Re: [IRCA] History Channel Appearance (OT)

[AM-DXer@xxxxxxxxx (Patrick Griffith, N0NNK / WPE9HVW)]

Thanks for the alert on this program David. And congratulations on doing
an excellent job! The program aired here at 9:00 PM. I enjoyed it so
much that I watched the repeat of it which aired at 1:00 AM locally.

I was pleasantly surprised that the program delved into the mobile
telephone system including recognition of the Improved Mobile Telephone
Service (IMTS) which was the interim system in the US until the
development of the cellular network that we know today. Outside of my
visits to the Motorola Museum at their huge campus in Schaumburg IL, I
have never before seen that information presented publicly. I'm glad to
see that IMTS isn't completely forgotten.

You may be interested in knowing that in the early 1970s I was employed
as the Chief of the Airport Police Department at Greater Rockford
Airport in Rockford IL. My patrol car was equipped with a Manual
Telephone System (MTS) which was basically a Motorola Motrac 2-way radio
on a common carrier frequency with operator assisted calling. It
operated in the half-duplex mode meaning only one side of the
conversation could be conveyed at a given point in time. The operator
had to monitor the entire call. Since there was only a single frequency
in our area, only one mobile telephone conversation could take place at
a time. This was in a geographic area of nearly 300,000 residents. That
demonstrates how very rare mobile telephone service was in those days.

Since much of my time was spent outside of the patrol vehicle, around
1973 my MTS capability evolved into a very customized Motorola HT-200
"brick" walkie-talkie equipped with a 2-tone sequential alerting device
for incoming calls. This radio had been custom modified to allow
operation on both the 160 MHz common carrier system and the 150 MHz
local sheriff's department radio system. Such "wide-band" capability in
a portable radio was rare at the time. This was a VERY expensive and
unique piece of communications equipment that I was proud to have
entrusted to me.

Although it would now be considered as a very antiquated system, at the
time hand held mobile telephones were only a futuristic idea that was in
the early development stage at Motorola. Essentially this radio provided
me with hand held mobile telephone capability nearly two decades before
the cellular mobile telephone system came into widespread public use.

Patrick Griffith, Westminster CO
http://community.webtv.net/N0NNK/
http://community.webtv.net/AM-DXer/

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