Ron Kitchenn (17 March 1920 – 5 November 2010) was a British electrical engineer.
Background
Kitchenn was born in England. His father, who hailed from Chesterfield, was a violinist and music teacher. He attended Pixmore County Council School and then Letchworth Grammar School, now known as Fearnhill School. He joined the General Post Office at 16. While working he studied part-time for an Engineering degree.
Kitchenn and his wife, Beryl, migrated to Australia in 1951 where he joined the Postmaster-General's Department. Ron became heavily involved in community groups, was a significant force in Rostrum and worked on international standards for telecommunications.
Telecommunications
Kitchenn joined the British Post Office (BPO) at 16 as a Youth-in-Training in 1936. While working, he studied part-time for a BSc (Engineering) degree, from London University completing it in 1948 . He initially continued with the British Post Office, where he worked in all areas of communications including seven years in the Engineer-in-Chief's Office, in the Telegraphs, Trainer in Transmission systems and in Local Lines and Broadcasting Branches. As an Executive Engineering Broadcasting, he was awarded the British Institution of Radio Engineers (NIRE) (now the Institution of Electronic and Radio Engineers) "the most outstanding paper in the field of broadcasting" in 1951.
Kitchenn was recruited by the Australian Post Master General's (PMG) Department which was also known as the Australian Post Office (APO) in February 1951. The British Post Office offered a generous parachute clause to engineering recruits to Australia: if the new position in Australia was not satisfactory, recruits could return to BPO's employment without penalty within three years.
While still in London he was asked to work at Australia House to devise and administer tests and interviews to recruit technician and cable-jointer staff. Feeling interviews were inadequate and without the means to perform practical tests, Kitchenn decided on a set of manual dexterity tests supported by acknowledged authorities.
Kitchenn came to Australia in September 1951 starting work in Sydney, NSW. He was a senior professional engineer in the PMG's Department, continuing in it after it became a quasi government organisation name Telecom Australia.
Doug Brooke, formerly Supervising Engineer, Transmission & Line Planning, Telecom Australia in the 1970s, wrote: "Ron was in charge of one of the three divisions, with the responsibility for the formulation of operational parameters for telephonic speech transmission to ensure that end-to-end telephone communication meets intelligibility and grade of service standards irrespective of whether it is a local, national or international call. This feature is vital for all telephone conversations – the lifeblood of industry, commerce, and the community generally."
The subsequent adoption internationally of most of the results of this work by the Geneva-based International Telecommunication Union (ITU) – an organ of the United Nations (UN) was largely due to Kitchenn's professionalism, tenacity, drive and attention to detail over many years.
Kitchenn was an organiser and participant in the first international seminar on national transmission planning for the ITU, held in Melbourne in 1970. He was also a CCITT Special Rapporteur for studies on transmission characteristics of circuits in the switched international network and on stability and echo. He was also: Postal Electrical Society of Victoria – secretary 1958 Secretary, Telecommunications Society of Australia Organiser and participant in the ITU first international conference on national transmission planning – Melbourne UNESCO regional seminar, Kuala Lumpur – Training of communications planners, 1974 – Australian representative Australian delegate to CCITT study group meetings, and co-author of the ITU Handbook on planning of national telephone networks and Vice Chairman.of its 7Study Group XVI, dealing with transmission planning of national and international telephone networks, 1977–1980
Kitchenn retired from Telecom Australia in mid-1982 aged 62 years.