[Motorola] Re: Older Unit

[Geoff Fors]

Regarding early Motorola tube radio model numbers:

There were some charts explaining Motorola mobile model numbers from the
1960's and 1950's, at least one was in a book authored by Glenn Zook K9STH,
who may even be a subscriber to this list.  That book was entitled
"Converting Commercial FM Equipment" and dates from about 1972.   There were
various articles in 73 and CQ Magazine also covering the topic.

Taking L43GGB-1100 as an example : "L" means Consolette, 4 is the power
level (25W in this example), 3 is the band (VHF 150 MHz in this example),
the first "G" is the receiver type and the second "G" is the transmitter
type.  "B" refers to a 120V AC power supply.  The "G" series transmitter and
receiver strips are the last models of the "Unichannel" series tube type
equipment developed about 1950 which began to be installed about 1954 and
were discontinued by 1964.  They are (were) commonly called G-strips in the
industry.  Other series included "A" receivers and transmitters, and "J" and
"K"  series transmitter strips, which were on wider chassis and contained
more tubes.

The transmitter and receiver strip type letters were re-used and don't
always mean anyting taken out of context.  For example, T51GAD-1100 would be
a low band wide cased (15") Twin-V mobile with a dynamotor power supply,
single frequency carrier squelch narrow band with a 50 Watt "A" transmitter.
But D33BAT-1100 would be a dash mount Industrial Dispatcher, VHF high band 8
watt with transistorozed power supply.  The "A" transmitter in the Twin-V is
totally different from the "A" transmitter in the Dispatcher.

The -1100 refers to number of channels, narrow or wide band, PL or carrier
squelch, and some special options.

Finally, an L81 series, if it existed,  would be a 150 Watt tabletop
Consolette base, a bit hard to get on your desk.  1/4 kilowatt bases would
be prefixed B91-, J91-, or Y91 and would be in a full height rack cabinet
(or two).  I don't recall any B81 prefixed gear; it went from B71 to B91.

I and a small group of others collect, restore and research the history of
old land mobile radios, including other makes besides Motorola such as
long-gone Link Radio, Philco, Harvey, Doolittle, etc..  I am pondering
whether there is enough interest to start a separate reflector on QTH which
caters exclusively to "antique" two way gear.  Any other interest out there
?

Geoff Fors