Ah the StarTAC, an iconic piece of electronic history I can actually say I hand a (minor) hand in. I worked at Motorola as a semiconductor factory automation engineer during its heyday, and also loved the one I used personally.
Yes, and all the electronics was made by Motorola in house, from the semiconductors, the resistors, the actual PCB and even the case itself. Even the charger was made by them, nothing second sourced at all in those phones. Those phones were very reliable, even if battery life on the NiCd cell packs could be measured in minutes, and going an entire day with the phone in use was impossible, you would have to plug in the power cord at some point, or put it on the desktop charger between calls. That is why that came with both the dual slot desktop charger, and you had that extra thick long life battery pack as well, as the standard 4 cell prismatic was not going to last many hours of standby, even when new.
I had a Startac 3000, used that phone forever. I finally had to get rid of it because it started to randomly call people. I would take it out of my pocket and somebody would be on the phone.
I got the sister radio to this, the Wilson 1405SM, as my first ham radio, new in 1977. It was a good performer for its time. The crystals in that 1402SM you have are repeater frequencies in the 2 meter ham band (144-148 MHz). So cool to see one again after all these years!
Had one of those myself. I remember it came with a screwball repeater pair, .16 / .94? Or was It .34 / .76? Crap, that was decades ago. My next high tech handheld was an Icom IC2A. Didn't even have a touch-tone pad. 🙃
@JimmyZNJ 2m ham freqs written on the back, but it looks like public safety freqs stamped on the crystal cans inside. Ch A: 155.370 (TX & RX) "Point-2-Point" Ch B: 151.600 (TX & RX) Ch C: 151.490 (TX & RX)
My first encounter with a true mobile Radio Telephone was a visit to a Radio Shack store around 1967 or so. I was maybe 11 years old at the time and got into a conversation with another customer about radiotelephone. He invited me and my dad out to his car to show me the Telephone handset in a cradle under the dash and then the suitcase size transceiver in the trunk. I think it was good for like 60 watts on 151.xxx Mhz. I was blown away at the time and it furthered my fascination of Radio and electronics in general. Needless to say the guy had to be a doctor or lawyer because of what it would of cost to have something like that at the time.
Hey Fran, I just wanted to comment. That looks like one of the first iterations of a Amateur radio 2 meter Handie Talkie; or a Amateur radio VHF hand held radio. Not intended for literal telephone use. Back in the day it was referred to as Radio Telephone. The whole reason for the channels was it was crystal controlled, so you could buy more crystals to add more channels! Very cool. But not exactly the same thing as The Brick or a bag phone. I definitely think a video about a car phone would be VERY interesting! Those are pretty interesting little devices!
The frequencies stamped on the back of the HT are within the 2m ham band but the closeup of the actual installed crystals do not. (151.xx, 155.xx) It appears that someone had modified the radio for use on frequencies outside the intended range.
My thought too, I had the smaller TRC201 with only 3 channels, I found and grabbed one the other day still new in the box for just five bucks and even the printed box looks cool and reminiscent of the day. I always wanted the TRC 209 which my friend had back in the day... full suite of channels with no crystals.. bliss.
It reminds of the Realistic Walkie Talkie set we had in the '70's when I was a teen. They worked on the CB radio bands. They were about that size, and one could change crystals. I bought a couple of crystals for the popular CB channels in my area and was able to communicate to the nearby CB enthusiasts..
Those were fun as heck! I remember wanting the 23 channel one, but could not afford it as a teen. So, I waited until there was a sale on the Realistic 2 watt (3 channel?) walkie T's, and I used to go onto my parents' roof to see what I could work! Fortunately, we lived on a tall hill overlooking the Palisades (Hudson River) in Jersey, and I used to DX with the 2-watter, and worked other stations 8 to 10 miles away!
My dad had a radio telephone in an official car in the late 70's/early 80's. I remember that you picked it up and an operator would ask you where you wanted your call placed. It look exactly like a desktop phone of the time, but mounted to the transmission tunnel between the front seats.....
I was a kid at the time, but I was fascinated by the rail road radio telephones of the early 80's. We had a family friend who worked for the local railroad repair yard, and he had one in his truck. It looked like a CB radio, but instead of a normal numeric keypad it had a telephone keypad layout. It wasn't a cellular radio, though. Instead, it connected to the railroad's radio network, which could then patch the POTS line in somehow. However, it was incredibly cool at the time. I will never forget him dialing my parent's home phone from his work truck and the call going through.
"Radio Telephone" was just a very grandiose way of saying "Two Way Radio" from back in the day. This does not connect to the telephone system in any way or offer full duplex audio. It's literally just a walkie talkie. The frequencies printed on the back are VHF ham frequencies with an offset, so someone once used this with a repeater, but the crystals inside are all in the "VHF Business" part of the band (~151 to 158ish).
Hey Fran. Love your walk throughs on stuff. I used to service the VHF mobile phone stuff in the early 80's, The lettered channels or numbered channels were the few you get through on, and they were operator dialed. The poor equipment back then the operators had no confirmation on their dialing, So I had to design and build a display unit to show customers the miss dialed number, when customers complained they missed calls. It was not the phone fail, it was operator fail. The important people needed to carry a pager to receive calls for reliability. The mobile phone was then used to call back. Cell phone was a great new thing, but the compressed digital breakup sound still makes mobile phone second quality sound to a real land line. Keep on doing your thing Fran. And good luck.
