911:: Re: Those jokers at the DMV

[Guest guest]

Roy, When I dispatched for LAPD years ago.....early 70's, the fine men of

that agency used to run that license plate for the newly released RTO's

(radio telephone operators) that worked there. Remember it well.......and it

was funny!!!!!

Janey Hall

Operations Manager

South Bay Communications

jhall@...

[Guest guest]

At 01:36 PM 10/22/2000 +0000, Roy reminisced:

>Back when I was first hired (1973), there was a (Harley) motorcycle " test

>plate " usually run in our area to see if the new dispatcher

>understood FCC rules, that everyone in our area had a scanner, etc,

>as well as to check both common sense and sense of humor. The plate

>was real (though not local) and registered to a business.

<snip>

It was still legally registered in the late 70s, too, because we

encountered it at Monterey County Comm (only one county north of Roy's)

during my early tenure there. (I was hired in 1977.)

It just so happens that I shared that anecdote with our Captain as he was

reading - and chuckling over - the printed copy of 2URJ377 on our bulletin

board the other night.

There's also a great " R/O " to some plate out there (sorry, I don't have it

available because the dispatcher didn't print it!!!) which " works best "

when NOT phonetically spelled: NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. It does tend to set

an officer back a tad when hearing that. <grin>

And I'll never forget THIS plate from the far distant past: 243LAI. Don't

run it, either - long before the laws changed in 1989 to prohibit

" curiosity inquiries, " the Vietnamese family who owned the car associated

with the plate sold it. (The R/O names were startling only if one read

both subjects aloud " cold " and in the natural name order. Major giggle time.)

........Roy also mentioned the old Teletype machines. I prided myself on

being able to input almost all of the longer and more character-laden

inquiries without running a " tape " to set it up. <blowing across my

fingertips> There was only a short window of opportunity to get the

formatted inquiry " in " - absolutely error free and only ONE try - before

the line dropped from CLETS. (California Law Enforcement TeleTYPE System,

in them thar days. Now that final initial stands for " Telecommunications. " )

Longer messages, BOLs, that sort of thing, from the Comm Center to the user

agencies did require typing it all out on the punch tape first.

Back then, you could dial up station teletypes - a single one or multiple

machines - and send messages without the source showing up at all. Of

course, the protocol WAS to identify the intended recipients and the

issuing agency.

In the middle of one graveyard shift, " someone " rang up all the teletypes

in Monterey County agencies to disseminate the verbatim text message of the

radio " Emergency Broadcast System " - complete with a full minute of " bells "

for that long, annoying signal burst. Remember those words? " This is a

test of the Emergency Broadcast System. Your local stations, in voluntary

compliance with the FCC........[yadda yadda]. For the next sixty

seconds... [and so on and so forth]. " It ended with " If this had been an

actual emergency, you will be instructed to tune to your local Emergency

Broadcast Station. "

Oddly enough, not one single " desk officer " or records clerk working at the

time thought it was ..... that much out of the ordinary. " Some official

FCC test thing, I guess..... "

The bells had been annoying, but.... it was easy to slam the sound-proof

cover on the teletype until it was through with the message. Most of the

recipients simply ripped the text off the printer and posted it on a

clip-board with other teletype messages. Nobody even called the Comm

Center to ask questions about it!!!

Oh maaaaan.

Maybe if that typed EBS test message had gone to COMM CENTERS there might

have been someone with a live brain cell to figger out the FCC wouldn't

issue a written alert to " tune to another station " in the event of real

emergency. <heavy sigh>

At least the long printed MERRY CHRISTMAS " banner " with the huge letters

comprised of typed letters (each one a repitition of the letter in the

word: Ms for the first and twelfth character, Es for the second letter,

etc.) got the expected reaction.

Ahhhhh.. the memories. I bet there are plenty of well-seasoned folks on

this list that have played similar games back in the historical " golden

days " of dispatching.

Happy to be here, proud to serve.

Olmstead

Communications Supervisor

~on the Central California coastline~

" Not presumed to be an official statement of my employing agency. "

Home E-mail: mailto:gryeyes@...

http://www.gryeyes.com/

[Guest guest]

ROY,

NOW, I know who was the one who used to run my TT machine out of

paper on graveyard, working alone, had to tell the street guys to hold

traffic while I put a new roll of paper on.

Vern

Newark,Ca

PD/FD

Roy Mumaw wrote:

>

> Then you probably remember the old teletype machines (with roll

> paper), having to cut paper tapes for BOLOs, registration checks,

> etc.

>

>

> The local trick was to direct-dial up someone else in the county's

> machine (while they were busy), hold your own platen and then hit the

> line feed key. They would end up with yards of paper shooting out of

> their machine before they could get to it (and if you were sneaky

> enough, they couldn't prove it was you).

>

> Not that _I_ ever did it on a boring graveyard, of course. <g>

>

> Roy Mumaw

> Arroyo Grande PD

>

[Guest guest]

> > Remember it well, going back to 1969. Belonged to a Cycle Shop

> > in southern Ca.(LA}. Rumor was it was owned/run by the Hell's Angels.

> > Was always surpassed that it got thru the folks at DMV CA. Another

> > favorite was owned by a metallic fastener company. Made bolts etc. Sam

> > .

> >

> > Vern

> > Retired

> > Newark,Ca

> > PD/FD

> >

> -----------------------------------------------------

Here in the great midwest, our DMV issued a personalized license plate

SMEGMA.

They (obviously) had no idea what the word meant, that is until someone

pointed out the Funk & Wagnall's definition. The plate was recalled;

amongst

many red faces.

Werling, Anamosa, IA Iowa State Patrol Communications Cedar Rapids

http://www.jonescountytourism.com

http://www.ia.net/~anachamb/pumpkin.html

http://www.earthsat.com/Iowa/Winter.html (roads)

http://www.thehungersite.com (feed someone today)

mailto:scott@...

[Guest guest]

Okay, I didn't get it......

LaurieB

> > >

> > -----------------------------------------------------

> Here in the great midwest, our DMV issued a personalized license plate

> SMEGMA.

> They (obviously) had no idea what the word meant, that is until someone

> pointed out the Funk & Wagnall's definition. The plate was recalled;

> amongst

> many red faces.

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hey, Laurie, I was just filled in, if you really want to know, I will send

it off-list, but trust me, you probably don't want to know....my reply was

ewwwww, gross

Kim Kinsey

Chattanooga, TN PD/FD

opinions are mine and not my agency's!

home email: kjkinsey@...

work email: kinsey_kim@...

AOL IM or ICQ: CPDKimmieK

RE: 911:: Re: Those jokers at the DMV

>Okay, I didn't get it......

>

>LaurieB

>

>> > >

>> > -----------------------------------------------------

>> Here in the great midwest, our DMV issued a personalized license plate

>> SMEGMA.

>> They (obviously) had no idea what the word meant, that is until someone

>> pointed out the Funk & Wagnall's definition. The plate was recalled;

>> amongst

>> many red faces.

[Guest guest]

try running TXdl 00000005

no flagging system included

[Guest guest]

Here's one for you if you can pronounce it to the officer or if he has time

for your to phonetically spell it.

2001 KS/ OIU403

ITS A MOUTHFUL.

Doug in Leavenworth