AC2OY
Member
I grew up across the Hudson River from New York City. My earliest experiences in scanning came from a few vectors that pretty much each added up to create who is here before you (impressed, I'm sure :wink. Anyway, I had a tunable AM/FM/"PSB" (VHF high band) receiver that my mother won at a carnival. I used to tune around and hear KWO35, the NYC weather, and a bunch of two-tone paging systems. This was in the early 70s, maybe 1972 or 1973. I could also hear the Circle Line tour boats on the marine channels and, if I found the sweet spot, I could hear the police in my town and the next town over. One of the high points to being a kid was meeting some of the people who were talking, and being able to say I heard them going on a call and asking what happened. They thought it was cool, too. In a way, I "rode along" with these people as they worked. I was also able to tune NYPD on VHF HIGH BAND (!!!!!) and remember hearing the base giving out calls in the Bronx, although I could never hear the cars.
A little while later, maybe 1974, I got an Archer Space Patrol CB that I could tune across CB with. Back then, there were business licensees (legally) using this frequency range in between the regular 23 CB channels! There were also synchronized traffic lights operating on these channels in a nearby community. The lights would change when a series of three tones were sent out. A type of paging system sounded (to me as a kid) like reindeer bells ringing repetitively. So, there's another thing that pushed me to learn about radio.
After much crying, kicking, screaming, and persuasion, I got a Space Patrol regenerative receiver kit that my estranged father made a special appearance to help me put together. Aside from the shortwave stuff that had me mesmerized, I was able to tune to the higher frequencies above CB. Around 35 MHz, I heard a long tone followed by 5 quick tones. Once in a while, there were two tones sent out. I knew the two-tones were paging. I guessed the 5 tone sequences were, too. The system helped me learn Morse code because it identified as "QRA de KEA860." That was New York Telephone on 35.22 MHz. Later it became Lin Page, and then NYNEX. In 1989, I got to actually see what I was listening to.
Low band paging was big before 900 MHz was opened to one-way paging. There were 4 large 3 element yagis on the Empire State Building, in each corner above the observation deck. They're gone now, but back then, two were phased together for 35.22 (which I was hearing) and two were phased together for a 43 MHz paging station (43.84? I don't remember). The base was a 330 Watt Motorola "PURC" and the control system terminal was a DEC PDP11/35 with flipswitch registers. This was decommissioned in favor of a BBL switch that did what the PDP11 did and more. Yours truly ended up fishing the PDP11 out of the dumpster in 1990 and had it in the garage in NJ until I moved in 1996. Never became an expert, and it was a little too late for me to be a long hair, plaid pants, and horn rimmed glasses computer programmer of the 70s (although I did use those computers in high school) but I got to mess with something that went full circle to my early days with radio.
I graduated to a Lafayette Guardian 30-50 and 146-174 receiver with shortwave and AM/FM. It was the end of the Zenith Trans-Oceanic tunable receiver era. This opened up 33.86, which is what my local towns used for fire dispatching. There was also a new channel, 154.445, that began to be used somewhat sporadically. I still could not hear well on there, and set about to find the best way of listening, which eventually included messing with various antennas.
It's about 1975 now and NYPD is making a big conversion to a better system. I have a TV I fished out of the garbage and fixed myself. How I managed to not get electrocuted is beyond me, but it worked. I wanted to watch a cult TV classic in NJ - the Uncle Floyd Show on Channel 68. So, I tuned around UHF. Channels 14 and 15 were strange: I heard police calls as I tried to adjust the fine tuning!!! NYPD switched much of its operations from VHF to UHF TV frequencies on channels 14 and 15! I could hear them all - ON THE TV SET! Cars, too! The callsign: KOP911! The alert tone sounded exactly like leaning your thumb on the "dah" side of a Morse code keyer. Whenever you heard that, someone was in trouble!
So, I wanted something better. On my birthday list around 1975 was a Radio Shack Pro-6 crystal scanner. The channels: 33.86, 154.28, 154.445, and 155.61. All of a sudden I knew what was going on! I could hear the police much better than the tunable radios, but 33.86 reception was terrible. That was replaced by a Bearcat SP-H/L crystal scanner with the same line-up. I saved up about $300 in quarters from taking the garbage out and eventually bought a Bearcat 210. Now I could put anything I wanted into the scanner and the world opened wide. My county broadcast alerts on 37.38 with tone paging. I could hear IMTS phones, and the Bearcat 210 would block the idle signals so the scanner didn't lock up on the open channels. Pretty soon, I got a friend to buy a Bearcat 210 scanner, too. We had our own after-school scanner club (he recently retired as a big city deputy fire chief). His father already had a Regency crystal scanner and he would listen to his favorite - Jersey City police, with MODAT unit identifiers. They were very busy channels. Traffic on 155.190, the New Jersey Turnpike, was almost non-stop with troopers. And we could hear big fires in Newark, Jersey City, and NYC. Whenever the TV news had some breaking news, my friend and I knew just a little more. And, we could hear the TV station queuing the reporter on scene on 161.67 MHz. Other TV stations moved up to 450 MHz frequencies to do queuing. There was also a newsgathering organization that would give out breaking news on 453.000, just like modern "notification groups" do now.
I did other things, too, besides scanning. I had a CB, did a lot of SWLing (the most fun being with my regenerative receiver kit, followed by using my neighbor's Trans-Oceanic), and I eventually got a ham license.
Suffice it to say, once upon a time, the scanner hobbyist had the world at his or her fingertips. We weren't "bad guys" for wanting to listen back then, and many of us got our first glimpse into the world of public service, which would lead to careers. Public service wasn't a bad thing back then, either. And if we ever wanted to hear something different, there were boats and planes and trains and taxis and trucks. Commerce and industry ran on radio, too. And it wasn't all just in the big city. Farmers had radios to stay in touch out in the fields or on their way to market. Veterinarians, dentists, and all kinds of other professionals did, too. Needed a car part? The mechanic could call the delivery man on the radio and have him stop at the supplier.
Wanna know how the professionals used radio back then? Check out the Jack Webb TV shows when you find them. Of course, Emergency! Adam-12, but also Mobile One (about a TV station's reporter and early electronic newsgathering). Also, 240-Robert from 1979. Those shows paid painstaking attention to detail concerning use of radio. And look for our own Harry Marnell who is a national treasure of radio. Missouri also has a number of old-time radio people and a very rich history on 42 MHz. If you ever make it to Jefferson City, check out the little museum at the Highway Patrol's General Headquarters. I believe Missouri had the FIRST series of new 3x3 callsigns (3 letters, 3 numbers, starting with a K) in the entire nation (KAA200, KAA201, KAA202, KAA203...). If you listened at the right time, you could hear "K double-A 203" from Europe! Or, you could hear South American stations on 33 MHz (I did in 1980).
902 your stories mezmorize me. I really wish I knew you back in the day.
