About Greg Weir

About the Author

Greg Weir is a technical systems architect, writer, and lifelong technology enthusiast based in a rural community on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. For decades, he has worked at the intersection of communication, technology, and human curiosity — helping people understand complex systems without the jargon that usually comes with them.

He is the creator of RadioBook, a five-volume, plain-language introduction to amateur radio supported by the RadioBook Game Suite, a collection of interactive simulators that make radio concepts feel intuitive and hands-on. Greg is fascinated by how radio energy underpins so much of the modern world — cellular networks, WiFi, Bluetooth, microwave links, medical imaging, and beyond — and finds the same principles alive and tactile in amateur radio. From the simplicity of CW to the evolving landscape of digital modes, he enjoys every facet of radio and is most at home when helping others understand it. In his view, frequencies and wavelengths hold the world together.

Greg’s conviction that technology should be understandable and buildable has guided his career since the early days of home computing. In the 1980s he wrote TACCS, one of Toronto’s first Atari bulletin board systems; he ran a retail computer store and built a custom point-of-sale system for it; and long before online ordering was commonplace, he created one of the web’s first pizza-ordering platforms, using open-source fax software to bridge the gap between early browsers and real-world kitchens.

He later directed the Content Division at Tucows through fifteen years of growth, then founded Tartanleaf.com to produce server-monitoring software, and now books, worldwide. Through every venture, the pattern has remained the same: build the system, break it, rebuild it, then explain it in plain language.

Greg also writes the Smart Tech for Real People series, practical guides that help everyday users navigate modern technology with confidence, and he recently published a comprehensive book on Bitcoin mining with Bitaxe.

When he is not writing, coding, or building tools, you can find him on the air as VA1GW, experimenting with antennas and HF propagation, or exploring the island’s twisty roads on his Suzuki Hayabusa. He also plays guitar and Cape Breton–style fiddle, though he’s most at home in the quiet moments — teasing a weak signal out of the noise floor or answering a solitary call on an empty band.