Back in the mid eighty's when I got into fire and rescue, our 2 way radios were like this, they all used frequency crystals, you had one for transmit, and one for receive. Nowadays, our radios are computer programed using software on a spreadsheet style grid. Very easy to set up.
way cool to see all transistor (pre-microprocessor) gear 3:45 the frequency number after the slash is probably the 2 meter offset so it transmits on 146.34 & receives on 146.94, 600 khz above the output frequency, but without a keypad you could not direct dial to a POTS/PSTN telephone line
Interesting - the exterior labels have ham radio, 2m band frequencies, but the crystals inside aren’t that! They’re in the 155MHz range, which is more of a utility frequency that I would expect for such a radio telephone. Very cool find!
It's most likely a superhet receiver, meaning that you have an intermediate frequency that you receive at (often (but not always) 455 kHz, 10.7 MHz, 21.4 MHz). So the crystal would be the receive frequency plus or minus the intermediate, e.g. 134.300 or 155.700 crystal for 145.000 MHz receive. And depending on design, it might be superhet transmitter too, though the intermediate frequency for the transmit side isn't necessarily the same as the receive side.
@@Teukka72 I would agree except for the fact that 1) channels A & B as written on back have repeater splits but have the same freqs stamped on the crystal cans for both TX & RX, and 2) the difference between crystal & freq on back is different from one channel to the next. I think it's public safety, w/ the exact freq in use stamped on the crystals. Ch A: 155.370 (TX & RX) "Point-2-Point" Ch B: 151.600 (TX & RX) Ch C: 151.490 (TX & RX)
@@christophermusso True. And a lot of Ham gear is modified PMR gear and sometimes vice versa. We wouldn't know unless we got our paws on the schematic or service manual.
@@christophermusso I agree, they arent 2M crystals with an IF shift. They are simplex on 155.370, 151.6 and 151.49 a lot of those 2M ham handys in 1970's were converted for business use because they were cheaper than commercial radios
I was a bench tech at The Portable Clinic in those days. We specialized in repair and customization of Motorola HT-220 HTs including addition of a 400 channel PLL synthesizer for the amateurs. If you get your hands on an HT-220, take a look at that board, the component density was about triple of the Wilson. Good times!
Fran, there is a lot of semantics involved in the word "phone". Radio communications that carried voice was called "radiotelephone" The devices you showed from the old 1930s ads referred to that. It was simply what we generally called "two-way radio". It requires the user to press a "push-to-talk" button to speak to the other end. You cannot hear while you are talking. A system known as "MTS" (Mobile Telephone Service") was eventually developed which allowed the connection of mobile two-way radios to connect to the public "land-line" telephones. It was enormously complicated, required the service of a "mobile operator" to make the interconnection, and an FCC license to use. It was enormously bulky (taking up a third of the vehicles trunk space". Early versions operated in the "VHF-low" frequency range, and thus needed huge antennas with high-powered transmitters. Solid-state versions brought the "IMTS" ('Improved Mobile Telephone System') It wasn't until the 800 mHz band was opened up made possible by new transistor types in and around the 70s.. Then the size and efficiency made the device far more attractive and popular.
"especially with dry cells" You know, in the mid-1970s, we actually had a wide variety of batteries available. For this type application, the options were alkalines and nickel-cadmium rechargeables, which didn't have as much capacity as Duracells, and were more expensive, but of course were much cheaper in the long run, even with the low-tech chargers that limited them to a few dozen charge/discharge cycles. Seems like you're old enough, you should know this.
"Ten four, Echo One." Ha! Apart from the plastic case, it looks professional, like the thing cops would use. Nice piece of kit, and I love the real deal leather case. "Denki" in Japanese would roughly translate to electronics. @UsagiElectric can fill you in on that stuff. The inner construction reminds me of the CTE Alan 38 I recently repaired - but way tidier and nicer. None of that '80s/'90s discombobulation. These metal cans on the coils are there probably for EMC reasons, I wonder if they're made of permalloy.
My first "car phone" was in 1980. It was an IMTS unit by GE - the "Mastr Executive II." It had 6 channels for the DC Metro area and 1 other channel from when I traveled outside the city and calls had to be placed manually by the Operator. Rarely was there ever a time when the channels were so busy you could not make/receive a call. 35 watts, I recall. Great range. In the 155 MHz area of the band. Excellent quality and sound. In the trunk was the transceiver - about the size of a briefcase. There was a head unit up front. I don't recognize the frequencies in the Wilson unit. I am guessing that must have been the old "Business Band." Times certainly have changed.
I installed more of those than I care to remember. All the trunk mount radios were a PITA. Running the power & control cables required removal of the back seat at a minimum. That's when I started to prefer tower work over mobile installations.
@@gliderp I can imagine they were a PITA! But, boy, did they ever work great! I can still remember in 1980 when I got my first and only IMTS unit, I would be driving in the DC area, working while driving (wonder I survived), and of course, we get a ton of tourists. Sitting at a light (as usual), another car pulls up beside me. It was a station wagon with a family from somewhere else in the USA. The kids caught me talking on the phone and they thought this was either the weirdest thing or the neatest thing, but they were in awe! "A guy is talking on the PHONE in his CAR!" Of course, those handsets back then were identical to the standard 500/2500 deskset phone. There was no mistaking what I was doing. DC was always known for dense traffic. These units worked great. Eventually, cellular arrived and while the transceiver units were still trunk-mounted, at least they were the size of a paperback book. The head-unit also was small, although I really preferred the old handset or at least a Trimline handset. And, the antennas were the glass-mount and they worked great, too. Admittedly, these were functionally more practical, especially when traveling outside your home area. I still hold a fondness for the old IMTS system, though. I was 25 in 1980 and just starting my career in DC. Good memories.
