K2XT N2KIC Mike Alterman (1937-2017)
Mike Alterman was born in 1937 in Brooklyn,
New York where he spent his childhood. He
graduated from Lafayette High School in
Brooklyn in 1953 and enrolled at Brooklyn
College where he studied pre-engineering.
At the end of his first semester in college, Mike
thought ham radio might be an interesting
hobby so he decided to attend a meeting of the Brooklyn College Amateur Radio club. It turned
out that the purpose of the meeting was to elect officers for the next term. The first person
nominated for president declined because he was not eligible as he had below a C average theprevious year. The next 2 people nominated were also not eligible because they had below a Caverage. So they asked who in the room had a C average or above. Mike had an A- average forthe first term. Two people raise their hands, Mike and a girl, Barbara Sackett a senior. She wasa ham and had been one for many years but she also declined the office of President because
she was a graduating senior and she need to spend her time looking for jobs. The members of
the club turned to Mike and asked him to be the President. Mike did not have a license or aradio but he did have above a C average so they convinced him to become the President. The
members of the club offered to give him Code practice to help him pass the Morse Code test
and get his license.
Mike embraced his new hobby with the same zeal he approached everything in life. His firstlicense was K2XT and he also occasionally operated the radio station of the college ham club,
W2APZ. Some of his fondest memories of that station were being able to help during
emergencies. One of those emergencies was an explosion on an aircraft carrier in the Brooklyn
Navy yard. After the explosion, many of the sailors that were unharmed wanted to get word totheir families that they were ok. The ham radio operators from the ship got on air and called forhelp. Mike and his friends from the Amateur Radio Club heard and offered to help. The
operator on the ship gave them their names and they would call the family on the radio to tellthem that their son was ok.
Mike remained President of the Amateur Radio Club until he left Brooklyn College a year and ahalf later. Mike earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from City College of NY(CCNY) in 1957. He accepted a position at Bell Labs and moved to New Jersey. While working at
Bell Labs, Mike earned 2 Masters Degrees: One in Electrical Engineering from NYU and anotherfrom Rutgers in Statistics.

In 1959, Mike married Joan Myerson, a math teacher from the Bronx. They bought a house inMatawan, New Jersey and started a family. Mike continued to work at Bell Labs on cuttingedge technologies including coin telephones, electronic switching systems (1ESS), PBX systems,
and eventually cellular telephones. Mike led a department in Bell Labs that was involved withthe deployment of the first cellular systems in the US. During his years at Bell Labs, Mike earned
several patents. He retired from Bell Labs in 1995.

While Mike was working and raising a family, he didn’t have time to spend on the radio or
space for his equipment so he took a break from his hobby. In the mid-1980’s when hisdaughters left for college, Mike got back to ham radio with the same zeal he had earlier in life.
He got a new license N2KIC and convinced his wife Joan to get one as well. Joan diligently
learned Morse code and got her license KB2JUN.

After retirement, Mike and Joan traveled extensively. They traveled North America in theirMotor home and took occasional trips overseas. On these trips, they sometimes had theopportunity to meet ham radio friends in person, including as far away as New Zealand. As they
traveled, they handed out these “business” cards with their call signs on the front and a pictureof their motor home on the back.

Mike died on December 20, 2017 at the age of 80. His wife Joan, died November 10, 2019, also
at the age of 80.