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WJ Communications, Inc.
Watkins-Johnson Company, commonly referred to as Watkins-Johnson or W-J,
was a developer and manufacturer of electronic RF equipment, founded in 1957 by
Dean A. Watkins and H. Richard Johnson in Palo Alto (California, USA).
The company was known for its range of UHF, SHF and EHF components,
which are still available to this day from one of its successors: Qorvo, Inc.
In 1969, W-J took over Communication Electronics, Inc. (CEI)
in Bethesda (MD, USA), and added the company's high-end surveillance
and test receivers to its product portfolio.
CEI had been founded by Ralph Grimm
along with several other disgruntled employees from Vitro; the successor to Nems Clarke.
After the takeover, CEI became the Watkins-Johnson CEI division,
and remained in Maryland, right at the other side of the US.
The CEI surveillance receivers were used by foreign and domestic
government agencies
including the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
In 1995, the divestment of W-J was started. Parts were sold to other companies
until finally, in 2008, the remaining WJ Communications was acquired by
TriQuint Semiconductor [1].
TriQuint was merged on 1 January 2015 with RF Micro Devices, under the new name
Qorvo, Inc.
In August 1999, the CEI Division — which was responsible for the development
of surveillance and monitoring receivers — was sold to Marconi North America,
along with the W-J telecommunications product line. The
companies were bought by Diagnostic Retrieval Systems (DRS) in 2003,
which itself was acquired by the Italian multinational Finmeccanica
in 2008. After a global restructuring in 2016, Finmeccanica was
renamed Leonardo, and the DRS business — which included the
Watkins-Johnson surveillance receiver legacy — went on as
Leonardo DRS.
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Watkins-Johnson equipment on this website
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Watkins-Johnson (W-J) was founded in 1957 by Dean A. Watkins and H. Richard Johnson
in Palo Alto (CA, USA). Its main product line were RF components.
In 1967, W-J acquired Communication Electronics Inc. (CEI), a developer of
surveillance receivers in Bethesda (MD, USA).
CEI had been founded in 1960 by Ralph E. Grimm and several others from Vitro
Electronics (Nems-Clarke) [2].
Under W-J, the CEI business unit became a largely autonomous division that
continued to develop surveillance receivers and professional measuring equipment
for the intelligence community.
Under Watkins-Johnson (W-J), CEI remained a more or less autonomous
business unit that continued to develop surveillance receivers and other
equipment for the intelligence community.
Grimm eventually became present of Engineering at W-J in 1974,
but left in July of the following year to start his own company:
R.E. Grimm Co. Sadly, he did not have fortune at his side, as
he died from a heart attack three years later on 7 September 1978.
In 1995, W-J started divesting several business units,
which were subsequently acquired by various parties.
The CEI division was sold in 1999 to Marconi North America,
which itself was acquired by Diagnostic Retrieval Systems (DRS)
in 2003. Nevertheless, the CEI portfolio lived on.
In 2008, DRS was acquired by the
Italian multinational Finmeccanica,
and the former DRS went on as Leonardo DRS. In 2016,
following a major restructuring at Finmeccanica, the company was
renamed Leonardo, after which the surveillance division
became known as Leonardo DRS.
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Wednesday 28 December 2016. Last changed: Sunday, 27 July 2025 - 16:13 CET.
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