In the beginning…

Established in 1983 by Paul Gabel, Research Concepts began as a design and manufacture firm for terrestrial interference on C-Band home satellite antennas.  The company was started in Paul’s basement, while Paul continued his full-time employment as an electrical engineer in Owensboro, Kentucky.  At that time, the company was known as Design Concepts.

A Company is Born

In 1985, Mike Mikinski joined Design Concepts as a partner to Paul Gabel.  Prior to joining Design Concepts, Mike had been in the electrical engineering PhD program at the University of Michigan.  On January 1, 1986, the business was incorporated as Research Concepts, Inc., and moved from Paul’s basement to a location in Lexington, Kentucky.

Transition to Antenna Controllers

When HBO introduced “scrambling” in early 1986, the C-Band home satellite industry took a nosedive.  It was at this time that Harris contacted Paul and Mike about building an “8097A antenna assistant” to be combined with a Vertex DMK mobile antenna and 7031 antenna controller.  In 1987, Research Concepts added the components to move motors to the 8097A and the RC8097B Antenna Controller was born.

Back to Kansas

In late 1987, Mike and Paul relocated Research Concepts back to their hometown of Kansas City, Kansas.  In the process of moving from Kentucky, Paul and Mike completely left behind the early company history as a manufacturer of C-Band satellite filters.  In Kansas City, the company would flourish as a purpose driven antenna controller company by expanding their mobile antenna controller line to include earth station antenna controllers.  In Kansas, Research Concepts was primed to ride the wave of commercial satellite expansion that would come in the following decades.

Change of Ownership

In late 1993, the founder of RCI was in a brave battle with a terminal cancer diagnosis.  At this time, a colleague from college of both Paul and Mike, Jim Ronnau joined Research Concepts in a contract engineering position.  In early 1994, Paul Gabel’s ownership stake in RCI was sold to Jim Ronnau.  Together the combination of Mike and Jim would continue to pilot Research Concepts forward.  With both of them leaning on their experience working in research labs at the University of Kansas, they were driven for innovative and reliable designs.

RC3000 Introduction

In 1998, Research Concepts announced their next generation satellite antenna controller for mobile applications.  Building on the knowledge gained on the RC8097 family, Research Concepts introduced the first of the RC3000 family of controllers at the NAB Show in 1998.  When paired with antennas from partners such as AVL, Vertex, Swedish, and Andrew the RC3000 would sell over 5000 units and counting.  Establishing the standard for antenna controllers in the Satellite News Gathering market.

Innovation and Growth

As the first decade of the 2000’s came to an end, it was clear that the satellite market was moving away from Satellite News Gathering and into tactical antennas.  The need for small embedded antenna controllers was rising, and Research Concepts was prepared to meet this demand.  In 2011, Research Concepts began delivery of the RC4000 Antenna Controller.  Designed for the most demanding embedded applications, the RC4000 provided a new modern approach to all the items users had come to trust in RCI antenna controllers.  As product growth continued, more space was needed to meet that growth.  In late 2011, Research Concepts moved into a 20,000 sq ft purpose designed building.  This new space allowed RCI to continue the legendary reliability that helped build the company, now on a larger scale.

35 Years of Quality

While still providing the products that built the industry, including the RC2000, RC3000, and RC4000, Research Concepts has never stopped innovating.  With the recent introductions of the RC4600 High Performance Servo Based controller and the RC4500 for large earth station applications, Research Concepts is poised to provide what our customers need both today and in the future.  Contact us to learn about our product support model, our new products and any antenna controller needs you may have.