ADAM-12 error

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W2MR

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Just watched an episode of ADAM-12 from 1970. I noticed that the Lieutenant's station wagon has two ASP-201 antennas on the roof, one black and one white. The front one is cut properly but the rear one looks like the antenna was never cut, just taken out of the box and installed. Full length they are resonant on 108 MHz.

Only an old time radioman would notice.

Mark
 

K6CDO

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I'm sure Harry will chime in, but as I recall the supervisor's vehicles had a second radio so the supervisors could monitor their units on the uplink frequency.
 

W2MR

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They were on VHF High Band back then. I believe each district had a pair of frequencies, one base tx and the other mobile tx. Patrol cars had a four frequency radio 1)Dispatch 2)Citywide 3)Tac 1 4)Tac 2
Detectives cars had two radios, the second one was 1 frequency on Tac 1. The supervisors car had two radios. The Antenna Specialists ASP-201 antenna came with an uncut whip (to cover the airband (108-137 MHz). The installer had to cut it to proper length.
 

Mojaveflyer

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LAPD Radios

I remember seeing a LAPD unit with three radios, with two radio speakers on the back shelf by the back window, another one up front back in the 1970s. I have no idea what the third radio was for. When I worked at the San Jose Airport as a cop in the mid 1970s our cars had three radios; 1- city PD radio; 2- airport admin radio that was on UHF (originally they had no PLs in them, we could hear Sacramento S/O on one of their repeaters), and an aircraft radio.

Ahh, the good old days with two channel Motrac radios and a cast iron microphone. The city PD radio was an channel RCA radio with a push button channel selector.
 

scottyhetzel

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They were on VHF High Band back then. I believe each district had a pair of frequencies, one base tx and the other mobile tx. Patrol cars had a four frequency radio 1)Dispatch 2)Citywide 3)Tac 1 4)Tac 2
Detectives cars had two radios, the second one was 1 frequency on Tac 1. The supervisors car had two radios. The Antenna Specialists ASP-201 antenna came with an uncut whip (to cover the airband (108-137 MHz). The installer had to cut it to proper length.

Interesting info. Thanks for sharing.. Love to hear from Harry on his perspective. So are you saying that antenna was correct for that time with LAPD in this lower band? How would one notice the antenna was not to it's resonate frequency..or just not cut per the OP keen eye. I'm not sure how one could see that the antenna was cut at 108 MHz. The actual year and episode would be cool to have listed, and actually see for ourselves...the episodes are all on netflix. I believe there was four-five years of episodes.
 

W2MR

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The program that I saw the other day had two rooftop Antenna Specialists Model ASP201 antennas. The front one was cut to around 18" (155 MHz). The rear one was never cut just taken out of the box and installed. The factory ships them uncut (26") which is 108 MHz. The Model 201 covers the airband also 108-137 MHz. You can also snip it to UHF (6").
 

JP-Hollywood

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Just remember, most of the "police" cars that you see on TV are really studio cars that are rented out. The radios inside do not work most of the time as they are props. Some are real but they are typically in the background (far enough so the city seal does show which is the quickest way to spot a studio car).

Patrol supervisors, in Adam-12 days, might have up to three radios. The first would be their division radio (one of the main dispatch freq's with the divisional talkback freq), the second was the "cheater" which allow the supervisor to monitor the talkback freq, and some had a third radio for the two main tactical freq's (particularly the station wagons which were used as mobile command posts).

ASD (Air Support Division) did have a station wagon in the Adam-12 days that did have an aircraft radio that was used in field ops as well as accident investigation.

To have a handheld radio ("CC unit") in those days was rare unless you were working a special event.

Wow, have the times changed.
 

W2MR

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Thank you guys!!! I found this thread very interesting and learned much. It's hard to believe
that some episodes of ADAM-12 go back over 45 years. Never been in California. I remember listening to NYPD when they were on VHF High Band simplex.
 

prcguy

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Many episodes of Adam 12 and others were filmed around my neighborhood and I sat down and chatted with Milner and McCord who played Malloy and Reed during one of the shoots. I remember they said the job was boring at times due to the long idle time between shoots.

I looked over the car they had on location that day and it was a dead ringer for a real LAPD patrol car of the time. It had correct antennas and Motorola (Mocom or Motrac) control head with speaker and Federal siren between the dash and transmission hump.
prcguy
 

radioman2001

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I am very familiar with the type of Motrac and Motran Adam-12 used. The radio was a DFE (Dual Front End ) radio. The radio could actually receive on 2 different channels at the same time through the same speaker. Motorola tied both front ends into the first IF stage to do that. If you look at the control head in some shots you will see the lettering SIMUL on ch-2, and I actually have one, but probably not from LA. The second antenna that appears to be not cut could be used for an aircraft radio to talk to LAX or even their own helicopter.
 

prcguy

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To my knowledge LAPD did not have any vehicle mounted aircraft radios. I do kind of remember an LAPD officer talking to a helicopter overhead with a small black and chrome looking aircraft HT in the early 80s.
prcguy

I am very familiar with the type of Motrac and Motran Adam-12 used. The radio was a DFE (Dual Front End ) radio. The radio could actually receive on 2 different channels at the same time through the same speaker. Motorola tied both front ends into the first IF stage to do that. If you look at the control head in some shots you will see the lettering SIMUL on ch-2, and I actually have one, but probably not from LA. The second antenna that appears to be not cut could be used for an aircraft radio to talk to LAX or even their own helicopter.
 

SuperPuma

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Many episodes of Adam 12 and others were filmed around my neighborhood and I sat down and chatted with Milner and McCord who played Malloy and Reed during one of the shoots. I remember they said the job was boring at times due to the long idle time between shoots.

.....
prcguy

What neighborhood was that? I remember reading that they filmed in areas north of Universal Studios back then. Toluca Lake, etc (?)

If you watch all of the seasons you can see the progression from the studio back lots to various areas in and out of the city.

Someone stated that the street addresses that they dispatched were real streets but they didn't intersect. Watching a few episodes and looking up the locations, actually revealed real locations in the city.
 

RadioGuy1951

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Remember kids...it's just a tv show...filmed in Gollywood...Don't expect things depicted to be accurate compared to real life.

I worked as an extra in a few films, most of the cop cars are just semi functional props...

Of course, my favorite "DOH" moments in movies is when characters talk on the radio without pushing the PTT buttons...
 

iamhere300

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I did security once for a movie that had some parts filmed in middle TN, back in the mid 70's, and they bought a number of old patrol cars from the area PD and SO's, paying an high rate if they left the light bars on the cars. Most of the cars ended up wrecked or dead.
 

gmclam

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Adam-12

Remember kids...it's just a tv show...filmed in Gollywood...Don't expect things depicted to be accurate compared to real life....
Yeah but they amazingly got more correct than most other cop shows. What always amazes me about Adam12 is they'll be driving down some main street in L.A., turn the corner, and the next shot is in the back lot of the movie studio. I wonder how many people even have a clue of that (other than all the techies on this site).
 

RadioGuy1951

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I think you give the viewing public more credit than they deserve for observational abilities...the average viewer will not be looking for "continuity errors" ...
 

Junior08

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The patrol cars used in the series looked like they had lowband antennas on them, they were VERY long.
 

Evgeni

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In the Terminator 2 commentary, they mentioned how crew members wanted to look themselves up on the car computer that the T-1000 used.

But the computer while genuine, wasn't configured to any network.It was just programmed to show the John Connor info.
 
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