[GreenKeys] Police teletype

John, W9DDD w9ddd at tapr.org
Fri May 29 11:26:28 EDT 2020


Model 40

Page 2 has a cartoonish rendition.
http://www.navy-radio.com/manuals/tty/jh/ttyman1/TeletypeManuals/model40/AMPS.pdf

Long version about page 83/86
http://bitsavers.org/communications/teletype/40/325-054_Synchronous_Dataspeed_40_4_Service_Mar79.pdf

I had a model 40 branded printer that was free to good home.  I didn't 
turn out to be a good home.  Life got in the way of even hooking it up. 
I swear it weighed as much as an 28 ASR.  It was boxier looking than the 
one shown in the above reference.  Perhaps if I had access to this:
http://bitsavers.org/communications/teletype/40/426_Model_40_Installation_Manual_1979.pdf 

I may have had it up and running.

John, W9DDD

On 5/29/2020 10:01 AM, Jeff G wrote:
> There was an At&t terminal that was branded as Teletype later on. Its 
> fairly unique with a pivoting monitor.
> 
> Jeff KC3GJX
> 
> On Fri, May 29, 2020 at 10:51 AM Paul Heller <paul0926 at comcast.net 
> <mailto:paul0926 at comcast.net>> wrote:
> 
>     I don’t know if teletype made a CRT machine, but HAL did, for use
>     with RTTY. I have two and can send some photos if anyone is interested.
> 
>     Paul
>     W2TTY
> 
> 
>>     On May 29, 2020, at 4:27 AM, Steve Garrison <steve.n4tty at gmail.com
>>     <mailto:steve.n4tty at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     I doubt they are Teletype as we know them, but are just referred
>>     to as teletypes as most law enforcement agencies did at one time
>>     use them and the name has just hung around.  Sort of like folks
>>     referring to the brand name Xerox for any copying machine.  Unless
>>     of course he has now seen the one you got from Paul and he has
>>     verified that its looks a lot like what he has seen at work.
>>
>>     Back in the 80's and early 90's I worked as a dispatcher for a
>>     local PD and they had a terminal, not a Teletype, connected to a
>>     similar, or maybe even the same, network.  They also referred to
>>     the terminal as a Teletype, but it was a dot matrix DecWriter (I
>>     forget the exact model number) that was much faster than a
>>     Teletype.   Now Teletype did make a CRT based machine (I think I
>>     remember -others help me out here) but I've never seen one of
>>     those, except maybe pictures,  I'm sure that folks that used to
>>     use those would still refer, in many cases, to their replacements
>>     as Teletype machines.
>>
>>     Now I'm ready for the floodgates to open letting me know I'm way
>>     off base!  😊
>>
>>     Steve G./N4TTY
>>
>>     -----Original Message-----
>>     From:greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net
>>     <mailto:greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net><greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net
>>     <mailto:greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net>> On Behalf Of E.
>>     Sent: Friday, May 29, 2020 12:33 AM
>>     To: Robert Downs via GreenKeys <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net
>>     <mailto:greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>>
>>     Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] Police teletype
>>
>>
>>     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
>>>     <mailto: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
>>>>     <mailto:greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net>
>>>>     <greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net
>>>>     <mailto: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
>>>>     <mailto: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.
>>>>     ______________________________________________________________
>>>>     GreenKeys mailing list
>>>>     Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/greenkeys
>>>>     Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>>>>     Post: mailto:GreenKeys at mailman.qth.net
>>>>
>>>>     2002-to-present greenkeys archive:
>>>>     http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/
>>>>     1998-to-2001 greenkeys archive:
>>>>     http://mailman.qth.net/archive/greenkeys/greenkeys.html
>>>>     Randy Guttery's 2001-to-2009 GreenKeys Search Tool:
>>>>     http://comcents.com/tty/greenkeyssearch.html
>>>>
>>>>     This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this
>>>>     email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to
>>>>     w8roi at wowway.com <mailto:w8roi at wowway.com>
