[Milsurplus] Early police radio

[W0rw at aol.com]

LAPD Rigs...
i was in LA Civil Defense (RACES Chief) and we got a bunch of the old
Motorola T-69's issued free to CD members, That was about 1956, They had 
Loctal tubes...+ the 807.
The microphone  was a chrome dynamic with "LAPD" stamped on the neck.
i don't have them any more, the radio shop pulled all the crystals.
The main dispatch did use 1730? AM for the Metro divisions  and 2355 AM for 
the Van Nuys Division.
i think that was John Crowder's idea.
They also used 5/8 MHz and other HF freqs on CW, for the Police national 
network.
i used to watch the operators sending stolen car info. They worked in
the old Don Lee Broadcast building (W6XYZ) on top of Mt. Lee (Mt. Hollywood),
it has the 'Hollywood' sign on it and is 1800 feet ASL..
That is where the w6mep/k6roc RACES  repeater was located.
There is a really nice article about the first big repeater in LA...K6MYK
in QST , March 2004...p52, written by Bill Pasternak, wa6itf.

i got to operate the repeater every Monday night. 
i would drive up there every  Monday to operate the repeater at the local 
control and could switch frequencies and call signs. i would switch the call to 
K6ROC, the City RACES Call Sign. The site was the main police receiver site.  
The CW op controlled the entrance gate. i talked to one of the retired CW ops 
just a few years ago.
i would talk to Art (W6MEP) over the 220 FM link and i would adjust things 
for him.
He finally got a motorized squelch control on it. AM squelches run by 6H6's 
were very drifty and there was a lot of radio noise there. 
Many times i would go up there early, because there was a big swimming pool 
up there (to be used for fire only) but the guys there kept it in really nice 
condition.
So i got a little swimming time in above the Hollywood sign. All this was the 
1957-1962 time period...
The other CD radios which were there in the command center were on every City
frequency for disaster coordination. Most of the CD guys had commercial 
radios on the command channel where the Mayor and other higher up city officials 
would communicate.
The K6MYK repeater would be used by all the hams in LA. Almost every one had
Gonset Communicators. The city would give out free crystals to RACES Hams.
The repeater used a coaxial dipole and the 220 link had a 13 element fishbone 
yagi pointed toward Art's house in the San Fernando Valley.
The repeater had a one inch plastic continuous loop tape with holes cut in it 
for the CW identifier. There were little fingers sensing the holes in the 
tape as it ran by to send "K6MYK" or "K6ROC" . 

Paul  w0rw