Avionics News February 2022 - 45

WEBSITE: wst.ca
WHAT THEY DO: WST designs,
develops, and manufactures
emergency locator beacon testers.
EMPLOYEES: 10
FACILITIES: 6,500 square feet
FOUNDED: 2000 by Bill Street
AEA MEMBER SINCE: 2013
improved network of satellites in medium-Earth orbit,
increasing accuracy from kilometers to meters.
According to NASA, the new beacons also frontload
their distress transmissions, sending more of
them immediately after activation then reducing the
transmissions as time goes on, helping to provide more
data faster while also preserving battery life.
This year, WST plans to add SGB testing capability to
its series of BT200 hand-held beacon testers and STB100
bench test systems, which
it designs, develops and
manufactures at its state-ofthe-art
facility in Kelowna.
" Our development and
engineering teams have
been working closely
with key SGB stakeholders and are nearing completion
of full test capabilities for SGB beacons, " Street said.
" WST will be the first SGB beacon tester on the market
capable of accurately decoding and precisely measuring
the entire complex signal structure of SGBs. "
Handling everything in-house
After helping to develop emergency locator beacon
technology in the 1980s and 1990s, Street founded the
business in the basement of his family's house in 2000.
He launched the original BT100 beacon tester four years
later. Thousands of those original units are still active in
the field today, according to Street.
WST now employs 10 staff members who operate out
of the company's recently expanded 6,500-square-foot facility.
Adding to its previous 4,000 square feet, WST acquired and
renovated a neighboring building to provide more space for
executive offices and research and development.
" Our facility houses everything - the engineering
and production teams, machining, support, sales
and administration, " Street said. " All of our product
design, assembly, QA and shipping functions are also
performed here. "
To meet the needs of its
global audience, WST's
engineers prioritize ease of
use and intuitiveness in the
company's products. Their
goal - after using a WST
beacon tester once, a customer
shouldn't need to read the operator's manual again.
According to Street, WST also focuses on providing
exceptional customer support, striving to respond to
inquiries within 24 hours. Customer feedback is often
incorporated into future product upgrades.
" The beacon tester, our core product, features
extremely detailed measurement parameters, " Street said.
" Many beacon manufacturers rely on our beacon tester's
measurement capabilities during beacon development, as
well as integrate them into their production lines to boost
efficiency. It's exciting. WST will soon have the only
beacon tester on the market worldwide with SGB testing
capabilities. We're breaking ground on never-before-seen
test equipment. " q
This year, WST
plans to add SGB
testing capability to
its series of BT200
hand-held beacon
testers (opposite page)
and STB100 bench test
systems (left).
avionics news * february 2022 45
http://www.wst.ca
Avionics News February 2022

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