When I was four or five years old, I watched my father splice
some lamp cord. It looked easy, so I tried it too. A huge spark, a
loud pop, and a hard smack on my backside convinced me I had a lot
to learn. Fortunately, the fuse worked. That was my introduction to
the field of electricity.
My father's interest in HAM radio fueled the fire. As I grew
older, I learned Morse Code and began the learn the rudiments of
radio. My initial instruction in electronics was delivered by the
mailman in a series of kits from somewhere in Texas. These kits
taught me the fundamentals of electrical and electronic circuits,
audio, and radio. By the time I finished this training, I was ready
for high school, where I was able to take shop classes in
electronics for four years. I got my HAM license too, and I still
have my call sign, WA3JQC. I decided to become an electrical
engineer when I was 14 years old.
When I was an undergraduate electrical engineering student, I
read an article about an electrical engineer who worked as an
independent inventor, and right then I knew that was the life for
me. At the time, I realized I had much to do before I would be
ready.
After I received my BSEE from the University of Notre Dame, I
went into the Army where I worked in an Army Security Agency
maintenance depot as an electrical engineer. I worked on radio
frequency receiving systems, instrumentation, and controls. I
performed RF measurements, system assessments, and instrumentation
assessments. I also designed an on-line antenna integrity test
system for a field operations site.
After the Army, I went to graduate school at the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I studied statistical communications
theory, coding, information theory, control theory, queuing theory,
circuits and systems, digital signal processing, and various areas
of mathematics. I received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical
engineering. My research work focused on coding data to optimize the
transmission of digital signals. In addition to the mathematical
analysis involved in this field, I wrote a lot of FORTRAN code to
analyze the statistical nature of coded random data. My masters'
thesis was entitled "Synthesis of Ternary Codes for Spectrum
Shaping," and my Ph.D. dissertation, "Coding for the Control of
Intersymbol Interference in Baseband Channels."
I moved to St. Paul, Minnesota to join the Central Research
Laboratory of the 3M Company. Over the next five and one-half years,
I worked on write-once optical disk technology, digital audio
recording, magnetic disk drive technology, and digital document
storage. These technologies, now mature, were edge-of-the-art
activities at that time, and even though they are dated, I have
included a few of these projects in my case history file because the
experience of working on the edge-of-the-art is timeless.
During my tenure at 3M, I obtained registration as a Professional
Engineer in the State of Minnesota (PE, Electrical, #15546).
In 1984, I met a company that was looking for a consultant to
develop a battery-powered ultra-sonic system to measure the water
level in rivers. I got the job. Shortly after that I left 3M to
start my independent consulting practice, and Electronics
Consultants was born. I have been self-employed ever since.
