Gizmodo: A Brief History of Listening In on Police Radios

[NowhereMan66]

"Anyone with an ordinary receiver at home could tune in and hear the calls at WDKX, at 1684 on the AM dial,” author Christopher Bonanos wrote, of the NYPD, when it started broadcasting to its police cars in the 1930s.

Growing up, we had an old AM Radio in a wooden case that had POLICE at the top of the dial.

Nice article!

I still have my grandfather's 1953 Philco two band radio where it had AM from 530 to 1600 kc and "Special Services" from 1600 to around 3500 kc and in the 1600 - 1700 kc area, there is a Civil Defense symbol, now part of the extended AM band and around 2000 kc, there is a police badge symbol. There are also ship symbols and plane symbols too. My mother remember picking up police calls on it when she was a teenager.

 

[NowhereMan66]

Also, as I posted in another thread, the civil unrest of the 1965 to 1970 period was a big boom for people to buy VHF/UHF radios and the early scanners.

 

[andyman82]

One giant advertisement for @NYPDPoliceRadio

 

[902]

I still have my grandfather's 1953 Philco two band radio where it had AM from 530 to 1600 kc and "Special Services" from 1600 to around 3500 kc and in the 1600 - 1700 kc area, there is a Civil Defense symbol, now part of the extended AM band and around 2000 kc, there is a police badge symbol. There are also ship symbols and plane symbols too. My mother remember picking up police calls on it when she was a teenager.

I'm late to the party, but catching up on things. Before VHF was popular, most boat radios were on 2 MHz AM. You could tune around with a receiver and hear harbor traffic, and also marine public correspondence (ship-to-shore telephone). AM air transmissions were in that range, too. They still use these frequencies, but you'll need to listen in upper sideband. They're not as popular as VHF-FM is now. The AM radios were decommissioned in 1975.

 

[NowhereMan66]

I'm late to the party, but catching up on things. Before VHF was popular, most boat radios were on 2 MHz AM. You could tune around with a receiver and hear harbor traffic, and also marine public correspondence (ship-to-shore telephone). AM air transmissions were in that range, too. They still use these frequencies, but you'll need to listen in upper sideband. They're not as popular as VHF-FM is now. The AM radios were decommissioned in 1975.

I vaguely remember the upper MW and lower HF band was called "Marine Band" because of it. I also remember hearing AM traffic there on my grandma's shortwave whe I was very young. I also remember the LORAN-A stations around the 1900 kc area.

 

[INDY72]

One giant advertisement for @NYPDPoliceRadio

How is this? When in just a few short years from now, all NYPD will be pure P25 and full time strapped Encrypted?

 

[Alain]

I still have my grandfather's 1953 Philco two band radio where it had AM from 530 to 1600 kc and "Special Services" from 1600 to around 3500 kc and in the 1600 - 1700 kc area, there is a Civil Defense symbol, now part of the extended AM band and around 2000 kc, there is a police badge symbol. There are also ship symbols and plane symbols too. My mother remember picking up police calls on it when she was a teenager.

Nowhereman66,

I grew up in New Jersey during the early 1950s. I recall each Saturday, at exactly 12 noon, the air raid siren, a bright yellow Federal Signal SD-10, mounted atop a 50-foot tall power pole on the corner, would blast a one minute test—to that young boy, it seemed an eternity! You could hear the siren’s wail for blocks! There were mandated, evening Civil Defense blackouts in our neighborhoods. All residents were required to draw their shades and curtains and sit in relative darkness, most times for more than an hour. Civil Defense Team “block captains” would patrol the streets, insuring that every resident complied. Over the past 60+ years, the end of the Cold War and the threat of nuclear annihilation may [arguably] have subsided, but the need for citizen volunteers trained in emergency/disaster preparedness continues to be of significant value and, in the last 24 years, of strategic national importance.

