PMEL (Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratory) Calibation Course

[Gordon58]

Greetings All,

I am looking for a PMEL (Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratory) electronic test equipment calibation course, I have heard that there is a 32 week course but don't know by whom. I am looking for something to get me certified in such. Any direction here would be much appreciated. I am in the Cincinnati, OH area.

[wmarhel]

Wow, PMEL. Now that is something I don't hear everyday. I spent my time in the Air Force in a PMEL lab and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm not sure that the Air Force's training program is still in place since it used to be held at Lowry, AB but that has closed to the best of my knowledge. I know there used be civilians attending it alongside the military members from the various branches and foreign military personnel as well.

One possible place to start would be at Wright-Patterson AFB, as the PMEL headquarters was and probably still is located there. You might also try one of the larger companies such as Tektronix, Fluke, or Hewlett-Packard.

I might still have all my old training documents including the material for the Radiac, and the Physical/Dimensional programs. I'll have to see if I can't track it down. If I still have it, and you want to pay postage, I'll be more than willing to send it your way. I probably won't be able to track it down until the beginning of November when I start to unpack in my new house.

Wayne

[howste]

I was actually auditing in the PMEL lab at Hill AFB yesterday. I'll poke around and see if I can find anyone here that knows where to get that kind of training. If I find anything out, I'll post back later.

[Gordon58]

Thanks wmarhel and howste, please do post anything you find out.

[Hershal]

Originally Posted by Gordon58

Greetings All,

I am looking for a PMEL (Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratory) electronic test equipment calibation course, I have heard that there is a 32 week course but don't know by whom. I am looking for something to get me certified in such. Any direction here would be much appreciated. I am in the Cincinnati, OH area.

I believe the PMEL handbook is on-line, not sure of the web site though.....

As for the course itself, I am not aware of any such direct courses outside of the USN/USAF/USA although there may be.....quite a few colleges offer similar training though not in as short a time.

Some of the old PMEL guys can likely offer something like that, or an old Navy calibrator.....

As an alternate, check with NCSLI to see if some of their membership offers the training you seek. http://www.ncsli.org

Hope this helps.

Hershal

[howste]

Well, I everyone I talked to said that Keesler AFB is the place they got their PMEL training.

http://www.keesler.af.mil/81trg/332t....mnu&opnMnu=16

[Hershal]

Keesler is the joint forces school location now.....back in the day.....

Navy had 2 schools for "B & D" (torque wrenches, DMMs etc), and the advanced cal/microwave was at the joint forces school in Denver (Lowry AFB). USMC had a school of their own I think.....Army and Air Force sent their folks to the joint school in Denver, and the AF also had some training (so I have been told) at Keesler even then.

In the 1990s the AF went all contractor.....Army, USMC, Navy kept at least some training, but the advanced schools kind of disappeared. Now Lowry is a housing development.

Now the schools have been re-established at Keesler.....however, they only train the military, and possibly civil service.....so far as I know, no one outside the military.

Hershal

[wmarhel]

Originally Posted by Hershal

Keesler is the joint forces school location now.....back in the day.....

Navy had 2 schools for "B & D" (torque wrenches, DMMs etc), and the advanced cal/microwave was at the joint forces school in Denver (Lowry AFB). USMC had a school of their own I think.....Army and Air Force sent their folks to the joint school in Denver, and the AF also had some training (so I have been told) at Keesler even then.

Hershal

I started the program back in 1988 in the AF and we had all branches present. There were also foreign nationals from their respective military and a few contractors as well. Most people went through the entire "basics" courses but if I remember correctly, a few of the branches broke away for some of them and went to "branch" specific courses. This was the case for the actual PMEL portion of the program as well. We went through the first 4-5 courses and then the branches started to break out.

The Navy ran the Physical Dimensional school, all the instructors I had for the Radiac program were AF. I never took the microwave course. I think there was one or two additional programs, but I only went through the "Phys D" and the Radiac courses.

Lowry was a really nice place, plenty of things to see and do in the off-duty hours. If you really want an "experience", there was always Colfax Ave.

When I was my duty station and we went through our audit, we were the #2 PMEL in the world for number of years experience. Number 1 was the PMEL in Iceland I think. Of course, at that time I had only been in 3 yrs, so I was bringing the average down. The Japanese nationals we had in our lab were all real good at what they did.

Overall, it was a good career field and I enjoyed myself.

Wayne