Avionics News September 2016 - 33

levels up to 3,000 volts per meter.
Basically, every household in America
has a reverberation chamber - it's their
microwave oven, except the microwave
oven operates on a fixed frequency.
Ours covers 200 MHz to 18 GHz.
Recently, there's been a trend in the
industry for 18 to 40 GHz at 600 volts
per meter, and we're in the process of
adding that capability to the chamber.

Tell me about the
capabilities of your lab.
We have three mil/aerospace chambers, and we have
a commercial EMC immunity
chamber and a full-scan height
3-meter FCC-listed RF emissions
chamber for commercial EMC,
wireless, medical and automotive testing. In addition to the
three mil/aerospace chambers,
we have three semi-anechoic
chambers and the reverb
chamber. We have three bench
test areas; two of the bench
test areas are dedicated to mil/
aerospace industries with the
third bench test area dedicated
to commercial EMC industries.
What do you like best about
your job?
I like the direct interaction with customers and the variety of projects that
we work on. I like to provide a quality
service to people. I've been in their
shoes at Crane. I know what it's like to
go to a test lab and get good or poor
service. I try, in everything I do, to treat

these people the way I would want to be
treated. Basically, we work hard for our
customers and they feel at the end of
the day that they've gotten good mileage on their dollars. We are proactive in
what we're doing and put ourselves in
their shoes. All of my staff are degreed
engineers; they're not just technicians
who press a button and say that's cool.
Our staff is capable of providing consulting on the spot.
What's the corporate
culture at CKC?
It's a small group, so it's cohesive. It
becomes a family; it's tightknit.
When you're not working,
what are you doing?
I got into this industry as a young
high school student. I got my ham radio
license and wanted to learn more so
I joined the Navy and spent six years
in the advanced electronics program.
Afterward, I went to school on the
Vietnam-era GI Bill and then went to
work at Crane. To this day, I'm still active
in ham radio and also involved in the
shooting sports. I like the outdoors. In
the winter, I'll do ham radio activities.
My wife and I have an RV, and we love to
go camping here in the Northwest. This
state is divided between east and west
by the Cascade Mountains. In eastern
Washington, there's a wine country. We
like to tour the wine country and take
short weekend trips with the RV.
Tell me about your family.
My wife, Laura, is a nurse, and she's
been in the med industry for more than
25 years. We are a blended family; I have
one son, and Laura has a daughter. My

son just completed a six-year tour with
the Army as an electronics tech. He just
got out of the military and came back
home to get re-established and gainfully
employed.
What do you see for
the future?
I see us continuing to grow in the
military and aerospace sector. We've
had tremendous growth there. When I
came to CKC in 1998, we had just one
chamber and I was recruited to get their
mil and aerospace testing going. Since
then, we've grown to the lineup I've
mentioned. Our Bothell facility has a nice
space for up to three additional chambers to keep pace with the demands of
the market. We see a positive and favorable response to our business model
of putting ourselves in our customers'
shoes. As long as you show that you're
genuine - people can tell if you're a fake
- and once they see you're the real deal
and take care of them, you grow.
At the same time, we have had to
become more efficient in how we do
things. We just began a rollout of an
automated test report application that
will cut back the length of time customers wait for the finished report.
People come here for a report saying,
"Congratulations, you passed the test."
Having to wait for that paper won't
work. This new test report app will
shorten the turnaround time down to
two or three days. That's the trend in the
industry, and we've gone there in order
to better serve our clients. q
To learn more about CKC Laboratories,
visit ckc.com.
avionics news

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september

2016

33
http://www.ckc.com
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