[Boatanchors] Random question..

[Richard Knoppow]

    KMA367 was the call of the LAPD medium frequency transmitter, 
on 1730Khz. This was a hold over from the old days before the 
department went to VHF. I worked for LAPD communication for a 
while, one of my first jobs.
    In the 1930s when police were adopting radio the dispatch 
transmitters were on MF in a band just above the broadcast band 
and one around 2.5Mhz. Since many broadcast receivers could hear 
it and all "all wave" receivers LAPD considered it useful 
publicity. It was also used for some police notifications such as 
telling officers if they could wear summer uniforms or motorcycle 
officers if they were riding in cars that day due to bad weather.
    It was discontinued during the Watts Riots of 1965.
    LAPD dispatch in my time was handled on two VHF frequencies 
for the metropolitan area, a third frequency for the San Fernando 
Valley, and a forth frequency for San Pedro. In addition thee was 
a dedicated frequency for the detective divisions and another for 
the Metropolitan division, a special elite division used to help 
out others for serious crime but derived from the old "red 
squad". There were about thirty frequencies used for two-way 
radio between cars and "control". Most cars were two-way, 
sargents and supervisors and Metro were three way, meaning the 
cars could talk to each other. When I was there the department 
was just adopting the idea of "tactical" frequencies for three 
way use in co-ordinating operations.
    Evidently, many officers were trained to ID transmissions 
from cars with KMA367 but the call actually applied only to the 
MW dispatch transmitter, which was at the old Police Academy near 
downtown. The practice was not used when I was there but may have 
been earlier.
     Jessy Rosenquist may have appeared on "Dragnet" but gained 
fame from a much earlier program called "Calling all Cars" which 
was on the air from about the mid  1930s to about 1940. One can 
find them on archive.org  These were famous for their very 
advanced sound effects. At least the earlier ones were really 
taken from true cases, most of which would have been in the 
memories of the audience. If you choose to listen to these beware 
they are very racist about Blacks, Jews and Asians. Also the 
quality of the transcriptions is pretty bad.
    One could also hear the Pasadena Police a little above LAPD. 
Pasadena was actually a pioneer in the use of police radio having 
adopted it some time before LAPD.
    There were familiar voices of operators on LAPD radio but 
their names have faded from my memory.

On 8/18/2020 6:12 AM, John Poulton wrote:
> So.. that would refer to Jesse Rosenquist, LA's dispatcher back in the
> day?  I have a vague memory of Dragnet 'appearances' by Rosenquist.. :)
>
> See:
>
> https://www.qsl.net/n6uru/kjc625-1.htm
>
> Thanks, Jack.. as always!!
>
> 73, John K4OZY
>
> On Mon, Aug 17, 2020 at 7:16 PM Richard Dillman <richard.dillman at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> On Mon, Aug 17, 2020 at 3:27 PM John Poulton <jp at cs.unc.edu> wrote:
>>
>> A friend asked me a question about a curious little factoid from old TV
>>> shows:
>>>
>>> In many Jack Webb TV shows from the 70's'ish, like Adam 12 and
>>> Emergency, they often end transmissions with "KMA" or "KMA367" which is
>>> City of LA's call sign.
>>>
>>> Why would individual users identify at random times?
>>> Is this just made up TV usage?
>>>
>>> Anyone know whether this was for real?  Just idle curiosity..
>>>
>> They wouldn't.  They did this in the radio version of the Dragnet show too
>> (one of the best produced radio shows ever in my opinion).  In some of the
>> very early shows they used the four letter LAPD MF transmitter call sign.
>> I bet you and I may be one of the very few who have noticed this!  I
>> suspect they did that for the sake of what they considered authenticity.
>>
>> And now, for the truly obsessed, what's connection to the name "Rosenquist"
>>
>> RD
>>
>> =========================
>> Richard Dillman, WPE2VT
>> Collector of Heavyweight Radios
>> Inverness Ridge, CA
>> =========================
>>
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-- 
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
WB6KBL