[Milsurplus] Request

[Jim Klotz]

Hi George,

Thanks very much for the reply.  I'm usually just a lurker on the list and 
am very appreciative of the information.  I just knew someone on this list 
would know.

What you've said is much as I suspected.  I worked 30 years for a large 
metropolitan electric power utility and used the 2-way radios they had from 
the 60's onward.  Much of our systems, radio and security, were set up by 
ex-military people and therefore were modeled after military systems.  We 
had similar radios, Motorola base and mobile units in the 1960's and, much 
later, an 800 MHz trunked system with auto transmitter and receiver steering 
(heh, that could be switched to manual).  That system was fun.  As a 
dispatcher with control of the system, I could do some interesting and fun 
things, especially in the hilly terrain around Seattle.

Nothing like the old 37 MHz (37.48 & 37.58) system in the 60's though. One 
time I called a truck to dispatch a job, a car with the right ID replied, 
and I gave the address.  I was in Seattle but the guy in Canton OH couldn't 
find the address I gave for some reason!  This was at the height of the 
sunspot cycle as I recall.  Lotsa skip.  We went to a "PL" tone system, but 
it made the receivers so quiet, most of the field units wouldn't turn the PL 
on.

In the incident I'm researching, missile security police in the field in 
their trucks, Flight Security Controllers at missile facilities, a base 
operations dispatcher, a B-52 crew in flight (using UHF), and perhaps some 
others, were all patched together.  I've interviewed a number of people who 
were there at the time, and they all say they could all hear each other.  A 
log of some of the communications was kept by the base ops dispatcher and is 
extant, but which people were transmitting is not identified, so a good idea 
of all who were tied together can't be formed.

Thanks again,
- Jim Klotz

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <gl4d21a at juno.com>
To: <jklotz77 at verizon.net>
Cc: <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 3:25 PM
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Request


>
> 1968 would have seen Motrac IIs and MASTR PROs in use just like the local 
> police and sheriffs had.  Phone interconnect only if specified by the 
> purchaser, which some were smart enough to do but most not.  Moving into 
> the 70s, the services began to install their own mobile phone systems, and 
> it is possible, but not likely that SAC bases had them in '68.  Check with 
> Tom Kneitel and see if he recalls specifics, as he published federal 
> frequency directories back then.  The oldest one I can lay my hands on 
> here is '78, so it is not pertinent.
>
> \\73,
> George
> W5VPQ
>
> Installer of mobile radios at Randolph AFB in the late '50s when it was a 
> SAC base.  Had a separate SAC net IIRC.
>
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