[Doug Houston]

It's a pretty good set. Oh yes, it's crammed into the chassis, but the replacement capacitors will be smaller than the originals. I think there are some bakelites, of course. Whjen the set's running, just don't drape curtains on the cabinet!

In the early thirties, and really up to WW II, the police dispatchers were on the band, immediately above the broadcast band. Detroit's station WCK was on 2414 KC. Many radios had a legitimate police band, as did the Philco 640X that my aunt and uncle bought new (now, in my collection). Many a Sunday evening, we'd listen to the police calls on that set.

It happens that the police carriers were not very far from the high end of many radio's tuning. It was possible to get some of the police calls by using "image frequencies" from you radio's tuning, especially if it didn't have an RF preselector stage. Loads and loads of AA5 sets had the word; "Police" at the top of the dial. It worked on lots of sets.

I think that the one that flipped me the most was the night that I was waiting on the ferry dock, at Mackinaw City, for the boat to St. Ignace. That was a few years before the bridge. The car was a '47 Chevrolet, with the 6 tube radio, that was seen in millions of those cars from 1946-48. It had an RF stage, and the usual 260 KC I.F., typical of auto radios It was warm weather, so, windows open. I was poking around on the high end of the band. Suddenly, police calls came piling in from Nashville, Tennessee. Obviously, a strong sky wave was piling in on me! he guy in the car next to us, asked what kind of a radio I had in there? I was as astonished as he was.