Art McDole & Preston Thomson at the 2009 APCO Conference.

Editor’s note: Long-time APCO International member and public safety communications trailblazer Art McDole severed as Northern California’s AFC frequency co-coordinator with his good friend Preston Thomson for years. Sadly, McDole passed on April 13, 2011. Below is a profile of these two friends from last year.

PSC caught up with Art McDole (left) and Preston Thomson (right), longtime friends and APCO members, in the Exhibit Hall at the 2009 Annual Conference in Las Vegas.

Art McDole
Brimming with stories of yesteryear’s radio world yet savvy with today’s technology, Art McDole is something of a legend within radio tech circles. The Northern California APCO Chapter Web site even has a downloadable video dedicated to McDole’s more than half-century of work within the communications realm.

At 91, McDole readily acknowledges a lifetime rich with achievement, but remains tempered with humility. He has been an active member of APCO for more than 60 years and serves as chief frequency advisor for his chapter.

“APCO has been a major part of my life and career, and I hope to be able to continue for many more years,” he says. “There’s a saying that if you enjoy your job, you’ll never work a day in your life. That’s been true with me.”

Born in Colorado just as World War I was ending, McDole wasn’t permitted to join the military during World War II due to a ruptured eardrum. So he moved to Salinas, Calif., in 1945, and quickly became enmeshed with the burgeoning amateur radio scene, starting the Monterey Bay Radio Club.

At that time, he was employed by a jukebox business from which patrons ordered music by telephone. Considered cutting edge at the time, pay-by-song tech­nology helped McDole sharpen his tinkering skills, and it wasn’t long before radio club buddies figured out that McDole could set up virtually anything. One of them, Tom Bayley, was in charge of the county sheriff department’s radio system, and after McDole helped him rig a new, mobile relay system on nearby Mt. Toro for the county, Bayley asked if McDole was interested in a career change.

“I came home and told [my wife] Mary that I really wanted to change jobs,” he recalls. “For that time, I was making an excellent salary of $100 a week for regular hours, and now I’d be making $327 a month for six-day workweeks. My loving wife Mary immediately agreed, even though we had a 4-year-old son and another child on the way!”

Initially hired in 1949 to maintain Monterey County’s radio systems, McDole later became the county’s director of communications when Bayley retired, and that hastened a decades-long career in public safety. He wore multiple hats, both in the radio shop and out in the field (he also was a dispatcher, police officer and volunteer firefighter), and those experiences proved invaluable to him when he helped develop new systems as technology expanded.

“Filling in as a dispatcher taught me to appreciate that role,” he says. “I think it is vital for dispatchers, technical personnel and directors to know the basics of each function.”

The dual field/tech role gave him valuable perspective on the needs of those using the mobile units, and he helped develop multiple new systems for Monterey County. Those upgrades came a long way from the system in place when McDole’s tenure began: Circa 1930s, power-sucking, mobile transmitters operating in the 35 MHz band.

“This was at a time when everything was generally home-built, and all mobile units were powered by 6-volt, DC systems and that made it even worse,” McDole recalls of his days doubling as a police officer. “The battery was charged by an inadequate generator and one was fortunate to make it to the scene without the battery going dead. Very embarrassing on emergency responses, to have the motorist who had just given you the right of way, needing to stop to give you a push to restart your vehicle!”

“I became frequency coordinator of the Northern California Chapter of APCO in the early 1950s and still continue as a local frequency advisor, working with Pres Thomson and Scott Andrews,” McDole says. “I was honored to be elected as the chair of Region 6 NPSPAC Committee when it was formed, and continue in that position, also.”

McDole retired from the county in 1990, but not before seeing the region through many radio technology advances and redesigns. Newly consolidated systems in Salinas and Monterey provided the radio foundation for a countywide 9-1-1 system in 1975, one of the first in the nation. McDole was active in promoting legislation mandating 9-1-1 in California and has served on multiple state and national advisory boards.

“I have always recognized the vital need for public safety agencies to communicate with each other on a day-to-day basis, not just during the disasters,” McDole says. “Unfortunately, advances in technology have sometimes resulted in decreasing, rather than enhancing, this capability. The FCC appears to agree to the necessity of interoperability, but have not provided adequate spectrum for this purpose. I certainly don’t want to place blame, but if you compare the huge amount of spectrum that is occupied by commercial FM, television and similar services to the meager amount set aside for public safety, it makes you wonder where the priorities are.”

A fellow with the Radio Club of America and senior life member of IEEE, McDole says he was “very humbled” to receive APCO’s J. Rhett McMillian Award in 1990, and to have APCO create a perpetual award in his own name.