The Wilson Radiophone looks like a larger version of a 1970's two-meter amateur radio "handi-talki". Important to consider, when the FCC "reorganized" the spectrum some brand name 600 MHz professional wireless microphones are now broadcasting illegally, wouldn't be surprised if the Wilson Radio isn't affected by a spectrum change. Enjoy your work Fran!
Hey Fran, what a nice find! Those frequencies, by the way, are smack-dab in the middle of the ham radio 2 meter band (144-148 MHz). Ostensibly, you could legally have a QSO with other hams on that rig! 73 de W4PKR.
I have a pair of HANDIC C65C that are very much like that that I haven’t used in over 40 years. It uses 10 nicads, they come with two shorting batteries so you can use eight AA.
I worked for the Shack starting in the mid 80s and my side hustle was converting 12 volt vehicle mount cellular phones into a Samsonite briefcase with an external antenna and state of the art Ni-Cad batteries. Still had room for documents and stuff needed by suits. Fun days in Radio Shack. Fun days indeed.
Looking at your multimeter it's immediately obvious why RUclips suggested your channel to me, among all the tinkerers. “Don’t turn it on, take it apart!”
Not all HAMS use repeaters some like plain old simplex point to point no repeater. and theres now digital modes along side the standard analog FM mode. digital will sound like a silent carrier or static on an analog reciever.
I was a Telephone Operator back in the early 1970s. I remember having to connect such calls. Later, I worked as a Central Office Equipment Installer. Then worked in Engineering and Construction in the Headquarters office. The story of how the SXS System was designed by one of two morticians in a small town is quite interesting. I'm sure you and your subscribers would find it interesting.
Wow, that kind of looks like my first 2-meter (large) handheld, crystal bound Hy-Gain transceiver (as a newly minted teen Ham back in the 70's). The Hy-Gain had a telescoping antenna though!
Aw man, had I known you had your Wilson Radiophone powered up, I was sitting in front of mine just a few days ago! Just kidding, thanks for the video on this radio, it was the 9-pin connector that drew me in
It would have been great if you would have gotten one of those scam robocalls while testing it. Absolultely love your contest. Hopefully you will continue making videos for as long as it brings you joy.
After having several bag phones in the early to mid 90's since my family liked to go camping, and we needed the extra range, my parents got Motorola StarTac phones, and I always thought they were the coolest things lol!
I have several of those that have added on DTMF pads.Mine are the Pace brand vintage 1977.Strangely called Pocket Phones..I built my own automated phone patch unit that controlled a receiver and transmitter.My radios have CTCSS plugs next to the crystals.
This radio is set up similar to my uncles (Silent Key 2017) Drake Marker-Luxury. The first two or three channels are 2 Meter ham repeater frequencies, the last ones are local Police/Fire crystals in the RX only position. He had Cook County Illinois Sheriff PD @ 155.535 Mhz (now digital, encrypted 800 Mhz) and the local FD frequency 154.370 Mhz (still in use to this day).
Reminds me of a one watt CB walkie talkie I had as a teenager in the '70s...about the same time period. I very seldom talked on it, but listened in a lot...
My last analog AMPS phone was a Motorola StarTAC. I loved the red LED display and the extra battery gave it very acceptable talk time. As long as you accepted that it was totally insecure and anyone could hear your conversation (with the right radio scanner) you were fine. Previously I had a Motorola Bag Phone which ended up in my vehicle. It had a cable so I could connect a MicroTAC, the bag phone would then take the "identity" of the MicroTAC. I also had a switch to enable test mode. Oh the fun you could have with your Motorola phone in test mode, I guess it's best not discussed in the clear! 🙂
I had a StarTAC back in the day, too, and I thought it did TDMA, not AMPS. Although back then (~2000) it might have done both for maximum compatibility.
@@flapjack9495 Mine was certainly used on an AMPS network. I do recall there were features that I couldn't use (like messaging) which may have been available when it was used on a TDMA network.
Imagine the alignment procedure for this funky VHF device, what a charm :) These TOKO-made can transformers have always fascinated me... it's really hard to tell what is the purpose of that coil, just by looking at it, or ohming it out. At least for everything TOKO that has an orange dot on it, it's safe to assume it is some kind of 10,7MHz IF transformer.
Most crystal controlled radios I have had did have crystal for RX and one for TX as the offset is different so the difference will be like 445 KHz apart
Fran, Yep, a 2-meter FM ham radio. I bet it will work just fine and you can converse with any other ham on that band. Be careful though, you need a ham license to transmit on it. That radio was often equipped with after-market accessories such as a GLB "Channelizer" to make it frequency agile. Additionally, many of the ham radio 2-meter repeaters had an auto-patch that allowed hams to connect to the public switched network and make actual phone calls. All that was needed was a DTMF keypad attached to the front of the radio. No business calls allowed, no pizza orders, or calls back to the office or customers.
