Andy Nicol

What do I do (Skip to hobbies)?

Sepura

Sepura was formed from the terminals business of Simoco after it went into administration. I am now test resource manager, which means I'm responsible for testing of the company's products.

Sepura makes a range of TETRA terminals and supplies them for operation on a variety of infrastructures in several countries.

What did I do before?

Simoco

I worked for a telecommunications company called Simoco Europe Limited. Simoco developed a digital mobile radio and infrastructure using the TETRA (TErrestrial TRunked RAdio) standard. This new generation of Digital Private Mobile Radios combine traditional PMR services with modern cellular radio systems, and give improved spectrum efficiency over both.

For more information about Simoco's TETRA technology, and what happened to it, take a look at AB Communications Engineering, and follow the link entitled "TETRA".

Previously at Simoco, I worked on an analogue hand-portable called SRP8000. The SRP8000 portable radio the radio can generate and receive audio tones (Selective Calling AKA Selcall and CTCSS) and FFSK signalling. DTMF can be generated, but not decoded.

Two variants of radio software support conventional PMR functions, and MPT1342/Traxys/Chekker Trunked systems respectively. The radio supports a number of UHF and VHF frequency bands, and can handle schemes where mixed channel spacings (12.5/20/25KHz) are used.

At various stages in SRP8000's development, I have been librarian, quality manager and software team leader. I was also Integrator, which means I built "formal" versions of the software for testing and release. I maintained a web-site within the company to inform staff of changes to the transceiver software.

Philips

The Philips PMR business in Cambridge was sold to a pension company called CinVen, and became Simoco (it stands for Systems Integration and Mobile Communications).

At Philips, I worked on the PRP project, implementing MASC (Marconi Advanced SCrambler) version 3. MASC 3 includes such exotic new features as force-to-mode and secure-transmit-inhibit.

Domino

At Domino UK Ltd (Bar Hill). I worked on a multi-line ink-jet printer for mailing systems (mainly bindery-lines). This was based on two 68000 processors on a VME bus; the software was written in C and assembler, compiled using Intermetrics tools and tested using an Applied Microsystems emulator.

I was involved in systems administration for the Unix/PC-NFS development network. To help with this, I took the systems-admin training course at Sun Microsystems.

Norprint

At Norprint International Limited (Boston, Lincs), I worked on 8085-based label applicators, dual-8051-based magnetic card encoders, CP/M, Apricot and PC-based label printing systems, and warehouse distribution software.

Marconi

At Marconi Radar systems (Leicester), I worked on analogue control systems for marine missile-control radar and the Challenger tank stabilised gun platform. Yes, that's hardware, I know.

Education and Training

After leaving school with ten 'O' levels and five "highers", I spent four years getting a B.Sc. in Electronic and Electrical Engineering at Robert Gordon's Institute of Technology.

Although I learned the usual programming and development systems stuff at RGIT, it was at school that I started to use computers. The Maths department ran a scheme where we could submit batch jobs for processing - in Fortran! I may still have some of the Hollerith cards.

What would I rather be doing?

Or rowing...

I am also captain of Simoco Rowing Club, which is a small but growing club based in Cambridge.

Here you can see me at stroke in Simoco's first eight (1997). The club competes in local and regional time trials, regattas, and of course the Town Bumps.

Here we are in the town bumps, just about to make a bump. If it looks like hard work, that's because it is! The picture was taken a few seconds before we rammed the boat in front. That is, after all, what everyone is trying to do.

Here is a Simoco crew at Bedford, having just won our "Novice Pot" i.e. we've just gone from novice to senior status.

If we look wet, it's because a (friendly) rival crew from City of Cambridge RC threw us all into the river. That's tradition for you.

Crew (left to right) Andy Nicol (2), Charles Butcher (S), John Aspden (B), Ben Newman (3), Kevin Bushell (cox).

Or punting...

I occasionally punt up to Byron's Pool, or down the backs of the colleges. It's good fun, and good exercise too.

Or learning a language...

In addition to my native English, I speak French fairly fluently, Italian to GCSE level, and a little German and Turkish.