Long before the cell phone in the car - the car call network
02/21/2018
We can no longer imagine such a thing today. But 60 years ago, the car call network was introduced in Switzerland. This made it possible to reach drivers on the road and request a callback (from the nearest phone booth or something).
The call could be made via telephone number 11 (information). A red light then lit up in the car, triggered by the corresponding signal via the Chasseral and Säntis VHF transmitters, which the driver could acknowledge by pressing a button. The driver then had to go to the nearest telephone station and call back to an agreed number in the conventional way.
In addition to the control unit in the dashboard, a short-wave receiver system was required in the trunk of the car, which, according to the report in Automobil Revue at the time, did not take up much space.
The technology did not really catch on back then, and it was decades before it was possible to make phone calls in the car in the way that is the norm today.
