Roger’s Remembrances

In 1969 Tyler Ryan arranged for me to be “loaned” part time to the Nebraska Consolidated Communications Corporation (1) (NCCC) to help with a project out in California. NCCC had joined with the Systems Development Corporation (a “think tank” operation) of Santa Monica to bid on a new radio dispatch system for the Los Angeles County Sheriff. Cliff Thompson, whom I knew from Automatic Electric Company Chicago days, was the head honcho at NCCC and made all the traveling arrangements. I was not real enthusiastic about the prospect of doing a lot of traveling to L.A.
. . . . . .1 NCCC was put together by the telephone companies of Nebraska, both Bell and Independent, to specialize in meeting the communication needs of the State of Nebraska. Otherwise, it looked as if some of the leaders in State government, and their advisors, were intent on getting into the telephone business on their own.

Los Angeles County has lots of mountains and valleys, which makes it difficult to be within “radio sight” of patrol cars all the time. The system which was being used had a dozen sites or so used for receivers, transmitters, or both. It was a real chore for the dispatchers to keep track of which set of transmitters and receivers they should choose (manually) while at the same time doing the dispatching. They wanted a new system which would streamline and improve operation and provide room for expansion. The request for bids stated the design was to be both innovative and to use tried and true components — which borders on being a contradiction in terms. The SDC/NCCC team was bidding against some high powered groups — Motorola, Westinghouse, G.E. We had just a few months to come up with the proposal.

The SDC people were responsible for the overall concept, and NCCC was to provide the expertise (ha!) to interface between the radio systems and the dispatchers’ positions. The SDC system concept was pretty simple — use computers to direct the flow of traffic and allow the dispatchers to concentrate on dispatching. Use “tried and true” telephone switching techniques for making the connections under the computer control. The computer would also accumulate data to aid in increasing efficiency. BUT the system had to work (without some of its automatic features) in case of computer failure.

My assignment was to design the “telephone-type” switching network. It involved a LOT of hours meeting with the SDC engineers and understanding what keys, buttons, and lights were to be placed in front of the dispatchers. Cliff obtained a special rate from the Oceana apartment hotel in Santa Monica, and I worked every evening(2) at the Oceana. During the design period I would usually alternate weeks between Lincoln and Santa Monica. I kept Tyler Ryan apprised of progress.
. . . . . .2 Cliff realized I was putting in some long weeks and asked me to keep a log of typical week. The NCCC board approved giving me some restricted NCCC stock in recognition of the extra effort. (Yes, I duly reported it on my Income Tax Return!)

Jack Campbell and Sam Weems of SDC were very patient with me as we tried to mesh computer talk with telephone relay talk. It was fun designing the circuitry that connected together all the talking paths and control leads to meet the required operating procedures. Early on, it was obvious that we should use a “4-wire” matrix to extend the radio transmitting and receiving paths clear to the operators headset circuit.

As the project took shape, I became more and more enthused. Campbell was one smart cookie, as well as being a nice guy. It looked as if we had a really good proposal. And it turned out that SDC/NCCC were the successful bidders.

After the contract was awarded, we met regularly with the Sheriff’s technical people to fine tune the design.

Cliff Thompson arranged for Mary to come with me on a couple of trips to L.A. We had some fun at Disneyland and a few other attractions in the L.A. area. A good place to visit — but I wouldn’t want to live there!

As 1970 progressed, relations between LTT and NCCC deteriorated, I think because NCCC was setting a course (on items not related to the L.A. job) not entirely to the liking of LTT. I’m not sure what all was involved. In any event, Tyler told me to extricate myself from the project just as soon as we had met our commitment of what I was to do. As soon as my circuit drawings and rack layouts were all complete so that the NCCC draftsman could turn them into wiring diagrams for manufacturing, I reluctantly bid SDC good bye. It was sorta like not getting to be around when your child is born.

After the system was up and running, John Blake called me at work and said it was all working fine. No bugs of consequence. Wish I could have been there.

(END OF LOS ANGELES PROJECT)