Sunday, June 21, 2020
What's a Prueter? /// Edit: probably answered.
Looking at a 1934 issue of Shortwave Radio News. In '34 the FCC was getting fully organized for the first time, with all sorts of new regulations and changes.
At that time police two-way radio was in two bands, one just above the BCB at 1500-1800, and the other around 2400 Kc. Roughly 2/3 of the stations were around 2400, the rest around 1700.
Here's the puzzle:
In addition to stations licensed for police service in the conventional medium - high frequency band - there are outstanding at this time experimental authorizations which permit 50 municipalities to operate 125 stations in the ultra-high frequency range, in the neighborhood of Prueters.Prueters? It's capitalized, not a blur or obvious misprint. I'm familiar with radio terminology from that era and never heard the word. Google doesn't help; lots of people named Prueter and businesses named Prueter's, but no references that would make any sense in this context. Do they mean geographical neighborhood or frequency neighborhood? It can't be geographical, because there isn't a city or county named Prueter or Prueters. Frequency neighborhood seems more likely. Was a Prueter a machine that prueted? Would the readers recognize this frequency range by familiarity with Prueter machines or Prueter-type transmitters? Was Prueter a brand name for something like a diathermy machine? = = = = = The actual FCC publication (p 42 of this PDF) clarifies the frequency but doesn't mention Prueters. The "ultra-high" band being tried by some police depts was around 30 Mc, which is also a typical range for diathermy. The official assignments for diathermy are 27.12 and 40.68 Mc. Still doesn't solve the mystery. Could be diathermy, could be pretty much anything. = = = = = Later and better thought: 30 Mc is a wavelength of 10 meters. The assigned area was just over 30, which would be 9 meters. In the neighborhood of 9 meters is a common way of expressing frequency. Was Prueters a linotypist's misread of a handwritten manuscript? A written m can be misread as ru, and 9 could become P. 9meters = Prueters. See p 77 in this 1935 Gernsback mag.
Labels: Asked and partly answered, Asked and unanswerable, Bemusement
¶ 3:57 PM
