The work I do and the knowledge I gain through the adventures listed on my website is a feat I wouldn't be able to pull off on my own. When I saw others on the internet take on large projects, I used to envy them for the fact they appeared to have a lot of money and resources I didn't think I had. Not only was it childish from my side to feel jealous, I never realized how many people I'd do an injustice simply by taking on such a closed mind. The list of people that helped me through my own adventures, the same people that enabled me to achieve the do the things I am most proud of is absolutely endless. The only barrier one has to cross is to accept you don't have to do everything on your own. There are so many individuals with an infinitely large amount of knowledge, and the benefit of the modern world is they're exceptionally easy to find! When you show your passion for the shared subject to these people, they are willing to share their knowledge. This is something both incredibly valuable, but the beauty is that this knowledge is also very accessible if you are willing to compromise to let them leave a mark on your projects. 

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There are so many people that provided me with the information where other sources (in particular the education system) have been lacking, that it would be technically impossible to list them all without doing them an injustice. Therefore, the people listed on this page are the people that helped me significantly with the projects on this page, whether it has been a very significant knowledgable, laborious, or monitary contribution.

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The two most obvious people I want to discuss seperately from are my own parents. I can't mention enough how lucky I have been to be their son, and they have invested a great amount into me to become the person I am today. It was my mother to initially start the venture into electrical engineering. She had gotten me a build-your-own-radio kit for a Dutch holiday called 'Sinterklaas' which we celebrated at my grandmother's house as a pre-teen kid. I had spent countless hours figuring out all the circuits listed in the manual that came with it. When the week ended, I brought the kit to my father to get him to help me construct a working radio after countless failed attempts. When we couldn't get it to work together, he suddenly brought a bunch of differently looking components back downstairs from the attic, together with a very heavy machine with big dials... Now that really caught my eyes!

 

With a power supply he built in his very early 20s back in 1983 (aka, the very heavy machine with big dials), a thrift store Philips oscilloscope he fixed up for me and my oldest brother to experiment with, and his backgound of being a salesman for Philips, BC components and later Vishay, resulting in a wide array of passive electronics to our disposal, I had all the material means to develop my curiosity in electrical engineering.  Besides this, he provided me with an abundance of old electronics to tear down out of curiosity. From old amplifiers, to computers, to ovens, to boilers, I spent a good amount of years harvesting the components I still carry in my parts-bins to this day to build my projects with. 

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Whilst my father has a degree in Applied Physics, my mother studied structural engineering. And whilst still being very talented in mathematics, engineering has never really been her passion (although I can't forget to mention my father also almost directly went into sales). Her contributions have been incredible, and still remain to be very significant. I still can't imagine the amount of balls you need to have to trust your teen to knowingly work with high voltage electronics. Somehow she knew I had gathered the appropriate knowledge, and she gave me all the liberties to let me experiment and gather new knowledge and experiences (relucantly ofcourse). Whilst some might concider his careless, I concider this to be a motherly instinct and it's not even worth trying to understand (let's face it, if you're not a mom, you'll never will anyways). Besides this, she always tried to provide the means to develop my interest in electonics, whether it were parts, books, or the motivation to push through on projects in general, she's the most stable figure in the most unstable of times. Even nowadays, I simply can't describe the amount of gratitude I have for the fact she has given me my own personal room in our house to set up as a small electronics lab. Whilst I am still in the process of settling into this workspace, it already has allowed for an exponential growth in my interest and knowledge in electronics, and there will be a very bright future to come for me to develop further. This is the current space where all my documented projects are worked on!