My first "Ham" radio was a Wilson WE800. It was an early synthesized radio (144-148MHz) with 3 thumbwheel rotary 10 position switches. It had 6 preset frequencies that you could program by soldering in some 1N914 diodes in a matrix bank. Loved that radio. It could be operated hand portable with a battery pack at 1W output or mounted with an external power supply at 10W.
I would die laughing if you heard someone from India claiming to be from Amazon asking you to go pick up gift cards from Walgreens because he accidentally gave you too much credit on your refund.
It seems to be your telephone is equipped to only 3 channels of a total of 6 channels. For each channel it needs two x-tals. One xtal is for the oscillator building the carrier on the tramsmit channel and the second xtal is to make the local oscillator for the receiving path. This oscillator has a frequeny offset with the value of the first interfrequency (if). By mixing (matematical muliplying) the receiving frequency with the rx xtal oscillator frequency you get the difference of them to be the first if. So if you enable all 6 channels you need 12 xtals. There for it has 6 free sockets.
That also was a nice 2mtr VHF ham tranceiver back in the day. Those crystals shown are in the commercial VHF band of frequencies. Those metal cans over the coils of wire were there for isolation and adjusting the coils. If you were using frequencies that were very far apart, you might have to spread the coil winding to reduce the "Q", or the bandwith of the rf amplifier to accomodate frequencies that were very far apart when transmitting. Those ferrite slugs with the rectangle screwdriver notch could be a real pain because you can easily break them. That ceramic filter (LF-C12) is in the receiver section and they were really good at reducing any adjacent channel interference.
I am a licensed ham (advanced class from ages ago) but not active any more. I just don't like where ham radio has gone (to the dogs if you ask me)! But this brought back memories, from a time when radios did not have memories, just crystals instead!! LOL....Thank God for Phase Locked Loop Frequency Synthesis!! BTW, the only ham radio I still have is an old Radio Shack HTX-202 HT!! It still works but I lost most of the extra accessories.
Amazing how the technology has advanced. I've got a relatively small Yeasu FT-60R handheld radio that will transmit with a maximum of 5 watts. POwered by NiMh batteries and covers more frequencies than I care to think of.
As a Ham radio operator, I found the back plate and the current crystals in the radio interesting. The back plate has 2-meter frequencies, but the crystals are in the 151 MHz range. I suspect this radio was owned at one point by a Ham radio operator with 2-meter band crystals put in it, but the original crystals (151 MHz) were placed back in the radio. Crystals in the 2-meter band are still useful and often kept by Ham radio operators for old crystal frequency radios. If 2-meter band crystals are found, then this radio could be used with help from a Ham radio operator.
I was thinking back on watching this video and noticed that also. It suddenly occured to me that one item I did not see on the back was any FCC type acceptance. Anateur radio gear is exempt from such type acceptance because we can work on our own stuff. Other transmitting equipment is required to have that type acceptance, however. That being the case with this radio having those crystals in there means this radio was operated illegally, not that it matters now.
I remember having a CB radio that took 10 NiCd batteries to operate at 12V. You have to put conductive spacers in to replace two of the cells of you used alkaline 1.5 volt batteries.
Same here. NiCd and NiMH are 1.2V nominal. Doesn't matter for many devices but when you get up to 10 cells the difference between 12V and 15V was significant enough to include the 2 dummy cells for alkaline use.
I have a pair of Sea Star badged T-1502 VHF marine handys, exactly like the 2Meter ham T-1402, but crystaled for 156MHz instead of 146MHz, in Europe the Ken KP202 version was popular just like the T-1402 but the speaker grill sloped the other way. Tama Denki was a major player in vhf handys in the 1970''s.
@01:30 Wow. I did not know that the Western Electric Company manufactured two way police radiophones. Also, the frequencies this device operated on in in the 2 meter Amateur Radio band which goes from 144-148 Mhz.
@@bsadewitz oh that and the CTEK cable. I wrote custom firmware to roll esn/min pairs at every power up. Stored in the contact memory. While I gave up having a contacts list, I gained 200+ ways to be anonymous.
@@BobDarlington I forgot all about the CTEK Cable and everything. I never had a firmware that did that. The one that I used just let u switch manually between a bunch of ESN/MIN pairs
Apart from the multi-way socket, and the controls being in slightly different locations, this looks identical to the Ken KP-202, a 2 watt transceiver for the two metre amateur band sold in Britain in the mid to late 1970's. Even the meter and the labelling on the channel switch (the circle around 1 and 2) look identical.
10 batteries.... Worst thing you want to see when you find a nice vintage piece of gear and open the battery door after it's been sitting for 40 years.
You ain't lying on that one, as I once found a box full of Coleco tabletop arcade games at a junk shop in the late 90's(gas was cheap, so me, and my sister loved to thrifting, and yard saling on Saturdays), all of them had batteries left in them, out of the 10 units I was able get 4 working after a good cleaning, the rest I kept for parts, and later sold on eBay in a lot.
Marine telephone, used on boats. You would signal the marine operator, give her the number and place the call. Two frequencies are used. One for talking, and one for receiving.
