Lyle V Johnson, KK7P

I am an electronics engineer with emphasis on microcontroller-based systems designed for harsh environments. I have extensive experience designing with microcontrollers, microprocessors, DSPs and FPGAs. Many products based on my designs are flying in space; others are roaming the planet and still others are deeply underground.

My initial industry experience was in aviation electronics (avionics). After more than a decade in aviation -- including 2 years in the Air Cavalry attached to the 101st Airborne Division -- I changed direction and began designing electronic systems for the global mining industry! I joined a startup, Modular Mining Systems, in 1980 as employee number 4. I helped grow Modular to a $30 million company, becoming CTO along the way. In 2000, I moved to the Pacific Northwest, and started a consulting business: KK7P, LLC.

The focus of my efforts the last few years has been applying digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to radio communications systems. I offer some small products based on DSP for the experimenter.

Click here or on the picture for information on these DSP modules.

Amateur radio has been a lifelong passion of mine, having obtained my first Amateur radio license at age 13.

AMSAT, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, designs and arranges for the launch of spacecraft on behalf of the worldwide Amateur radio community. I began designing portions of AMSAT spacecraft in 1983.

TAPR, Tucson Amateur Packet Radio, is a non-profit organization I co-founded in 1981 and of which I was president for many years. TAPR is a community that provides leadership and resources to radio amateurs for the purpose of advancing the radio art.

HPSDR, High Performance Software Defined Radio, is a collaborative group engaged in designing a variety of building blocks for creating software defined radios(SDRs). SDR is a hot topic in government and industry. In the context of Amateur radio, HPSDR is trying to create the building blocks from which a variety of radios may be constructed. It is an all-volunteer non-profit non-group with international participation.

Projects I helped design for these organizations include flight computers for satellites and systems for networking computers via radio links long before the terms "Internet" and "wireless" were part of the personal computer industry vocabulary...

I remain active in these communities. Sadly, recent policies of the US Government have convinced me that I can no longer participate in AMSAT-related design activities.

That's me with AMSAT OSCAR-51 (AO-51), the small cubical satellite on your left. This photo was taken in a clean room at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan in June, 2004. AO-51, based on a flight computer I designed, was successfully launched on 2004 June 29. I have been involved in designing 14 of the 51 satellites launched in the OSCAR series as of early 2007. I have also helped design systems flying in several non-Amateur satellites.

Elecraft is a manufacturer of Amateur radio transceivers and accessories. If you own one of their K2 radios and have thought about putting the 100-watt KPA100 amplifier in a separate case, you may be interested in how I split my K2/100.

Details on remoting the KPA100 in the EC2 enclosure are here.

Elecraft introduced the K3 transceiver in April, 2007. The K3 is a world-class, competition-grade HF+6m transceiver. Its objective performance, measured by the ARRL and other independent authorities, places it among the very best radios available today. It sells for a fraction of the cost of its peers. I designed portions of the K3, and am responsible for its DSP code and CPLD logic.