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
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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