A MILLION INVISIBLE MESSENGERS

foreign midnight in home city and as the chimes of tower clock are ending their 12 slow beats the loudspeaker in police car 64 comes alive cars 64 65 and 61 code 3 on a 459 location 41 oak street as his partner swings the car away from the curb officer dolan lifts the hand microphone to acknowledge car 64 four he says as he releases the talk button he hears cars sixty five and sixty one acknowledging they're on their way within two and a half minutes patrol cars have reached the scene of the crime police have charged in and captured an armed man so with the new day not yet five minutes all the invisible messengers of two-way mobile radio have already started their daily record of outstanding service to the city providing better police protection and other public safety services for your tax dollar meeting the rapidly expanding needs of spreading communities it is a record that is repeated in city town and county from maine to texas every day in the year the minutes move on in home city 1207 a worried housewife calls the dispatcher at the city gas plant gas odor in the house what can be done there's an emergency car in your immediate area he reassures her we'll have it over there right away he radios the car as he puts down the telephone thus this and other progressive gas electric and water public utilities provide faster better service more efficiently than could be done before the days of two-way radio and now it's 12 22. the sound of sirens warns that fire trucks are answering an alarm downtown as the first company swings into action the fire lieutenant in charge sees that he has a big blaze to fight needs a lot more equipment in a hurry instantly his voice is telling fire headquarters what he needs the dispatcher radios available companies and warns the police police radio calls alert two cars to speed to the fire scene to clear the way for additional fire apparatus and hold crowds back the big firefighting job requires split-second coordination a job easily handled by individually carried two-way radio units ladder and hose men out of sight around the rear of the building inside or on the roof can get immediate instructions warnings of collapsing walls or other dangers can be spoken instantly to any part of the area what might have been a disastrous fire is brought under control quickly and damage held to a minimum because radio got the extra equipment there faster complete modern two-way radio equipment makes fire departments more effective saves lives cuts losses saves taxes the chief quickly summons a radio equipped ambulance and the one fireman overcome by smoke is on his way to the hospital in a matter of minutes 1 10 a.m fire companies are on the way back to home stations but the invisible messengers are getting no rest for the airwaves are becoming busier each night each day thanks to the foresight of the federal communications commission mobile radio has moved far beyond its original use for such emergency public safety services as police and fire communications and on into countless ways of economically and effectively serving the public including improvement of our transportation facilities as in the 24 hour taxi service in home city those taxi channels are active even in these early morning hours quickly reaching cabs needed to rush people to the airport the hospitals homes and other places where people need to be in a hurry using radio the taxi companies can cover the widening areas of modern suburbs and downtown centers more effectively serving the public better and the taxi systems can help in public safety emergencies too as in home city at 1 13 this morning a taxi driver at 13th and oak reports a weaving car has sideswiped two parked cars and is speeding west on the avenue he gives his dispatcher the two numbers of the license plate he was able to see the dispatcher phones police radio control and is told to pass along any further information he gets the police dispatcher alerts all patrol cars to locate and stop the speeding car another taxi driver spots the car radioing the information through his dispatcher to police police cars close in forcing the speeder into a road blocked by a big trucker's rig by 121 the drunken driver is apprehended no longer a menace to life and property thanks to prompt action by the radio equipped police department coordination of public and private vehicles and services as in this police and taxi cooperation becomes even more important in time of great natural disaster in civil defense or other major emergencies when everything from public utility service cars to garbage collection trucks may be pressed into special duty and all this use whether for emergencies or for day-to-day routine requires the orderly use of the radio channels so carefully prescribed by the federal communications commission in spite of the fact that many of these channels are crowded business goes on because sharing of the airwaves is carefully planned and because radio manufacturers have applied scientific and engineering ingenuity to finding ways which permit greater use of the available bands so now thousands of businesses are able to give better service to the public passing along the economic benefits of mobile two-way radio less backtracking by delivery and service vehicles more effective use of manpower and equipment ability to serve more customers pre-dawn traffic in home city shows some of the uses of mobile radio in modern business here it's 2 15 am and trucks are unloading at the city markets helping merchants ready their stocks for the day's service to customers the trucks are always in instant communication so that they may shift pick up or deliver their perishable loads more rapidly at 2 38 the driver of a wholesale butcher truck called by radio pulls in to pick up a special load of meat for a hotel faced with a shift in convention luncheon plans ten blocks away at 301 a bulk tank truck breaks a fan belt but the driver radios in and by 3 24 his truck is back in service nearby a railroad yard engine ships cars around giving perishable shipments special fast handling the engineer talks with caboose tower or radio equipped yard man for fast relay of information and down the track the engineer of a big mainline diesel gets his go ahead from the conductor and starts his long freight on its trip south it's 4 53 a.m as the train climbs into the high forest land some 20 miles from home city engineer johnson spots a wisp of smoke curling up from a hillside hope it's not a forest fire he thinks but knows that if it is the rangers will take care of it ranger winston in a hilltop tower a mile away sees the train passing and also spots that smoke at 501 he's using his two-way set to rouse emergency crews at three locations giving them the location of the fire within minutes they are acknowledging his