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