Starting Datron Systems

In the 1960's the dominant supplier of telemetry tracking systems was a company called Canoga Electronics.  A major supplier to Canoga was a machine shop called Datron owned and run by a man named Bob Danis.  Jack Wills was in marketing at Canoga and he spearheaded the effort to build a company to compete with Canoga.  At Canoga the major players below administration were; Jack Wills - Marketing, Ron Potter - Marketing, Pierce Wetter Control Engineer, Charlie Fassnacht - Mechanical Engineer, Don Rondeau - Contracts, Dave Derby - Program Manager and myself, Fritz Amtsberg - Program Manager and Systems Integrator.  Art Sullivan (founder of EMP was also a Canoga employee).  Canoga's Lawyer was a man named Ted McCabe.

 

Jack Wills approached Bob Danis to see if he was interested in being the foundation for a new company building Antenna Systems and Telemetry related systems.  He was and soon evening meetings were in progress to set up the company.  It was determined that the key to success would be if Datron was able to received the next contract from Safeguard Systems Command for an antenna for Kwajalein Missile Range.  I was the Program Manager, systems integrator performed the system tests and installed the previous system which was a 24 Ft. Antenna system on the island of Ennylabagen in the Marshall Islands.  We gambled that we could win this and All of us left Canoga which in the long run killed the company.

 

So, in May of 1969 Datron became a reality and we built the company around the machine shop in a small building on Desoto in Canoga Park Ca.  We bid the antenna system to Safeguard Systems Command and I received a call from the engineer and he said "I am going to award this to you but you better not mess this up! My reputation is on the line!" 

 

That contract "Opened the Flood Gates" and soon we moved to a 20,000 sq. ft. around the corner on Plummer St.  Jobs seemed to come from everywhere! Pedestals for Tasker, the antenna for the Navy WSC-2 from ITT, Antenna systems for NRL and we continued to grow.  Soon we moved the machine shop to a building behind us and after that we acquired the building next to us.  We had about 60,000 sq. ft. of space.

 

Key Personnel

Jack Wills - President and Microwave Engineer - Deceased

Ron Potter - Director of Marketing - Deceased

Don Rondeau - Contracts - Retired

Bob Danis - Director of Manufacturing - Retired

Pierce Wetter - Electronics Engineer - 40 years at Datron!

Charlie Fassnacht - Mechanical Engineer - Deceased

Dave Derby - Program Manager - Ended up President - Retired

Fritz Amtsberg - Program Manager/Systems Integrator/Installer - Cleans the floor at Oceantronics

 

Future Employees of Importance

Dan Flynn - Mechanical Engineer - Founder of RPM

Mark Mathews - Mechanical Design Engineer - Founder of PSI now part of RPM

John DiGoia - Draftsman - Now President of L3 Datron Advanced Technologies

Ellen Lannert - Jacks Secretary - Came From Canoga Electronics

 

Other Employees of Interest

Ernie Jacobson

 

Customers Critical to Datron

 

Bob Eison - Safeguard Systems Command - Gave Datron its first big job! 28Ft. Systems for Kwajalien

 

Gene Wooden - Safeguard Systems Command - Provided us with all future jobs for Kwajalein Missile Range

 

Len Hearton - NRL - 2 48ft. and 2 20 Ft. Antenna Systems for Blossom Point (GPS Upload)

 

ITT- Team member on AN/WCS-2 for the Navy

 

Other Important Contracts

 

New S-Band Feeds for all TM Systems at Kwajalein

 

Funny Stuff

I remember when we were getting ready to assemble the 28 ft. system in our back yard.  The riser base was truncated with the bottom about 8 ft. in diameter and the upper section was about 5-1/2 ft.  When we were trying to get it off of the truck it slipped and ended up rolling out in the street.  Somewhere there are pictures of us pushing it into our back yard!

 

Then when we finished assembling it and testing it I decided the best way to get this to Kwajalein was to use a 40 ft. flatbed trailer as the shipping fixture.  We laid the antenna pedestal down with the heavy side towards the rear wheels and strapped it down.  The trailer was then moved to the back corner of our rear yard which was finished in asphalt.  Soon after we moved it the weight of the system caused the front left jack to "punch" thru the asphalt.  The trailer slowly twisted and the antenna pedestal rolled off of the trailer an landed in the parking lot!  Frightening experience but no damage.  We had to reassemble the system on the test pad and rerun all of the tests.

 

From Fritz

Remember the Luau at the Athletic Club on Desoto?

Actually the predecessor was a luau at my house on Strathern.  I had won a "Guess the Weight" of a pig at Vons Supermarket (was about 30 pounds).  I bought lava rocks and found some banana trees and buried the pig in my back yard.  Turned out fine and everyone had a good time.  Then when we became a bit more prosperous we decided to have a Luau at the athletic club on Desoto.  We bought a big pig and early in the morning Mark, Dave, Don and I dug a big hole in the middle of one of the planters and  with about the last shovel of dirt we hit the main gas line into the club.  So, we put a few shovels full of dirt over the pipe, put a cord of wood in the hole and lit a fire!  When it got hot we threw a bunch of lava rock on top and, after an hour or so, the fire was down to coals.  We had put the pig and if I remember some chickens on chicken wire and wrapped it closed.  We then put lots of banana trunks and leaves over the rocks, laid the chicken wire wrap on the leaves, covered it with more banana leaves then a piece of canvas and buried it.  About 6 hours later we started to dig it up and it smelled like perhaps the gas line had cracked and was leaking into the pit!  It was a little bit of an anxious time but it turned out that it was just the smell of the food!  If I remember right there were about 120 folks at the party and it turned out to be a big success.  Mark chased some bikini into the pool and broke his glasses.

