Jim Hayes' Web Pages

www.JimHayes.com

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I'm Jim Hayes. I'm a techie entrepreneur who, with my wife and business partner, Karen, started one of the world's first fiber optic test equipment companies, Fotec, in 1981. Fotec was acquired in 2001 by Fluke Networks and we left in 2002. I had also been involved in training cabling and fiber optic technicians since 1982 through a Fotec organization we called Fiber U and Cable University. The Fotec and Cable U websites and all the training materials we created were probably the most popular in communications cabling.

Now I'm the President of The Fiber Optic Association and Karen and I run The FOA and VDV Works LLC, a company that provides tech support to the VDV (voice-data-video) industry. We consult on technology, create technical content for training and offer training through VDV Academy. We've revived Lennie Lightwave's Guide To Fiber Optics and Uncle Ted's Guide To VDV Cabling on the web for everyone who missed these highly-praised introductions to fiber optics and structured cabling. I have several books in print, write articles and columns on cabling for many publications and serve as a contributing editor to Electrical Contractor and TED magazines. I'm also a frequent speaker at seminars and conventions.

This website includes my personal pages and links to those of my family.

Since the early 1960s, I've been involved with sports cars and sports car racing. During the 60s, I wrenched for various teams and photographed many races. I've retired from racing myself but maintain my interest in cars, attending many car events, help my sons race karts and occasionally participate in track events as an instructor. I also collect auto art and models - like this tether car from the 30s.

 

 

My other interest is photography, which I also began in the 60s. I have thousands of photos, much from 60s era sports car races that I'm still cataloging, putting online and then giving to the Watkins Glen racing library for preservation. I also am "curator" of many images of 50's racing taken by Howard Wolery, the high school teacher who got me interested in both sports cars and photography. Recently, I've abandoned film for digital photography. I have posted a "few" of my favorite photos here.

 

Karen and I enjoy travel, especially nature trips around the world and local in in our new home in California. We've been to Egypt, the Galapogas, Canada (Grizzlies) and whale watching in Baja. And more!

 

Karen and I moved to California in early 2003 from the suburbs of Boston to a rural mountainside between LA and San Diego. Here's some photos of the place we bought, local animals, plants, cars and some peculiarities of California!

Karen is also into horses and owns a paint. We have two sons, Michael and Daniel, who graduated from college in December, 2003 and are now working in LA. Here is more information on the rest of the family