Cops on FM.
 

In England till the late 1980's the cops would use around 100Mhz on the FM band for their 2 way radios, of course nearly all FM radios could pick them up. Spent many a bored night listening to their transmissions, most of the time you could only hear one side of the conversation as they were semi duplex, but some networks were simplex & you'd hear both sides. Of course it was illegal to listen, but millions did, lol...

In the mid 50's, our Police band was on the upper end of the broadcast band around 1700 KC. I used to tweak the osc trimmer on a AA5 to receive it.
Going into the 60's everything went FM around 158-159 MC around here anyway. :scratch2:

I have several radios from the 30s and 40s that have dial markings to 1700 KC... some are even marked “police” at the upper end of the dial. Were these transmissions normally 2-way or just receive only in the cars?

jr

At one time, decades back, Chicago police were on FM at 800-something MHz, if I recall correctly. A transistor oscillator / diode mixer could move this down to the AM band, where you could listen via slope detection with an AM radio. A friend built such a device. First time I heard some of the transmissions I wondered what they were talking about; "I have a TV at 5th and Main" until I was informed "TV" meant traffic violation.

They said when the bad lads robbed a bank/post office they'd have an FM radio tuned to the cops so they knew when they were on their way. Remember a chase going on & they were coming near my house. I went outside to watch but they went past the end of the road & I missed the fun. The cops moved off the FM band as more broadcast stations fired up, you can't stick a pin in the FM band round here now as there are so many stations. Don't know what frequency the cops use now...

In the US it was legal to listen to anything on radio as long as you didnt
profit or break the law using the info you heard. We sold tons of scanners
especially to older folk. Great entertainment. Cops didnt mind them, they
got lots of help from an informed public. Some towns used scramblers
but there were add on descramblers. Scrambled talk was usually ordering
a pizza pick up !

In the 70's I was a "special" cop & had a 1972 Olds Toronado land yacht.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YEVmUJgJ9c
Used that to aid when we heard something on the scanner. Nobody ever
caught on. Unmarked were usually plain Fords or Chevys. Car was a FWD
so had a huge space for radios. I had a SSB CB, 3 band scanner, B&W TV,
H.H. Scott home stereo that ran on 12 volts & an in dash 8-track AM/FM.
If on duty also picked up a handy talky at the station if I wasnt riding
shot gun in a cruiser. Lots of stories from those good old days.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

"Unmarked" cars are usually so easy to spot, I wonder why the fuzz even bother with them. Anything with plain steelies and no rub strips on the front doors is going to raise a red flag with the baddies.

We had a handheld scanner in '92 or so, fun thing to play with and listen to.

Hm, I hadn't seen a Toro quite like that one. It's quite a fly ride and probably a lot more powerful than later models. Much like a Caddy but with less bling which is how I like 'em. However, Coach Buttermaker's '72 Fleetwood Eldorado convertible had a certain charm, part of it being the duct tape holding the passenger door shut.