I understand your laughter, but you have to realize, preferably every day, that without these technologies, you would not have the present. Do you understand ? :)
You could do further testing with this if you got an SDR. You could test that it is transmitting using an RTL-SDR, very cheap. like $30, and the software for doing FM is pretty simple. If you wanted TX/RX I think the cheapest and easiest option is still HackRF.
you wouldn't need another Wilson to test it, since it transmits on the 2m ham frequencies, you could use any common vhf scanner or 2m ham radio, but as others have stated, legally you need a license to transmit on ham radio, but not to listen. It would probably transmit several miles (line of site) by itself, but if it connected to a repeater, 50-75 miles is possible
It's funny how they used to call that a radiotelephone. It's actually a CB radio. It has crystals in it that allow a specific frequency however when it was updated those crystals were standardized frequencies for citizen band radio with 40 channels
Those resistors were mounted vertically so they had better temperature stability, as they got better airflow standing up like that. I don't think it was really necessary here, but it was done more as a matter of course back then.
That's a bit of a stretch to market that Wilson as a 'Radio Telephone'. It appears to be a walkie talkie. Simplex only. So you would have to say 'over' before releasing the PTT. Looking at the frequencies used for the channels, it was set up for VHF private mobile radio. Most countries have strict licencing requirements. This could be used for building sites, taxis, warehouses, shops etc. Having said that, I worked at sea and used Marine VHF (156-162Mhz). This was often referred to as a 'radio telephone', but it could be used to patch through to the landline system using regulated shore stations, in a 'link call'. Some of the 'posher' RTs were capable of full duplex, using two frequencies. You could then hold the PTT in and talk as if you were on a phone.
Not simplex. This radio was designed and manufactured to be used on the 2 meter amatuer band. The frequencies listed on the back are Amateur radio frequencies and they have a 600 Khz offset. It looks as though someone tried using it in an unintended fashion by installing those other crystals which this radio is not type accepted for.
The battery compartment is made to hold ten cells, but you would only use eight primary (carbon-zinc, alkaline) batteries and two dummy batteries to complete the circuit. This would give you just a hair north of 12V. When using nicads, you would use all 10 spots for cells, as nicads only make 1.25V per cell, as opposed to 1.62 for a fresh carbon-zinc with no load, and about 1.5 under a moderate load. Judging from the sound of the hash from the receiver, I think that set may have used amplitude modulation.
No, 12kHz FM bandwidth, there is a simple slope demodulator in there, which is why the unit will receive both FM and AM noise, as it will have a lot of impulse noise if there is no FM carrier to squelch it. Will work with a modern HT just perfectly, though getting those crystals is now a hard thing, the manufacturers that used to make the overtone crystals in those sizes now are all mostly gone, leaving you with having to scour fleabay to get the odd crystal removed from sets, and leaving you stuck only being able to use certain channels in the 144MHz 2m amateur band allocation. Incidentally the main reason Fran is not getting any reply is because that unit is missing the add on subtone generator ,that is often used by a lot of amateur repeaters as a method to prevent random noise actuating the repeater, you need to be both above the signal level, and be transmitting the correct low level audio tone, before it will switch the transmit side on, filtering out the tone from the received audio before sending on. Modern sets it is part of the unit, just needs enabling and the frequency, but with these old sets it was a whole small board you shoehorned into the case by the transmit audio processing, that added the tone in to the audio modulator at a specific level, set by the manufacturer of the HT, and selected to not overmodulate the carrier. A lot of the audio side is common for transmit and receive, with there being a IF used to shape the RF signal, and PIN diodes used to select either the RF power stage, or the speaker amplifier as the output, and here a few transistors instead of a relay to do switching as well.
@@SeanBZA Thanks for the correction. I'm amazed they relied on slope detection. The only difference in parts for a real FM detector would have been a few diodes and the correct IF transformer to drive them.
@@ScottGrammer Easier to do slope demodulation if you have a nicely behaved 10.7MHz IF, and then use those 2 slug tuned transformers up together to do it, as that gives as well a easy way to get signal strength to operate the squelch, along with an AGC signal for the modulator, as you can use the bleed through to the IF as a way to prevent over modulation, as you get a DC level proportional to deviation as well.
I had the import Ken KP202, similar to this one, in 1973, 50 years ago, with a drop in charger and 6 channels, but 146.94 simplex and repeater, .34-.94, 600 Khz split wired in, so only 4 channels were available to put in 4 chosen sets of frequencies. 73 de W2CH Ray New Hampshire. 1962-?.
This wasn’t a “phone” it is an amateur ham radio handy talkie. May repeaters it was used with had “auto-patch” which allowed licensed hams to make remote phone calls. I built two such systems back in the 70’s. This is still on the amateur band which requires a license!
Very nice! Its frequency plan looks like an offset schema (TX and RX are on different frequencies) in the 2m amateur band. They might have operated a repeater station for this in an elevated location. I wonder how one might have "dialed" without a keypad.
This is not a telephone-it's a two-way radio. radiotelephone was the original name for voice transmitters(as compared to non-voice modes). The tx and rx are on different frequencies because the unit came set for two of the most common amateur radio repeater frequency pairs. 146,34/146.94, and 146.16/146.76. However, it does seem to have been recrystaled, as others have noted..this is not the if offset, because this would only apply to the receive crystals-but ALL of the crystals are above the ham band.
I am most intrigued by the 9-pin serial port. First, because I wasn’t aware that it even existed in 1974 and just exactly what equipment interfaced with the radio. Could it have been an external microphone connection?
Obviously belonged to Luke Wilson and likely used during the rehabilitation sequence evidenced by the boing-y antenna that emulates the boing-y hood ornament. Elementary.
