One ambulance I worked on had a tube radio on board with a whopping 2 channels.  There were instances where we arrived at the scene before it ever warmed up.  One time they were dispatched to an auto accident and the dispatcher didn’t hear from them as to whether they heard the call or not so he asked rescue when they were approaching the scene if the ambulance was even there and they answered yes.  Then some crackling noise comes over the airway and it was the ambulance calling in that their on the scene and sorry, but they had a loose wire on the radio.  When this vehicle was replaced they tried to trade the radio in for credit towards the new radio, they were laughed at.  That radio probably is a collector’s item now, but back then no one wanted it.

There was also a competition between the ambulance service and fire rescue as to who could get to the scene first.  In the beginning the rescue was a big truck and if they turned left out of their station they had to go up a hill and it crawled.  It would then piss them off as we passed them by and waved.  Eventually they got fed up and bought a smaller rescue that could do that hill as fast as us.  We were hurting their pride I guess.