8161

 8161  Richard “Mark” Moore

 

 Born in Glenboro, Manitoba

·         Elton Collegiate, Forrest, MB, 1965

·         RRMC – 1965-1967

·         RMC – 1967-1969

·         Bachelor of Electrical Engineering. 1969

 

·         Married Maureen Wood, July 1969

o   Met on train from Brandon, MB to Vancouver, BC, January 1, 1967

o   Train was delayed for 8 hours in the mountains due to an avalanche

o   Daughters, Jeannette and Shelley

o   Grandsons, Harrison, Stetson, and Fletcher

 

·         1st posting – CFS La Macaza, Québec, 1969-70

·         Electronics Maintenance

·         Base Defense Force during October Crisis, 1970

 

·         2nd Posting – 414 Electronic Warfare Squadron, 1970-73

·         Avionics Support Officer

·         Coordinated move of avionics facilities and CF-100 simulator from Ottawa to North Bay in 1972

 

·         3rd Posting – Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment, 1973-1977

·         Test Engineer for CF-104 Starfighter conversion program

·         Test Engineer for CH-104 conversion program

·         Designed instrumentation for CT-133 “Pacer”, precision airspeed and altitude references

·         Write a Program Change Proposal to establish an Electromagnetic Compatibility test facility at AETE

 

·         4th Posting – Canadian Patrol Aircraft Program, Burbank, CA

o   This posting was canceled by Lt Col F.B. who desperately needed my Electromagnetic Compatibility knowledge at NDHQ

 

·         5th Posting – NDHQ, DAEM, 1977-81

o   Lt Col F.D., who took over from Lt Col F.B. decided he did not need my desperately needed Electromagnetic Compatibility knowledge, so he assigned the newly created EMC position to his friend, Maj. J.V.

o   Instead, I was assigned responsibility for avionics installations and modifications on all maritime and transport aircraft

 

·         Rockland, ON, 1977-85

o   Hardware/Firmware Design Engineer, Sperry Gyroscope

o   Président du conseil d'administration de la Bibliothèque publique de Clarence-Rockland

o   Président de l’Association Parent-Instituteur de l'École élémentaire catholique Sainte-Trinité

o   Sperry was part of the team that was bidding for the contract to develop the Canadian Army’s Tactical Command and Control Communications System (TCCCS). Leigh Instruments was a key part of the team, and the team collapsed when Leigh went bankrupt just before the bid closed. Leigh was run at the time by my former boss at NDHQ

 

·         Saskatoon, SK, 1985-96

o   SED Systems

§  1985-89, Deputy Project Manager, Canadian Patrol Frigate program

§  1989-96, Hardware Engineering Manager

o   Various satellite earth station and satellite communications projects

o   Wrote the software design document for Inmarsat-B audio codec used by British Telcom for mobile satellite communications. BT was the first PTT to offer third generation mobile satellite service, and you saw the SED Systems Inmarsat-B audio codec in action when CNN was sending reports from Baghdad during the First Gulf War.

 

·         Calgary, AB

o   Maureen promised to follow me around the country if we wound up in her hometown, Calgary

o   1996-98, Computing Devices Canada, Hardware Engineering Manager

As you may know, CDC was the sole bidder left standing, after the opposing team collapsed, for the Tactical Command and Control Communications System. TCCCS provided the Army with the state-of-the-art Iris Digital Communications System.

§  When CDC lost the bid for the British Army version of TCCCS a Hardware Engineering Manager was no longer needed, so I became surplus to requirements. The British Army later changed horses and gave the contract for their Bowman Communication System, but by then I was long gone.

o   1998-2000, WiLAN, Project Engineer for design and development of a new Wi-Fi system:

§  IEEE 802.11a: this was the first in a series of Wi-Fi standards. Your cellphone, tablet or computer all use one or more of the 802.11 family of standards.

§  Philips was the first company to offer an 802.11a chip. Philips licensed the WiLAN digital signal processing software that my team was developing.

