[BC] Early mobile phones

[John Holt]

Michigan Bell installed the first "dial" mobile system in Detroit in 1971. 
 150 mHz.  The Motorola control had a big dial in the middle.  Michigan 
Bell engineering chose a 5 double rack relay control system made by 
Kellogg because they knew it would work and didn't trust the single rack 
transistor system.  This replaced the manual system where you picked up 
the handset and talked to the mobile operator giving your number and the 
number you wanted to connect to.  These were really cells but much larger 
then today with the lower frequency and there were many more receive sites 
then transmit sites.

We also had ship-to-shore for the Great Lakes at 2 mHz as well with three 
different locations.  The second class operators had to log all SOS 
traffic (as reported to them by the mobile operator) but most of it was 
skip at night for the Gulf of Mexico which we reported to the Coast Guard.

John M. Holt
Director of Engineering and Operations
WAMU-American University
Washington, DC 20016
202-885-1242
jholt at wamu.org
http://www.wamu.org

broadcast-bounces at radiolists.net wrote on 01/07/2008 11:46:30 AM:

> Ca. '70, a neurosurgeon who'd recently moved 'down from Boston' to 
> Providence, with a gift for flamboyance - as RI bluestockings saw it
> - generously 
> demonstrated phone in his Porsche, which they well occupied.
> 
>   Center hump mounted control head w/dial prominent, button row across 
top of 
> unit. One could select quiet channel manually or unit would do so 
> automaticaly. Doctor pointed out ROAM button, vaguely understood at 
> time, something about 
> working freqs in non-local areas. Aft mounted antenna cut ca. 152 megs,
> 
>   Around this time, McSparran Hill, commonly called Tower Hill due to 
> prominent wood fire tower, Routes 1 & 138, South Kingstown, RI,  Telco 
Garage 
> featured newly constructed space diversity micro link to Block 
> Island. This augmented 
> site several miles south on Route 108, Pt. Judith Road, which also was 
home 
> to Boston Marine Operator 2 meg receiver and possibly remote 
transmitter. 
> 
>  Tower Hill site also had wood pole sporting several 152ish antlers for 
both 
> dispatch & mobile phones.
> 
>  For a laugh, ca. '74, inquired as to car phone rates. Base was around 
> 100/mo, calls extra as was install, if recall correctly. 
> 
> 
> 
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