[CW] Cleveland Police & FBI
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
Fri Jul 2 21:49:01 EDT 2021
Very interesting history. I should thank you for posting this
before I begin to run off at the mouth (fingers) and forget. A
couple of things; the LA police, and I think many others were
"two way" in that the dispatch center could talk to the cars and
they could talk back to the dispatcher but they could not talk to
each other. In L.A sergents and supervisors had "three way
radios" that could talk to the dispatcher and to other cars. L.A.
used VHF, in the vicinity of 160Mhz but still had the 1730 medium
wave transmitter going until the 1965 riots, when it was taken
off permanently. I am not sure when the MW transmitter was first
on the air but I think the early to mid-1930s. The department
encouraged people to listen to the police calls at the top of the
broadcast band because they considered it good public relations.
I don't know when they began to use VHF for the actual
dispatching, probably following ww-2 but it may have been
earlier. In my time there were about five VHF frequencies with
the MW repeating one of them. Other than PR it was used to notify
cops of whether they were to wear summer or winter uniforms and
to notify the motorcycle cops when the weather was too bad for
their bikes (when they rode in cars).
For several years there was a very popular radio program,
originating at KHJ=Don Lee called "Calling All Cars", it featured
the familiar voice of the main dispatcher (forgotten his name)
and was a sort of semi-documentary program, very well done for
its time. These shows are on Archive.org but, be prepared, they
are very racist. I have lost touch with the L.A. radio system but
believe it is mainly digital these days and mainly up in the UHF
region. The Highway Patrol has a very large statewide network
operating around 50Mhz. This is also part of the statewide police
network.
I did not know about WHK or the use of broadcast stations
for police use. A few cities had early police broadcast stations,
Detroit, for example. While Los Angeles was early I think
Pasadena was even earlier and perhaps Glendale. Both of these had
stations in the vicinity of the top of the broadcast band or
around 2.5Mhz in a police band.
The story of the FCC is fascinating. I wonder, if this was
not earlier in the days of the Federal Radio Commission.
On 7/2/2021 5:43 PM, DAVID EISENBERGER via CW wrote:
> It maybe of some interest that originally the Cleveland Police
> cars did not have 2-way radios. What they did was used the
> services of Cleveland Radio station WHK. (A News and variety
> station.
>
> All police car radios were tuned to WHK AM Radio. Whenever
> there was a need, the police DEPT had a tie in, and used WHK
> radio to transmit a message to a particular police car or a
> “calling to all cars” was used.
>
> As the years went by, and technology advanced, cars were fitted
> with 2-way Radio.
>
> There as before, was an issue that due to terrain and distance,
> cars could not hear each other after a few miles.
>
> The Cleveland Police central Radio system and cars all
> transmitted and received on appx 36 MHz.
>
> Our Boss, Ed Kisiel and the DEPT head Tom Story (who was the
> son of police chief Story) came up with a system called
> “UNIPLEX” which was a system that all cars transmitted on one
> frequency and the main police department would transmit on a
> different frequency.
>
> The FCC denied the use of this system.
>
> We know it today as a “Repeater system” and is commonly used
> by many Amateur radio operators today!
>
> Another attempt was made to the FCC to get this licensed and
> again the FCC turned it down but stated it could be used in an
> “Emergency” only!
>
> Chief of Police Story retired and a new chief took over.
>
> He asked why the “UNIPLEX” was not in operation. We explained
> to him what the FCC stated in a letter that was posted in the
> radio room.
> He stated
>
> “TURN IT ON - EVERY THING WE DO IS AN EMERGENCY!”
>
> The city was started receiving fines from the FCC. About every
> 90 days another fine was issued.
>
> The city never paid any fines and finally gave in to the city..
>
> Cars from the extreme areas of Cleveland could hear and talk
> to other cars many miles away. This was a great communication
> system and eventually other cities followed suit.
