Hi, My name is Dick Paul, I am a retired police officer, and in
addition to those duties, I have been a ham radio operator since 1959 and received my 1st class RT license in 1964. I am a former Federal S&S dealer and have for the past 45 years installed/repaired/maintained
radio communication systems, lights, lettering, etc on police and fire department
vehicles of many Chicago area Municipalities.
I was lucky to be chosen by the Federal VP of Engineering, Mike McConnell, a neighbor in Park Ridge, to test one of the first Jetsonics after it was installed on my squad by two FS engineers at the factory. (The light had some problems....first bulb sockets were pot metal (no-no)).
Prior to that I worked for Motorola service in the Chicago area and
later in the Navy at N.A.S. Glenview as a ETN-2 mobile radio tech, responsible for all mobile comm equiptment, In the 80's I drove from Chicago to Quad Cities in a Chicago PD squad, field testing the first in car computer. I also designed and installed
Microwave systems for IDOT's Kennedy
Expwy system reversable lanes system. ;
I was also a
member of APCO from 1967 to 1994, serving on the National Operating and Procedures
committee.
(APCO were the people who wrote the 10 codes and got the 911 number
and decided that "car 49 from car 45" was better than saying "car 45 to car 49
", all that stuff.)(Don't buy those 1956 model cars with "Dial 911" on
the side, the number didn't exist then)