When I use my Marine VHF in Europe, I always tell them I have "American License". They cannot demand casual American boaters to acquire license for every tiny country in Europe. -- Realized now that you can also get VHF-license from Monaco just by emailing some form, the license will be mailed to you for free.
I don't think that's really a radio-telephone from that era--it's more just a walkie-talkie. I remember seeing an actual telephone (the old indestructible kind, with a dial and a separable handset) in a car owned by a very successful businessman around 1969-1970. The way it worked, I believe, was it used radio to connect to a special telephone operator (remember operators?) who could patch you in to the telephone network. I have no idea how well it worked. I never had an opportunity to play with it.
Ah the StarTAC, an iconic piece of electronic history I can actually say I hand a (minor) hand in. I worked at Motorola as a semiconductor factory automation engineer during its heyday, and also loved the one I used personally.
Yes, and all the electronics was made by Motorola in house, from the semiconductors, the resistors, the actual PCB and even the case itself. Even the charger was made by them, nothing second sourced at all in those phones. Those phones were very reliable, even if battery life on the NiCd cell packs could be measured in minutes, and going an entire day with the phone in use was impossible, you would have to plug in the power cord at some point, or put it on the desktop charger between calls. That is why that came with both the dual slot desktop charger, and you had that extra thick long life battery pack as well, as the standard 4 cell prismatic was not going to last many hours of standby, even when new.
I only contributed to a piece of software that got the company sued for price fixing 😥
I had a Startac 3000, used that phone forever. I finally had to get rid of it because it started to randomly call people. I would take it out of my pocket and somebody would be on the phone.
I got the sister radio to this, the Wilson 1405SM, as my first ham radio, new in 1977. It was a good performer for its time. The crystals in that 1402SM you have are repeater frequencies in the 2 meter ham band (144-148 MHz). So cool to see one again after all these years!
the 6 xtals means there are 3 channels. the empty sockets would be the other 3 channels
Had one of those myself. I remember it came with a screwball repeater pair, .16 / .94? Or was It .34 / .76? Crap, that was decades ago. My next high tech handheld was an Icom IC2A. Didn't even have a touch-tone pad. 🙃
@JimmyZNJ 2m ham freqs written on the back, but it looks like public safety freqs stamped on the crystal cans inside.
Ch A: 155.370 (TX & RX) "Point-2-Point"
Ch B: 151.600 (TX & RX)
Ch C: 151.490 (TX & RX)
@@christophermusso Someone probably modified it for business frequencies, police or fire.
@@christophermusso Interesting! So that rig has been changed back and forth a few times between two different services.
Absolutely love that era of electronics....everything was built to be serviced.
And the quality was number one.
Love these videos.!!
My first encounter with a true mobile Radio Telephone was a visit to a Radio Shack store around 1967 or so. I was maybe 11 years old at the time and got into a conversation with another customer about radiotelephone. He invited me and my dad out to his car to show me the Telephone handset in a cradle under the dash and then the suitcase size transceiver in the trunk. I think it was good for like 60 watts on 151.xxx Mhz. I was blown away at the time and it furthered my fascination of Radio and electronics in general. Needless to say the guy had to be a doctor or lawyer because of what it would of cost to have something like that at the time.
I'm always amazed at how "homemade" old circuit boards look.
They weren't home made, but they were hand made. Or as Zenith used to say "hand-crafted".
Hey Fran, I just wanted to comment. That looks like one of the first iterations of a Amateur radio 2 meter Handie Talkie; or a Amateur radio VHF hand held radio. Not intended for literal telephone use. Back in the day it was referred to as Radio Telephone. The whole reason for the channels was it was crystal controlled, so you could buy more crystals to add more channels! Very cool. But not exactly the same thing as The Brick or a bag phone. I definitely think a video about a car phone would be VERY interesting! Those are pretty interesting little devices!
you are correct on all points.
The frequencies stamped on the back of the HT are within the 2m ham band but the closeup of the actual installed crystals do not. (151.xx, 155.xx) It appears that someone had modified the radio for use on frequencies outside the intended range.
The form factor is extremely reminiscent of the old Realistic TRC-208 handheld CBs that I have. Mid 70s vintage.
My thought too, I had the smaller TRC201 with only 3 channels, I found and grabbed one the other day still new in the box for just five bucks and even the printed box looks cool and reminiscent of the day.
I always wanted the TRC 209 which my friend had back in the day... full suite of channels with no crystals.. bliss.
It reminds of the Realistic Walkie Talkie set we had in the '70's when I was a teen. They worked on the CB radio bands. They were about that size, and one could change crystals. I bought a couple of crystals for the popular CB channels in my area and was able to communicate to the nearby CB enthusiasts..
Those were fun as heck! I remember wanting the 23 channel one, but could not afford it as a teen. So, I waited until there was a sale on the Realistic 2 watt (3 channel?) walkie T's, and I used to go onto my parents' roof to see what I could work! Fortunately, we lived on a tall hill overlooking the Palisades (Hudson River) in Jersey, and I used to DX with the 2-watter, and worked other stations 8 to 10 miles away!
My dad had a radio telephone in an official car in the late 70's/early 80's. I remember that you picked it up and an operator would ask you where you wanted your call placed. It look exactly like a desktop phone of the time, but mounted to the transmission tunnel between the front seats.....