“I’ve had a wonderful career with APCO and a wonderful life,” McDole says. “The Lord has blessed me. It’s been a fun thing to do. The only bad thing about being a 50-year member is that some of my friends have vanished away,” he says.

Among them was Mary, his wife of 69 years, who died two years ago. McDole, who has two children and is a great-grandfather, is also an avid fly-fisherman who enjoys the outdoors.

The Art of Communication video detailing McDole’s career and its impact can be viewed via the Northern California APCO chapter’s Web site, www.napco.org/frequency-advisor.htm.

Preston Thomson
While remaining humble about his multiple talents, Preston Thomson is readily proud of his longtime involvement with APCO.

A 48-year member affiliated with the Northern California APCO Chapter, Thomson may have retired from the public safety field, but he’s still very active in the radio communications industry, serving as one of NAPCO’s local frequency advisors.

“I love to stay involved, and I’ve met so many wonderful people through APCO,” Thomson says.

Thomson, who served as president of NAPCO in 1984, currently serves as Region 6 NPSPAC vice-chair, Region 6 700 MHz vice-chair and shares NAPCO frequency advisor duties with Art McDole. Thomson is an APCO Senior Member.

Thomson’s interest in public safety communications emerged during a summer job while he was in college in the late 1950s.“I worked for Watson Communications and realized that I had an interest in public safety communications,” he recalls. Another summer job with contractor A.B. DuMont Labs assigned Thomson to work with San Francisco’s law enforcement radio system, and the public safety hook was set.

By November 1960, he was working full time as a radio technician for the city of Berkeley, attending Contra Costa College part time to finish his associate’s degree, and meeting and marrying his wife, Patricia. Thomson’s 12-year tenure with the city of Berkeley coincided with the political upheaval of the late 1960s, keeping police (and their radio system) very busy.

In 1972, Thomson took a position designing and managing a new radio system for San Francisco’s Bay Area Air Quality Management District and also expanded on his formal education. He started school again through an EPA grant program, studying gradually while remaining in the workforce. By 1980, he had a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and also had a new job: director of communications for Sonoma County, just north of San Francisco.

Thomson coordinated the installation and maintenance of the county’s radio system, aiding with needed upgrades to improve radio communications coverage for the mountainous, coastal county also known for its redwood forests.

By 1989, Thomson had moved his expertise to the state level, accepting a staff engineering position with the state of California’s Telecommunications Division. His first assignment: A complete redesign of the radio system used by the state’s Department of Justice. “Over the years, I had acquired a considerable amount of expertise with FCC rules and regulations, and was moved into the unit that dealt with licensing all the state’s public safety radio systems,” he says.

Thomson retired from the state in 2003, after more than 40 years of public sector. But like any radio engineer who truly enjoys the work, he never really left the business. His familiarity with FCC regulations, plus years of work with area radio systems fit right into his current post as frequency advisor for NAPCO.

Local frequency advisors, who work throughout the country on a volunteer basis, are invaluable resources for their radio expertise, plus familiarity with the unique challenges presented by each region (specific radio systems and plans, area politics, terrain and climate). Frequency coordination in Northern California encompasses more than 40 counties, including the San Francisco metro area and state capitol of Sacramento.

Thomson’s involvement with public safety didn’t only cover radio communications. He expanded his expertise to include field operations as an on-call firefighter and EMT-B for more than 35 years, with both Kensington Fire Department and South Placer Fire District.

“Since I worked in the field, I can see both sides of everything,” Thomson says. “And I do believe that it’s important for radio personnel and field personnel to understand each other’s concerns and needs.”

A regular at many APCO conferences, Thomson’s travels also have taken him around the world as an APCO ambassador, where in addition to learning about other cultures, he is also very interested in how different comm systems are set up. Ever the radio engineer and frequency coordinator, he’s intrigued by both the differences and similarities he finds in radio systems abroad.

“It is fascinating to see how other people conduct communications center operations, put out fires, attend to criminal activities, and so on,” Thomson wrote before leaving on his latest trip to China in early March. “I was on the first APCO trip to China in 1988, and I am so looking forward to seeing what has transpired in the interim, specifically with the explosion of cell phone usage.”

During his 1988 visit to the dispatch center in the port city of Guangzhou (pop. 12 million), Thompson learned telephones were such a luxury that Chinese comm personnel considered it a ‘busy’ shift when they answered more than four calls in a 24-hour period. He says he’s looking forward to seeing not only China’s recent, technological expansion, but also how China’s public safety communications industry has responded to such changes.

About the Author
Courtney McCain has worked as a paramedic and an air medical dispatcher in Kansas and Texas. She is now a writer focusing on public safety issues.

Originally published in Public Safety Communications magazine, 76(4):31-33, April 2010.