Alex “Duffy” Shaeffer is a ground station technician for RBC Signals. With RBC Signals’ frequent antenna deployments around the world, Duffy is often on the road helping to procure, deliver, install, and setup antennas.
Duffy was born in New Jersey and grew up in upstate New York. Duffy is highly mechanically inclined, and has been working with sophisticated devices most of his career. A welder by trade, Duffy began his career with a brand new unit of GE, GE Battery. After working a variety of roles at GE, Duffy transitioned to working as a machinist with GE Power & Water after completing an Advanced Manufacturing Technology program. After spending a few years in the trade, Duffy learned of an opportunity at RBC Signals. Duffy had the astronaut dream as a kid and often looked through a telescope, so it was an easy switch to a space company like RBC Signals.
Working for RBC Signals has sent Duffy around the world on ground station deployments and certifications. Duffy has already traveled to South Korea, Sweden, Chile, and Prudhoe Bay, Alaska on behalf of RBC Signals, and is a certified Seatel antenna deployment engineer.
Duffy’s involvement in supporting RBC Signals’ worldwide installs often starts with targeting potential locations for a ground station. RBC Signals Ground Station Network Manager Zach Reich might ask Duffy to find him 6 sites in Ohio that could work for a customer that they can evaluate. Once a site is chosen, the procurement starts. Duffy might queue up companies to provide a crane, a concrete company for the pad foundation, or order parts like a server, rack, and switches. The next task is installing the antenna, which includes the dish and the mount assembly, followed by the leveling and directing of the antenna to ensure proper function. The typical install can take anywhere from 1-10 days depending on the complexity. A radome can add 2 days to an install of a parabolic dish, whereas a UHF install can often be done in a single day.
Duffy (middle) moves a portion of a radome into place
These installs often have time changes, language changes, and cultural differences. One thing Duffy has learned is that “we’ve found nothing but helpfulness and love from our partners in every single country we’ve gone to. There’s definitely a collaborative spirit there.” Whether that’s a trip to the local hardware store in another country or even working with the customer on site. He’s also found that the locals are curious about what they are up to and haven’t seen an antenna install before so aren’t familiar with it. “In particular we’ve noticed people getting more curious about our Alaska installations because it’s new to them” says Duffy.
Duffy lives in upstate New York in close proximity to the RBC Signals ground station in Windham, NY, allowing him to easily maintain, operate, and upgrade that antenna. Duffy is also responsible for working with on-site teams to maintain RBC Signals antennas in remote locations, such as ensuring antennas in polar locations remain ice-free.
For Duffy, the satisfaction is when it all comes together. He says “a 6M dish is a large project to manage. When we finally get an antenna like that in position and to watch how smoothly it rotates, and how quietly – that is pretty cool.” They also test the antenna by pointing it at the sun to detect the sun’s RF energy using a field fox. He likes the data side of ground stations too, including finite monitoring and debugging. Meeting customer obligations in a way that is fast and efficient is another reward of the job for Duffy. “We are in the business of bringing data down from space, I’m not sure I could have imagined that future when I first looked through a telescope.”
In his spare time, Duffy enjoys working on his house and cars, including his “BMW truck” pictured below for which he’s won 4 different awards for.
