My Background

This autobiography emphasizes my technical background.

Early Years

My interest in electronics in general and more specifically communications (radio and telephone) started at a very early age. My oldest brother, who was 10 years older than I, listened to a shortwave radio and tinkered with old telephones. I became his shadow and took an interest in his hobby. He bought me my first kit, a crystal radio, when I was about eight and helped me put it together.

In my junior year of high school, I decided to get my Ham license. A classmate’s dad administered my Novice exam and code test, which I passed on the first try. I purchased a Heathkit shortwave receiver and a Knight AM/CW transmitter kit. With a few additional accessories and a homebrew 40 meter antenna and tuner, I was on the air. Also, in my senior year, I took my high school’s first offering of an electronics class.

Marine Corps

Most of my work experience has been in the field of electronics, starting as a radio technician in the Marine Corps. In 1968 while still in high school, I joined the Marine Corps on a delayed entry program. I chose the Marines for two reasons. First, I thought if I was going to Vietnam, I wanted to improve my odds of surviving by going with the best. Second, I assumed that most of those who joined the Marines wanted infantry or a similar MOS (Military Occupational Specialty), so my chances of getting into a radio MOS would be better than with the Army.

After boot camp, I attended basic electronic, radio fundamentals, and radio relay repair courses for nearly a year. My first duty station was with the Air Wing at Cherry Point, NC. I worked mostly with the AN/TRC-97, which was the Marines most advanced microwave, multichannel radio.

During my time at Cherry Point, I was deployed by ship to Alexandroupoli, Greece in support of a possible use of Marine aircraft to assist in protecting / releasing hostages taken by terrorists during Black September. My role in that deployment was team leader for an AN/TRC-27 radio relay installation. Most of our radio relay equipment used frequency division multiplexing, but the TRC-27 used pulse position modulation and time division multiplexing. Although the newer equipment was mostly solid-state, the TRC-27 was a tube, actually Nuvistor design, but the modulator / multiplexer seemed more advanced.

The telephones that used our channels put out 90VAC 20Hz when the ring generator was cranked. On most multiplexers, the 20Hz voltage activated a relay that sent a tone over the radio because the channel could not pass 20Hz. The tone was detected and notched out of the audio path at the distant end, and the detected tone activated a relay that sent 90VAC 20Hz to the receiving phone or switchboard. However, the pulse position modulation of the TRC-27 could pass frequencies all the way down to DC. Therefore, after the 90VAC was attenuated by a low-pass filter, the 20Hz was passed through the radio to the distant end. The 20Hz was then detected and activated a relay that sent 90VAC 20Hz to the receiving phone or switchboard. In school, we connected an Oscilloscope to the output of the multiplexer and watched the pulse move back and forth as we slowly turned the crank on a telephone.

For my final year with the Marines, I was assigned to a fourth, limited fifth echelon maintenance shop in Okinawa. We repaired everything that was used in Vietnam. As we could not always depend on parts and support from CONUS (Continental United States), we often had to troubleshoot at the component level and cannibalize some equipment to repair the majority. During this time (1971-72), American troops were beginning to withdraw from Vietnam and turn the war over to the Vietnamese. About a dozen older AN/MRC-62 radio relay sets were sent to the Vietnamese Marine Corps, and three of us from Okinawa went to Vietnam to check / repair the equipment and train the Vietnamese Marines to operate and maintain the radio sets.

Return to Okinawa

After completing my enlistment, I returned to Okinawa to marry an Okinawan girl, my wife of over 50 years. Okinawa was returned to the Japanese in 1972, which made it much more difficult for a foreigner to work in Okinawa. After a year of working at slave wages for a company that distributed Hi-Fi equipment to the American PXs, we moved to California.

Switching Power Supplies

Within a few days of arriving in California, I had a job as an Engineering Technician in the power supply department of an aerospace company that made radar jammers. At that time switching powers were expensive and seldom used in commercial equipment. However, for the military, money was no object, but weight and efficiency were very important. Most of the products we designed were high voltage switching power supplies that powered TWTs (traveling wave tubes). In addition to power supplies, our department designed switch drivers: logic circuits that switched the signal path of the radar jammer. Although older drivers used discrete transistors, the newer switch drivers were design with TTL (transistor-transistor logic), giving me an opportunity to learn logic design with the latest devices.

After working for this company for about 3 years, a coworker friend invited me to go with him to visit an engineer he knew who had just moved his business from his garage into a 20,000 square foot factory. The engineer had been a consultant for our current employer (before my time) and had designed the low power switching power supplies we customized for new TWT requirements. The engineer’s company had grown to over 60 employees in only a month, so our visit turned into interviews. The engineer (president) made me an offer that I accepted.

The new company made low-cost switching power supplies for printers, and the printer industry was happy to get rid of their huge, heavy linear power supplies. This was the first time high-volume commercial products could use switching power supplies cost effectively. In addition, this unique design incorporated current-mode regulation instead of the standard voltage-mode. When I reported to the new company two weeks later, I found it had doubled in size, and my job had been given to someone else. The president asked me to help out in the engineering department while he figured out how best to use me, which did not take long.

