Who am I, Raymond Rider?
This section contains my biographical history that describes my achievements over 45 years working in a technical environment .
I have an extensive background in the electronics industry. I became fascinated with a neighbor’s ham radio station at the age of 13.
After high school, I joined the U.S. Navy in August 16, 1961 under an electronics program. I attended the US Navy’s Electronics School at Treasure Island, California (San Francisco Bay). From electronics school, I was assigned to the US Naval Communications Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Since Castro had closed down access to Cuba, there was not much to do except stay busy working, and learning the many high power transmitters during this somewhat isolated GITMO tour of duty.
18 months later, my tour of duty was finished at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station. Next, I was assigned to Tactical Air Control Squadron 22 at Little Creek, VA. Because TACRON 22 was a mobile group, this assignment resulted in two Mediterranean cruises on first, the USS Monrovia, and then finishing up the last six months of my naval career on the USS Francis Marion. Both of these assignments provided me with plenty of opportunities to work on many types of electronic equipment found on ships. That equipment included RADAR and other navigation equipment.
A short time after leaving the military, I became employed by RCA Service Co. RCA was the civilian contractor to an expanding US missile and satellite tracking facilities known as the US Air Force Eastern Test Range. I was assigned to the Ascension Island station, where I worked at the Transmitter Site. This site contained 100 KW transmitters. These transmitters were necessary at that time for communications between the Cape Canaveral operations and all the “down range” tracking stations.
In 1966, I left Ascension Island to work as a Field Engineer for Picker Nuclear Corporation. Picker was a manufacturer of nuclear materials measuring and diagnostic equipment for both the commercial nuclear industry and nuclear medical systems. I traveled an eight state region as a company representative, installing, repairing and consulting with customers.
In May of 1969, I left Picker Nuclear to be employed by the Federal Aviation Administration as a RADAR technician at the Memphis Air Route Traffic Control Center. During this 16 year tenure, many changes took place at the Memphis Center. The analog RADAR equipment was replaced with digital processing systems. I commenced a 6 year training program at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City Academy. In 1983, I was transferred from the Memphis FAA facility for assignment at their headquarters in Washington, D.C., and then to the FAA’s Technical Center in Atlantic City. NJ.
In 1986, I left the employment of the Federal Government and began working as a Technical Adviser at Federal Express Corporation in Memphis, TN. I began at FedEx as a System Administrator for a large Tandem Computer network used in FedEx’s ZAPMAIL product. When the ZAPMAIL project ended, I was reassigned as a software Quality Assurance and Methodologies Development specialist. Eventually, I was assigned as an ANSI C language developer in a Sun Solaris network. Finally, I retired from FedEx in 2000, going into an owner/operator consulting business, forming Rider Technical Services, Inc., a broadcast engineering consulting company.