Tait Communications has a strong reputation for employing some of the most talented engineers in the LMR and wireless community. Ian Graham, a principal engineer at Tait Communications for 23 years, authored a book titled Designing RF Combining Systems for Shared Radio Sites that was published by Artech House in 2023.
Sandra Wendelken, market insights manager at Tait Communications, talked with Ian about his background and the motivation to write a book for the wireless engineering community and how his contributions have shaped the way we communicate and connect.
Tell us about your experience in the wireless industry.
My career as a radio frequency (RF) design professional spans 35 years in the field. My expertise covers circuit, product and system design throughout a diverse range of industries, including avionics, military, public safety, utilities and commercial markets.
What was your main motivation for writing the book?
I have a lifelong dedication to advancing radio technology and a passion for sharing knowledge. I wanted to preserve the knowledge gained through decades of experience because the subject of the book is becoming more critical in today’s crowded RF spectrum. Many RF engineers in the mobile radio industry are aging, and it is important to share industry information and mentor younger engineers in this field.
Who is the target audience for your book and what will they appreciate the most?
The main audience includes professional engineers and technicians in the LMR industry, along with design consultants and equipment dealers. The material is at a technical level that can be grasped by RF engineers and technicians bringing an intuitive understanding of the subject, as well as its application to actual design work.
The current educational system teaching engineers and technicians is primarily focused on IT networks. There is little education focused on RF subjects. Considering that the engineers and technicians designing the RF aspects of LMR systems are aging, a void is forming in this area.
What do you see your book being most useful for?
The book provides all the information engineers need to design systems that mitigate interference at RF sites. If you design site RF systems without the knowledge of the other radio systems operating at the site, interference will occur, leading to loss of coverage. Coverage is crucial to mission-critical communications networks.
The design process in this book shows how to evaluate and consider the other radio systems operating at the site so that your finished design does not cause or suffer from interference and achieves maximum coverage at minimum cost. This aspect of LMR system design has become even more important as the pressure to co-locate more RF systems at sought-after high-altitude radio repeater sites increases and the available radio spectrum gets more crowded. The consequences of not doing this are many hours of painstaking field testing and analysis to find the causes of interference at the affected sites and then costly design rework to fix the problems.
Why did you decide to write a book?
I have never written a book before. The idea came from RF design training I used to do for the design engineers in the Tait Communications regional offices throughout the world. Many people who attended those training sessions said to me “you should write a book on all this,” and the leadership at Tait Communications encouraged me.
Tait Communications has a strong history in network design and managed services. How does your expertise contribute to those offerings?
Yes, Tait has a full staff of engineers who offer a full range of professional services including network design, coverage testing, network management and monitoring. We provide these services to public safety and critical infrastructure utilities around the World. Among our largest current projects is the New Zealand Public Safety Network (PSN), where we have a large team of engineers and support staff contributing to this new nationwide P25 LMR network. We help customers of all sizes and in all locations manage their systems if they do not have the in-house staff to dedicate to their mission-critical network or if they want to focus efforts on other projects.
What more can our industry do to transfer knowledge to new generations?
It is important to mentor others in this field. Scott Quintavalle, a former Tait employee, was an excellent mentor to me, and I want to pass that knowledge forward to others with less experience. I try to learn from everyone I work with and help others learn as well. The onus is on senior RF engineers to contribute to educational opportunities, not just through 1:1 on the job mentoring, but through conferences, local universities, and user groups as well to ensure the knowledge flow reaches as many people as possible.
Can you provide some highlights from the book?
Here is the list of chapters:
Chapter 1 – Repeater Site RF Systems Overview
Chapter 2 – Surveying the Sites
Chapter 3 – Essential Background
Chapter 4 – Sources of Interference at Shared Radio Sites
Chapter 5 – Antennas and Site Antenna Systems
Chapter 6 – Calculating the Interference Threshold
Chapter 7 – Duplexers
Chapter 8 – Transmitter Combining Systems
Chapter 9 – Receiver Multicoupling Systems
Chapter 10 – Power and Antenna System Monitors
Chapter 11 – Transmission Line Systems
Chapter 12 – Design Example
One quote from Chapter 2 – Surveying the Sites is: “… you need to treat the site as a system in its own right and do your design with respect to the radio systems already in the locality.”
What advice would you give to other engineers who are considering writing a book?
Be disciplined. Decide what the point of your book is, determine the chapter headings that get you to that point, then write a short outline of each chapter. Once you have that, you can write little and often without losing track.
My biggest challenge was time, combining writing a book with a full-time job and a family. Writing little and often was the key. It took me nearly three years to finish the book.
Blog authored by: Sandra Wendelken – Market Insights Manager & Ian Graham - Principal Engineer |
Tait Communications
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