About Patrick Laing
Network architect, amateur radio operator VA7EET, and incurable tinkerer in Port Alberni, BC.
plaing.ca is my personal website and a place to document the things I build, investigate, and learn.
I’m Patrick Laing, a network architect and incurable tinkerer based in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
Professionally, I work in telecommunications and service provider networking, designing and operating the infrastructure that keeps people connected. My work spans core routing, network architecture, and troubleshooting the problems that survive everyone else’s troubleshooting.
Outside work, I spend a lot of time exploring the overlap between software, machine learning, and communications. My projects include neural video compression, experimental radio modems, automated Morse code decoding, and a home lab that tends to generate as many projects as it supports. I’m particularly interested in getting useful results under awkward constraints: limited bandwidth, noisy signals, and finite computing power.
I’m also an amateur radio operator, VA7EET, with interests ranging from HF and portable operating to software-defined radio and antenna experiments. Radio gives me a practical playground for trying ideas and seeing how they hold up beyond a simulation.
This blog is where I share projects, experiments, technical rabbit holes, and lessons from getting things working—or figuring out why they don’t.