Date: Wed, 11 May 94 14:50:50 CDT From: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Subject: Book Reviews: Police Call / Beyond Police Call Most readers of the Digest who are scanner enthusiasts are already familiar with POLICE CALL, a multi-volume set of reference books giving the frequencies for public safety radio communications throughout the USA, along with quite a bit of other useful information relating to the use of scanners. Broken down into volumes based on geography, each volume of POLICE CALL serves various parts of the USA. For example Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Wisconsin make up volume 4, which is the portion I get each year. Published annually since sometime in the early 1960's, the 1994 edition includes numerous miscellaneous listings including some federal government entries, railroads, and aircraft. In addition to an alphabetical listing of license holders by state, a cross reference by frequency makes it easy to find out who is occupying a given spot when all you have is the frequency you are listening to without a name or location. Gene Hughes has been the editor of POLICE CALL since its inception. Published by Hollins Radio Data of Los Angeles, the book (or rather, the volume of the book relevant to your geographic location) is a very fine and comprehensive publication. In April, the first new publication from Hollins was released, and it also is proving to be a valuable reference tool for scanner enthusiasts. Entitled BEYOND POLICE CALL, the first (of what is promised to be annual editions) covers all sorts of other listings of license holders. Unlike the original, BEYOND POLICE CALL is a single volume publication covering the entire United States. Unlike the original, this new book only has an alphabetical listing of license holders, broken down first by state, then by type of service, the finally by license holder within the state and service categories. There is no cross-reference by frequency in this book, and that is its major drawback in my opinion. Richard Barnett, known to many people on the east coast for his scanner reference guides, collaborated with Gene Huges on this new book. Barnett is shown as the editor with Hughes as the publisher. According to Barnett and Hughes, nearly two years was spent gathering the information for the new book, and revisions are planned annually, apparently in the spring of each year. The original POLICE CALL usually comes out in the fall. Because it is a consolidated USA listing, the new book runs about 430 pages, (POLICE CALL tends to run about 200+ pages) and my suggestion to the authors would be that subsequent revisions need to be broken down geographically like the original, and most definitly a cross- reference by frequency needs to be included. The kinds of listings you will find in BEYOND POLICE CALL include: -- frequencies used at sports events -- frequencies used by public utilities (here to some extent it gets ridiculous; the authors apparently just did a dump of FCC records; the listings for 'Ameritech' and 'Illinois Bell' go on for better than a page of small type as do the listings for 'Commonwealth Edison') -- amusement parks -- resorts and casinos -- school districts -- newspapers, television and radio news departments -- shopping mall security forces (naturally, living a block and a half from Skokie's 'Old Orchard Mall' I put that one in my scanner right away) -- movie crews -- colleges and universities (their security departments, etc) -- stadiums -- hospitals -- hotels -- taxicab dispatching -- towing services for disabled and/or illegally parked cars -- ski resorts -- race crews -- state fairs -- conventions -- public transportation -- farm cooperatives -- private investigators -- neighborhood watch groups Some of the above makes for very interesting listening, as any scanner enthusiast will tell you. The thing with public safety radio is that it makes up only a small percentage of what is out there. Many people buy a scanner only to listen to the police and unwittingly they miss huge amounts of very good stuff they might miss otherwise. Where to get your copy: I got both of mine (RADIO CALL 1994 Edition Volume 4 and BEYOND RADIO CALL) at the local Radio Shack store here in Skokie. They are $9.99 each and go by RS 'part number' 62-1040 (Beyond) and 62-104x (POLICE CALL) where 'x' runs from 1 to 8 I think for the various regional editions. Our local Radio Shack had a dozen of the BEYOND books two days ago, now the manager is down to just a couple copies left so it is apparently going pretty fast and you may want to get your copy ASAP. I guess you could also order directly from the publisher, but be sure and specify *which state* you live in (or want listings for) if you order POLICE CALL so they know which one to send you. Hollins Radio Data PO Box 35002 Los Angeles, CA 90035 They don't list a phone number, 800 or otherwise, so my assumption is they prefer not to deal with phone call orders or inquiries. They do stress writing to them with suggestions and comments at their address shown above. I suggest just getting your copies from Radio Shack or some other book dealer. ------------------ On the same train of thought, whatever happened to that fellow out of Indianapolis, IN somewhere who published the NORTH AMERICAN RADIO AND TV GUIDE? It came out on a more or less annual basis for many years listing all the callsigns and frequencies of AM/FM radio and television stations in the USA, Canada and Mexico. I've not seen a fresh copy of it for many years now, and the last one I have is Volume 13. Is he still around? I think Sams published it. Patrick Townson A Digest reader replied to this review Date: Thu, 12 May 94 12:11 EST From: Al Cohan <0004526627@mcimail.com> Subject: Re: Book Review: Police Call & Beyond Police Call Pat, Gene Hughes was not only a neighbor of mine when I was in Jr. High School, but he is now also a relative of mine. At a recent family get together, Gene and I had a long talk about his publications. Although he likes getting mail, frequently he is inundated with angry purchasers of his book claiming: I bought your book and our local police department is [enter local city] isn't listed. True, up to 50% of *many* local agencies either ignore the FCC renewal requests or forget to renew the license! What is the FCC going to do to a Fire Department, red tag their transmitters? No, but Gene does go on to explain that his copyrighted work (compiliation, I suppose) is obtain from official records and if no license exists, then no listing exists -- or in some editions he prints frequencies previously listed and thought to be in use! So what does the FCC do about compliance with state, local, agencies? They now have a program for something Gene called "preference licensing" or something to that effect. What *can* and in some cases actually happens is that if a license is not renewed and a neighboring entity files on the frequencies of the expried license, the FCC gives the frequencies to the new licensee, rejecting the subsequent late renewal application from the former agency! DO you have any idea what it costs to do a frequency seach, co-ordination and re-programming (and retuning duplexers) for a major public agency? I do, and it don't come cheap. If any of your readers buy the current Police Call series and don't find their local agencies listed, I suggest they call the local agency and ask them "When does your FCC license expire"? I'll bet there will be a lot of red faces -- and save the agency a lot of aggravation. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Good point you raise about the lack of cooperation/compliance between a local emergency agency and the FCC. I've always noticed that Police Call carries that very disclaimer in the front of the book. Mr. Hughes says that a lot of agencies do not comply -- have no current license -- and therefore may not be listed. I hope when you talk to him next you'll mention how useful I have found his new publication, and that I hope it will be arranged by frequency in subsequent editions just like the original. Mention to him also that his partnership with Tandy/Radio Shack for the sale of the books seems to be a good one also. Radio Shack scanner customers love the books. PAT]