Hello, my name is Gert. I have been working as an engineer in the Expert Team of Vodafoneziggo for over 22 years now. Engineering is an integral part of our work and it gets more complex every year. Our task is to build and maintain the national data transport network. We also work in weekly 24-hour watch shifts in which we alternate, but also by working together and supporting each other.

Engineering has been an important part of my work and hobbies for over 40 years. My interest in technique started in the 1970s in a store in the Hofstraat in Hasselt (Overijssel). In the early 80s we took over this store from Breman B.V. and so our family business ‘Elektrospeciaalzaak Kracht’ began.

40 years of experience with many different disciplines in all kinds of techniques is not easy to summarize on one page. To give you an idea: the first radios and televisions we worked with had lamps to process signals. Soon after that, devices with transistors came on the market. During my MTS education I designed and built electronic devices myself: amplifiers, transmitters and receivers with the first chips. Which eventually translated into being able to repair small electronic equipment.

Technology still has the property of periodically doubling up, that is: faster, better and more beautiful. This is reflected in the equipment we use. But who could have imagined something like an iPhone in the 1980s? At that time, we called with a landline phone, used a fax machine, and the first modems communicated at a speed of 1200 Bits per second. Maximum.About our store and the experiences I have written down more than 100 stories that I will share periodically on this website with the hashtags #Hofstraat1 and #ShoppingStories that way I thought it would be fun to be able to share some more about that time. The collection of stories was first of all meant to be a book for my parents, but now even more so for our daughters and anyone else who enjoys reading it.

About the techniques we work with now will share where I can and may, from time to time. Much of the technique is very complex. To give you an idea: The modems we sold on Court Street are comparatively billions of times slower than the technology we work with now. And these are technical developments that developed in less than 30 years.

Some of my hobbies: modeling and electronics have given way to photography, videography and the Wadden. Many techniques also converge on the Wadden in the form of taking photos and videos. Photography I continued after my father stopped his analog black and white photography. In the 1970s I picked up his analog camera and have been teaching myself everything in that field ever since.

My modeling hobby has returned with the advent of drone’s which I use for aerial filming and photography. And electronics remains a part of my work and hobbies in every way. Technology is literally in almost every device I use.

I try to expand my knowledge in as broadly as possible within all those techniques. Build experience, working with those techniques. That often requires discipline and a lot of patience. Fortunately, I inherited that enormous patience from my mother.

On this website, which I built myself in WordPress, I write about my time in the #Hofstraat1, but also about audio, video and photography. The Wadden area also gets an even bigger role because I find it such a beautiful dynamic nature area. Wonderful to walk there and explore everything and fill my cameras with beautiful images and then be able to share them here again.

A summary of my work experience can be found on LinkedIn.