What type of job are you looking for?
I am seeking a position for a senior level RF or Electronics Field Engineer or Technician.
What nationality are you?
American
What languages do you speak (and at what level)?
German conversational Spanish conversational
What country or area are you looking to work in and why?
I am seeking a position in Colombia, Peru or Ecuador. I have worked in several regions of Colombia and I would like to return there to continue my career and maintain the friendships I have there.
What countries have you worked in?
I have worked in Colombia, Germany, Papua New Guinea, Philippines and Australia
What countries do you have a visa to work in?
My visa for Colombia just expired.
What field do you currently work in?
RF and Electronics systems maintenance and engineering.
What fields have you worked in before?
Electronics engineering, Electronics R&D, Remote Sensing System Airborne Maintenance and Operations
What qualifications do you hold?
GeoSAR RADAR Technician/Operator 9/2005 – 6/2009 Fugro EarthData International, Hagerstown, MD Member of a four person aircrew on board a multi-million dollar one of a kind Gulfstream II aircraft equipped with a millimeter wave X and P band Interferometric Synthetic Aperture RADAR. Responsible for daily mission planning, execution and coordination for collection of data as well operation and maintenance of RADAR and a LIDAR profiler system. Maintain and operate all related control and position sensors onboard. These sensors consist of a highly accurate military grade EGI/IMU and several GPS units for logging of aircraft altitude, attitude, velocity and wing tip position relative to the selected flight path. While deployed also tasked with basic IT functions to maintain all PC hardware, software and their operating systems which include Windows XP, 2K and QNX which are all connected via a standalone gigabit LAN. Maintain a fiber optic point to multi-point 200Mb/s network that is used to move digitized RADAR data to four Conduant computers each capable of storing up to 8 Terabytes of data on removable modules. Due to FAA and OSHA regulations this system is required to be safe when on the ground which requires the use of safety interlocks both hardwired and software controlled to prevent accidental transmission of high powered RF as well as emissions from our laser. Also responsible for maintaining these sensors as they pertain to our system and aware of how they as well as our entire system are related to the aircraft power and avionics systems. Experienced with all necessary test equipment for measurement and RF transmit/receive path characterization which includes Microwave and Spectrum Analyzers, Digital Multi-meters, Oscilloscopes and RF Power Meters as well as custom test jigs for system manipulation. Developed the field QMS process documentation for all RADAR operations and testing while deployed. PCB Designer 6/2003 - 9/2005 Paratek Microwave Inc., Columbia, MD Assigned to the Engineering Services Division to provide schematic capture and PCB layout for all engineering groups within Paratek. Received training and certification in ProtelDXP and OrCAD and experienced with PADS PowerPCB 5.0 as well as gerbtool and Camtastic. Used other CAD tools such as AutoCAD LT and SolidWorks profficiently. Worked with RF microstrip and stripline circuits from schematic capture to design layout. Imported RF circuits from the RF group's HFSS or other simultaion tools. Regularly laid out analog, highspeed digital and mixed signal technologies on 2 to 8 signal layers. Have used as many as 12 signal layers with 2 power planes. Explored new technologies to reduce board size and component count and methodologies for controlling or eliminating ground bounce and other noise sources. Directed projects in the layout phase and assigned priorities as needed. Aided in the design decisions to help determine if a design is able to be manufactured in production quantities. Guided the design process towards completion in a timely manner with all possible consideration to cost control. Provided assistance and guidance to two layout technicians to complete their assignments for other divisions. Established and maintained a company database of preferred parts of both schematic symbols and suggested footprint libraries as well as associated manufacturer's documentation. Also developed company standards to increase DFM and DFT to move engineers away from designing for proto-type only.
