Name/Title
G.E.C. Lancon VHF police personal radio c1963Entry/Object ID
1222Description
GEC "Lancon" VHF personal radio, in black coloured plastic case, with 6 channel capability. Marked "LANCON" and "Designed by the Lancashire Constabulary Made in England G.E.C. Ltd", also marked serial number "724". Fitted with two cables, one with a microphone and the other with an attachment for an earpiece.Use
For a police officer to receive and transmit messages from and to and a local stationContext
From the late 1920's police forces had been using various forms of radio communications. However due to the size of the equipment required most police radios was confined to vehicles. A few forces, Brighton being the first in 1933, developed workable pocket radios but these were only capable of receiving messages. Brighton stopped using their system in 1939 when its frequency was re-allocated due to preparations for war. Experiments continued nationally after the Second World War but the challenge was to develop a transmitter unit that was small enough for an officer on foot to carry. So until the 1960s officers on the 'beat" had to rely on telephone communications, at police boxes or police pillars.
The Lancon radio was developed between 1960 and 1963 by the Lancashire Constabulary Radio Engineering Branch, who had been experimenting with personal radios since 1959. They designed their own radio due to none being easily available in the UK at that time and had them made by G.E.C. Ltd at their Coventry factory. It was designed to be carried in a harness on a belt. These radios were used by a number of other police forces until the late 1960s, when they were replaced with the Pye Pocketfone, the first personal radio adopted by the Home Office as standard for the UK police.
This particular radio came from Sussex Police and is thought to have been used in one of the Sussex Forces prior to the 1968 amalgamation by which time the Pye Pocketfone was being used across Sussex. It was one of four contemporary radios that formed part of a small collection and which appeared to have been part of a display at some time, within Sussex Constabulary/Police as they came complete with display cards. The card with this radio suggested it was used widely [nationally] between 1960 and 1966.
It is possible that this radio and two other types in the museum collection, made by Storno and Cossor, were part of Home Office trials late 1964/65 of VHF personal radios for the police and were trialed within Sussex. This would certainly explain their presence and apparent limited use in the Sussex region.