; Heather, age 13, Scott, age 8 and Michael, age 6. Jeff is an accountant with the county of San Bernardino, and also licensed as N6WQK.
Jennifer resides in Renton, Washington, and is a professional hair dresser. She has two children: Brandon, age 11; and Brittany, age 9. Bryan is currently working in Colorado, and residing in the Breakenridge area. He has one child, a daughter, Katelyn, age 6.
Eileen is currently living in Findlay, Ohio with her son, Levi, age 5. Eileen has another child from a previous marriage; Ashley Philpott, age 6, who lives nearby to Jim and Karen in California.
Last Updated: September 21, 2005 e-mail: astroyoung@verizon.net
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