RF Engineering Technician/PCB Designer 11/2000 - 6/2003 Paratek Microwave, Columbia, MD Worked in direct support of the lead engineer in an R&D environment working on VTOs and synthesizers in the 8 to 13GHz range. With limited supervision and direction I assisted in the design, breadboarding, prototyping, testing and problem solving to aid the product development using a variety of tools both software and hardware. Collected and documented data collected and assisted in analysis of the data. Also tasked with managing project logistics from finding current technologies that assist our design performance requirements, to simply ordering the parts necessary to complete upcoming builds and proto-types. Documented current BOMs and ECOs for these product lines. Cadence certified in PCB Layout Plus and experienced with Orcad Schematic Capture software. Routinely did complex hierarchical schematic capture and export to their preferred layout package as well as accomplished ECOs as the designs evolved. Laid out both RF and mixed signal A/D PCBs consisting of 4 or more routing layers. Familiar with other popular packages as well, such as Protel DXP. In addition to the electronics CAD software I also used AutoCAD LT 2000. Experience with these software packages was well suited for RF layout, both stripline and microstrip technologies. Was familiar with the standard MS Office software. Proficient with the Agilent HP-E5500 Phase Noise Measurement System as a user and troubleshooting down to the defective module for shipment to a repair facility. Used several different models of Agilent Spectrum Analyzers on a daily basis was most experienced with the HP-8565EC model. Experienced with the standard compliment of test equipment including but not limited to oscilliscopes, DMM and Vector Network Analyzers plus many more. Manufacturing Engineering Technican 5/2000 - 10/2000 Kelly Services, Somerset PA, Designed, maintained and upgraded the mechanical and electronic test fixtures as well as production equipment. Used AutoCad Lt 2000 to design fixtures and layouts. Assisted more experienced technician with programming and installation of PLC relays for controlling manufacturing fixtures and safety interlocks. Almost all of their electronic fixtures were desktop computer based running various operating systems such as Windows 95, NT 4.0 or DOS version 5.0 or later. Built, configured and installed hardware with the necessary drivers. Also experienced with all software in the Office 97/2000 Suite. Worked well under tight schedules and limited supervision. Also kept associates and management informed of the current status of all projects currently under my responsibility. Electronics Engineering Technician 2/2000 - 5/2000 Manpower Technical Services, 1211 Oberlin Rd, Raleigh NC Assigned to Powerware Corporation in Raleigh NC. Worked directly with the design engineers in the development of rack mountable uninterruptable power supplies that can handle a load of up to 9kVa in parallel with redundancy and 12kVa in series without redundancy. As one of two electronics engineering technicians I breadboard modification of circuits from schematics provided by the engineers and inserted them into the circuit to ensure that everything was electrically correct before testing. Determined which components are suitable substitutions based on the design requirements. Modified all circuits to bring them up to the current engineering change level. Also troubleshot circuits to determine why their modification didn't operate as expected. Also assisted the engineers from a technicians point of view for ease of repair in the field and provide feedback for possible solutions. Electronics Circuit Solder Technician 11/1998 - 1/2000 Kuchera Defense Systems, 345 Hillside Dr., Windber PA 15963 Hand solder through hole components into circuit card assemblies on the Laser, Amp and Jager programs to IPC -A- 610B standards. Also directly involved in the quality control process as a pre-inspection point to repair all defects that don't meet the above hand solder standards. Built to strict military specifications using customer supplied blueprints and process documentation. Also worked directly with mechanical engineers to identify and remedy problems with design specifications in the fabrication of these items. Systems Integration Technician 8/1996 - 3/1997 DRS Laurel Technologies, 423 Walters Ave., Johnstown PA 15904 Responsible for the building, testing and configuring of all hardware and related sub-assemblies of the AN-UYQ70 and AN-UYQ65 Naval Warfare Systems. Built to strict military specifications using customer supplied blueprints and process documentation. Also worked directly with mechanical engineers to identify and remedy problems with design specifications in the fabrication of equipment. PC/Copier Technician 8/1995 - 12/1995 Cambria Business Machines, 110 Clinton St., Johnstown PA As a PC Technician I was responsible for the configuring of hardware, software and peripherals in support of their sales staff, as well as all in house PCs. Troubleshot hardware failures to the board level or lower as needed. Acted as a consultant to their sales force concerning hardware connectivity and available technology to provide their clients with the best solutions to their growing