The company had been burning-in (operation under load) its power supplies for only 2 hours before shipping. As production increased rapidly, so did field failures, which were returned for repair. As a result, the burn-in was extended to 8 hours, and the burn-in failures immediately increased dramatically. The president, knowing I had extensive experience with his design (the same basic design used by my previous employer), had manufacturing set me up with a test station and asked me to evaluate the burn-in failures and identify causes, so the problems could be corrected. Also, the best assembler in the company was assigned to assist me. I identified the problem(s), she made the repairs, and I retested to ensure I had identified the problem correctly. Within a week, we had identified the major causes of failure, which were mostly process problems (as is usually the case).

After mitigating the burn-in crisis, the president asked me to stay with manufacturing as their Manufacturing Engineer. My most memorable experience in this position was my contribution to the burn-in room. The engineering department had intended to use electro-mechanical clocks, like an industrial version of the timers used to turn lights and sprinkler systems on and off automatically. The idea was to increase the stress to the power supplies by cycling the power on and off during burn-in. The cycling made a lot of sense, but the clocks did not. I convinced the president to let me design a system using CMOS logic to cycle the power supplies. The result was a system that cycled 10 circuits, clocking them 10 seconds apart to reduce power surge. The on and off time for each circuit could be adjusted independently, and a master control periodically turned off all of the circuits and turn on an exhaust fan to cool the room. Then the master control turned on all the circuits to continue the burn-in. The cooling facilitated a temperature cycle, which further stressed the power supplies during burn-in.

After about a year in manufacturing, I moved back to engineering as an Engineering Technician. After a year in engineering, I was promoted to a project design engineering position and given my own projects. My most notable design was the 3 Terminal Switching Regulator. I designed three models: Positive 12A, Positive 20A, and Negative 5A. These products provided companies the ability to build their own custom power supplies for projects that did not have the quantities to justify a total custom design. The product was sold through distributors and was still on the market 20 years after I completed the design.

Asia

The next few years, I worked for Asian companies, primarily in the U.S., Hong Kong, and Taiwan. I lived in Taiwan for three years and learned to speak Mandarin well enough to get by, but I was never proficient enough to use it for business. Part of the problem was that most locals preferred to speak Taiwanese (a dialect originating from Fujian) instead of the official Mandarin, even in business settings.

After working for a power supply company for a year, I was offered a position directing a division of an import / export company providing sourcing and inspection of Asian products. This position gave me an opportunity to meet engineers and see manufacturing operations in Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mainland China, Singapore, and Thailand. I have visited both modern and very primitive facilities throughout Asia.

I was not at all impressed by the factory I visited in Shenzhen, China. The factory was not small, about 40,000 sq ft on two floors. However, the facility and most of the equipment was in poor condition and sitting idle. The workers did not seem motivated, and management appeared to be dominated by a single “party” member.

Most of the products we sourced and / or inspected were not electronics, so I quickly lost interest and returned to the United States.

Hawaii

When I first arrived in Hawaii, there were a number of high-tech companies. However, the two largest companies were in the process of moving engineering and manufacturing to CONUS.

My first position was an analyst with Hawaii's largest health insurance company in the benefits analysis and system support unit. Claims processing was still very manual, but the company was developing software to increase automation. Our primary responsibility was liaison between the claims department and the IT department.

During my two years, I coordinated a couple of large projects to automate hospital claims processing. The only computer language I had formally studied was COBAL, which was the language the company was using for all new software. Although I was not hired to write code, this knowledge gave me an advantage when it came to debugging problems. I did edit a few lines of code to fix a problem on some existing software that the IT department did not have time to fix.

Emergency Management Part 1

I was continually looking for an opportunity in electronics, which I finally found in the State’s emergency management division. I started out as a Radio Technician in the telecommunications branch. After taking on more and more responsibility, managing and contributing to the design of a number of projects, I eventually became Systems Engineer, a position that was created after 9/11.

On September 11, 1991, Hurricane Iniki struck the island of Kauai. The strong winds knocked down utility poles throughout the island, which impacted inter-island and intra-island communications. After the storm passed, the only means of communications between the Kauai County government and State government was Amateur Radio.

The morning after Iniki hit, I flew on an Army helicopter to Kauai to reestablish communications. After arriving and completing my tasks, I was asked by the Mayor’s Assistant to assume the duties of Telecommunications Chief for the county. I stayed on Kauai for 10 days coordinating the implementation of an Army telephone system that linked all of the fire stations with the county EOC (Emergency Operations Center). I also continued to supervise the operation of the State VHF radio, which I had brought to the EOC, and Amateur Radio operations from the EOC. In addition, I coordinated the installation of a FEMA telephone system that used a satellite to connect to the US phone system.

