VHF Channels R.I.P.

[rfradioconsult]

Back when I first got in the radio field in the 60's, I became friends with Charley Dunn. Charley had recently retired as the TPD comm officer, he told many stories about the radio scene especially in and around Tulsa. According to him TPD's first VHF assignments were in the 156 MHZ area and they shared a common channel with most of the outlying towns. When the FCC created the VHF marine band they had to relocate, so Charley and Chet Wynn of Okmulgee devised a plan for the eastern part of the state. 155.67 would be the intersystem channel, some departments would be assigned to 155.49 and some to 155.76. I remember well, my wife was one of the first women dispatchers for Muskogee PD and was one of the first to train on the NORLETS system. Prior to that they would call Tulsa OHP on 155.67 and they would reply on their 44.7 Muskogee relay. This was before Muskogee Troop C came about.

 

[car2back]

Yep, Public safety VHF in the metro areas has gone the way of the black and white TV, but is still fairly common when you get away from the city. 800mhz (trunking) usage is slowly spreading outward though, and it's good to see technology moving forward!

 

[rfradioconsult]

Back in the good old days; Tulsa and OKC coordinated for mutual aid by both cities adopting 156.03 MHZ in and 159.09 MHZ out for the police depts. This led to some confusion when ducting was happening especially early in the morning. OKC might call a unit and a Tulsa unit would answer and the other way around.

 

[dward42586]

37.26

In the early 70s, I was on the Dell City PD. We, along with all the small towns in the area were on the County freq. 37.26. It got a little confusing at times.

 

[mfolta1]

Back when I first got in the radio field in the 60's, I became friends with Charley Dunn. Charley had recently retired as the TPD comm officer, he told many stories about the radio scene especially in and around Tulsa. According to him TPD's first VHF assignments were in the 156 MHZ area and they shared a common channel with most of the outlying towns. When the FCC created the VHF marine band they had to relocate, so Charley and Chet Wynn of Okmulgee devised a plan for the eastern part of the state. 155.67 would be the intersystem channel, some departments would be assigned to 155.49 and some to 155.76. I remember well, my wife was one of the first women dispatchers for Muskogee PD and was one of the first to train on the NORLETS system. Prior to that they would call Tulsa OHP on 155.67 and they would reply on their 44.7 Muskogee relay. This was before Muskogee Troop C came about.

that is a cool piece of radio history, what will become of those old vhf freqs anyways? i know tulsa is holding onto them but dont know why.

 

[rfradioconsult]

The VHF channels were cancelled and some have been reassigned. The UHF channels they used for a few years are still licensed. Some are still in use for various operations.
I'll soon post some really old Tulsa Radio information, dating back to 1931.