This is a practical, non-mathematical introduction to data communications and is based on the author's belief that today's readers need not only a solid knowledge of how modern data communications technology operates, but also a firm grounding in how it has evolved, and where this evolution will likely take in the future. Topics are discussed at various points in the book in increasing complexity, helping the readers build a solid understanding of key communications. Coverage assumes prior knowledge of modulation, number systems, and digital circuits, and uses only the mathematics needed for understanding. Wherever possible, industry-wide standards rather than more limiting proprietary ones are used.
Jack enjoys writing, reading, hiking, and especially competitive cycling. Jack enjoys traveling (even business trips), hiking, bicycling, listening to classical and folk music, and reading good literature. In addition to English, Jack speaks fluent German, fluent Spanish and conversational French.
Experience:
Jack held a variety of unusual jobs after graduating from high school in Johnstown, Pennsylvania including a job as a translator in a vacation resort in Spain, a stint in the Swedish Merchant Marine, and another as a civilian electrician working for the British Army on the Rhine in Hannover, Germany. When he returned to the U.S., he worked his way through Arizona State University as a disk jockey and then spent a year in graduate school studying German literature at the University of Washington in Seattle. Jack returned to Phoenix where he supervised a quality control department at Motorola Semiconductors before teaching communications and digital electronics for eight years at the Phoenix campus of DeVry University. From DeVry he went to work for In-Stat in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1990, where he began the company's original microprocessor service. Jack left In-Stat in 1992 to found Micrologic Research. After retirement in 2011, he completed four years of undergraduate studies in the French language, which included one year at Stendhal University in Grenoble, France.
Publications:
In addition to having authored almost 20 book-length market studies in the fields of programmable processors and wireless communications for Micrologic Research and dozens of shorter studies while at In-Stat, Jack has authored two textbooks, which are still used in many technical schools and colleges. The 6800 Microprocessor and Digital Data Communications. The second book is out of print, but Microprocessor 6800 is still on the market.
Licenses and organizations:
Jack holds a general class (formerly first class) commercial radiotelephone and an amateur extra class (W7KEI) radio operator's licenses. He also holds an amateur bicycle road-racing license. He is a member of American Mensa, the Arizona Bicycling Club, Phoenix Consumers Cycle Club, and USA Cycling.
