http://www.wb6nvh.com/MTSfiles/Carphone1.htm
...The photos in the article are great, especially the trunk full of radio equipment.
That's a fabulous article on the exceedingly rare and costly "zero generation" of telephone systems for cars. However, what it fails to mention is a parallel development used by many--maybe even more than that shown in the article. That was the use of mobile "ham" radios, using "repeaters" that connected the radio transceivers to the telephone systems. Somewhere in our membership we probably have some old "hams" that can better answer this; I was not a ham, nor did I ever have a license or a radio. I cannot remember but I think that the frequencies were ¾ meter or 2 meter bands. You'd somehow connect to a repeater and then somehow make the call. In several places I lived ham radios (with their commensurate vanity plates, and car antennas) in cars were quite popular.
I believe my Pagoda once had one of these radio telephone ham transceivers in the trunk. That was the kind of electronic tinkering my uncle used to do. I remember seeing it as a kid taking up a bit of trunk space! Knowing my uncle it was probably a Heathkit that he built himself.
For those Hollywood and or trivia buffs, note that U.S. Patent 2,292,387 was issued on August 11, 1942 to Hedy Kiesler Markey, better known as Hedy Lamarr. This patent was for "frequency hopping" the principles of which are incorporated into Bluetooth and GPS technology and are akin to methods used in CDMA and Wi-Fi; it was essential for what became "cell phone" technology. Lamarr was described as one of the greatest movie actresses of all time, whose work was in Hollywood's golden era.