networks. Also provided field support for office products in their line such as copiers, printers and fax machines. Assigned a territory and was responsible for routine maintenance and emergency repairs. Electronics Engineering Technician 5/1993 - 4/1995 RMS Technologies, 4221 Forbes Blvd., Lanham MD Assigned to Flight Dynamics Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. As the senior technician in the Distributed Video Maintenance Section, supervised the training of other technicians and senior principal systems engineers to enable them to install, operate and perform maintenance of specific video and rf equipment, fiber optic networks and computer control systems; developed and implemented the training course. Responded to customers' maintenance requests for PC hardware/software problems and resolved them to the complete satisfaction of the customer. Performed preventative maintenance according to existing procedures, remedial maintenance on hardware for which documentation may or may not be available. Breadboard, fabricated, troubleshot, tested, calibrated and repaired electronic equipment, systems, sensors and mechanical systems. Operated special laboratory test and support equipment. Performed acceptance testing and evaluation of systems. Maintained logs, records, and reports of failures, repairs and other appropriate activities. Produced electronic schematics and prepared circuit layouts. Received training and experience in the following areas: hardware configuration, DOS, NOVELL, UNIX and LAN in a mainframe and PC environment. Electronics Technician 7/1989 - 3/1992 Bendix Field Engineering Corp., One Bendix Rd, Columbia MD Assigned to NASCOM Maintenance Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD. Under limited supervision performed installations of closed circuit television, commercial and cable television RF, data, audio and timing circuits. Maintained five different 100x100 matrix video switching and distribution systems as well as the audio and timing systems to a line replaceable unit level with some component level repair. Also responsible for the accurate accounting of man-hours spent repairing as well as total down time to the equipment. Experienced with all necessary test equipment to troubleshoot the above-mentioned systems. Such as TDR, OTDR, VM-700, DMM, O-scopes, FO Loss meter plus numerous others.
Air Traffic Control RADAR Maintenance Technician 9/1985 - 2/1988 United States Air Force, 1961st ISG, Clark AB, The Rep of the Philippines I maintained three RADAR systems, the AN/GPN-20 Airport Surveillance RADAR, the AN/GPN-22 Precision Approach RADAR and the TPX-42 Friend or Foe Discriminator RADAR. Also maintained the Bright II Tower Display System as well as the ATC training simulator and weather forecast CCTV system. Performed preventative as well as emergency maintenance functions. Kept documentation concerning all repair actions as per USAF requirements. As part of required daily PMI schedule used Power Meter to track transmit output power and SWR levels. Troubleshot RADAR receivers and transmitters to line replaceable unit level and returned defective parts to depot for repair. BRITE II tower system and weather CCTV system were troubleshot to defective component level and repaired in house.
Which do you consider more valuable? Formal education or skills and why?
Combination of formal education and hands on skills. The formal education gives the candidate a basis for the theory and the skills allow the candidate to solve technical problems that classroom study did not cover.
Describe the benefits of working with others
The benefits of working with others is that it provides more perspective for a complex problem and allows faster resolution minimizing system downtime.
Describe the benefits of working alone
Working alone can be advantageous for making a deadline, less cooks in the kitchen so to speak.
What was your worst working experience?
While employed as hand solder technician soldering the same components in the same circuit cards day in and day out.
What is the most important lesson you have learnt throughout your career?
My most important lesson learned was to not be afraid to ask for help or to admit when I don't understand the task completely.
What unique skills do you have?
Locksmith Certification Protel and OrCAD PCB design software Certification HAZMAT Operators Level Training Expired EMT-B Certification
What would you consider as your 'dream job'?
A job that provides constant variety in tasking and the opportunity to advance as my training and experience increases.
What are the most interesting aspects of your field?
The ever changing size and complexity of circuits and the new discoveries daily of new electronic designs that result from these circuits.
What are the least interesting aspects of your field?
There are no least interesting aspects of my field.
What is my goal
I would like to find a position with an employer that is on the cutting edge of technology that needs skilled field service engineers who are able to increase their service departments customer service satisfaction.
How can potential employers contact you?
Mobile#: +13016390468 Postal Address: Robert Harter 982 Tripoli Street Johnstown, PA 15902
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