>
> I left the Police dept Circa 1967 to form my own 2-way radio
> sales/service business. That company is still in existence in 2021.
>
> As technology came, so did the use of 450 MHz systems for each
> police district and the “low band” frequency of appx 36 MHz was
> eventually abandoned.
>
> 73
>
> David F Eisenberger
>
> On Jun 30, 2021, at 22:07, DAVID EISENBERGER via CW
> <cw at mailman.qth.net <mailto:cw at mailman.qth.net>> wrote:
>
>> Your aware I was a Radioman in the Coast Guard 1954-58. When I
>> got out I had a QSO with W8VBU John, who was a technical guru,
>> graduated from John Carol university. He worked at the
>> Cleveland Police DEPT at nights at their police communications
>> repair/install DEPT.
>>
>> His buddy, Gus Gustincus, a real electronics guru graduated
>> Suma Cum lade also from John Carol University and was working
>> as a CW Operator at the Cleveland Main Hq Station downtown
>> Cleveland.
>>
>> He designed a number of items for use at the Police Dept. One
>> was a Radio direction finder.
>>
>> The Cleveland Police was one station of a number of National
>> police departments throughout the nation to communicate city
>> to city. Our call was KQB57 .
>>
>> The station was manned by a majority of older “Lake Vessel
>> Radio Operators”.
>>
>> GUS and John were never in the maritime service.
>>
>> The “Boss” of the CW station decided to stop standing watches
>> at the station and just work strictly in repair/engineering
>> and administrative work which left an opening at the station
>> which John applied for and got.
>>
>> Gus applied to the Government for a job in California. Gus
>> designed the Antennas for the moon to earth Communications
>> system. As I said, a true Guru.. the sad part, a few years
>> later Gus was on a Airliner that crashed into a small plane,
>> the airliner crashed and Gus died.. quite sad....
>>
>> Prior to Gus leaving the Police, John informed me of an
>> opening for a CW OP at the station. I applied and got the
>> job.. AND I was the only former “Salt Water” CW op and the
>> only who had a FCC 1st Class RadioTelegraph with the 6 Month
>> shipping endorsement.
>>
>> In its heyday, just about every major city had a CW station
>> they were able to accomplish this because after WWII there
>> were many CW ops who either didn’t want to go to sea as a
>> “sparks” or had no interest.
>>
>> As those “Old timers”, began retiring, there was no new blood
>> behind them And therefore those CW stations started closing down.
>>
>> When I was hired, (Circa 1962) Ohio only had 3 CW Stations
>> left. Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati.
>>
>> Illinois had the most, with just about every major city still
>> maintaining a Police CW Network.
>>
>> John left our station to become a professor at John Caroll
>> University leaving us a man short.
>>
>> We tried and tried to fill his vacancy with another CW OP who
>> had at least a 2nd FCC RadioTelegraph license. It just didn’t
>> happen therefore we had to cut one shift with no CW.
>>
>> As time went on, the guys were retiring and were not being
>> replaced. Infact, I left in Circa 1969 to begin my own 2-way
>> Radio sales and service company.
>>
>> Eventually KQB57 “SS NEVER SAIL” was closed down.
>>
>> The stations throughout the country were used mainly because
>> the phone company charged a fortune for long distance calls,
>> so combining the police tfc with FBI Tfc saved many dollars
>> for both departments.
>>
>> Teletype followed and really reduced the costs...
>>
>> And thus some past history for you David -
>>
>> 73 de K8KEM
>>
>>
>>
>> David F Eisenberger
>>>
>>> On Jun 9, 2021, at 09:58, D.J.J. Ring, Jr. <n1ea at arrl.net
>>> <mailto:n1ea at arrl.net>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Could you answer this? Also give us a quick run down of
>>> Police CW nets and traffic.
>>>
>>> I last heard INTERPOL on 15070 kHz around 1989.
