Code 101 by John Arendt

[N9JIG]

I am looking for a copy of the last version of "Code 101" published for CARMA members by the late John Arendt in 1988. I have (courtesy of another CARMA member) a scanned copy of the 1983 version.

The 1988 version had a yellow paperboard cover and was about 40 pages in length. If you have one I would like to borrow it so I can scan it in for posterity and sharing with others. I will pay for postage both ways.

I have been in contact with John's family and unfortunately they do not have a copy.

 

[N9JIG]

Success! I found my copy buried in a box of photographs from when we moved 10 years ago.

I will be scanning it in Wednesday when my new page scanner arrives and will post a link for this fascinating historical resource. It shows the Illinois State Police communications systems as they were in the late 1980's, almost 40 years ago.

 

[scanman1958]

Mmmmm. All those lo band freqs. Real history.

 

[N9JIG]

I have scanned in the "Code 101" and posted it at Dropbox

I don't know how log it will remain there so if it disappears down the road let me know and I will update the link.

Enjoy!

Now a little story (since there always is one!):

Back before we started the ScannerMaster Illinois Communications Guide project I was working with John Arendt to do a 5th edition. If you knew John, you will know he was not a computer guy. He had an AOL account but rarely used it and had little use for computers.

I started by pretty much typing in the 4th edition into Word and recreated the maps with Claris Draw on my Mac Plus. I then met him at his house to go over changes and updates. I printed what I had and he marked it up in pencil for updates etc.

Soon thereafter, before we completed the changes, I was approached by Rich Barnett to start the ScannerMaster book as well as the then-current edition of Monitor America. We decided to forego the "Code 101" project and use it as the main part of the State Police section of the ScannerMaster book.

So for the last couple years I have been tearing apart my house looking for a copy of the Code 101. I know I had one but the last time I saw it was shortly after we moved in here over 9 years ago. I had several boxes of books, papers etc., including one with back issues of Police Call, my copies of the Scanner Master books, various magazines in which I had written articles for and other radio stuff. The Code 101 copy however was not in these.

This past week I was moving some boxes in the master closet (it's huge, as big as the entire second bedroom of my old house) and we keep things like boxes of pictures, books and other stuff we don't want to leave in the garage with the extreme heat we get here. 3 boxes have photographs in them. We intended to sort them out to have them scanned in like I did for my slide collection a few years ago. On a lark I opened them and in one of them located the "Code 101", my first royalty check ($3.94) from ScannerMaster, the first edition of the RCMA Digest that had my name listed as a new member (addressed to Scott so thanks for that! as well as some proofs from Monitoring Times for a couple articles there ("E-Trax" "Pager Codes").

I was ecstatic that I finally located this! I have been searching my house for it for years and posting everywhere looking for it. Half the membership of CARMA got pestered by me looking for a copy.

So now I wanted to scan it in for posterity and sharing. I bought a new page scanner that had double sided scanning and it arrived today. I set it up and started working. It worked fine except that a couple pages kept sticking together running thru the scanner. I made copies of those pages and then other pages stuck together. Finally I just made double-sided copies of the whole thing, this scanned just fine.

So after all that, enjoy this snapshot of how the State Police radio system looked in the late 1980's, before StarCom21! Raise a pint to John as you do so.

 

[scanman1958]

Thank you so much for the copy. Brings back many memories of scanning low band ISP in the early 80's from St. Louis. Your list even mentioned the 44.70 freq for extra patrols in East St. Louis. Almost forgot about that one.

You also noted the visit of Mike Redman to the Dist 11 comm center. Mike was in charge of the St. Louis County police communications and their seven precincts along with detective channels and the county tornado sirens. He also was heavily involved with storm spotter classes in the county. Before Mike passed he was trying to sell old ISP weather alert radios for like $20 or some crazy cheap price. I can't remember if it was a plectron type receiver or another type of radio. I do remember him saying it was set for 39.50. That may have been wrong and not the 42.50 listed in your packet of papers.

Again great job. Always wish low band was still active.

 

[RoninJoliet]

John Arendt and Mike Redman were great friends, John used to tell me about the vast knowledge Mike had for scanning...Really miss all the good guys of the past,....

 

[mws72]

I knew John for some time in the 70's & 80's even been to his house a couple of times for the meetings. I corresponded with Mike Redman and even followed him as the editor of RCMA Public Safety North Central. After this last move I must of lost my copy so I was happy this got posted even if it has been superseded by time.

 

[WX9RLT]

I have scanned in the "Code 101" and posted it at Dropbox

I don't know how log it will remain there so if it disappears down the road let me know and I will update the link.

Hi Rich,

Hope all is well!

I went to download it, to read.
And it says the item has been deleted.

 

[N9JIG]

Yes, I realized a page was missing, probably got doubled in the page scanner.

I re-scanned it and have it there now:

Lower res/smaller file:

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

High res/larger file:

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com