Gregory Crabtree

7303 Rolling Oak Lane, Springfield, VA 22153

Cell: 571-214-1734

Current Status: Available Immediately

On vacation since May 2000 to celebrate the Millennium: traveling, studying, and volunteering at various institutes. Now returning to the workplace. See Other Interests and Pursuits at end of resume.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Video Systems Engineer (Oct 1992 to May 2000)

Media Production Department, Prince William County Public Schools, Virginia.

· I was the sole engineer for this award winning Distance Learning facility, and managed all technical aspects of its operation single handed, training and using high school students for assistance as needed.

· Responsible for all systems design, installation and maintenance of three production studios, plus several edit suites including two digital nonlinear editors. Each of these facilities was rebuilt from scratch during my tenure.

· Managed equipment procurement, including specifying requirements, requesting and evaluating bids and approving acquisitions.

· Maintain, calibrate, and repair video cameras, recorders and other studio equipment.

· Coordinated maintenance activities with local broadcasters and cable providers to test and maintain microwave and fiber optic lines which carry our signal to uplink site.

· Responsible for annual inventory reports and department inventory database.

· Maintained stock inventory of repair parts and consumable supplies.

· Established technical operations procedures to be followed for productions.

· Trained staff and students on operations procedures, both formally in seminars and informally by daily as-required instruction.

· Implemented ITFS microwave system, including preparing terrain profiles, signal strength analyses, and coordinating the efforts of broadcasters, cable companies, and tower climbers.

· Implemented Local and Wide-Area computer networks, Web Servers and FTP servers.

· Assisted in developing curriculum for TV Production classes.

· Supervised technical operations during all live broadcasts and studio sessions, and at all other times provide daily technical support to staff and students as needed.

Broadcast Maintenance Engineer (1989-1992)

Central Virginia Educational Telecommunications Corporation. WCVE-TV, Richmond, and WNVC-TV, Falls Church, VA. (PBS Affiliate)

· Installed, maintained and repaired studio equipment, including 1-inch Ampex VTRs, Sony Betacam and U-matic VTRs, Hitachi SK-97 cameras, 3M router, production switchers, etc.

· Maintained and operated C-band and Ku-band satellite uplinks and UHF TV transmitters.

· Redesigned and rebuilt two mobile production vans.

· Operations engineer on numerous remotes and daily broadcast operations.

· Developed dbase III command language applications for storing and charting transmitter logs and master control logs.

Broadcast Maintenance Engineer, (1987-1989)

WTVR-TV, Richmond Va. (CBS Affiliate)

· Installed, maintained and repaired equipment including Hitachi cameras; Sony 1-inch and U-matic VTRs; Ampex 2-inch Quads, Grass Valley switchers, router and editor; Nurad satellite and microwave systems, RCA TT-25 VHF transmitter.

· Evening Operations Engineer, supervising all technical activities relating to 6:00 and 11:00 news, including coordinating microwave news-van transmissions, studio preparation and master control supervision.

CONSULTING and FREELANCE Experience:

· Prince William County Government, 1999. Designed and installed video studio at Chinn Library.

· South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts, 1998. Evaluate building plans during construction phase and advise on planning, design and installation of distance learning systems, and how to integrate into South Carolina's Educational Television network.

· MCET, Massachusetts Corp. for Educational Telecommunications, 1993-99. Assist operations of mobile uplink/production van whenever in the Virginia area.

· Jay Sears News and Video Service, 1990. Installed and maintained video systems for documenting House of Delegates proceedings at Virginia State Capital, and smaller systems at various churches, corporate offices, etc.

EDUCATION:

Associate of Applied Science, Electronics Engineering Technology, 1987

Mountain Empire Community College, Big Stone Gap, Virginia.

· Graduated with Magna Cum Laude, high honors.

· Member of Phi Theta Kappa, National Honor Fraternity.

· Special Award for work as a Peer Counselor/Tutor, Special Services Department, tutoring students in math, English, computers, and electronics.

· Completed additional courses in advanced algebra, calculus, computer systems analysis, and computer programming.

Electronics Skills

· Test Instruments: DMMs, analog and digital oscilloscope, Audio S/N and distortion analyzer, RF signal strength meters, RF power meters and VSWR meters, TV waveform monitors and vectorscopes, RF spectrum analyzers. For mechanical tape alignments: spring tension gauges, tape tentelometers, head protrusion gauges, micrometers.

· Shop skills: Soldering/desoldering circuit boards. Troubleshoot both overall systems and component-level circuits. Assemble circuits & wiring harnesses. Assemble many types of cables, connectors, waveguides and transmission lines. Assemble and wire equipment racks and operator consoles. Read schematics, blueprints, topo maps. Use a wide variety of hand and power tools.

· License: FCC General Radiotelephone Operator License, with Radar endorsement.

Computer Skills

Programming Languages used include COBOL, BASIC, Visual Basic, Fortran, Machine Code for MC-6800, Relay Ladder Logic, dBase-III Command Language, HTML and Perl.
Hardware platforms used include HP-3000 Mainframe, Industrial Programmable Logic Controllers, desktop systems include IBM-compatible(Windows/Intel), Venix, Apple Macintosh and Commodore Amiga.
Networking experience includes implementing Ethernet and Appletalk Local Area Networks, Wide Area dial-up networks, BBS systems, implementing WWW servers, creating Web sites using HTML, and writing CGI scripts using Perl.
Applications used include: word processors, databases, spreadsheets, CAD, data communications, photo/image processors, digital video editors, digital audio multitrack recording/mixing, music notation editors.

Other Interests and Pursuits

· Student Pilot, soloed in both Gliders and Single-Engine Land airplanes. 60 hours logged and counting.

· Sailing, with experience in small daysailers, solo cruising, and large traditional ships including square riggers. Completed formal training in Coastal and Celestial Navigation, Ocean Seamanship and Meteorology.

· Volunteer at Jamestown Settlement, ship's maintenance and historical interpretation. Participant for over four years in their sail training program and have made several voyages aboard the tall ships "Susan Constant" and "Godspeed", recreations of English merchant ships of the early 1600's.

· Strong interests in Physical and Life Sciences, Environmental Conservation and Solar/Renewable Energy.

· Volunteer at Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Assisted building and deploying instrument bouys to measure and transmit water-quality data from the Chesapeake Bay, and York River. Assisted with operations of side-scanning sonar profiler.

· Boatbuilding: I’ve spent several months assisting a friend restore a classic wooden sailboat. Project involves extensive and detailed woodworking, epoxy and fiberglass techniques, electrical and mechanical skills. "Juno" has previously made many ocean crossings and plans are to make more after the restoration.

· Homebuilding: worked part-time as a carpenter on residential renovation and construction crew. This was to gain experience in framing and finish carpentry, skills which I will need when I begin constructing my own all-solar home.