After Iniki, I continued my regular duties, which included maintenance of the State-wide siren system and an Oahu VHF radio system. I was given the additional task of implementing the EAS (Emergency Alert System) for Hawaii. Hawaii is the only location where the PEP (Primary Entry Point) for the area’s EAS is a government installation. The State EOC has an audio studio, which was used to broadcast EBS (Emergency Broadcast System) messages statewide. We purchased and installed new EAS equipment, which is a digitally enhanced network based on the SAME system developed by the NWS (National Weather Service). As well as the State EOC, equipment was installed at each of the County EOC’s and Warning Points (Police Dispatch). Following installation, I revisited each county and conducted training for the operators. The EAS replaced the EBS on January 1, 1997.

As a result of the loss of communications during Iniki, the Hawaii Legislature passed a bill providing funding to develop and implement a State-wide satellite system, which could survive and provide County Government to State Government communications after an extreme disaster such as a hurricane. I was tasked with researching existing technology and services and developing a plan to purchase and deploy equipment to support this initiative. After evaluating a number of options, we chose to use an MSS (Mobile Satellite Service). The system used a small antenna protected by a rugged dome, which was less than a foot in diameter. Each satellite radio was assigned a US phone number, which facilitated making a phone call to anywhere. The radio also included a digital modem, which could be used to dial into another modem on a local area network or the Internet. What made the MSS most attractive was that multiple radios could be assigned to a PTT (push-to-talk) group. The State, the Counties, the NWS, and the PTWC (Pacific Tsunami Warning Center) each had a satellite radio assigned to the Hawaii State Group. This allowed any location to contact all other locations simultaneously in the event of an emergency. A roll call conducted several time each day ensured that the system was working.

Higher Education

After nine years in emergency management, I decided I needed a change. I had been teaching electronics part-time in the evening at a two-year regionally accredited career college. An opportunity to teach full-time became available, and I took it. However, after 2 years of teaching electronics and computer networking, I was asked to be the dean of the technology programs. I had mixed feelings about taking this position because I would not be able to continue teaching, which I enjoyed. However, as dean, I would be able to make a larger impact on the technology programs, so I accepted.

As dean my duties included supervising over 20 instructors, advising students, and developing class schedules. Unlike most colleges that posted available classes and allowed students to select the classes they wanted to take, at this college, the deans assigned the students in their program to the classes they would be taking in the next quarter. The approach facilitated graduating students in the shortest possible time and improving the efficient use of classrooms and instructors. However, I, as well as other deans, found the process extremely tedious and time consuming. Evaluating student progress and developing student schedules was crying out for assistance from technology.

The manual process involved printing each student’s transcript, which listed the classes the student had completed, the grade, and the classes the student was currently taking. By comparing this information to the curriculum for the program in which the student had enrolled, the dean could determine what courses the student needed in the next quarter. By totaling the number of students needing a particular class, the dean could determine the number of that particular class that was needed.

After spending many hours staring at paper records, I decided to try to write software that would automate much of this process. I enjoyed writing applications in Pascal, which I taught myself, so I tried Delphi, Borland’s Object Pascal. Delphi made it easier to write a structured GUI application. My first step was to capture the student data and display it. I was able to save the student transcripts batch printing as a text file and use my application to parse the data. Then I developed a GUI, which presented the data in a more readable state. Once I had an application that was somewhat useful, I presented it to the Director of Academic Affairs (my boss) and the other deans. After getting feedback, I continued the process of developing an application that within a few months made it much easier to evaluate each student’s progress and select the necessary courses for the next quarter. Everyone using the application shared a common database, which tabulated all the class requirements selected by the individual deans for the students in their programs. The director could then print the results and begin the process of developing the class schedule.

The software worked with the college's old student record software and was only available to the Honolulu campus. In fact, no one outside of Honolulu knew of its existence. When the college decided to convert student records to PeopleSoft, it became clear to our director during a meeting on the mainland that all 11 campuses would need something similar to my application. When our director returned to Honolulu, she discussed with me the possibility of adapting the application to PeopleSoft student records. I told her that it was likely possible if I could save a text file similar to how the old software worked. Actually, it to turned out to be easier with PeopleSoft. I was sent to a course at PeopleSoft to learn how to write queries on their system, which made it easier to grab just the data I needed in a more friendly format.

Once the college completed its conversion to PeopleSoft and my application was rewritten and tested, I traveled to the mainland to train other deans to use the application. After the deans became comfortable using the application, it was well accepted. The deans were able to devote more of their time to working with students and faculty. Not only did the application simplify the scheduling process but it gave the deans the ability to display a student’s record in a visually friendly format when advising a student.

My other technical achievement at this college was redesigning the electronics program based on local industry feedback. The electronics program was very popular at our campus, assisting many students to find high-paying careers on the mainland. The new program design added more telecommunications and networking to the curriculum. The new program required new courses, which were developed and implemented by our instructors under my supervision.

The college, which had been a not-for-profit institution, was purchased by an anonymous investor. The new president, who was not from from academia, appeared to be taking the college in a new direction, which made me uncomfortable. At the same time, I had been asked to return to the State emergency management division.

Emergency Management Part 2

To be continued

 Contact [tsimon@stshawaii.com]