I was a kid at the time, but I was fascinated by the rail road radio telephones of the early 80's. We had a family friend who worked for the local railroad repair yard, and he had one in his truck. It looked like a CB radio, but instead of a normal numeric keypad it had a telephone keypad layout. It wasn't a cellular radio, though. Instead, it connected to the railroad's radio network, which could then patch the POTS line in somehow. However, it was incredibly cool at the time. I will never forget him dialing my parent's home phone from his work truck and the call going through.
Reminds me of my first Radio Shack handheld police scanner. Four channels and you had to buy the crystals for each frequency you listened to.
"Radio Telephone" was just a very grandiose way of saying "Two Way Radio" from back in the day. This does not connect to the telephone system in any way or offer full duplex audio. It's literally just a walkie talkie. The frequencies printed on the back are VHF ham frequencies with an offset, so someone once used this with a repeater, but the crystals inside are all in the "VHF Business" part of the band (~151 to 158ish).
In Philadelphia, only the first frequency (151.490) seems to have anything assigned to it (taxi dispatch).
No I think people called a radio base in the area with these and they could connect a call.
Hey Fran. Love your walk throughs on stuff. I used to service the VHF mobile phone stuff in the early 80's, The lettered channels or numbered channels were the few you get through on, and they were operator dialed. The poor equipment back then the operators had no confirmation on their dialing, So I had to design and build a display unit to show customers the miss dialed number, when customers complained they missed calls. It was not the phone fail, it was operator fail. The important people needed to carry a pager to receive calls for reliability. The mobile phone was then used to call back. Cell phone was a great new thing, but the compressed digital breakup sound still makes mobile phone second quality sound to a real land line. Keep on doing your thing Fran. And good luck.
Thank you for posting this vid! Radio communications are a particular interest of mine.
Back in the mid eighty's when I got into fire and rescue, our 2 way radios were like this, they all used frequency crystals, you had one for transmit, and one for receive. Nowadays, our radios are computer programed using software on a spreadsheet style grid. Very easy to set up.
way cool to see all transistor (pre-microprocessor) gear 3:45 the frequency number after the slash is probably the 2 meter offset so it transmits on 146.34 & receives on 146.94, 600 khz above the output frequency, but without a keypad you could not direct dial to a POTS/PSTN telephone line
This was sold as a Ham radio, not a telephone. I had one and used it on the two meter ham band.
Interesting - the exterior labels have ham radio, 2m band frequencies, but the crystals inside aren’t that! They’re in the 155MHz range, which is more of a utility frequency that I would expect for such a radio telephone. Very cool find!
It's most likely a superhet receiver, meaning that you have an intermediate frequency that you receive at (often (but not always) 455 kHz, 10.7 MHz, 21.4 MHz). So the crystal would be the receive frequency plus or minus the intermediate, e.g. 134.300 or 155.700 crystal for 145.000 MHz receive. And depending on design, it might be superhet transmitter too, though the intermediate frequency for the transmit side isn't necessarily the same as the receive side.
@@Teukka72 I would agree except for the fact that 1) channels A & B as written on back have repeater splits but have the same freqs stamped on the crystal cans for both TX & RX, and 2) the difference between crystal & freq on back is different from one channel to the next. I think it's public safety, w/ the exact freq in use stamped on the crystals.
Ch A: 155.370 (TX & RX) "Point-2-Point"
Ch B: 151.600 (TX & RX)
Ch C: 151.490 (TX & RX)
@@christophermusso True. And a lot of Ham gear is modified PMR gear and sometimes vice versa.
We wouldn't know unless we got our paws on the schematic or service manual.
@@Teukka72 Still great equipment....and SO CLEAN.
@@christophermusso I agree, they arent 2M crystals with an IF shift.
They are simplex on 155.370, 151.6 and 151.49
a lot of those 2M ham handys in 1970's were converted for business use
because they were cheaper than commercial radios
I was a bench tech at The Portable Clinic in those days. We specialized in repair and customization of Motorola HT-220 HTs including addition of a 400 channel PLL synthesizer for the amateurs. If you get your hands on an HT-220, take a look at that board, the component density was about triple of the Wilson. Good times!
Very impressive construction, only saw 2 black wire links. Thanks Fran
Fran, there is a lot of semantics involved in the word "phone".
Radio communications that carried voice was called "radiotelephone" The devices you showed from the old 1930s ads referred to that. It was simply what we generally called "two-way radio". It requires the user to press a "push-to-talk" button to speak to the other end. You cannot hear while you are talking. A system known as "MTS" (Mobile Telephone Service") was eventually developed which allowed the connection of mobile two-way radios to connect to the public "land-line" telephones. It was enormously complicated, required the service of a "mobile operator" to make the interconnection, and an FCC license to use. It was enormously bulky (taking up a third of the vehicles trunk space". Early versions operated in the "VHF-low" frequency range, and thus needed huge antennas with high-powered transmitters. Solid-state versions brought the "IMTS" ('Improved Mobile Telephone System') It wasn't until the 800 mHz band was opened up made possible by new transistor types in and around the 70s.. Then the size and efficiency made the device far more attractive and popular.
"especially with dry cells"
You know, in the mid-1970s, we actually had a wide variety of batteries available. For this type application, the options were alkalines and nickel-cadmium rechargeables, which didn't have as much capacity as Duracells, and were more expensive, but of course were much cheaper in the long run, even with the low-tech chargers that limited them to a few dozen charge/discharge cycles. Seems like you're old enough, you should know this.
"Ten four, Echo One."
