Charles Ray "Chuck" Watkins

Electronics and Computer Engineer and Web Developer

As an electronics and computer engineer, I research technologies that cannot mix, and I search for ways to mix them, like TV and telephone, computers and radios, or analog and digital. As a web developer, I try to make web pages that are aesthetically pleasing and functional. I made this web page based on a CSS course I took with LinkedIn Learning.

I am also reviewing Signals and Systems, studying Fourier Analysis and sampled data systems to understand software defined radio better. For that, I am doing a lot of Octave, MATLAB, Simulink, and Simscape programming.

Featured Projects

View selected projects below.

Fleet Electronic Warfare Support Group(FEWSG) AN/ALT-40 Airborne Jammer and EW System

Emblem of Fleet Electronic Warfare Support Group

Emblem of the ALR-75 Electronic Warfare Receiver

Airborne KC135 as Jammer Aircraft — Photo by Frank J. Mirande

KC 135 Aircraft on the ground — U.S. Navy Photo

Airborne Image with Antenna Radome — Photo from the GETA-O

Electronics Engineer at the Naval Avionics Center NAC, Indianapolis, In. June 1982 - June 1984

I worked in Branch 953, Electronic Warfare Branch. I did design and development work on the AN/ALT-40(V) Airborne Jammer as part of the FAEWS (Fleet Airborne Electronic Warfare System) for (Fleet Electronic Warfare Support Group) FEWSG US Navy. At Dahlgren Virgina, Naval Surface Weapons Center, I worked with engineers that developed the prototypes for the AN/ALT-40. I did design and development work for the ACI (Antenna Control Indicator) which contained the Intel 8748 mil-std one chip microcomputer/controller. I worked on software development (assembly language programming) for the Intel 8748 as part of the Antenna Control Indicator (ACI). I also did Hardware development (Computer Circuits, Logic Circuits) for the ACI. I also did development work (Writing Part Specification) for the I/J band MiG 8-18 GHz microwave generator for ALT-40(V). Also, I worked on the automated wire wrap program for automated assembly of the DIB (Data interface Box) and MoG (Modulation Generator) for ALT-40. This work was done on the Honeywell Mainframe Computer using (SHPWRAP), an automated wire wrap program.

I also helped innovate wave soldering with a mechanical engineer that built a prototype that NAC began to use. I also proposed the idea of components that could take the heat of the solder wave without damage. They would not be in the wave very long to heat up. Using doped silicon to make resistors was another innovation I proposed.

I was a microcomputer control system designer, inventor and Electronic Warfare Engineer.

More information can be found atvaq34.com

Work Experience

Work Experience consists of summer jobs between semesters, jobs before graduation, and jobs after graduation. Also, a part time job my senior year of High School in furniture and appliance delivery and installation.

Summer Jobs

Tree Trimmer

Princeton Telephone Company

June 1975- September 1975

Trimmed trees out of open wire and other phone line. Disposed of refuse. Used power saw and other cutting equipment

Draftsman

Amax Coal Company

June 1976 to September 1976 and June 1977 to September 1977

Worked at Ayrshire mine in Chandler Indiana and Evansville Indiana. Worked in drafting department to maintain drilling information and map information. Maintained and photocopied drill logs. These were used by engineers in project planing and mining projections

Responsibilities

Prepared and maintained 1 inch to 500 feet and 1 inch to 2000 feet drill maps showing drilling information and coal presence or absence in drill hole.
Created copies of mylar maps with light sensitive paper and ultarviolet light exposure and ammonia gas exposure to paper.
Worked on Survey Crew for Ayrshire Mine
Responsible for updating map information from new drill logs.
Maintained and updated electrical schematic diagrams for coal tippling plant
I had innovated the motor generator unit used in the Bucyrus-Erie 8950 dragline and the 3270 power shovel in 1973.
I had innovated red and blue litmus paper chemicals mixed and discovered their light sensitivity and resulting color. This process was used as a chemical coating to light sensitive paper and mylar. When exposed to light and then ammonia gas, the chemical darkened to create a nice print.

Surface Coal Mining Dragline. The Bucyrus-Erie 8950. — The Bucyrus-Erie 8950 Dragline

Jobs Before Graduation

Electronics Technician

Wavetek Indiana. Beach Grove Indiana. A suburb of Indianapolis

Oct 1980 - Dec 1980 · 3 mos

I worked on the SAM 1 (signal analysis meter). We made cable TV test equipment. The company was located in Beech Grove, a suburb of Indianapolis, In. Mid States Communication was acquired by Wavetek during the time I was there. I started at Mid States Communications and helped move the entire Mid States line of products to the new facility for Wavetek Indiana. I was finishing some work at IUPUI to transfer back to Purdue West Lafayette campus to graduate from Purdue.

I was an electronics production technician. I temperature tested and aligned the equipment when it came off the assembly line. I used a signal generator and an oscilloscope on external trigger to test for uniformity of response across the band of interest, 0-300 MHz. I would replace temperature sensitive transistors or varactor diodes for the VCO(Voltage Controlled Oscillator). The RF section was in a metal assembly and the IF was coupled out via a coax cable to another board.

Jobs After Graduation

Seismic Velocity Engineer

June-1981 to June-1982

Birdwell Division of Seismograph Service Corporation. Headquarters in Tulsa Oklahoma. I was assigned to the Midland Texas office.

Conducted seismic velocity surveys on oil wells. We determined interval velocities for geophysicists. They then could determine rock type and improve geologic knowledge for an area of interest for oil companies. Exxon was a typical customer in West Texas and other areas.

Also, I worked on an atomic bomb project in Mercury Nevada in September of 1981. SSC provided geophysical data to a Nevada Test Site (NTS) geophysicist. I was there when the nuclear bomb was detonated underground. We were fingerprinted by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) when we entered the site. I was placing geophones in the ground to aid the geophysical survey process. It was my first experience with surface seismic surveys.

I completed the breaking out process giving a job description presentation to engineers in Houston Texas with full color slideshow, before the days of Powerpoint presentations.

Servo Hydraulic Vibrator used in Velocity Surveys

Education

Cleveland Institute of Electronics Correspondence School

1971-1976 (approximate)

The course covered many aspects of electronics, both tubes and transistors. I studied many circuits. I studied the appropriate mathematics, included in the course, for a course of that kind. It included Amplifiers, Oscillators, Filters, Mixers, Detectors, Logic Circuits, Radio Transmitters and Receivers, Television Electronics, Radar equipment, and FCC rules and regulations. AM, FM, RTTY, SSB, Telex, for 2-way Radio Communications and Broadcast Communications.

Vincennes University, Vincennes, Indiana

A.S.E.E. 1974-1977 (approximate)

I helped innovate and wrote the first computer graphics program in Fortran 4 with another freshman researcher. My prayers to God helped the project when God modified the keyboard to include a vertical line segment character, which allowed creating the y-axis of a graph.

I also discovered the electrical darkening effect in the element mercury and worked on displays with other researchers as a freshman in the Chemistry lab. This became the so-called LCD display.

I also proposed the idea of using lasers in signal transmission down a glass or plastic fiber in the Spring of 1977 during a physics laboratory experiment on lasers.

I also proposed the idea of the laser gun sight.

I also proposed the idea of measuring distance with a laser because gun sights can approximate distance.

Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana

B.S.E.E. 1977-1980 (approximate)

I helped innovate the concept of sending asynchronous digital data into an FM (Frequency Modulation) transmitter to see if digital data could be sent that way. It turned out it would work.

I proposed the idea of a study of computer graphics to see if a general programming method could be derived based on graphics programs. This became Graphical Object Oriented Programming