Milt Sullivan, RL Drake Chief Engineer, SK

[Jim Brown-10]

This was in today's ARRL Letter.

Milton A. Sullivan Jr, ex-K8YDO, Former Chief Engineer at R. L. Drake
(SK)Milton A. "Buddy" Sullivan Jr, ex-K8YDO, of Washington, DC -- the
former chief engineer at the R. L. Drake Company
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._L._Drake_Company> -- passed away from a
stroke on October 28. He was 85. Sullivan designed and oversaw the
designs of all the most significant Drake Amateur Radio products,
including the 1A, 2B and 2NT transmitter, all the 4 lines and the
beginning of the 7 line.

After retiring from Drake in 1984, Sullivan ran his own business selling
and setting up satellite television systems, an offshoot of his later
projects at Drake that involved designing satellite equipment. After
that, he went back to work full time as chief engineer for Lytton
Electronics, where he worked until his final retirement in 1990. In
1993, he and his wife Judith moved to South Carolina where Sullivan
worked for Alpha Delta, the small company owned by his former Drake
colleague and long time friend, Don Tyrrell, W8AD. Sullivan donated his
body to science. A US Navy veteran, he will be interred at Arlington
National Cemetery after a term with the Georgetown University Medical
School. -- /Thanks to John Sullivan and Don Tyrrell, W8AD, for the
information/

=   =   =   =   =   =   =   =   =   =   =   =   =

I worked for Milt at R.L. Drake as a co-op EE student from Univ of
Cincinnati, and was working at a bench in the engineering lab when news
came over the radio that President Kennedy had been shot.

One correction/addition to the obit.  In addition to designing the
products noted, Milt also designed the TR3, Drake's first transceiver,
and the beginning of their line of transmitting products.  Bob Drake
established and ran the quality company, but Milt was the chief engineer.

Both were nice guys, and Milt was a fair boss.  I never kept track of
him after leaving Drake, and wondered what he had done with the rest of
his life.  From the obit, quite a lot. RIP, Milt.

73, Jim K9YC
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[Alan Bloom]

Milt was a good guy.  I believe his title was VP of Engineering when I
was there 1976-1979.  Even though he was supposed to be an executive at
that point he still loved to get his hands dirty.  I remember him coming
up with creative ideas to solve engineering problems on some designs I
was working on at the time.  For example, the MN2700 kilowatt antenna
tuner required some high-voltage, high-current fixed capacitors.  We
were quoted a ridiculously high price and a 6-month lead time by the
vendor.  So we figured out a way to make our own capacitors from Teflon
printed circuit board (for low loss / high Q) spray-painted with Q dope
to prevent corona discharge.

Milt was a realist about project management.  He was very aware that
engineers have a tendency to try to design everything to perfection,
regardless of the schedule or cost.  He had a sign over his desk that
read, "Good enough is better than perfect."

Alan N1AL


On Thu, 2010-11-11 at 21:02 -0800, Jim Brown wrote:

> This was in today's ARRL Letter.
>
> Milton A. Sullivan Jr, ex-K8YDO, Former Chief Engineer at R. L. Drake
> (SK)Milton A. "Buddy" Sullivan Jr, ex-K8YDO, of Washington, DC -- the
> former chief engineer at the R. L. Drake Company
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._L._Drake_Company> -- passed away from a
> stroke on October 28. He was 85. Sullivan designed and oversaw the
> designs of all the most significant Drake Amateur Radio products,
> including the 1A, 2B and 2NT transmitter, all the 4 lines and the
> beginning of the 7 line.
>
> After retiring from Drake in 1984, Sullivan ran his own business selling
> and setting up satellite television systems, an offshoot of his later
> projects at Drake that involved designing satellite equipment. After
> that, he went back to work full time as chief engineer for Lytton
> Electronics, where he worked until his final retirement in 1990. In
> 1993, he and his wife Judith moved to South Carolina where Sullivan
> worked for Alpha Delta, the small company owned by his former Drake
> colleague and long time friend, Don Tyrrell, W8AD. Sullivan donated his
> body to science. A US Navy veteran, he will be interred at Arlington
> National Cemetery after a term with the Georgetown University Medical
> School. -- /Thanks to John Sullivan and Don Tyrrell, W8AD, for the
> information/
>
> =   =   =   =   =   =   =   =   =   =   =   =   =
>
> I worked for Milt at R.L. Drake as a co-op EE student from Univ of
> Cincinnati, and was working at a bench in the engineering lab when news
> came over the radio that President Kennedy had been shot.
>
> One correction/addition to the obit.  In addition to designing the
> products noted, Milt also designed the TR3, Drake's first transceiver,
> and the beginning of their line of transmitting products.  Bob Drake
> established and ran the quality company, but Milt was the chief engineer.
>
> Both were nice guys, and Milt was a fair boss.  I never kept track of
> him after leaving Drake, and wondered what he had done with the rest of
> his life.  From the obit, quite a lot. RIP, Milt.
>
> 73, Jim K9YC
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
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>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

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[k6dgw]

On 11/11/2010 9:59 PM, Alan Bloom wrote:

> Milt was a realist about project management.  He was very aware that
> engineers have a tendency to try to design everything to perfection,
> regardless of the schedule or cost.  He had a sign over his desk that
> read, "Good enough is better than perfect."

