After the satisfactory testing of VHF radio, a planned royal tour of New Zealand by King George VI provided a catalyst for the rapid introduction of an operational 2 way radio system. Although the tour was canceled due to the ill health of the King, twenty, single channel Pye radios were imported from Britain and installed in Police cars in the main cities. These radios operated on a frequency of 77.5 MHz in AM simplex mode. There were no repeater stations so all communications were car to car or car to base. This meant that although the communication range was reasonable between cars and base, because the base transmitters and receivers were located on high hill tops, the car to car range was usually less than 2 miles.
1948 Chevrolet Fleetmaster
The vehicles first equipped with radio were 1948 Chevrolet Fleetmaster patrol cars. The radios were mounted in the boot, and were equipped with a motor generator unit to provide the high voltage power supply required by the transmitter and receiver valves. Because of the high current consumption of these radios, the cars were fitted with an extra battery and generator specially for the radio. Even so, with prolonged patroling at less then 10 mph there was always the danger of flat batteries.
The base transmitters and receivers for the system were installed on hill tops in each city - Mount Eden in Auckland, Mount Victoria in Wellington, and the Cashmere Hills in Christcurch. They were linked to the Central police stations by land lines.