1949 Radio Channel Directory - USA

[zerg901]

https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-FM-Magazine/FM-1949-07.pdf

Very nice listing from 1949 FCC records - includes station callsigns and frequency - police, fire, forestry, railroad, petroleum, etc

listings start on page 29 of 52 with municipal and county police in Alabama

Long Beach CA FD 153.95 - Alameda CA FD 154.07 - San Diego CA FD 154.31 - all still in use - right?

 

[bob550]

Very cool! Thanks for that historical find.

 

[mmckenna]

Many of those call signs are still in use.

 

[lenk911]

What a historical treasure. Thanks for posting it.

 

[krokus]

I love the portable two-way, with the dry cell option.

 

[trentbob]

Wow! Makes me feel old. I grew up in Abington PA and when I first started monitoring in the early sixties as a young kid they were on 39.18... Same frequency they were on in 1949.

Those townships in Pennsylvania were a lot less populated then and there was a lot more farmland and I noticed a novel idea that they had then. All of the townships that connected with each other were also on 39.18, they could actually talk to each other and not have each Township be on a different system that couldn't talk to the next. Very novel idea! I loved VHF low simplex.

 

[nd5y]

How many people knew PLMR originally had geographically assigned callsigns like ham radio?
I did (What Was Scanning Like Back In The Day?) but never actually saw it in print until now.

 

[zerg901]

I noticed an advertisement for a FM radio receiver to listen to police calls and taxis - on page 39 of 52 - from Radio Apparatus Corp in Indianapolis - $40 (which is equivalent to $432 in 2021) - scanning has been around for a while - in fact, this monitor radio was ahead of many public safety agencies of the day (with FM being better than AM)