Many years ago, just after I had taken over as Division Chief Engineer,
an engineering mentor [and former college professor] send me a framed
sign reading:

"Exactly what part of 'Good Enough' did you not understand?"

Maybe he knew Milt.

I'm beginning to believe that my K3 at 4.14 has surpassed "good enough,"
at least for me.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2011 Cal QSO Party 1-2 Oct 2011
- www.cqp.org
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[N5GE]

I began using Drake equipment in 1977.  Between then and 1983 I spoke with him a
few times regarding repairs and trouble shooting of the  4C-Line equipment and
later the 7-Line equipment I had.  I still have the TR7 and R7.

Buddy was a nice man and easy to deal with.

I'm sorry he's left us.

73 Buddy,

Tom Childers
Radio Amateur N5GE
Licensed since 1976
QCWA Member 35102

On Thu, 11 Nov 2010 21:02:10 -0800, Jim Brown <[hidden email]> wrote:

>This was in today's ARRL Letter.
>
>Milton A. Sullivan Jr, ex-K8YDO, Former Chief Engineer at R. L. Drake
>(SK)Milton A. "Buddy" Sullivan Jr, ex-K8YDO, of Washington, DC -- the
>former chief engineer at the R. L. Drake Company
><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._L._Drake_Company> -- passed away from a
>stroke on October 28. He was 85. Sullivan designed and oversaw the
>designs of all the most significant Drake Amateur Radio products,
>including the 1A, 2B and 2NT transmitter, all the 4 lines and the
>beginning of the 7 line.
>
>After retiring from Drake in 1984, Sullivan ran his own business selling
>and setting up satellite television systems, an offshoot of his later
>projects at Drake that involved designing satellite equipment. After
>that, he went back to work full time as chief engineer for Lytton
>Electronics, where he worked until his final retirement in 1990. In
>1993, he and his wife Judith moved to South Carolina where Sullivan
>worked for Alpha Delta, the small company owned by his former Drake
>colleague and long time friend, Don Tyrrell, W8AD. Sullivan donated his
>body to science. A US Navy veteran, he will be interred at Arlington
>National Cemetery after a term with the Georgetown University Medical
>School. -- /Thanks to John Sullivan and Don Tyrrell, W8AD, for the
>information/

[snip]

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[Alan Bloom]

Hi Herb,

I'd have to open up my L75 to be sure, but I believe all I did was etch
away some of the copper around the outside edge of the board (to prevent
arcing around the edge of the board) and then sprayed it with Q-dope to
prevent arcing to the air (corona discharge) from the edges of the
copper.

It is also very important to use low-loss PC board material.  When I
tried it with standard FR4 PC board material, the capacitor started to
smoke after a few seconds with a couple hundred watts of RF.  We used
glass-teflon PC board, but other low-loss material like Duroid might
also work.  http://www.rogerscorp.com

Alan


On Fri, 2010-11-12 at 15:39 -0400, Herb Schoenbohm wrote:

>
> > I was working on at the time.  For example, the MN2700 kilowatt antenna
> > tuner required some high-voltage, high-current fixed capacitors.  We
> > were quoted a ridiculously high price and a 6-month lead time by the
> > vendor.  So we figured out a way to make our own capacitors from Teflon
> > printed circuit board (for low loss / high Q) spray-painted with Q dope
> > to prevent corona discharge.
> >
> >
> > Alan N1AL
> >
> > Alan,  That component design of Milt was also  was used in the Drake
> > L-7 amp.  I lost that cap several years ago in both the amp and the
> > add on ones in the MN2700. For the amp a I found a door knob with
> > enough current  and voltage to work.  But for the tuner there just is
> > not enough space to mount the replacements fixed caps. Do you know of
> > anyone who makes these flat board PC caps? Or could someone make a
> > sandwitch out of some doble side copper PC board.  I think, however
> > the edges would be a voltage breakdown problem and Milt's unique
> > design had an island of insulation around the edges plus the Q dope.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Herb Schoenbohm, KV4FZ

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