Author: Charles Knell

By Charles Knell. After leaving Motorola, I briefly looked for work at another company. However, I didn’t have much luck. So, instead of continuing with that I decided to start my own consulting business. I formed an LLC and created a website. I joined various groups in hopes of doing internet marketing for small businesses.

I created a client e-commerce website which had as many as 728 products. It was managed by a Java language Content Management System (CMS) written by me. This CMS used a MS Access database and a Yahoo Store catalog database which contained all of the product information. Operating the CMS produced XML for each product, which was then transformed into multiple HTML and CSS product pages. Updated or new product pages could then be reviewed, approved, and deployed into the customer visible website.

I created a Java application SEO article creation tool which produced articles from an e-commerce XML product feed. I used this tool to create between 4 and 7 articles per day for 6 months. This raised the google ranking to #2 for a highly competitive keyword.

I created a lead generation marketing campaign using Java and a MySQL database, which offered a free e-book in exchange for a lead’s email address. The campaign used a sales letter and squeeze page. If the lead (reader) submitted their email address, a download link and registration code (used to open the e-book) was automatically emailed to the lead. Thus, creating a mailing list.

I created and maintained a Home Construction brochure website. It featured a photo gallery, articles written in HTML and CSS, and articles as converted PDF files.

I installed new Point of Sale Terminals in retail stores.

I created and maintained a brochure website for a DUI counseling service. It had a moving sign animation on the home page and a calendar of classes.

After closing down this consulting business, I retired.

By Charles Knell – I left the employment of Telemed Cardiopulmonary Systems to work at Motorola. At the time, Motorola was a leading provider of wireless communications equipment.

I started in the communications sector in a development engineering section which was creating a new two-way trunked radio. A trunked radio is one which jumps to new transmit and receive frequencies each time the user presses the push-to-talk button on the microphone. This technique greatly increases the number of users possible on a fixed number of transmit and receive frequencies. I was one of a two engineer team whose task was to rewrite the software used by the previous similar radio, which used a 6800 microprocessor. The new radio was to use a 6805 microprocessor. The assembly languages of these two microprocessors were different.

The advantages of using a 6805 were lower cost, fewer integrated circuits, and therefore less physical space used on the printed circuit card. The previous product (which we were intending to replace) was so large that it needed to be mounted in the trunk of one’s car and required an additional control head mounted under the dashboard. The control head housed the volume control, microphone, and speaker. Our new radio was small enough so that the entire radio could be mounted under the dashboard. I helped test a radio prototype in my own car.

The new product was a success, and I was selected to help the marketing team make a video which introduced the new radio to the sales teams around the world.

When the trunked radio development work ended, I moved into the VHF/UHF section of the same department. The VHF/UHF versions of the new radio used a programmable read only memory (PROM) to set the radio on the selected transmit and receive frequencies. I designed a hardware interface for the PROM so that it could be plugged into the field equipment used to program the frequencies. Also, I wrote the 6800 assembly language software for the field equipment so that it could be used to program the PROMs where the radios were sold.

When the department moved to Plano Texas, where the radios were to be manufactured, I transferred to a new switching software section of the cellular infrastructure division. Our section’s product was software for a new mobile switching center (MSC) which could handle 2500 simultaneous phone calls. Our previous MSC could handle only 250 simultaneous calls.

In the beginning, all of the new software was to be written in Z8000 macro assembly language. Eventually, we started using the C language. The hiring manager told me that understanding all of the software for an MSC was beyond the comprehension of one person. And that before the project was over, some of the software would be lost. I didn’t really believe this at the time but both things turned out to be true. I worked on this project for 23 years and there was a constant stream of people joining and leaving. By the end of the project, there were about 2200 individual programs making up the system load. On this project, I first worked on the man machine interface programs (MMIs).

The MMIs were standalone programs which accessed database tables in a way that predates the use of database management systems. They interfaced with VT100 control terminals and the database tables stored on hard disk. These programs were used to control the service states and configure processors used in the cell sites. They were also used to configure the cellular database in the MSC.

My next project was to create software for network fault management. This software was used to control the service states and configure the connections to other mobile switching centers (MSCs). Also, I wrote the MMIs needed. Network fault management made it possible to configure multiple MSCs into a network. Also, I wrote audit software which automatically restored weather related service outages of the network connections.

With time comes change, and I was assigned to write a portion of the software for cellular fault management (CFM). CFM software was used to control the service states of the processors in the cell sites. My software was used to download cell databases from the MSC to the cell sites. It could download to multiple cells simultaneously. Eventually, I took on responsibility for maintenance of all cellular fault management and guided a small team of software engineers in making fixes. I would review each problem report and specify a solution. Also, I designed a new cell audit program which reduced weather related cell outages by 20%.

My final MSC software assignment was to take on the maintenance responsibility for the switching matrix. The switching matrix was responsible for connecting the trunks from the land network to the cellular trunks, making it possible to connect a phone call. It took me months to write descriptions of all the modules of this subsystem. After completing the documentation, we could understand better how the system worked, and we succeeded in fixing a very old matrix software rollout problem. This problem made the matrix software updating process malfunction intermittently during new software rollouts. Sometimes the rollout would succeed and sometimes it would fail. Everyone involved, especially management, were particularly happy to see this problem fixed. Apparently, there was a lot of pressure from customers to receive a solution.

My final assignment in the development department was to review and approve the decommissioning procedure for our MSC. At that point, I was transferred to the requirements department. We were writing requirements for yet another new MSC. However, this time we were unsuccessful in getting our first customer.

Then, I was laid-off as part of a mass lay-off. However, Motorola was very generous with their severance package. I decided to start my own consulting business, Right Results Consulting.

Next article to read: Right Results Consulting.

