The first portable radios I ever saw in law enforcement were acquired by Sheriff Doug Hendry. We, of course, had them in the military but in law enforcement they were rare. Too expensive! But Doug, as he was apt to do, found a way around that.
The government had gotten in the Civil Defense business big time. Don't recall who we worried about blowing us off the map at the time--or maybe it was for hurricane protection--but there were boxes of food, water and equipment available for any government official who wanted to put up with being the local CD Director. Doug checked into the program and found that portable radios were also available--free. So, he agreed to warehouse the food and stuff just to get the radios.
The things were just barely portable. We called them "lunch boxes" because they were about that size and as heavy as one stuffed with a thermos of RC Cola, ten Moon Pies, two cornbreads, and a quart of pinto beans. They were, however, capable of being lugged around and way ahead of anything else available for cops.
Over the years the technology improved. The walkie-talkies became a little smaller, enough that you could carry one on your gun belt without the weight pulling your drawers down. When Lyndon Baines Johnson learned how to rob the Social Security coffers and created the Great Society, even the NPD--under the LEAA giveaways--was able to acquire some walkie-talkies.
Chester Keene reminds me we'd also acquired a few parking attendants (meter maids) to patrol the newly installed meters at the "free" Naples beach. They patrolled in three-wheel Hondas.
One day Chester was on patrol and noticed a meter maid standing at the beach/street intersection, talking on her walkie-talkie. And he noticed she was holding her head at an odd angle, pressed against the radio, with its antenna pointing nearly horizontal, instead of vertical. She looked like Quasimodo trying to practice yoga. He had to know why.
She explained that she'd been having trouble with the radio, not ever having one before. She'd asked one of the patrol officers to show her how to use it properly. He told her to get the best signal you had to aim the antenna in the direction of the PD's radio tower. And she was twisting her neck like a bent nail trying to do it.
Chester, on the edge of erupting in laughter, and trying to hide it, explained that the contortions weren't really necessary. She could just talk into it normally. Then he went to counsel the before-his-time Ashton Kutcher that had punked her.
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