The 1972 CRB Radio Directory for Massachusetts had an entry to Sterling MF KCA364 31.64 (MF = municipal forestry) - this all matches the info from the Sterling FD website
On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 2:57 PM, Peter S <[email protected]> wrote: > One of Sterling's most tragic fires occurred on April 5, 1946 when > five children were burned to death in a house owned by the Woodring > family on Redemption Rock Trail. The department was summonsed to the > fire and responded quickly but due to the distant proximity to the > center of town, they were not able to arrive in time to rescue the > children that perished inside. > > By 1938 several large capacity water holes had been built in the > center of town, installed under the NIRA for use as public water > supply. Included with this system were 27 hydrants scattered > throughout the center of town and this combined with the larger > booster tanks built on the newer apparatus helped with the water > problems that continuously troubled the department. > > Also during the late 1930's radio technology was beginning develop > within the town > departments. In 1937 Cliff Rugg began working with the Department of > Natural Resources (DNR) in experimenting with radios for use in civil > defense. The first radio acquired for the town was a receiver that > Cliff mounted in one of the Municipal Light Department trucks for > emergency use during power outages. By 1940, Cliff added a transmitter > to go with this receiver and by the end of the year had installed a > second transmitter/receiver unit in another Light Department truck. In > 1941 Cliff built a radio tower on his garage and the DNR built him a > base transmitter which he began to use occasionally for both the Fire > Department and Light Department activities. Cliff experimented with > this technology for several years before anyone began to take his > ideas seriously, but finally in 1947 when the DNR. radio network > changed from AM to FM, he had gained enough support to get the town to > invest $3500.00 to upgrade the town's radio equipment. > > Once the upgrade was complete, Sterling became licensed to operate a base > station on frequency 31.340 MHz using the call sign "WBPP". Soon after > this a radio was installed on Engine 3 which made Sterling one of the > first departments in the area capable of communicating direct from > the scene of a fire to the base station without the use of telephone. > As Sterling continued to to use the DNR radio network for the Light > Department, Fire Department and Forest Warden activities, other towns > slowly began join on the network as well. > > On July 19, 1949 Sterling re-licensed, changing the call sign changed > from WBPP to KCA364 and > continued to operate as such up until March 22, 1958 when Sterling > moved its Fire Department radio operations onto the Mid State radio > network, operating on 33.700 MHz under the call sign of KCE537. > Sterling was one of the first towns to use this channel and continued > to use it along with the DNR network which remained in use by the > local Forest Wardens up until 1974. By the early 1950's, firefighters > were being issued home radio receivers, some of which were built by > Cliff from military surplus equipment. With the capability to talk > directly to firefighters via the radio, Cliff and his wife Helen > inevitably became Sterling's first Fire Department Dispatchers. Using > the telephones and radio equipment set up in their living room, they > would receive and dispatch calls for the Fire and Police Departments > for almost 50 years. > > from the Sterling MA FD website -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "massfire" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/massfire. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