§  WiLAN proprietary Wi-Fi: WiLAN had a Wi-Fi patent for a modified version of 802.11, which our team also worked on. There was no demand for this version of Wi-Fi after the 802.11 products started to hit the market

·         Ottawa, ON

o   2000-02, Nortel, Ottawa, ON, Wireless Intellectual Property Manager

§  Someone in the Nortel HR department found one of my old resumes and called me to make an offer. Maureen and I had lived in Ottawa twice, and although we loved the city, I told Nortel thanks, but no thanks. Nortel made me a better offer – one too good to refuse. So, we rented out house in Calgary (we were coming back at some point) and bought a townhouse in Barrhaven. We all know how that ended.

·         Calgary, AB

o   2002-present: Living by my wits – a variety of contracts:

§  Integen: Contracted by an old WiLAN colleague to help develop a pay-per-view movie and internet service for motels and hotels. The system worked but was overwhelmed by competitors and new technology.

§  Siconix: Many interesting custom designs, one of which was a head-mounted 3D viewer for Headplay (https://headplay.com/)

§  Hy-Power, High River: I designed an emissions control defeat module that adjusted diesel engine injector timing to decrease fuel consumption and increase nitrogen oxide pollution.

§  Michel “Gerry” Gainer partnership:

·         Hy-Drive, Mississauga, ON: We were contracted to test the Hy-Drive emissions control defeat device on a series of tests on a variety of diesel engines from 9 to 15 litres. The device worked as advertised. Hydrocarbon emissions and fuel consumption were decreased due to increased internal engine temperatures, and nitrogen oxides were increased due to increased internal engine temperatures and pressures.

·         Hydro One: Michael Gainer and I partnered with a class of ’93 grad, Michael Della Fortuna, to form Powersure. Powersure’s goal was to bring the aerospace maintenance philosophy to the utilities industry to reduce costs and increase system reliability. Senior management loved out reports and recommendations. The politicians and unions did not, but we had a lot of fun.

·         Mimada: Michael Gainer and I partnered with another class of ’69 colleague, Dave Lay, to form a company to research wind and solar energy storage for remote sites. We signed an exclusive agreement with a Dutch company that builds portable ammonia generators. The plan was to make ammonia with excess wind or solar energy, then burn it later in diesel gen-sets. We never found an investor, but Powersure later bought Mimada to provide a tax shelter for Powersure profits.

§  National Railway Engineering Electronics: I worded for NREE several times over the years on a variety of projects. The most interesting was the software design for the Engine Control Unit for a 4,000 HP diesel locomotive engine. We tested the ECU at NRE’s locomotive rebuild facilities in Paducah, KY. The ECU worked, but pressure by NRE’s diesel engine injector suppliers has kept the in-house ECU on the shelf to date.

§  Cleantek Industries: An old friend from Siconix days and I designed a lithium-ion battery management system, and the electronics for an oil rig crown LED lighting system.

§  A-4 Systems: Designed some RF components for an RF ID system, and the electronics for a “virtual fence” cow collar. The electronic cow collar knows where it is and beeps or prods the cow to keep it in a predefined GPS boundary.

§  Nureva, 2023-24: Nureva (https://www.nureva.com/) offers a family of virtual microphone products for meeting and board rooms. Their products are MS Teams and Zoom certified to create a virtual directional microphone from an array of microphones. The virtual directional microphone can be pointed at a speaker to improve audio clarity and reduce room noise.

 

Photos:

1.       Me, during recruit obstacle race, 1965. Canadian Navy photo.

2.       Me, during my stint as a CFL, 1969. Photo courtesy J.D. “Smitty” Smith

3.       Maureen and I cutting our wedding cake.

4.       Me, back row left, in front of Naval Air Test Center, NAS Patuxent River, in front of Chinook Serial No. 147001, spring 1974. USN photo.  I was invited along for a joyride when 001 was ferried from Harrisburg to Ottawa on October 18, 1974. I had a wife and 1 year old daughter who had been complaining about my long absences, so I decided not to explain why I had gone on a helicopter joyride, and I declined the offer. Life is made up of thousands of little decisions.

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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