Company Founder and President
Dr. Frank Palmer is Founder and President
of E-field Communications Inc.
Dr. Palmer graduated from the
University of British Columbia with a Combined Honours B.Sc. in Mathematics and
Physics. He obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Western
Ontario with thesis topics related to characterization of high-latitude
radiowave propagation (sporadic-E, meteor-burst and auroral scatter) phenomena.
After
graduation, he joined the Communications Research Centre (CRC, Ottawa) and was
directly involved in a variety of R&D programs including:
o
VLF/HF studies of the ionosphere using
data from the Alouette/ISIS series of satellites to determine transmitting
antenna performance in an ionized atmosphere.
o
Modelling the performance of mobile
VHF/UHF earth-space communications links to assess the impact of interference
between them and terrestrial systems.
o
Assessing the ability of space-borne
SHF synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems to properly image ground targets in
high-latitude environments.
o
Modelling the radio noise environment
of the SARSAT Search and Rescue satellite system to determine system
performance in the presence of man-made, thermal and direct/reflected solar
noise.
o
Design and implementation of long-term
VHF/UHF communications experiments in the Great Lakes areas. This program used
monitoring data from 25 TV broadcast stations to provide correction factors to
the FCC R-6602 prediction curves for the purpose of better defining Canada/US
trans-border co-ordination distances.
o
Design and implementation of VHF/UHF
communications experiments in the High Arctic (Inuvik, Resolute Bay and Alert)
to provide empirical path-loss models for VHF/UHF systems operating in these
areas.
o
Development of computer-based VHF/UHF
propagation models. The widely-used CRC VHF/UHF propagation model 'PREDICT' was
originated by him and subsequently further developed under his direction.
o
Definition and construction of the
first large-scale Canadian digital topographic databases for use with the
propagation models, later extended to cover most of southern Canada.
o
Analysis of the capabilities and
limitations of the satellite tracking subsystem of the Prince Albert Satellite
Ground Station.
o
Canadian representative to NASA for the
planning of the US Space Shuttle Atmospheric, Magnetospheric and Plasmas in
Space (AMPS) payload which centred on determining the behaviour of
satellite-borne antenna systems.
Subsequently,
he joined the Electronic Warfare Division of Defence Research Establishment
Ottawa (EWD/DREO) as Head/Communications Electronic Warfare Section. Here, he
was responsible for the definition and implementation of R&D programs
directed to applying state-of-the-art Conventional RF, Wideband Digital and
Optical Processing techniques to the interception, location, and analysis of a
variety of communications signal types including:
o
Conventional Fixed-Frequency
o
Frequency-Agile and Direct-Sequence
Spread Spectrum
o
TDMA, CDMA and hybrid systems
Later, as Director of the Electronic
Warfare Division, he was responsible for:
o
Evaluation of customer requirements
o
Planning and implementation of relevant
R&D programs in both the Radar and Communications aspects of Electronic
Warfare systems and
o
Development of strategies for
technology transfer to industry.
He
has been the Canadian representative to many national and international
technical groups including:
o
The Electromagnetic Wave Propagation
Panel of the NATO Advisory Group on Aerospace Research & Development
(AGARD)
o
The Franco-Canadian Accord on
Communications Electronic Warfare
o
The Technical Co-operation Program
(TTCP) Subgroup Q (Electronic Warfare) Panel on state-of-the-art intercept and
direction-finding systems.
and
has contributed to TTCP Panels on:
o
Earth-Space Communications and
Infra-Red Surveillance Technology.
Upon leaving DREO
to establish E-field Communications Inc., Dr. Palmer was also appointed Adjunct
Research Professor at the Carleton University Department of Electronics where
he presented a graduate electrical engineering course on Electromagnetic Wave
Propagation until his move to the West Coast. This course emphasized practical
rather than deeply theoretical techniques for estimating Terrestrial, Skywave
and Earth-Space system performance. He was entirely responsible for developing
the notes to accompany this course.
To support his university research interests, he engaged in collaborative work
with DREO in the field of sampled-aperture direction-finding systems.
He
is a member of the IEEE AP-S, has been an Amateur Radio Operator (VE7FHP,
formerly VE3GET) for many years, and is quite familiar with the differences
between simulation/modelling predictions and 'real-world' facts.