DIRECTORATE OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS
HISTORY; POLICE ON MF
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Document written by Brian Pears (no other details available)


After the strike many radio amateurs remained closely associated with their local police and most of the subsequent pioneering work in the field of base-mobile communications can be attributed directly to them.

The early thirties saw the opening of a number of such schemes, all using telegraphy on MF frequencies just above the medium wave broadcasting band, in what was then called the Trawler Band. In 1931, Nottingham City Police set up a two-way system under the auspices of Mr. H. B. Old (G2VQ), which linked the City's patrol cars with their headquarters using locally manufactured equipment. In the following year there were similar schemes introduced in Liverpool - a two-way system devised by Mr I. Auchterlonie (G6OM) and Mr O. B. Kellett (G5KL) - and in Stockport. Birmingham City Police too introduced a MF base-mobile system at around the same time, thanks to Mr George Brown (G5BJ).

Two schemes, however, deserve special mention as they pointed the way to what was to be a national scheme. At first sight the scheme introduced by Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Police in 1933 does not seem very different from the others, indeed in one respect it was less ambitious. Like the others it employed telegraphy on an MF frequency, in fact they used modified aircraft equipment manufactured by Standard Telephone and Cables, but unlike most of the others it was only a one-way system. The transmitter was located in their newly opened Pilgrim Street Headquarters and receivers were installed in both of the City's patrol cars. It was what happened in 1934, however, that marked out Newcastle's scheme as different from the others, because in that year receivers tuned to Newcastle's frequency were also installed in Gateshead Borough's police car and in three belonging to Durham County Constabulary. Private-wire telephone links already existed between the headquarters of the three forces, so messages for the Durham or Gateshead vehicles would be passed verbally from the respective headquarters to the Newcastle operator who then tapped them out on his morse key.
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In 1935 this idea was taken up by Manchester City Police on a rather grander scale. They introduced an MF system which covered no less than six police force areas - Manchester, Bolton, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford and Cheshire (Altrincham Division). The radio station was located at Heaton Park, Manchester, and all of the fixed and mobile equipment was manufactured at Heaton Park by a team of technicians led by Mr I. Auchterlonie and
Mr O.B. Kellett, who were now serving policemen. Manchester's scheme was predominantly one-way, but a single two-way link was employed for communication with Manchester's CID night squad van.

Police Interception Unit
To operate their new radio system Newcastle City Police had to train a number of officers in morse code This had a rather unexpected consequence in 1938 when a number of officers from the City Police were asked to set up an interception unit for the Radio Security Service. They, along with some 1200 other volunteers throughout the country, gave valuable service throughout World War 11 intercepting messages from both friendly and enemy sources and providing a large part of the raw material for the famous Ultra decrypts. The Police Radio Interception Unit operated from the City's West End Police Station on Arthurs Hill using two Hallicrafters receivers, a Super Skyrider and a Skyrider 23, The vast majority of the intercepted messages were, of course, in code and were simply forwarded to the RSS headquarters in London to be decoded. Rarely did the volunteer interceptors have any idea as to the nature or significance of the messages, but on one occasion they got just a clue. At 1905 on June 15th 1941 PC Ed Barron picked up the following message on 7050 KHz: "SOS SOS SOS DE (from) OKR FOR ENGLAND PSE (please) QSP (forward) TO GENERAL INGR IN ENGLAND" then followed 25 five- figure code groups, and finally "AR (end of message) PRAGUE"- Most unusually the RSS sent a personal message of thanks to the officer concerned which ended "Apparently this message is of great importance". (Tyne & Wear Archives Service Ref. T136-87)

Source: Kevin Carrig

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