call by 521 forest fire truck 4 starts for the fire site fast communications permit fire crews like this one to move quickly and get the fire under control rapidly saving our precious natural resources this fire is quickly controlled and the loggers who had been alerted to the possibility of helping fight the fire are able to return to their normal routine so at six am as usual the big machines of modern logging go ahead with their tasks at a dozen remote locations operations easily controlled by spoken words flash through the air one logging operation is within shouting distance of blue hills farm where early riser bill brown is already out at work in the field at 7 10 a.m his wife calls him back to the farmhouse to meet arriving dr cole the veterinarian by the time bill has stopped the machine and hopped into the pickup truck for that mile run back to the house dr cole has had a chance to wash up and start getting out his kit bill joins him to show him the sick animal as soon as the treatment is over dr cole checks by radio with his home office to find out where he's needed next and as he drives along the highway he remembers the way things were 10 years ago when he sometimes drove miles to the nearest telephone only to find that his next assignment was only two farms away from where he had been treating a sick cow half an hour earlier today he would be able to move quickly straight to that farm saving miles minutes and money driving toward town dr cole must move along a detour near a major highway project first where the big pipes are being placed to divert a mountain stream then passed a couple of miles of earth leveling operations in the valley where radio directed earth moving machines push and snarl back and forth all day the winding detour carries him also near a strip mine one more place where giant machines are easily directed by two-way radio mining bridge building major highway construction and other operations using heavy machinery the doctor realizes need such rapid two-way communications to permit the costly big machines to keep in service efficiently over long hours over the ridge dock passes the western style ranch of his friend and good customer peyton smith rancher smith waves and goes on talking over the day's work with two of his cow hands it's nearly nine o'clock and doc is getting a little tired of the detour won't be long before we have fresh smooth concrete along here he says to himself and he begins to pass the many concrete trucks bringing in fresh mixed loads from the plants of several companies that's a tricky operation he muses the stuff must be used quickly or it starts to harden and must be dumped i guess those fellows get as much help from fast radio advice as i do maybe more men and cars get thirsty on such a run and a veterinarian is no exception in a filling station he stands by for a moment while a serviceman replenishes the coke machine thing only ran out 15 minutes ago says the station manager i called in and they reached this truck by radio right away you'll have your coke in a minute we'll leave doc here at 9 27 a.m to enjoy that well-earned refreshment while we think a bit about the story behind this filling station he's standing in about gasoline and oil about the bulk plants the refineries the pipelines trucks and tankers the wells the oilfield service companies about the whole petroleum industry and where radio fits into that picture let's follow the pipeline down from home city to the coast of the gulf of mexico in the bayou country get aboard this oil company cruiser for a run out past a drilling barge used in oil explorations where radio communications permit efficient search for oil to supplement our dwindling land oil resources we see how this unusual floating rig structure looks up close outside inside topside after passing the floating rig the cruiser heads into deeper water and finally arrives at the offshore platform 30 miles out day in and day out there must be communication from platform to shore from service cruiser to barge from fire boat to all points a job possible only with mobile radio and on land 2 mobile radio does its work for petroleum operations especially in the spectacular emergency of an oil fire where many men and much equipment must be coordinated and directed to fight the blaze but of course the oil story does not stop here there are pipelines laid by radio directed crews refineries with their many maintenance supply and service crews and then delivery in such forms as gasoline fuel oil and bottled gas which happens every day right in home city those radio dispatch trucks carrying petroleum products are but a small part of the fleet of vehicles moving around the town in the middle of a typical day lumber trucks tv and appliance repair trucks laundry trucks even newspaper reporter and photographer units and always those giant over-the-road tractor trailer rigs that truck freight of every variety within the city and between cities day and night and when the home city trucker gets out on the road he'll spot place after place where quick communications are making operations efficient safer better from the cruisers of state county and turnpike police to the hundreds of utility trucks serving power stations transmission lines lighting systems and traffic controls public utilities using radio can serve larger areas with less equipment saving money yet giving more effective service when the home city driver pulls into a plant to pick up a load he sees forklifts tow trucks and other materials handling machines rushing the load to his platform location those inside the plant vehicles often carry their own radios for quick communication with dispatchers and supervisors around the clock inside plants and out the invisible messengers fill the air in the home city area as in other places all over the nation and now that the federal communications commission has encouraged widespread new uses by business municipalities and others we can be served by mobile radio almost from the cradle to the grave the visiting nurse arrives in answer to a radio call as does the diaper service man and the plumber cemetery vehicles garbage trucks even dog catchers cars can get orders by air saving time saving work saving money thus is two-way radio a major tool in our modern economy essential to our steady progress as a nation you and i and every american are served now by these magic voices in motion the use of mobile radio is growing faster each year the story in home city is the story of all america in 1947 a few thousand mobile radio sets were on the air ten years later the number approached a million transmitters giving you uncounted millions of invisible messengers serving you daily in countless ways and every day new uses for mobile radio develop which bring new patterns and potentials to the american way of life you