By Charles Knell – I left the employment of Victor Business Products to work at Telemed. Their business was the analysis of electrocardiograms for doctor’s offices and hospitals.

The company provided a patient cart containing electronics and patient leads. The leads were connected to the patient and the cart transmitted, over a telephone line, the electrical data to our headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. At our headquarters, the data was received and processed by an “incoming” mainframe computer. The “incoming” mainframe then sent the data to a “analysis” mainframe computer, where it was analyzed. The analysis was then physically reviewed by an MD, if the customer paid for that service. Then, the analysis was sent back to the customer, a doctor’s office or hospital, by an “outgoing” mainframe computer. I was responsible for the maintenance of the “outgoing” 1200 baud modems and automatic dialers.

My first task was to get caught up with fixing the modems and automatic dialers. Then, I designed, built, and programmed a telephone line monitoring system, which used an Intel 8080 microprocessor. This system included a control panel, a time and date clock card, a CPU card, and a telephone line interface. The purpose of the system was to record, for every day, for each outgoing telephone line, the number of minutes of usage. The information was used by the operations manager to determine how many outgoing telephone lines were needed, thus reducing our cost for outgoing telephone lines.

I designed and built a bank of switches which were used to configure which “incoming” mainframe, primary or standby, was being used by the “analysis” mainframe.

I designed and built a bank of RS-232 monitoring cards which were used to troubleshoot RS-232 electrical interfaces.

I designed and built Bell compatible 201C synchronous modems. These were used with a new product which combined the electrocardiogram analysis on the same sheet of paper as the electrocardiogram trace. They interfaced with a mainframe computer, an automatic dialer, a telephone line, and connected with similar modems at the customer’s location.

I designed and built a signaling system which was used by the operations department to communicate the status of the mainframe computers to the customer service department and the operations manager.

One day the vice president of the company called me to his office. He started to tell me about all the things that he didn’t like about my boss. I felt that my boss did a good job and that it was entirely uncalled for. It seemed to me that he was thinking about eliminating his position. And I took this as a bad sign for the future of the company. That was when I decided to look for another job. I found one at Motorola.

At my exit interview, the human resources manager told me that leaving Telemed was a mistake. But Telemed was out of business a year later. I felt that I had done pretty well at reading the situation there. However, it was a great place to work while it lasted. IBM had created an electrocardiogram analysis system which was superior to ours and they took over the business.

The next article to read: Motorola

By Charles Knell – I left my government job at the U.S. Navy to work for Victor Business Products. Saying that transitioning from government to private industry was a shock would be an understatement. My last position at the Navy was that of a Supervisory Project Engineer. Project Engineer was the position that Victor Business Products wanted me to fill.

My first project was to guide the development of a computer printer. A prototype of the mechanical portion of the project was in testing when I joined the company. The prototype was built in the model shop and many parts were made one at a time. However, the company still needed production parts which could be manufactured in large quantities at low cost.

The next step of the development was to build the mechanical part of the printer using production parts. So, my first task was to know every production part that we were missing. The first thing I did was to get a listing of every mechanical part. I needed to learn what every part was. So, I went to the drafting department and got copies of the drawings of every part. I was responsible for getting the purchasing department to expedite receipt every production part that we were missing.

The next thing I did was make a PERT diagram. This showed every project milestone and how it related to other milestones. Nowadays, this job is done using project management software and a personal computer. However, we didn’t have personal computers, so I created it using drawing templates, paper and pencil. It goes without saying that it was difficult to update. My job was to track the completion of each milestone on the diagram.

In parallel with building the mechanical part of the printer with production parts, electronics was designed to interface with it and also with an associated computer. However, by this time I asked to join the electrical design team. I was given the task of designing the power supply. This went well and the manager of the design team liked me. However, when his boss disrespected him in front of his team, I lost all respect for the company. I left Victor Business Products to join a company called Telemed.

Months later I saw the finished printer at an electronics show. It had made it into production.

Next article to read: Telemed Cardiopulmonary Systems

By Charles Knell – My first real job, in 1971, was with the U.S. Navy as a civilian employee. My boss was Tony. It seemed at first that he had no idea what to do with me. He had me “reviewing” standard plans that others in his team were creating. He sent me to make him copies. I was assigned a few odd jobs most of which I had no idea how to handle. Then, Tony sent me to be trained on the latest Navy radio transmitters. However, I never did any work on them because my estimates were too high. Once, I was sent out in the field to modify modem frequencies and to fix the transceivers that used them. That was interesting, but also very painful when I got an RF burn. I had been warned about this in college, but I was young and careless. You don’t actually have to touch a final tube cathode to get burned since the RF energy will jump from the cathode into your body if you get too close. Luckily, it wasn’t too bad, and no medical attention was required.

Finally, after what seemed like months of doing odd jobs in between reading technical books in the library, Tony and I were transferred to the TEMPEST department. I was sent to Maryland for training. In the tempest department, we actually did some interesting work. Most of the TEMPEST work was classified, so I can’t tell you about it. But you can check out the link, which I just mentioned. I traveled all over the country doing TEMPEST testing, including Adak Alaska and Washington D.C. I was even offered and turned down a TEMPEST job in Washington D.C. After that, I applied for and got a promotion into the Remote Sensors project.

As part of the Remote Sensors project, I supervised a group of six Electronics Engineers and Technicians. We designed and supervised installations of intrusion detections systems all over the world. All the work was classified since these systems were for the purpose of protecting weapons. All went well until budget cuts came and all of the Remote Sensors work was transferred to Charleston, South Carolina. I was out of a job unless I wanted to move, which I didn’t. In those days, you needed to use a typewriter to make a resume. So, there were a lot less job applicants for any job. It wasn’t very hard to find a new one.

The next article to read: Victor Business Products