[GreenKeys] Police teletype

Fri May 29 00:32:32 EDT 2020

Something interesting my brother told me a few weeks ago.  After I met up halfway with Paul - to pick up the Teletypes he was giving me, my parents called my brother, to ask him if he would help me with moving some stuff.  He asked what and hey told him Teletypes.  He said, oh yeah, I know Teletypes.  They asked how??!

Well, I ended up asking him.  A little background - my brother works for a law enforcement agency.  I won’t say who or what to protect him… but he told me that the office/agency that he works for still uses them!… and on top of that, all of the various offices/agencies around the state has one, connected to the same national circuit!  He says that it’s a two-week course to get certified on using one.  These Teletypes are hooked up to the FBI APB “wire” (well, at least I’m going to call it a wire ;p ).  He can’t take pictures of it because it’s in a secure location and the certification process is so that the FBI doesn’t get mad when an operator messes up… he’s going to try to get me the model number once everyone’s back at the office (pandemic!) - but he described it as a Teletype, being hooked up to a computer-like terminal interface, connected to the FBI.  I asked him how in the heck is the FBI still using Teletypes in this day in age and he said that apparently it’s the quickest way the FBI has to get APBs out to everyone across the country.

I find it very interesting - the more you learn, huh ;p ?  Might explain why the one Policeman in that local newspaper article from last year said that they got the information on the wanted man they soon would arrest from “Teletype”.  Cool beans ;D ~

> On Dec 18, 2019, at 3:42 pm, Ralph Irish <w8roi at wowway.com> wrote:
> 
> In 1969 and later, I had a second job at a two-way radio service and installation outfit.  They
> handled RCA equipment at that time, before it 'surrendered' the name and became "Tac-Tec" or
> something close to that.
> 
> The location was just a mile or so from one of the local police jurisdictions and that department
> had assigned an officer to be the 'liaison' between the department and the radio store.  He spent
> a lot of time there and we all got to know him pretty well.
> 
> Sometime in that timeframe, his department installed a Model 28ASR to work into the LEIN (Law
> Enforcement  Information Network) system and it could also 'run license plates' from the Secretary
> of State in Lansing, the state capitol.  (Michigan, since I didn't mention it above.)
> 
> While at the 'headquarters' I was chatting with the dispatcher, who was one of several officers who
> rotated in and out of that job.  He commented that the machine was running, and making noise like it
> was doing something, but nothing was showing on the paper.  I told him about 'Print Suppression' and
> that some local department was receiving or sending things which made the machine 'do things' but not
> print.  Every time it came alive he had to glance over there to see what was printing (or not printing!)
> 
> I opened the cover and found the Print Suppression solenoid and pointed it out to him.  When the 
> machine started running but not printing, I pushed the solenoid in and the printer started to put ink
> on paper.  He was impressed.
> 
> A few weeks later, the owner of the radio place got a HAL Communications, RVD-1000 or whatever the number,
> and put it to work occasionally in the store.  He was not a ham but knew a lot of hams, since there were
> three working at the store, and one more became a ham in the interim.  
> 
> Just for laughs, one day when the 'liaision guy' was in the store, the owner commented on the HAL thing and 
> told him that he could install it in the station so they could see all of the traffic intended for all area
> departments.  He took it to the station, found the right places to grab data and fed it to the RVD thing.
> 
> It immediately went to work and put info on the monitor he brought along.  The dispatcher was most interested
> in what he was seeing.
> 
> Some situation came about where there had to be some communications between departments due to someone speeding
> out of one jurisdiction into another.  Normally, one dispatcher would use radio to communicate with other
> dispatchers, hoping to get a neighboring department to intervene and stop the speeder or robber or whatever the
> situation was.
> 
> The dispatcher, seeing what was happening, grabbed  HIS  mike and announced that their department would help
> by stopping the fleeing speeder.  He did this  BEFORE  he was asked to!  The other dispatcher was probably a bit
> confused by this, but the stop happened and the other jurisdiction car arrived and wrote the ticket, etc.
> 
> The radio store owner tried to interest the Chief of Police in this RVD/Monitor device being installed on a
> permanent basis, but when he heard the price, he declined.  We could have just as easy found a way to activate
> that Print Suppression solenoid with a pushbutton, and the only down side there would be a large increase of
> Teletype paper!  And, I don't know how Michigan Bell would have reacted if they knew that someone had been
> 'diddling' with their data wires being fed to the 28ASR.  It was all on a monthly lease, and if there was a
> way to get more money per month, they would have been most happy.
> 
> Sadly, it never happened, but it was an interesting demo of what was available, back in the '5-Level days'.  I
> don't know if HAL ever made a later model that would respond to  ASCII.  
> 
> The radio outfit relocated and changed hands and I've lost track of the original owner, although I'm told that
> he is still in the area, retired and loving it!
> 
> 73,
> 
> Ralph - W8ROI
> 
> -   -   -   -   -   -   -   -
> 
> 
> On Dec 18, 2019, at 11:56 AM, Steve Garrison wrote:
> 
>> I worked a job as a police dispatcher for my local police department in the middle 80’s and I had a DecWriter for my communications with GCIC (Georgia’s equivalent of the NCIC).  While not an actual Teletype machine, it was referred to as a teletype by all of the officers and non-officers in the department.
>>  
>> Steve G./N4TTY
>>  
>> From: greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net <greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On Behalf Of Nick England
>> Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2019 10:54 AM
>> To: Greenkeys <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
>> Subject: [GreenKeys] Police teletype
>>  
>> FWIW - from a Craigslist Job Description posted 11/25/19 for Scotts Valley CA Police Dispatch/Records Supervisor - "... operate office equipment as required to perform duties of the position, including but not limited to radio, tape recorder, teletype, transcriber, calculator, photocopier, typewriter, and computer..."
>>  
>> (No, I'm not looking for a job - it just pops up when I search Craigslist for "teletype")
>>  
>> FWIW - the FBI had an extensive RTTY network using TMC GPT-750 transmitters and National NC-400 receivers.
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