Early MDT's

[danesgs]

Fairfax county got mobile data terminals in their squad cars in the mid 1980's. I worked at Heathkit on Rt. 1 and going to work one day two of these police cars were parked in the back lot behind the store. Since I entered the building behind the store they were hard to miss. I walked up to the closest one and struck up a conversation with a young officer who was playing with a keyboard on his dash. Computers were relatively a novelty at the time except with the new industry and home PC's starting to take root. I asked him about what he had there and he asked my name, typed it into the terminal and up came my age, address, and other info. At the time I thought this was somewhat interesting if not for the fact that today only god knows how many servers, your life history is stored forever.

BTW, the PD back then was still free and clear radio wise so at least it went both ways.

 

[MTS2000des]

In 1981 here in DeKalb county GA, Motorola showed off their "state of the art" technology including their PrinTrak CAD, KDT4000 MDTs with CRT monitors, first digital pagers, and of course MT500s (DeKalb was on UHF conventional back then...with MODAT). The video is poor quality but still a good look back in time to how 911 was done if you could afford the Cadillac of everything.

 

[ecps92]

Ahhh the ole KDT's - just as heavy as an MX3xx Series Motorola or worse

In 1981 here in DeKalb county GA, Motorola showed off their "state of the art" technology including their PrinTrak CAD, KDT4000 MDTs with CRT monitors, first digital pagers, and of course MT500s (DeKalb was on UHF conventional back then...with MODAT). The video is poor quality but still a good look back in time to how 911 was done if you could afford the Cadillac of everything.

 

[GlobalNorth]

LOL!

Every time I see those MDTs, I recall 'SCMODS' from the "Blues Brothers".

P.S. EMS must have been much stronger back in the day... two guys were able to lift that 300 pounder by themselves and get him up the embankment with no problems.

 

[mmckenna]

My uncle had one of those early MDT's in his car. Was pretty amazing back in the early 80's.
They even had a very rudimentary football game on it.

 

[CanesFan95]

I seem to vaguely remember a freeware program that could decode one of the earlier MDT protocols back in the early 2000s and you could see the screens the cops were pulling up.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

In 1981 here in DeKalb county GA, Motorola showed off their "state of the art" technology including their PrinTrak CAD, KDT4000 MDTs with CRT monitors, first digital pagers, and of course MT500s (DeKalb was on UHF conventional back then...with MODAT). The video is poor quality but still a good look back in time to how 911 was done if you could afford the Cadillac of everything.

Great acting by John Candy!

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

LOL!

Every time I see those MDTs, I recall 'SCMODS' from the "Blues Brothers".

P.S. EMS must have been much stronger back in the day... two guys were able to lift that 300 pounder by themselves and get him up the embankment with no problems.

State Country Municipal Offender Data System?

 

[cmjonesinc]

I seem to vaguely remember a freeware program that could decode one of the earlier MDT protocols back in the early 2000s and you could see the screens the cops were pulling up.

The other memorable story that comes to mind is of Bill Cheek and his decoding of MDT's.

San Diego's Bill Cheek arrested by feds for selling unscrambling devices to undercover cops

www.sandiegoreader.com

 

[GlobalNorth]

State Country Municipal Offender Data System?

Almost...

State, County, Municipal Offender Data System.

 

[GlobalNorth]

Elwood: "Sh[oo]t...

Jake: "What?"

Elwood: "Rollers!"

Jake: "No..."

Elwood: "Yep..."

Jake: "Sh[oo]t!"

 

[12dbsinad]

The light was yellow sir...

 

[merlin]

I have a number of those old MDTs. The terminals sold like hotcakes, but the modems I still have around.
Have a few from MRM (mobile and base) and a couple Motorola VRM600
Somewhere in the junk, an MDS 9810 dedicated data transceiver. and VRM650 transceiver.
The protocols these use are long obsolete. These were never encrypted so all it took was a decoder for the protocol.
Same thing today is LTE and encrypted.

 

[merlin]

I seem to vaguely remember a freeware program that could decode one of the earlier MDT protocols back in the early 2000s and you could see the screens the cops were pulling up.

I'd like to find that, just to play with and make my junk less junk.

 

[N4DES]

From my days in the late 80's through the 90's the Kustom DXT on VHF 1300 baud! Oh the midnight glow of the green screen.

 

[Bustergrn]

Picked this up about 15 years ago on Fleabay. Cost more to ship it than he wanted for it. Not sure what's up with the CRT monitor on it. I don't ever use it for anything other than display on a shelf.

Moto 9100-T MDT. Has the RF modem attached to lower side.

 

[jwt873]

Our local PD used them up into the early 2000's..

 

[merlin]

WOW, the CRTs. About forgot those existed. Ones I had were more like a small laptop with TFT display.
I have the display from one in my junk.
The working ones sold quick but should have kept one. They had a slot for PCMCIA smart card for encryption.

 

[danesgs]

While at Heathkit working at the service bench, I heard a siren going and getting closer from outside. It ran up outside our access road and I heard a "thump" near our side door for deliveries. I had to really push the door to open as there was a FF county cruiser with siren still wailing but no cop inside, his passenger door open. When I got outside he was bringing down some kid from the partial wooded area next to the store in hand cuffs and he was out of breath. He looked at me and saw the dent his fender made in the concrete and wanted to know if we wanted a report made out for the slight damage and I told him no, that's OK.

Turns out, up the way at Beacon mall 2 female juveniles and the male driver had stolen a car for a joy ride. They took out access road at high speed and flipped over directly in front of our store with the driver taking off. It was really weird to see a police car wedged into the wall at an angle with the siren still going and no cop inside. Luckily no one was hurt. The 1980's were and interesting time for sure. Things guys in the 80's did to impress their girlfriend(s).

 

[CanesFan95]

^ Surely he meant in the junk DRAWER.