Seventy years ago, the concept of installing two-way radio in a taxi was a new one, as shown in this article from the July 1945 issue of Popular Mechanics.

An experimental system was being tried out in Cleveland, using FM on 118 MHz.  The article correctly predicted that the experiment had proved so successful that it would be a postwar economic necessity for many cab companies.

Both the fixed and mobile stations used fifteen watts, and the experiment showed that this power level provided static free reception throughout the Cleveland area.

The Motorola mobile unit, shown below, was mounted in the trunk of the vehicle. The equipment originally covered what we today call the “low band” (30-50 MHz) and had to be converted on the experimental frequency of 118.65 MHz. Clearly visible in the photo is the dynamotor, which was a motor-generator set. The motor ran on the DC voltage from the car battery (probably 6 volts) and drove a high-voltage DC generator to power the equipment. A control head, along with a telephone handset, was mounted in the vehicle for the driver to operate the radio.

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