Gary:

First, you are off by a decade, the Texas DPS moved from 1658 kcps. to 42.9 Mc. in 1949. Prior to the move, they used
(very successfully, I might add) a earlier version of Reg's antenna, which was a 10 foot bamboo pole helically wound
with waxed cotton insulated bell wire. IIRC, the winding was spaced about 1 to 1½ wire diameters apart . The
transmitter was directly connected to the base of the antenna with a short piece of 8 gauge wire, so there was no SWR to
worry about, and final tuning of the antenna was done in the transmitter output pi-network. Black '41 and '48 Fords
with 10 foot cane poles on the rear bumper brackets, brings back memories.

--
Crazy George
The attglobal.net address is a SPAM trap. Please change that part to: attdotbiz properly formatted.
wrote in message ups.com...

snippety

I read somewhere that in the 50's, law
enforcement 2-way radios operated close to our 160m ham band. Wonder
what kind of antennas they used on the police cars. Of course the
distances they were interested in are different from hams.
Gary N4AST

Crazy George wrote:
Gary:

First, you are off by a decade, the Texas DPS moved from 1658 kcps.
to 42.9 Mc. in 1949. Prior to the move, they used
(very successfully, I might add) a earlier version of Reg's antenna,
which was a 10 foot bamboo pole helically wound
with waxed cotton insulated bell wire. IIRC, the winding was spaced
about 1 to 1=BD wire diameters apart . The
transmitter was directly connected to the base of the antenna with a
short piece of 8 gauge wire, so there was no SWR to
worry about, and final tuning of the antenna was done in the
transmitter output pi-network. Black '41 and '48 Fords
with 10 foot cane poles on the rear bumper brackets, brings back
memories.

--
Crazy George
The attglobal.net address is a SPAM trap. Please change that part
to: attdotbiz properly formatted.
wrote in message
ups.com...

snippety

I read somewhere that in the 50's, law
enforcement 2-way radios operated close to our 160m ham band.
Wonder
what kind of antennas they used on the police cars. Of course the
distances they were interested in are different from hams.
Gary N4AST


Hi C. George, Thanks for the interesting info. I certainly did not
know the 160m radios dated to the 40's. My memories of 1950's law
enforcement are "Highway Patrol" starring Broderick Crawford on the BW
TV. I remember watching him standing outside his police car and saying
"10-4" into the mike. Then, he would sometimes put the mike to his
ear, as if it were a speaker.
At the time I didn't wonder about the antenna on his car. I would
expect from your post it would be 43mhz. I don't remember if that show
was any good or not?
Gary N4AST

My dad was a policeman in the 40s, right after the war, his operated 40
something mHz. About 8 yrs old and an interest in radio helped me to
remember radio things, many other things didn't have sticking power,
like english and such )

KF5DE

wrote:
Crazy George wrote:

Gary:

First, you are off by a decade, the Texas DPS moved from 1658 kcps.

to 42.9 Mc. in 1949. Prior to the move, they used

(very successfully, I might add) a earlier version of Reg's antenna,

which was a 10 foot bamboo pole helically wound

with waxed cotton insulated bell wire. IIRC, the winding was spaced

about 1 to 1½ wire diameters apart . The

transmitter was directly connected to the base of the antenna with a

short piece of 8 gauge wire, so there was no SWR to

worry about, and final tuning of the antenna was done in the

transmitter output pi-network. Black '41 and '48 Fords

with 10 foot cane poles on the rear bumper brackets, brings back

memories.

--
Crazy George
The attglobal.net address is a SPAM trap. Please change that part

to: attdotbiz properly formatted.

wrote in message

ups.com...

snippety

I read somewhere that in the 50's, law
enforcement 2-way radios operated close to our 160m ham band.

Wonder

what kind of antennas they used on the police cars. Of course the
distances they were interested in are different from hams.
Gary N4AST



Hi C. George, Thanks for the interesting info. I certainly did not
know the 160m radios dated to the 40's. My memories of 1950's law
enforcement are "Highway Patrol" starring Broderick Crawford on the BW
TV. I remember watching him standing outside his police car and saying
"10-4" into the mike. Then, he would sometimes put the mike to his
ear, as if it were a speaker.
At the time I didn't wonder about the antenna on his car. I would
expect from your post it would be 43mhz. I don't remember if that show
was any good or not?
Gary N4AST

Chicago once dispatched their cars on a frequency of about 1700 kHz. Used
to listen with a Wilcox-Gay receiver (made in Charlotte, Michigan) that had
a knob used to switch from broadcast band to the MF police band. Long time
ago!
I was of the opinion that the Chicago system was one way. Does anyone
remember?
Some of the police HF frequencies were used on CW into at least the
mid-60s. They were not allowed to use RTTY as it was thought to compete too
much with The telephone company. I visited the main HF site for Ohio in the
early 60s - the site was controlled from Columbus with a microwave link.
The engineer liked to call it the longest IF in the world.

73, Mac N8TT

--
J. Mc Laughlin; Michigan U.S.A.
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