It occurred to me, a few days ago, that there was another occasional associate to whom I owed an update on the move, now that we're actually moved and more or less settled in.
So I composed an e-mail, sent it off... and got a reply from his widow. I missed him by two months.
RIP, Earl McCune. (See also.)
Earl was quite a Character, and also very good at RF and other analog circuit and system design. We first met back in the 90s, when my then-boss (another person I should get back in touch with) brought him in to help with a spread-spectrum radio project (spread spectrum on the 915 MHz band then being the New Hotness). In the process, Earl taught me some tricks of the trade that have come in mighty useful over the years in a variety of contexts, most of them not involving radio communication at all.
It turns out that his philosophy of ground planes not only allowed me to put high-speed (by 90s standards) logic on the same small board as a sensitive RF receiver without interference, but also may have been a significant factor in landing my last formal job; in the course of a surprise job interview, I was presented with the question of whether Scheme A or Scheme B was better for managing multiple ground planes, and I was prepared to explain why, from a noise-management perspective, A and B were equivalent, and a different approach was required. (Alas, he didn't communicate this philosophy to the people who define chip pin assignments, in particular ball-grid pin assignments. With all too many of the high-density chips, it's simply not possible to follow good noise-mitigation practices.)
Our paths occasionally crossed after that, either at trade shows or out on the trails. Last time, back in early 2014, he got onto the subject of semiconductor curve tracers, and after some discussion I had notes for a new product that, while not having all the capabilities of a Tektronix 576, would be good enough for characterizing small-signal devices while being much smaller and less expensive than the old Tek and also being computer-driven, so that saving data to a file would be convenient.
I got as far as having boards fabbed for a proof-of-concept unit, and then life got Eventful. I've added some new notes and refinements to the spec, and will have to dust the project off in what remains of this year. With the work I did on USB Gadgets in 2015-2017, I kinda-sorta have a decent starting point for the digital side of things, and I've come up with a refinement that should make the analog side easier.
Anyway, that's one reason I've been kinda quiet the last few days. Still here, but... preoccupied.
I'm very sorry for your loss, Eric. I hope your memories can give you some peace and comfort.
Posted by: Ellen Fox | Sunday, 26 July 2020 at 17:31
Earl wasn't exactly a close friend (mainly owing to busy schedules and general lack of opportunity to get better acquainted). Still, he was the sort of person one misses even as an occasional acquaintance.
Posted by: Eric Wilner | Monday, 27 July 2020 at 07:56