University of Delaware Office of Public Relations The Messenger Vol. 5, No. 1/1995 Hum of transmitters music to his ears Every day, Joseph deCourcelle, Delaware '68, drives to work in a 1973 burgundy Corvette with a white pinstripe. Sometimes, he doesn't drive it home until 6 o'clock the next morning. "It's been that way for years," he says matter-of-factly. "It's hard to get work done during the day. There are constant interruptions. When everybody else goes home, that's when my day really starts." DeCourcelle's company, Spectrum Communications Corp. of Norristown, Pa., designs and manufactures high-quality, high- performance VHF and UHF radio equipment and associated products for the paging and two-way radio markets worldwide. The company's thousands of customers range from NASA to NBC News, from Exxon Corp. to the Red Cross. And, its products can be found throughout the world, from Canada to Australia, from Hong Kong to the Middle East. Starting from a ham radio base in his home, deCourcelle launched the business in 1974 with a line of portable radio transceivers that were the most advanced of their day. Two years later, he introduced a 100 percent, solid state radio repeater base station, which boosts signals for police and fire departments. The unit quickly became an industry standard. Today, Spectrum's most popular products are paging transmitters, which are mounted atop mountains and tall buildings to send signals to personal pagers. The company also has other niche markets. For instance, it manufactures surveillance products, such as "body wires" for use by the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies. DeCourcelle says he sees "tremendous potential for growth" in the years ahead. He's hoping to develop new products while meeting the burgeoning demand for paging transmitters. "We're just scratching the surface," he says. "As Spectrum gets to be more well-known, our sales will increase." By keeping overhead low and quality high, the company and its 15 to 20 employees have established a reputation for "making the Cadillacs of the industry and selling them at Chevy prices," says deCourcelle, who attends to many aspects of the company's business himself. He's involved in everything from sales and marketing to product development. But, his first love is engineering. "I've always liked the nuts and bolts of things," he says. "I like creating something from nothing, starting with an idea and a bunch of parts, building it, testing it, refining it." A ham radio buff since the 1950s, deCourcelle majored in electronic engineering at Delaware and worked for six years as a design engineer before starting his own company. He is one of many in his family to attend Delaware, including his wife, Bette Ann (Lanning) '67; brother, Donald A. deCourcelle '73; sister, Jane deCourcelle Endriss '77; sister, Ella Anne deCourcelle '62; cousin, Barbara deCourcelle Dise '62; cousin, Cindy Woerner, '69; niece, Ella Juliana Eakin Billips '86; and niece, Robin Davida Ham '98. During the day, deCourcelle puts out fires and directs his management team. When the employees go home, however, he finds himself drawn to the back shop and the hum of electronic equipment. "I work on new designs at night and on improving the older designs," deCourcelle says. He also likes to watch over new equipment that's "burning in," or being tested before shipment to customers. "We put the equipment through its paces," he says. "If a transmitter were to go off the air, you could have tens of thousands of customers without their pagers." "Because many of the people who use pagers are doctors, somebody could die because of the failure." When the sun begins to rise and deCourcelle is satisfied that his equipment is functioning properly, he climbs back into his Corvette and heads home. -Marylee Sauder, Delaware '83