IMTS analog phones?

In article you write:

Wikipedia says there's one system still operating in northern Minnesota:

GTE in 1993 turned a system up in the Hemet area of Riverside County in California, the reason was some of the areas our techs had to go Cellular would not work, it was only in a few company vehicles, but it was really strange seeing them. Don't know if they are still in service since service has been upgraded in the area with more towers, and I'm now retired.

This post reminds me of the MTS and IMTS systems N.E.T. operated in Boston: I was a tech on the "Radio Board" at Franklin Street, and we used to monitor the mobile networks, the Marine Ship-to-shore network, the paging system, and the air-to-ground service along with our regular day-to-day work of radio remote broadcast lines.

I was always amazed at what the users would say on IMTS: the systems ran in the 152 MHz and 460 MHz range, and they could be overheard by anyone with a scanner.

Bill Horne Temporary Moderator

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In the 1970s those frequencies were constantly busy in the Los Angeles area. I heard some great conversations on my scanner in those days.

Was there any scrambling of carphone signals at all, such as even the crude frequency shifting used in WW II?

There was a warning sticker on the Metroliner radio-phones that conversations could be overhead.

Would anyone know know how the user operated the later model mobile phones? They had dials on them, but a number of buttons as well.

Bell developed AMPS theory and wanted to try it out in a test region. For some reason, the FCC sat on the proposal for two years before allowing it. Would anyone know why the FCC sat on it so long? There was an enormous demand for mobile phones, huge waiting lists.

(I was annoyed my local first term state senator got one; he really didn't need it and undoubtedly there were others on the waiting list who did. Of course he lasted only one term and got voted out).