RICHARD E LEVANDOWSKI



OBJECTIVE



Communications engineering inclusive to: design, construction, test/commission, operation, and maintenance. Having 14+ years in small, medium, and hi-power facilities I can contribute practical experience to the position in addition to 12+ years in peripheral communications encompassing satellite, marine, terrestrial, radar, & microwave as well as telecom (another 7 years). Manufacturing and field experience of a wide range of frequencies and uses. technical management of a specialized rf team where my business background can also be applied. I strive to attend at least one class per year to stay current both in electronics and procedures (1st aid, defib., ethics, etc.).



SUMMARY


Status/Qualification(s) Statement: Field engineering Special Projects Eng’r. working on various AM/FM stations for the Starboard Network of Green Bay, and previously the station engineer of the IBB owned facility at Tinian & Saipan, CNMI-USA. At Starboard I organized and was the on-site hands-on field engineer orchestrating the construction, modification, and testing along with maintenance issues of AM, FM, and network facilities throughout the Eastern U.S. both utilizing the services of contractors as well as full and part-time employees. As Chief Engineer of the Tinian facility where I was employed by the Boeing Service Corporation. The operations and maintenance contract granted Boeing included both of the facilities since inception of the Robert E. Kamosa transmitting station. From Nov.’02 thru Feb.’04. I supervised the technical operations and maintenance/repairs of the six 500KW ABB & two 250KW Continental transmitters along with the associated 11 directional arrays utilizing the talented staff of 4 technicians at this 24/7 operation. Standard IBB procedures are used including the inclusion of the EITS, OMs, monthly/quarterly reports, Federal procurement guidelines, and of course, EEO/ethics/labor & immigration rules. During both of these recent positions I was able to improve the reliability statistics of the equipment through the application of numerous maintenance approaches and modifications/upgrades wherever possible. My many years in broadcasting, telecom, & communications have allowed me a broad range of exposure to various equipment and configurations and thereby give me a unique and valuable approach directly beneficial to day-to-day care and maintenance of the customer assets and needs.



EXPERTISE


· 1973 to present experience in repair of consumer electronics, having moved on to the radio broadcasting field as an on-site/hands-on engineer building/modifying/maintaining facilities (AM/FM and shortwave + Directional Arrays - - up to and including 50KW upward to 500KW), on to cellular telephone systems as a field maintenance specialist as a contract Engineer for AMPS/CDMA/PCS provider performing project management (including, FCC/FAA filings, zoning applications/hearings along with contractual fulfillment/negotiation), Nortel OM’s, & test. Past holder of both a Secret (Desert Storm/Diego Garcia PPO) & Classified clearance (Jan.01). Experience and statistical analysis of systems have yielded improved operations, reliability, and cost-savings for the customer in all jobs I’ve been assigned over the years be it site planning, construction, project management, parameter manipulation, contractual agreements, or parts procurement - - this is a direct result of my having been an independent consultant and business owner and realizing first-hand the capitalized investment at risk.

· HANDS-ON: Having worked in the commercial broadcasting business for several years as a chief engineer I’ve often been the sole technician employed to maintain STL, studio, remote mixer, generators, automation equipment, audio processing, and control equipment. Transmitters of different technology and vintage have challenged my troubleshooting yet I’ve been successful in even modifying them in order to improve their performance and reliability. Examples of this are cited at the several radio stations I’ve built from the ground-up including 100KW FM to 50KW directional AM stations collocated with others which of course required coordination on the physical and electrical aspects of the projects. Frequency coordination and working with local and federal agencies in order to satisfy both legal and business needs are other variables in projects I’ve successfully dealt with. As the station engineer at the Tinian facility I was involved in the troubleshooting of hardline and antennas using TDRs, reflectometers, and network analyzers to pinpoint the problems. Working with the 500KW equipment requires my attention to high-circulating currents and supply voltages (11KV), waterflow problems related to cooling, corrosion problems which affect unusual harmonic interactions, switching matrix which is interfaced with a “quasi-SCADA” system in order to satisfy the scheduling control OPCON computer, switching gear for the incoming 11kV AC commercial feeds which can handle 200+ Amps. As a shortwave listener since 1965, an amateur radio operator since 1969, AM broadcast engineer, Merchant Marine communications officer, telecom performance engineer, and at the Kamosa RFA/VOA site engineer I’d been an exposed to a wide-range of frequency related propagation characteristics. Intermod, hetrodying, Fernel; effect, sun outages, auroral fade, and the sunspot cycle are all familiar and still interesting phenomena I am comfortable both in their causes and their manifestations in various systems be they digital or analog. Environmental concerns both from the battles of WW2 and present-day depleted items (Barium tubes, metal oxides, battery acids) were also my responsibility to oversee their disposal and handling.



PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE/ ACCOMPLISHMENTS


Presently contract communications engineer w/L.D. Technologies of St.Cloud, MN



Field Eng’r. - STARBOARD NETWORK, Eastern U.S. Region: 05/04 – 05/06
· Re-building, installing, maintaining, and planning of satellite-network to Simian “automation” facilities, FCC issues, and zoning presentations.



Station Engineer - BOEING SERVICES CORP.’ Richardson, TX: 11/02 - 02/04
Position located @ Tinian/Saipan CNMI/USA

· 1976 to 1987 (& 11/2002 to 2/2004) AM/FM broadcast full-time & contract engineer building, modifying, and maintaining studio to full-power & translator transmission facilities.

· Oversee technical operations of transmitters, supervisory capacity of technicians; prioritize repairs/maintenance/parts for optimal performance to IBB.

· Project and plan for bi-yearly schedule changes, arrange substitutions as needed, test equipment use and care, conduct occasional training in related technical changes and personnel issues.



Cellular Tech./Performance Eng'r - NEXTEL PARTNERS, Eden Prairie, MN: 05/01- 10/02
Jobsite: Wausau, WI - USA

· Project on-site construction tech. and system performance engineer utilizing statistical analysis to optimize for coverage, capacity, and adjacent system needs. Comarco & Agilent drive-test gear + MapInfo.



Cellular/PCS Field Engineer - TEKSYSTEMS/CELLCOM CONTRACTOR, Green Bay, WI: 02/01 - 05/01

· Modification and integration on-site engineer to NorTel based CDMA/AMPS/PCS system in metro., cellsite overlay/underlay along with frequency planning, software/firmware upgrades, and drive-testing.



Radio/Electronics - U.S. MERCHANT MARINE: 05/1991 - 01/2001
Shipboard, Worldwide (U.S. Coast Guard licensed Radio Officer)

· Operate/maintain/install shipboard communications/navigational/electronic equipment aboard cargo and military assigned vessels. Customs/immigration/payroll clerk as well.

· Previous to joining the Merchant Marine as an officer I was employed in the telecom business @ Cellular One in Wausau along with having 4 years @ U.S. West Cellular in Fargo where in both cases I was the field technician/switch operations tech./performance engineer. QC @ Eaton/Cutler-Hammer aboard nuclear subs was another contract I’ve done between shipping. - - These positions necessitated a wide range of talents in electronics, project management, and customer-service related activities and allowed much autonomy and responsibility. Switch AMA, translations, along with DACS and channel bank + T1/fiber multiplexers were also my responsibility. BERT by Phoenix, Sage, and Wilcom are standards we also abided by as the PSTN interface was the gateway.

· Previous to 1987 I’d been the chief engineer of numerous broadcast stations throughout the western U.S. in both a contractual and full-time capacity as well as consultant/construction engineer dating back to 1976. Balanced/equalized and “dry pair” lines were widely utilized then.


EDUCATIONAL/ TECHNICAL BACKGROUND
· Numerous manufacturer (Nortel, Telesciences, Novatel, Speery, Raytheon, and Altec) equipment maint. & ops classes (see below).

· Electronics, 2 Yr. Degree, Northwestern Electronics Inst, MPLS., MN. 1976

GPA: 3 out of 4

TRAINING
· 1998 King’s Point Merchant Marine Academy @ NY,NY PLC/servos/generators 1993 to 1995 American Radio Association. Institute for Marine Electronics @ Scottsdale, AZ Gyros, radar, synchros, instrumentation, and computer network repair/operation. 1995 Univ. of WI @ Platteville Technical writing 1988 to 2001. NorTel DMS 100/200, CDMA/PCS/AMPS, Redcom/Novatel CM800, Telesciences DS1/3 DL4R microwave and switch & cellsite maint./operation, & Motorola iDEN. 1988 Moorhead State Univ. @ Moorhead, MN business, computer, and math. 1987 Univ. of ND @ Grand Forks ND Business Management, math, and computer.

· Also rescue-trained by Comtrain for tower climbing/rigging.





Summary: 34 years of experience in electronics covering P.C. board repair, 2-way, radio broadcasting, microwave, shipboard communications/navigation including radar/GPS/satellite, telecom (including MTX switch), FCC licensing, FAA applications, city/county permit presentations, and systems statistical analysis. Extensive hands-on and design using combiners, circulators, multicouplers, cavities, isocouplers, diplexers, and antenna detunes/co-lo particulars. All FCC licenses and individual can hold. Available for contract or full-time in 2 weeks.