SpectrumTalk

FCC/OET Personnel Change

In March I helped FCC publicize their recruitment of people to fill two key OET jobs, Chief, Electromagnetic Compatibility Div., and Chief, Technical Analysis Branch. I had not heard anything about these jobs being filled until today when I got a routine message from Bob Weller with the following signature block:

Putting two plus two together, I realized from my time as an FCC investigator that Bob must have been given on of the vacancies. Congratulating him I found out that the promotion was effective August 17. It has not formally been announced pending the filling of the other job, actually his boss. (The other position is tied up in a freeze on personnel actions and is apparently someone outside of the present OET staff.)

Careful readers may recall that I announced Bob's return to FCC last October. Bob Weller worked at FCC from 1984 to 1993 in a number of positions in the former Field Operations Bureau, now Enforcement Bureau. We had worked together on the "Playboy satellite jamming" case, US v. Haney, in the late 1980's where we successfully convicted the perpetrator of jamming Playboy's satellite uplink based on really good but esoteric technical evidence. It was a great moment for FCC enforcement, but since it predates the current EB, there is little interest or memory of what happened. (Oddly, I have twice been invited to be luncheon speaker at distant IEEE conferences to talk about this amusing intersection of technology and CSI-like investigation.) Bob finished his first FCC service as head of the FCC's Denver office. From 1993 to 2007 he was an Associate in the California engineering firm of Hammett & Edison, Inc.

So I welcome Bob to this key OET position and look forward to welcoming the other person when that position is announced.