Barn converted into electronic compliance facility
By ASHLEY SMITH, Telegraph Staff
Published: Tuesday, Jun. 26, 2007
Staff photo by Emily Berl
Ken MacGrath, president of Core Compliance Testing Services, explains features of his new lab in Hudson on June 18. The lab is built to test radio and electronic equipment. MacGrath built the lab on the land where his family had owned a farm since the 1950s.
IIt’s a sign of the times – or is it? Where a family farm was once a home to cut-your-own Christmas trees and strawberries sold by the roadside, a high-tech enterprise is taking shape. The 79 River Road property in Hudson has been repurposed to serve the needs of big business and once again is turning a profit. Construction is nearly complete on the football field-sized building.
But unlike other farms in Hudson – or elsewhere – this land hasn’t been sold to a developer. It will not be home to a corporation, retail giant or strip mall.
Instead, second-generation landowner Ken MacGrath has erected a radio and electronic compliance-testing facility – the kind of place rarely talked about over dinner, but one that affects everyone who owns a telephone or TV.
The outside looks like a barn, but the inside is a mix of open space and high-tech looking gadgets, including antennas and a shock machine.
Before you quit reading, the technology is really not that hard to understand. Compliance testing boils down to making sure one electronic device doesn’t interfere with another. After all, you wouldn’t want your new laptop to crash because it’s not compatible with the microwave.
Although every electronic device with a microchip has to undergo compliance testing by order of the Federal Communications Commission, MacGrath’s facility will be the only one of its kind within a 30-mile radius of Nashua.
At this point, MacGrath’s neighbors – let alone the business community – don’t know much about what he’s up to.
“They’re not quite sure what I’m doing,” he said on a recent tour of the building.
MacGrath, who lives in Milford now, decided to launch his own facility after being laid off from Massachusetts-based 3Com Corp. four years ago. He and his brothers have spent the last year-and-a-half reassembling the building, which he purchased in Massachusetts. It’s made from fiberglass and plastics, using no metal parts that could interfere with the testing.
The name of the business is Core Compliance Testing Services.
Pacemakers, artificial hearts and electronic wheelchairs are also subject to compliance testing. MacGrath, in his 20 years in the field, has even performed tests on aircraft toilets to make sure the flush didn’t activate the landing gear or trigger a similarly unwelcome effect, he said.
Garage door openers, power tools and electronic toys are a few of the other types of products frequently tested.
All of MacGrath’s tests simulate real-life situations that could cause an electronic device to fail: a person transmitting static electricity to a DVD player by flipping the switch, a lightning strike or a power surge, for example.
Under FCC regulations, a device also must not emit above a certain level of radio frequency so as not to interfere with radio and television signals, MacGrath said. Companies are only required to send one sample for testing but about half the products fail the first time around, he said.
In that case, the product is sent back to the manufacturer to be fixed, MacGrath said. The solution could be as simple as a new screw or as complicated as redesigning the entire device.
Although MacGrath had the electronics knowledge to launch the business on his own, he turned to a volunteer organization called SCORE for help getting his first business venture off the ground.
The association provides counseling and advice to people trying to launch a small business, as well as current business owners. A SCORE counselor named Dick Kuhl helped find start-up capital and develop a marketing strategy.
MacGrath said he expects work on the facility to be complete within a matter of weeks. The first item he tests will probably be a line of telephones, he said.
Although it’s a far cry from the farm stand, which hasn’t operated since the 1960s, in some ways MacGrath is preserving his family’s history by building a high-tech business. At the very least, he’s managed to keep the farm.
But unlike other farms in Hudson – or elsewhere – this land hasn’t been sold to a developer. It will not be home to a corporation, retail giant or strip mall.
Instead, second-generation landowner Ken MacGrath has erected a radio and electronic compliance-testing facility – the kind of place rarely talked about over dinner, but one that affects everyone who owns a telephone or TV.
The outside looks like a barn, but the inside is a mix of open space and high-tech looking gadgets, including antennas and a shock machine.
Before you quit reading, the technology is really not that hard to understand. Compliance testing boils down to making sure one electronic device doesn’t interfere with another. After all, you wouldn’t want your new laptop to crash because it’s not compatible with the microwave.
Although every electronic device with a microchip has to undergo compliance testing by order of the Federal Communications Commission, MacGrath’s facility will be the only one of its kind within a 30-mile radius of Nashua.
At this point, MacGrath’s neighbors – let alone the business community – don’t know much about what he’s up to.
“They’re not quite sure what I’m doing,” he said on a recent tour of the building.
MacGrath, who lives in Milford now, decided to launch his own facility after being laid off from Massachusetts-based 3Com Corp. four years ago. He and his brothers have spent the last year-and-a-half reassembling the building, which he purchased in Massachusetts. It’s made from fiberglass and plastics, using no metal parts that could interfere with the testing.
The name of the business is Core Compliance Testing Services.
Pacemakers, artificial hearts and electronic wheelchairs are also subject to compliance testing. MacGrath, in his 20 years in the field, has even performed tests on aircraft toilets to make sure the flush didn’t activate the landing gear or trigger a similarly unwelcome effect, he said.
Garage door openers, power tools and electronic toys are a few of the other types of products frequently tested.
All of MacGrath’s tests simulate real-life situations that could cause an electronic device to fail: a person transmitting static electricity to a DVD player by flipping the switch, a lightning strike or a power surge, for example.
Under FCC regulations, a device also must not emit above a certain level of radio frequency so as not to interfere with radio and television signals, MacGrath said. Companies are only required to send one sample for testing but about half the products fail the first time around, he said.
In that case, the product is sent back to the manufacturer to be fixed, MacGrath said. The solution could be as simple as a new screw or as complicated as redesigning the entire device.
Although MacGrath had the electronics knowledge to launch the business on his own, he turned to a volunteer organization called SCORE for help getting his first business venture off the ground.
The association provides counseling and advice to people trying to launch a small business, as well as current business owners. A SCORE counselor named Dick Kuhl helped find start-up capital and develop a marketing strategy.
MacGrath said he expects work on the facility to be complete within a matter of weeks. The first item he tests will probably be a line of telephones, he said.
Although it’s a far cry from the farm stand, which hasn’t operated since the 1960s, in some ways MacGrath is preserving his family’s history by building a high-tech business. At the very least, he’s managed to keep the farm.
