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DIRECTORATE OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS
HISTORY; POLICE ON MF
page 3 of 6
Document written by Brian Pears (no other details available)
Following the undoubted success of the shared MF telegraphy schemes in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Manchester, the Home Office formulated the Medium Frequency Regional Scheme, which entailed a network of Regional Wireless Stations covering the entire country.
The Chief Constable of Nottingham City Police, at the instigation of radio amateur Mr H.B. Old, had shown particular interest in the idea, so in 1938 the Home Office approved the setting up of the first Regional Wireless Station at Stanton, Nottingham which was to serve the counties of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Rutland, as well as a number of city forces in the area, using a single frequency in the 1600-1800 kHz band. Stanton opened on July 1st. 1939 with Mr H.B. Old as Regional Engineer and Mr O.B. Kellett as Experimental Wireless Technician.
As with the Newcastle and Manchester systems, messages for transmission to vehicles were passed to the control room by private-wire telephone links, but unlike those systems, the new station operated on telephony (voice) rather than telegraphy. It would no longer be necessary for large numbers of police officers to be trained in morse code.
Although the Stanton station was essentially experimental in nature, it quickly proved its worth, and after only a few weeks of operation, the Home Office approved the building of a further eight similar stations to complete coverage of England. Even the outbreak of war did not interfere with this programme, and site-selection and building work went ahead without delay. Overseeing the work was the newly formed Communications Branch of the Home Office.
Up to this time the Post Office had issued callsigns for individual police schemes as required, so there was GWW for the Met, GTM in Liverpool, GWB in Manchester and MVQ in Nottingham etc. With the formation of the Home Office Communications Branch, it was decided that they would take over responsibility for all police callsign allocations using the series M2AA-M2ZZ.
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