>>>
>>> 73
>>>
>>> DR
>>>
>>>
>>> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
>>> From: *Benny K5KV*<k5kvm5 at gmail.com <mailto:k5kvm5 at gmail.com>>
>>> Date: Wed, Jun 9, 2021, 9:53 AM
>>> Subject: Re: [CW] The FBI CW Radio Network
>>> To: CW Reflector <cw at mailman.qth.net <mailto:cw at mailman.qth.net>>
>>>
>>>
>>> A DEAR FRIEND JACK W5HEZ, NOW A SILENT KEY OPERATED A CW
>>> RADIO STATION FOR THE BATON ROUGE, LA POLICE DEPT BEGINNING
>>> IN 1937 UNTIL THE WAR BROKE OUT. HE TOLD ME OF SOME KIND OF
>>> WIDE AREA POLICE NETWORK THEY WERE OPERATING IN. MAYBE THIS
>>> WAS A FBI NETWORK?
>>>
>>> 73
>>> BENNY K5KV
>>>
>>>> On Wed, Jun 9, 2021 at 8:03 AM Bill Lanahan
>>>> <wa2nfn at gmail.com <mailto:wa2nfn at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> On Wed, Jun 9, 2021 at 1:14 AM D.J.J. Ring, Jr.
>>>> <n1ea at arrl.net <mailto:n1ea at arrl.net>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Interesting.........the FBI was operating CW nets
>>> starting in 1942.....
>>>
>>>
>>> The FBI CW Radio Network
>>>
>>> *by Alvin H. Grobmeier*
>>>
>>> The Federal Bureau of Investigation operated the FBI
>>> CW Radio Network beginning in early 1957 and ending
>>> in June 1976.
>>>
>>> There were two sites, one for transmitting and one
>>> for receiving usually located several miles apart.
>>> Locations were as follows:
>>>
>>> * Albany
>>> * Albuquerque
>>> * Anchorage
>>> * Atlanta
>>> * Baltimore
>>> * Birmingham
>>> * Boston
>>> * Buffalo
>>> * Boston
>>> * Buffalo
>>> * Butte
>>> * Charlotte
>>> * Chicago
>>> * Cincinnati
>>> * Cleveland
>>> * Columbia
>>> * Dallas
>>> * Denver
>>> * Detroit
>>> * El Paso
>>> * Honolulu
>>> * Houston
>>> * Indianapolis
>>> * Jackson
>>> * Jacksonville
>>> * Kansas City
>>> * Knoxville
>>> * Las Vegas
>>> * Litttle Rock
>>> * Louisville
>>> * Memphis
>>> * Miami
>>> * Milwaukee
>>> * Minneapolis
>>> * Mobile
>>> * Newark
>>> * New Haven
>>> * New Orleans
>>> * New York
>>> * Norfolk
>>> * Oklahoma City
>>> * Omaha
>>> * Philadelphia
>>> * Phoenix
>>> * Pittsburgh
>>> * Portland
>>> * Ramona (for the San Diego FBI office)
>>> * Richmond
>>> * Sacramento
>>> * St. Louis
>>> * Salt Lake City
>>> * San Antonio
>>> * San Francisco
>>> * San Juan
>>> * Savannah
>>> * Seattle
>>> * Springfield
>>> * Tampa
>>> * FBI Washington, DC field office
>>> * FBI Headquarters, Washington, DC.
>>> <x-apple-data-detectors://13/1>
>>>
>>> Radio call signs were assigned by the Federal
>>> Communications Commission. The Ramona/San Diego
>>> station was asssigned the call sign KMG 22.
>>>
>>> Source: United States Department of Justice, Federal
>>> Bureau of Investigation, letter of February 14, 1979
>>> to Commander A.H. Grobmeier, US Navy (Ret.)
>>>
>>>
>>> Return to...
>>>
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>>> <http://coldwar-c4i.net/index.html>
>>>
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>>
>> David F Eisenberger
>> ______________________________________________________________
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--
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
WB6KBL
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