Carbon Canyon Businesses: Compatible Electronics, Inc.

In the past, this blog has highlighted the two retail businesses in Carbon Canyon; namely, Party House Liquor and Sol de Mexico restaurant, both of which deserve our patronage as examples of small business in an increasingly-corporate, big box, mega-chain world.

There are, however, three other businesses in the Canyon that I know of and which are not home-based. This entry focuses on the more unusual of the three: Compatible Electronics, Inc. The facility is very visible on the corner of Carbon Canyon Road and Olinda Place, but it seems a strange location for any business. Until you learn what the business is.

Compatible Electronics is a testing firm for electromagnetic, telecommunications and other electronic equipment involving radio frequencies, transmitters and others. The reason it is in Carbon Canyon is because of elevation and relative isolation. As the company's web site explains, the canyon provides "low ambient conditions" that are ideal for "radiated emissions testing."

Olinda Village is the company's original location and headquarters, having opened in 1983 and expanded several years ago. Since then, the company has opened three other sites: two in Lake Forest, consisting of a testing facility in Silverado Canyon and a safety and testing site in a corporate park near the 5 Freeway and a site in the Santa Monica Mountains in Agoura. The company also has ten open area test sites in addition to indoor facilities. Again, hillside locations at Agoura and Silverado Canyon are necessary for the same conditions encountered in Carbon Canyon.

For those interested in learning more about the company, the URL for the web site is: http://www.celectronics.com.