Stine Electronics Celebrates 50 Years

SEELEY LAKE - Stine Electronics of Seeley Lake is celebrating 50 years in business. Owner Bob Stine's work in communications has been predominantly with the military, fire, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and law enforcement. He was instrumental in developing and implementing the EMS communication system that started in his home state of Illinois and has now become a nationwide system.

Stine grew up primarily on his maternal grandparents' farm near Benson, Ill. after his mother died at age 27 from multiple sclerosis. At age eight Stine began caring for his own animals, including his first calf, chickens, pigs and a duck.

By age nine, Stine began learning how to milk cows and helped with other farm chores including "driving those green tractors." He also started working at his aunt and uncle's business, Heineke Electric in Benson. He learned how to check tubes, repair radios, televisions and how to install CB radios. With the help of two German electricians, he learned how to wire houses and farm buildings.

By age 14 Stine ran two newspaper routes per day and ran the movie projector in town four nights per week.

"I've never been to a professional baseball or football game," said Stine. "I worked my whole life so I didn't have time for those things."

Stine graduated from Minonk-Dana Rutland High School in Illinois at age 17.

"Electronics was the up-and-coming thing," said Stine. "My senior year I took college calculus. You need to know math to go into electronics. I decided I either wanted to be a math teacher or go into electronics. I quickly decided I didn't want to be a math teacher."

At the urging of his uncle Lyle Heineke, who served with the Army Air Corp, Stine enlisted in the U.S. Navy for Electronics School in 1966. Stine was attached to the US Marine Corp before attending electronics technician school. He graduated as class honor man from a class of nearly 2,000.

Stine was offered his choice of duty and chose the U.S. Naval Flight Training Command and U.S. Naval Air Station, Whiting Field, Milton, Fla. He was responsible for ground electronics including security and fire-crash vehicles, navigational aids, control tower communications and weather radar.

Upon discharge from active duty, Stine continued his college education at Illinois State University before joining the Illinois State Police in December 1964.

Stine worked the night shift from 11 p.m. – 7 a.m. with the police and then worked at a Motorola Shop in Bloomington, Ill. during the day. On weekends he would run his own business, Stine Electronics which he started part-time in 1966.

One of his early assignments with the Illinois State Police was completing Illinois State Police Emergency Radio Network (ISPERN). I. Otto Rhoades, one of the radio engineers with the state police, came up with the idea of a common frequency for all law enforcement officers following the Chicago riots of 1968. Stine said that while every department had their own independent communications, the state police, city police and different county sheriff departments could not communicate with each other to coordinate efforts during the riots.

When Rhoades retired in 1970, Stine was charged with completing the system. The state purchased 2,500 radios and installed them in all the city police, sheriff and state squad cars in Illinois. This was the first mutual aid communication system of its kind in the nation.

In the early 1970s, hospitals did not communicate with the ambulances. Stine said ambulances doubled as hearses.

"If the patient died on the way [to the hospital], they would just take the body to the funeral home instead," said Stine. "That was just the way it was. The hospitals saw no need to talk to the [ambulance crews] until they showed up at the hospital."

Under Illinois Governor Richard Ogilvie, Stine was asked to design and implement a Statewide Emergency Medical Radio System in 1973. This request came after two former U.S. Army doctors, who had served in Vietnam, suggested to Ogilvie that the ambulance should be able to talk to the hospitals.

Stine said the Army doctors told him, "We have air ambulance communication with our MASH units bringing soldiers, marines and sailors in from the battlefield and we can't save people from the highways of Illinois? There is something wrong with this picture."

While the Illinois Hospital Association was opposed to the idea, the Mother Superior at St. John's Hospital in Springfield, Ill. liked the idea. After talking with her emergency room doctors, she agreed to install a base radio in the emergency room of the six Central Illinois Hospitals under her jurisdiction.

Stine named the system MERCI – Medical Emergency Radio Communications of Illinois. The state of Illinois purchased 60 mobile radios for ambulances and the system began in 1975.

After the news media publicized the groundbreaking technology, the Illinois Hospital Association changed their stance on the idea.

Governor Ogilvie also wanted to go to a 911 system. Stine worked with Illinois Commerce Commission to implement the 911 system in 1974. Base stations were set up in nursing homes and the nurses would answer the calls. The city of Chicago and Stine's hometown of Minonk, with around 1,800 people, were the first to get the system operational.

"The EMS system was finished in 1975. Ambulances were talking to hospitals in most of Illinois," said Stine. "Now all that is taken for granted."

Stine helped adjoining states implement EMS systems and pushed to form a national organization. From this the Emergency Medical Services Administrators Association (EMSAA) was born.

Stine later chaired a National Committee to clear 155.475 as a National Law Enforcement Channel.

Stine Electronics serviced and installed law enforcement, fire and business two-way radios until he retired after 23 years with the State Police of Illinois as the Chief Engineer of their Telecommunications Division. He brought his business with him when he moved to Montana in 1986.

"When I moved to Montana there were 27 two-way radio shops in Montana. Now there are only nine," said Stine. "The kids don't want to learn it."

Stine Electronics opened in Seeley Lake in the north end of the Seeley Swan Sports building (now Mission Bible Fellowship) in September 1986. He moved to his new building and current location on Highland Drive in 1992 after Curtis Friede bought out Fun Unlimited.

In those days, Stine Electronics sold and serviced Motorola, Bendix King, Dixcom and Maxon two-way radios, Maytag appliances and Zenith TVs. Two-way radios were one, two or four channels and were run with tubes and crystals.

Now in its 50th year, Stine Electronics sells, services and installs Motorola, Bendix King and ICOM two-way radios, Motorola and US Alert pagers. The radios are synthesized and are programmable with a microprocessor. His service and sales stretch to North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Illinois, North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, California and others.

Stine worked with a committee in Helena to establish the mutual aid channels used today in Montana by emergency responders.

"Sometimes during a severe fire season it becomes overwhelming working seven days a week just to keep up," said Stine.

Although Stine will not say exactly when he will retire from his business, he is looking forward to having more time to work on several Ford vehicles, including his first car a 1931 model A pickup, and several John Deere [tractors].

Stine thanks all his customers, friends and neighbors for the many years of support and loyalty.