[Motorola] MICOR and Channel Elements....

[Geoff Fors]

I find myself agreeing with Walter about the narrowbanding issues, and with
Eric about the surplus equipment availability.

It's just my opinion, but the narrowbanding appears to be a 1980's FCC
solution to a now nonexistent problem.  Especially with what's happening to
the economy.  In most areas of the country, the two way industry is in its
own "recession" with shops closing up and customers having migrated to
Nextels, FRS bubble-packed radios, cell phones and that sort of thing years
ago.  I don't see the congestion argument being valid anymore. Particularly
NTIA - - they have gobs of two way spectrum they are not even using. And as
to the MARS channels?  How congested could those be?  But...nobody was
talking about this, I just brought it up to be a troublemaker...

The narrowbanding "kits" remind me of the assorted kits which came out in
the mid 1950's to try to make the old FMTRU-30D and FMTRU-5V radios meet
even 60 KHz channel spacing.  Anyone old enough to remember those things
will recall they didn't even have a deviation control!  Most of the users
finally decided it was just cheaper and simpler to buy a new, compliant
radio.  Now history seems to be repeating itself.

Here in California, it has been puzzling to me as to what's happening to all
the surplus two-way gear.  About ten years ago the hamfests and flea markets
were full of it, but these days you are lucky to see even just a few 2-way
radios there.  None of the radio manufacturers are taking trade-ins as a
regular business practice anymore (although in order to make a big sale,
some have been, but they then just have a scrap recycler haul the stuff off
to the shredder.)  I haven't seen a Mastr II radio at a California hamfest
in almost ten years.  Just about all the used two way dealers have been gone
for years, such as Gregory, Spectronics, Mann, Leavitt, Erie, Communications
Center, Electronics Center, Cal-Com, etc..  Recently, MDM and Air-Comm seem
to
have shut down.  About the only venue left seems
to be eBay, and very often the seller is actually a recycling center
dump-picker who doesn't know anything about what's he selling or whether the
item has been de-milled.  They tell me Dayton is still loaded with surplus
two way,
maybe that's where it all is?

Possibly in Walter's defense, most agencies just can't afford the hassle of
distributing surplus two way gear to hams.  Today's average ham radio club
seems to be full of appliance operators who would have no interest in the
items and it's much simpler for the agency to surplus the gear to a recycler
or peddle it on propertyroom.com or eBay and be rid of it quickly.
Unfortunately, for years, a number of agencies where I am located thought it
wise to simply send entire fleets of radios to the dump.  Such as 200 UHF 4
channel Mitreks with all accessories, and the same number of UHF HT-220's
and MT-500's.  I can't condone that, since even in a local surplus auction
the radios
always get some bids (and then usually wind up on eBay.)

I am thinking that maybe Mastr II's and similar gear go for such little
money on eBay that people don't want to be bothered listing them.  It's a
big hassle to pack and ship a heavy, bulky $ 20 radio!

Regarding the topic of a synthesizer to replace a channel element in a Mocom
70 or Micor - - this has been done but not very successfully.  These are
narrow tuned radios which don't work very well more than a few hundred KHz
off the aligned frequency.  Not to mention that you technically need two
synthesizers or an offset module to get both transmitter and receiver to be
synthesized.  I have a Vanguard synthesizer running a Metrum II mobile, but
the conversion was done years ago and I wouldn't dream of creating one
today.  You can buy a Syntor X for under $ 50 on eBay, or a GE Rangr for
less than that, and then you don't need to Frankenstein a synthesizer or pay
a fortune for crystals or element rebuilding.

Regarding the PA deck idea, someone was doing just that a few years ago.  He
was putting Syntor and Syntor X PA decks into a separate box and selling
them as high power amplifiers.  Haven't seen any for sale lately, however.

Geoff
WB6NVH