Jay Thompson, Vice President, Tactical RF
Jay Thompson, vice president of Tactical RF, got his start in electronics at the age of 5 when his parents let him change channels and adjust the rabbit ears on their black and white TV. Jay started his 2 way radio career working as an installer, moving up to field service. He later joined ComTrack, a radio dealer that sold and serviced radio systems to Indy 500, IMSA and Trans Am racing teams. The next year he moved to Racing Radios to start their Indycar program. He invented the first fuel telemetry system used in the series for Patrick racing after their driver ran the car out of fuel while leading the Pocono 500. Jay then co-founded Paging USA, a statewide paging operator in based in Speedway Indiana. He went on to work in remote TV production with ABC and ESPN, winning an Emmy for his work in the Summer X Games. Jay started an IT consulting business and worked with home builders, law and medical offices. He also co-founded Netsurf USA, a leading WISP in southern Indiana. Jay serves as a communications unit leader for a Disaster Assistance Medical Team under DHS and HHS and has served on a number of hurricane deployments from Long Island to Guam. Jay was honored to receive the Electronic Technicians Association's Technician of the Year award for 2016. He is an ETA board member, has coauthored a number of books on 2 way radio technology and serves as an SME on the APCO public safety technician standards committee.