I remember too that those Civil Defense markers on the radio dial were at 640 Kc and 1240 Kc on the AM dial. In an earlier post on this thread, I mentioned the tube-type radio I used to monitor the Newark July, 1967 riots. [see my avatar photo. My post here is # 12]

 

[NowhereMan66]

Nowhereman66,

I grew up in New Jersey during the early 1950s. I recall each Saturday, at exactly 12 noon, the air raid siren, a bright yellow Federal Signal SD-10, mounted atop a 50-foot tall power pole on the corner, would blast a one minute test—to that young boy, it seemed an eternity! You could hear the siren’s wail for blocks! There were mandated, evening Civil Defense blackouts in our neighborhoods. All residents were required to draw their shades and curtains and sit in relative darkness, most times for more than an hour. Civil Defense Team “block captains” would patrol the streets, insuring that every resident complied. Over the past 60+ years, the end of the Cold War and the threat of nuclear annihilation may [arguably] have subsided, but the need for citizen volunteers trained in emergency/disaster preparedness continues to be of significant value and, in the last 24 years, of strategic national importance.

I remember too that those Civil Defense markers on the radio dial were at 640 Kc and 1240 Kc on the AM dial. In an earlier post on this thread, I mentioned the tube-type radio I used to monitor the Newark July, 1967 riots. [see my avatar photo. My post here is # 12]

I remember a similar story were one of my professors wen I was in college back in the late 1980's. He was born in 1946 in a coal town, east of Pittsburgh and he remembers the huge siren the town hard for Civil Defense where the had to do the same drill you described. Everytime he heard it, he got really scared, especially during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Mom was born in 1938 and Dad in 193, both in Pittsburgh, and they remember World War II where the Air Raid Wardens and Civil Defense would have drills and they remember them yelling if you had a light in the window or they can see a crack of light through the blinds. BTW, Mom remembers picking up the Pittsburgh police on my grandfather's, her dad's, radio. I was born in 1966 myself. I got into shortwave radio and scanner because my grandmother had a four band SW radio, AM, FM, SW from 4 to 12 Mc and Marine Band from 1600 to 4000 kc. She also had a Bearcat IV, 8 channel crystal scanner. One good thing about radios with Marine Band, you can get the extended AM band with them. BTW, I've seen radios with the old CONELRAD marks too.

 

[Alain]

The early 1960's had some rough times, i.e. Bay of Pigs Invasion, Cuban Missile Crisis and the assassination of J.F.K., all within the span of three, short years! I distinctly recall the Civil Defense "drills" in grammar school; lining up in the hallways, facing the wall, clasping your hands behind your head and kneeling in front of the solid concrete walls! We were kids---12 thru 14 years old at most. We did what the teachers told us to do.

How those "drills" were supposed to save our fannies when we lived just 12, short miles from where the bomb would be dropped---The Island of Manhattan---was never explained!

 

[slowmover]

The early 1960's had some rough times, i.e. Bay of Pigs Invasion, Cuban Missile Crisis and the assassination of J.F.K., all within the span of three, short years! I distinctly recall the Civil Defense "drills" in grammar school; lining up in the hallways, facing the wall, clasping your hands behind your head and kneeling in front of the solid concrete walls! We were kids---12 thru 14 years old at most. We did what the teachers told us to do.

How those "drills" were supposed to save our fannies when we lived just 12, short miles from where the bomb would be dropped---The Island of Manhattan---was never explained!

Same today as wearing a face diaper.

Doesn’t work (is a very bad thing to wear one), but, it was (and is) about using personal fear to instill obedience.

That was also the point of those other three staged incidents.
Mass fear.

Communists & Capitalists are cousins. Feud, occasionally. But same end desired.
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Herschel Calvert was the father of Police Radio. As a Ham radio operator in the 30's - 40's and a motorcycle officer for the Pasadena Police department in California, built the first AM transmitter for Police. .

Henry Garrett, Dallas. 1921. WRR Radio one of the first five stations of any sort in the country. Fire, later police. Still owned by the City.

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