Does anyone remember a system that turned on the rotating lights when a unit was called on the radio, and the officer was out of the car? I remember in the late 60s - early 70s, a local city having this capability.
Dan
Dan
Lights turn on when called on radio?
- Thread starter dmathieu
- Start date
I remember when the night patrolman in a local small town would be summoned by a red light on a pole that would blink when a call came in. There were several of these scattered around town and when he saw it flashing, he would then need to check in with the telephone operator to get the info about it.
the same basic idea was possible with the earlier Motorola VHF systems used on large farms. A certain radio could be encoded from another radio or base, activating (in this case) flashing headlights and truck horn.
The same with rural hospitals near large cities. Each hospital kept an ER radio on a certain frequency, but Ambulances has to dial in a certain series of number on a dial or keypad to open the squelch, allowing the hospital to hear the report meant for them.
The same with rural hospitals near large cities. Each hospital kept an ER radio on a certain frequency, but Ambulances has to dial in a certain series of number on a dial or keypad to open the squelch, allowing the hospital to hear the report meant for them.
I think it worked on the same idea as above. The officer knew he was being called because his lightbar would turn on. By the way, the lightbar was a Sireno bar with 2 Sireno dual sealed beam beacons. The blue glass domes were very dark, creating a less effective signal. The city was Worcester, Massachusetts.jtf027 said:
Dan
It was the motorola "quick call". It mounted on top of the motorola motrac radio head (vhf). My dad had one in his chiefs car. The tone was sent out and it opened up and Viola! Used before pagers came around. Also used on home units where you could have your "plectron" open up garage door, turned on lights, etc. You can see it on you tube.
The Motorola Quick Call was like the Plectron, a two-tone paging signal that could turn on a beacon, beep the horn, or flash the headlights. The Motorola Syntor radios also had this feature. This was also a feature of the early commercial mobile telephone equipment, before cell phones.
The system jft027 referred to was interruptible tone squelch dialing, where the old telephone dial would interupt a steady squelch tone to open a selective radio receiver. Motorola used a 1500 Hz tone and the ER notification system was called the Hospital Emergency Alert Radio, marketed nationally as the H.E.A.R. system. Other tones were used for selectable law enforcement calling, civil defense, etc.
The system was modified in the last twenty-five years to use dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) or Touch-Tone calling.
The system jft027 referred to was interruptible tone squelch dialing, where the old telephone dial would interupt a steady squelch tone to open a selective radio receiver. Motorola used a 1500 Hz tone and the ER notification system was called the Hospital Emergency Alert Radio, marketed nationally as the H.E.A.R. system. Other tones were used for selectable law enforcement calling, civil defense, etc.
The system was modified in the last twenty-five years to use dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) or Touch-Tone calling.
yep, 2 systems : one turnes on a light (or anything electric) upon receiving a tone code.
The second system was the follow up, it used a limited range beeper the sounds upon a radio call(tone) so the receiver can return to the car to answer the radio.
The second system was the follow up, it used a limited range beeper the sounds upon a radio call(tone) so the receiver can return to the car to answer the radio.
I remember as a kid my best friend's dad was a farm veterinarian. His work truck had an old Aerotron radio telephone, and when he got a call, the horn beeped and the lights flashed. I thought it was pretty cool.
City of Cleveland had a "recall" system, way back when. I remember being in the 3rd. district parking lot as a child, and the bubble light of an unoccupied '63 Ford began flashing.
dmathieu said:
I have a NOS Sireno 203 with a blue lens.
It was probably these lights they where using and I can agree of that it is very dark blue. Probably the darkest blue lens I have.
Darker than the solid blue Mars Skybolt lens which is also darker than the usual SAE blue.
Columbus Police had their marked cars set up with "recall" until the mid-late 80's. The officer could set it to trip the warning lights or sound the car horn intermittently..
Back then the officers weren't eqiiped with portables, so when they were out of the car, they knew they were being called by dispatch.
Dan
Dan
dmathieu said:
Not that part ...
This---
""The officer could set it to trip the warning lights or sound the car horn intermittently..""
I would guess that if out of the car with lights already activated, then the horn would alert him to a radio call.
If that's what you mean. Just a guess.
Dan
If that's what you mean. Just a guess.
Dan
dustymedic said:
What I mean is this... the post above seems to indicate that the officer is setting a preset time for the lights or horn to activate, say 20 min......
Sorry, I'm not reading anything about time. All I'm getting out of the post is the choice to turn on lights, or intermitantly beep horn. That said, I don't believe that there was a timer set by the officer.
Dan
Dan
"The officer could set it to trip the warning lights or sound the car horn intermittently.."
I was thinking the word intermittently refered to both the horn and the lights... ie you would set the system to just go off from time to time. The word intermittently must refer to the horn beeping off and on. I understand now. One of those things where the printed words can have 2 meanings...
I was thinking the word intermittently refered to both the horn and the lights... ie you would set the system to just go off from time to time. The word intermittently must refer to the horn beeping off and on. I understand now. One of those things where the printed words can have 2 meanings...
I see what you meant. It sounds like when the horn was chosen it acted like there was a flasher in the circuit that beep-beep-beeped the horn, but constant on when the lights were chosen. I remember the lights, but not the horn. Pretty innovative for the times.
Dan
Dan
dmathieu said:
I thought the lights and horn just coming on "Intermittently" for no real reason was odd.....
JohnMarcson said:I thought the lights and horn just coming on "Intermittently" for no real reason was odd.....
Yes. the car horn would "flash". When they first sent the system up, only sergeants had walkies and above had walkies. Even when patrol officers started getting walkies, they were 0.5 or 1 watt UHF units and weren't very reliable in side buildings. Spares were non existent; so if your car's walkie was MIA or broke, you went without. They still had some cars with recall until they went to 800mhz in the early 90's..