>>>
>>>     ______________________________________________________________
>>>     GreenKeys mailing list
>>>     Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/greenkeys
>>>     Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>>>     Post: mailto:GreenKeys at mailman.qth.net
>>>
>>>     2002-to-present greenkeys archive:
>>>     http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/
>>>     1998-to-2001 greenkeys archive:
>>>     http://mailman.qth.net/archive/greenkeys/greenkeys.html
>>>     Randy Guttery's 2001-to-2009 GreenKeys Search Tool:
>>>     http://comcents.com/tty/greenkeyssearch.html
>>>
>>>     This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this
>>>     email
>>>     list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to
>>>     hanyou at xsmail.com <mailto:hanyou at xsmail.com>
>>
>>     ______________________________________________________________
>>     GreenKeys mailing list
>>     Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/greenkeys
>>     Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>>     Post: mailto:GreenKeys at mailman.qth.net
>>
>>>>>     Jordan Spencer Cunningham's GreenKeys Search Tool:
>>>>>     https://teletype.net/gksearch 2002-to-present greenkeys archive:
>>>>>     http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/
>>>>>     1998-to-2001 greenkeys archive:
>>>>>     http://mailman.qth.net/archive/greenkeys/greenkeys.html
>>>>>     Randy Guttery's 2001-to-2009 GreenKeys Search Tool:
>>>>>     http://comcents.com/tty/greenkeyssearch.html
>>
>>     This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>>     Please help support this email
>>     list:http://www.qsl.net/donate.htmlMessage delivered
>>     tosteve.n4tty at gmail.com <mailto:steve.n4tty at gmail.com>
>>
>>     ______________________________________________________________
>>     GreenKeys mailing list
>>     Home:http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/greenkeys
>>     Help:http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>>     Post:mailto:GreenKeys at mailman.qth.net
>>
>>>>>     Jordan Spencer Cunningham's GreenKeys Search
>>>>>     Tool:https://teletype.net/gksearch
>>>>>     2002-to-present greenkeys
>>>>>     archive:http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/
>>>>>     1998-to-2001 greenkeys
>>>>>     archive:http://mailman.qth.net/archive/greenkeys/greenkeys.html
>>>>>     Randy Guttery's 2001-to-2009 GreenKeys Search
>>>>>     Tool:http://comcents.com/tty/greenkeyssearch.html
>>
>>     This list hosted by:http://www.qsl.net <http://www.qsl.net/>
>>     Please help support this email list:http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>>     Message delivered topaul0926 at comcast.net <mailto:paul0926 at comcast.net>
> 
>     ______________________________________________________________
>     GreenKeys mailing list
>     Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/greenkeys
>     Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>     Post: mailto:GreenKeys at mailman.qth.net
>     <mailto:GreenKeys at mailman.qth.net>
> 
>      >>> Jordan Spencer Cunningham's GreenKeys Search Tool:
>     https://teletype.net/gksearch
>      >>> 2002-to-present greenkeys archive:
>     http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/
>      >>> 1998-to-2001 greenkeys archive:
>     http://mailman.qth.net/archive/greenkeys/greenkeys.html
>      >>> Randy Guttery's 2001-to-2009 GreenKeys Search Tool:
>     http://comcents.com/tty/greenkeyssearch.html
> 
>     This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>     Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>     Message delivered to jeffg at junknet.net <mailto:jeffg at junknet.net>
> 
> 
> 
> ______________________________________________________________
> GreenKeys mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/greenkeys
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:GreenKeys at mailman.qth.net
> 
>>>> Jordan Spencer Cunningham's GreenKeys Search Tool: https://teletype.net/gksearch
>>>> 2002-to-present greenkeys archive: http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/
>>>> 1998-to-2001 greenkeys archive: http://mailman.qth.net/archive/greenkeys/greenkeys.html
>>>> Randy Guttery's 2001-to-2009 GreenKeys Search Tool: http://comcents.com/tty/greenkeyssearch.html
> 
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to w9ddd at tapr.org
> 


More information about the GreenKeys mailing list