Forrest M. Mims III wrote a series of electronics hobbyist booklets. Thanks to an engineer older brother (who could actually comprehend the details of these books while I couldn’t) I grew up with these books around the house (among many other technical books - viz. same brother). I had no idea that Mims had been with USAF at Kirtland. (nor that Microsoft’s first office was Albuquerque). If this is all described in Mountain View’s Computer History Museum, I missed it.

> 1976 at the West Coast Computer Faire.

According to wikipedia, the first "Faire" was in 1977 (where the Apple II was demonstrated). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Coast_Computer_Faire

That's an enjoyable read!