Ray Howard Pettit
Ray Howard Pettit born in Canton, Georgia on May 12, 1933 is an American engineer, scientist, consultant, inventor, author, businessman, and professor of electrical engineering.
Biography
Pettit was born in Canton, Georgia to mill-worker parents who lacked formal education. Following his graduation from high school as class valedictorian, he attended Georgia Institute of Technology from 1954 to 1960 earning BEE and MSEE degrees in electrical engineering. He earned a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Florida in 1964.
He was an applications engineer for Westinghouse Electric Corporation from 1954 to 1955 and 1957 to 1958 and an officer in the U.S. Army (2nd Lieutenant 1955-1956 1st Lieutenant 1956-1957). In January 1960, following his MS degree, he joined the Martin Company in Orlando, Florida as Senior Communications Engineer from 1960-1961 and Design Specialist in 1963, where he was involved in technologically ground-breaking studies for the newly emerging field of Spread-Spectrum Signals and Applications. (Present-day applications include cellphones and GPS navigation systems.)
In 1963, nearing the completion of his PhD work, he joined the Lockheed Research Laboratory in Marietta, Georgia as a scientist specializing in aerospace communications systems. During this period, he began his teaching career as a part-time faculty member in the College of Electrical Engineering at Georgia Tech. In 1966 he was appointed to the full-time faculty as a tenured Professor, performing teaching, research, and administrative duties until 1978. At that time he joined the faculty of California State University, serving as Professor and Chairman of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department for two terms.
Dr. Pettit's world-wide reputation as an expert in the field of digital communications electronic warfare is based on his original publications, his extensive consulting assignments for industry and government, his development and presentation of dozens of engineering professional "short courses" throughout the world, and his patents in the field.
Inventions and Patents
- U.S. Patent 6947504, "Frequency Synchronizer", issued September 20, 2005. This invention was part of Dr. Pettit's work for the U.S. Navy in San Diego, California concerning secure and robust digital communications from satellites to submerged submarines. It is based on the maximum likelihood criterion of estimation theory, and applies to a technique known as Continuous-Phase Modulation (CPM), an energy-efficient and bandwidth-efficient digital modulation method.
- U.S.Patent 6925136, "Simultaneous Frequency and Phase Synchronizer", issued August 2, 2005. This invention was also part of Dr. Pettit's work on satellite/submarine communications.
Books Authored
- Textbook/Reference Book. "ECM and ECCM Techniques for Digital Communications." Lifetime Learning Systems (Wadsworth Publishing), September, 1982. This classic text is in libraries across the globe and has provided fundamental reference material for hundreds of communications engineers involved with military communications (secure, anti-jam) and commercial communications (cellphones, GPS navigation).
- Memoir. "Mill-Village Boy." 1st Books Library, 2004. The story of Ray Howard Pettit. Engineer, scientist, military officer, author, inventor, professor. Poet, songwriter, background actor in movies and television. Father, grandfather. Survivor of entrapment, Northridge earthquake of 1994. Co-owner/operator of Atlanta's first teen nightclub. Military communications consultant to the Pentagon and dozens of U.S. aerospace companies and other branches of the military. Developer of professional engineering courses for presentation in major cities throughout the world.
Technical Publications
1."Uses of the Null Zone in Voice Communications," IEEE Transactions on Communication Technology,Vol. COM-13,No.2,pp.175-182,June,1965.
2."Signal Representation by Prolate Spheroidal Wave Functions," IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems,Vol.AES-1,No.1,pp.39-42,August,1965.
3."Adaptive Systems," Lockheed Georgia Research Quarterly,Vol.3,No.1,pp.19-22,Summer,1966.
4."Pulse Sequences with Good Auto-Correlation Properties,"The Microwave Journal,Vol.10,No.3,pp.63-67,February,1967.
5."A Bayes Estimator in a Decision-Directed Adaptive Detection Problem," Frquency Technology,Vol.7,No.1,pp23-25,January,1969.
6."Frequency Shift Keying and Square-Wave Frequency Modulation," IEEE Transactions on Education,Vol.E-12,No.2,June,1969.
7."Error Probability for NCFSK with Linear FM Jamming," IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems,Vol.AES-8,No.5,September,1972.
8."On the Use of Processing Gain as a Performance Measure for Spread-Spectrum Systems," IEEE Region 3 Southeastern Convention,April 4-6,1977,Williamsburg,Virginia.
9."The Effects of Pulse Jitter on the Detection of Low-Level Radar Signals Using Noncoherent Integration," (with W.E.Sears),IEEE Region 3 Southeastern Convention,April 4-6,1978,Atlanta,Georgia.
10."Partial-Band Swept-FM Jamming of Frequency-Hopped Binary NCFSK Systems," Southeastern Symposium on Systems Theory,March 13-14,1978, Mississippi State,Mississippi.
11."An Analytical Approach for Susceptibility Analysis of Binary NCFSK with Generalized Jamming," IEEE Region 3 Southeastern Symposium,April 10-12,1978.
12."Performance and Practical Processing Gain Limitations on DS-Spread Coimmunication Systems,"(with R.Yost),IEEE 1978 National Telecommunications Conference,December 4-6,1978,Birmingham,Alabama.
13."A Susceptibility Analysis of Frequency-Hopped M-ary NCFSK--Partial-Band Noise or CW-Tone Jamming," Conference Proceedings,11th Southeastern Symposium on System Theory,Clemson,South Carolina,March 12-13,1979.
14."Susceptibility Equations for a 4-Bit Gray-Coded QAM Signaling Technique with FH/DS Spread-Spectrum," 12th Southeastern Symposium on System Theory,Virginia Beach,Virginia,May 19-20,1980.
15."Susceptibility of DS/FH Binary DPSK to Partial and Full Band Barrage Jamming," (with R.Yost),IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems,September,1981.
16."Communications Jamming in Electronic Warfare," International Countermeasures Handbook,1985.
17."An Analysis of the Combining of Diversity Signals Lacking Bit Synchronization," Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems,August 11-12,1986.
18."Smart Jammers Can Be Outsmarted,"Command,Control,Communications,Intelligence Handbook,1988. </01>
Personal Life
<01> Married Sue Gatrell Hart,August 17,1958. Three sons: Jonathan Lee Pettit (August 31,1960),Theodore Gordon Pettit (April 8,1963),Kendall Jason Pettit (March 14,1967). Four grandchildren (from Theodore): Rhett (July 14,1991),Cody (August 24,1993),Kali (March 28,1995), Henry (August 13,1997). Divorced 1983.