Our Story

(Why We Do What We Do)

In 1992, Jim Hendershot decided it was time to disrupt the status quo of the RF design industry.

With a life-long love of radios and a first-hand education in electrical engineering, Jim packed up his family and moved from Southern California to Southern Oregon at the age of 38 to start a business that would approach RF and wireless design in a way nobody else was doing: by looking backward.

Instead of focusing on what could be done, Jim looked to the great engineers of the past on how things had been done. By using the knowledge and formulas that already existed, Jim could approach new problems in unique ways, by thinking way outside the box. 

In the thirty years since then, Radio Design Group, Inc. (or RDG as we call it around here) has been solving communications issues for companies like Ascnet, by inventing the first prepaid cellular phone (the SOS phone), Apple, by creating the wireless data card that Temic made for the PowerBook, and Swatch, by creating a handy pager watch. Or Radio Active Designs, by developing a communication system that uses less frequency space in crowded environments (super important for places like the SuperBowl, or a Coldplay concert).

We’ve grown from a small consulting company to a vital contributor of unique and innovative products that have advanced the state of technology in both the commercial and defense-related markets. As we continue our tradition of innovative designs, we’ve gone on to expand our services to include prototyping and high-quality manufacturing.

Our mission at RDG is to create the impossible for our customers: solving complex communication problems through highly custom and innovative RF solutions.