 

From Mark Mathews

 

The mechanical assy. department was struggling for hours with the assembly of a pedestal for AIL that I was the design engineer on. It had a very large heavy, 500 lb ft direct drive torque motor. They couldn't get it to pilot into the housing no matter what they tried. Pierce Wetter walked up, observed what was going on, grabbed a very large adjustable wrench, put it on the motor mounting flange, pulled slightly and it dropped in. Everybody was dumb founded with dropped jaws. He then walked away not saying a word during the entire time.

 

One More from Mark!

They had a problem with a mission critical antenna system at Eglan AFB in FL. It had a nutating scanner with a RF polarization adjusting mechanism at the rear. This was to be set by manually rotating as required to meet mission requirements. They needed somebody to send to the field ASAP to repair the unit. Being the new guy, I was volunteered. I protested, but was told this fix was a slam dunk as the antenna system normally on a tower, was now on the ground. Off I went.
 

When I arrived the antenna system was NOT on the ground but on the very top of a tower that was about 100 ft high. It had no handrails and had only about a 8 ft sq platform most of it taken up by the antenna system. I said OK, where is the crane. They said no crane, but they did have a dump truck and a skip loader?.. What was I supposed to do with them? They kept emphising they needed it operational by the next morning. Additionally this tower was the tallest thing for miles around and a storm was headed into the area.
At this point I asked if there was any carbon dioxide fire extinguishers and rope around. They all had very quizzical looks on there faces. They found some extinguishers and rope. I tied the rope to the extinguishers, along with my small tool box and started up the tower. I tied myself to the antenna system at the top of the tower and pulled my equipment up. The platform was wet and slippery.
 

I removed the back of the scanner, inserted the extinguisher nozzle all the way and fired away. I emptied both extinguishers. Due to the low temperature of the carbon dioxide gas, the aluminum inner sleeve of the polarization rotation mechanism shrank. I quickly pulled out the plastic bearing sleeve, replaced it with one that was less water absorbent. Moisture was causing the original to expand. That's what was jamming the close tolerance manual rotation mechanism. I reassembled the scanner, grabbed my tools, lowered the empty extinguishers and went down the tower ladder. I was at lunch when the storm, include lightning hit the area.

One More from Mark!

So Charlie comes to me with a wood scale model ( it was about a ft cubed) of a pedestal counterweight with a very strange shape. Sort of like a pear squashed along it's main axis. He says we need to know it's volume so we can determine it's weight in full scale. This was before computer drafting etc.. I get out my scale (ruler) and try to figure out how the measure this very odd shape. Then a light bulb went off. I got a big bucket filled it to the very very top with water put the weighted model in and as the water was displaced I caught it. I measured the displaced water volume with some glass measuring beakers and used that for the final calculation of the models volume.

More from Mark!

Anybody remember the day the power transformer on the power pole on Plummer Street blew up sending the lid hundreds of feet into the air. Then the pole catches on fire. Power went out. Everybody went home for that day.

How about the day the entire building filled with smoke. Nobody could figure out what was happening. It turns out their was a huge local brush fire. It had jumped across Devonshire ( a street to the north ) and the smoke went south where we were and was pulled in the building by the AC system. It cleared out after the fire was contained.
 

 

Anyone remember anything else?

 

Memories of Canoga Electronics - Circa 1963-1969

Folks - Holly Dickenson - President --- Gene Foote - Vice President --- Jack Wills - Marketing --- Ellen Lannert - Marketing Secretary --- Ron Potter - Technical Staff --- Art Sullivan - Marketing --- Ed Farley - Engineer --- Bob Stegan - RF Engineer --- Mark Suffin - In Charge of the Techs --- Earl Smith - Engineer --- Lew Franklin - Engineer --- Don Rondeau - Contracts --- Dave Derby - Program Manager --- Fritz Amtsberg - Program Manager .

 

Facility - In Van Nuys Old buildings and around 1966 moved to a big building in Chatsworth on Comanche?

 

I remember we had a contract from NASA for 2 Off launch 24ft. Antenna Systems for Cape Kennedy.  Bill Woods was the NASA Guy later went to work for Datron?.  We had a $1,000 a day penalty if we delivered late.  The Systems were dual opposed hydraulic drives.  I remember that Pierce Wetter and I came to work on a Thursday morning and worked on the system which leaked hydraulic fluid and did not leave Canoga until the following Tuesday!  I had hydraulic fluid even in my ears!  I remember using voishan copper seals on the stainless steel fittings in an attempt to stop the leaks!

 

Both Systems shipped and I did the installs at the Cape.  The antenna feeds were dual frequency covering UHF and S-Band.  They were big and heavy.  On a Sunday at the Cape I was installing the feeds in the antenna's and I was the only one there.  We had provided ladders for each system that were meant to allow the folks to get to the feed assembly to work on it.  They were about 4 feet wide and 15 ft. high with wheels that could be locked .  I tied the feed to a rope and walked backwards up the ladder and installed the feed.  The end result for me was a crushed vertebrae that made me feel like I was having heart attacks for about 10 years.  One day while I was in the control building looking out the window I saw the wind take the ladder and slowly it moved along the concrete until it he the grass and over it went.  Not wanting to have Bill Woods see this I tied a rope to the dish and drug it back onto the concrete apron.  I then raise the elevation axis until the ladder was standing.  I lowered the antenna and undid the rope.  However the stairs were shaped in an "S" due to falling over.   Fortunately several days later it did the same thing but to the opposite side of the ladder and the result was a ladder that was pretty much straight.  Oddly enough there was a picture of Bill Woods standing on that ladder looking at the feed on the front page of Aerospace Magazine later that year!

Straight Scoop!  Honest