Ha! Apart from the plastic case, it looks professional, like the thing cops would use. Nice piece of kit, and I love the real deal leather case.
"Denki" in Japanese would roughly translate to electronics. @UsagiElectric can fill you in on that stuff.
The inner construction reminds me of the CTE Alan 38 I recently repaired - but way tidier and nicer. None of that '80s/'90s discombobulation.
These metal cans on the coils are there probably for EMC reasons, I wonder if they're made of permalloy.
My first "car phone" was in 1980. It was an IMTS unit by GE - the "Mastr Executive II." It had 6 channels for the DC Metro area and 1 other channel from when I traveled outside the city and calls had to be placed manually by the Operator. Rarely was there ever a time when the channels were so busy you could not make/receive a call. 35 watts, I recall. Great range. In the 155 MHz area of the band. Excellent quality and sound. In the trunk was the transceiver - about the size of a briefcase. There was a head unit up front.
I don't recognize the frequencies in the Wilson unit. I am guessing that must have been the old "Business Band."
Times certainly have changed.
I installed more of those than I care to remember. All the trunk mount radios were a PITA. Running the power & control cables required removal of the back seat at a minimum. That's when I started to prefer tower work over mobile installations.
@@gliderp I can imagine they were a PITA! But, boy, did they ever work great! I can still remember in 1980 when I got my first and only IMTS unit, I would be driving in the DC area, working while driving (wonder I survived), and of course, we get a ton of tourists. Sitting at a light (as usual), another car pulls up beside me. It was a station wagon with a family from somewhere else in the USA. The kids caught me talking on the phone and they thought this was either the weirdest thing or the neatest thing, but they were in awe! "A guy is talking on the PHONE in his CAR!" Of course, those handsets back then were identical to the standard 500/2500 deskset phone. There was no mistaking what I was doing.
DC was always known for dense traffic. These units worked great. Eventually, cellular arrived and while the transceiver units were still trunk-mounted, at least they were the size of a paperback book. The head-unit also was small, although I really preferred the old handset or at least a Trimline handset. And, the antennas were the glass-mount and they worked great, too. Admittedly, these were functionally more practical, especially when traveling outside your home area.
I still hold a fondness for the old IMTS system, though. I was 25 in 1980 and just starting my career in DC. Good memories.
Thanks for the memories! That's my era tech.
The Wilson Radiophone looks like a larger version of a 1970's two-meter amateur radio "handi-talki". Important to consider, when the FCC "reorganized" the spectrum some brand name 600 MHz professional wireless microphones are now broadcasting illegally, wouldn't be surprised if the Wilson Radio isn't affected by a spectrum change. Enjoy your work Fran!
That battery tray is insane! I never seen anything like it, verycool!🍻🤠
Thank you Fran!💚
Hey Fran, what a nice find! Those frequencies, by the way, are smack-dab in the middle of the ham radio 2 meter band (144-148 MHz). Ostensibly, you could legally have a QSO with other hams on that rig!
73 de W4PKR.
I have a pair of HANDIC C65C that are very much like that that I haven’t used in over 40 years. It uses 10 nicads, they come with two shorting batteries so you can use eight AA.
Amazing to see just how many coils they used!
Great review!
Better stuff back then. None of that software defined radio (SDR) rubbish. Give me tuned circuits any day.
I worked for the Shack starting in the mid 80s and my side hustle was converting 12 volt vehicle mount cellular phones into a Samsonite briefcase with an external antenna and state of the art Ni-Cad batteries. Still had room for documents and stuff needed by suits.
Fun days in Radio Shack. Fun days indeed.
Looking at your multimeter it's immediately obvious why RUclips suggested your channel to me, among all the tinkerers. “Don’t turn it on, take it apart!”
My first 2m rig when I was 15 years old!. I added a "Pipo" ("Pico?") DTMF pad to mine for auto-patch. Very cool. I even remember the innards.
Back in the late seventies I had a ham radio buddy who had the baric 1402 version that he used. Great radio for its day
There You Are!!!
Dad and I had one of these. We were Hams, Dad is gone now but I am still KD7CKT
It's in the still used 2m FM amateur radio band. If you leave it on long enough you should pick up some chatter and/or some repeater control tones.
Not all HAMS use repeaters some like plain old simplex point to point no repeater. and theres now digital modes along side the standard analog FM mode. digital will sound like a silent carrier or static on an analog reciever.
The crystals installed are in the 150 Mhz band.
I was a Telephone Operator back in the early 1970s. I remember having to connect such calls. Later, I worked as a Central Office Equipment Installer. Then worked in Engineering and Construction in the Headquarters office.
The story of how the SXS System was designed by one of two morticians in a small town is quite interesting. I'm sure you and your subscribers would find it interesting.
Wow, that kind of looks like my first 2-meter (large) handheld, crystal bound Hy-Gain transceiver (as a newly minted teen Ham back in the 70's). The Hy-Gain had a telescoping antenna though!
Aw man, had I known you had your Wilson Radiophone powered up, I was sitting in front of mine just a few days ago! Just kidding, thanks for the video on this radio, it was the 9-pin connector that drew me in
The fixed coils in the cans are tunable somewhat by spreading a turn out slightly.
Yup, you can see others were spread some or a lot to adjust. Very common in low cost VHF stuff
It would have been great if you would have gotten one of those scam robocalls while testing it.
Absolultely love your contest. Hopefully you will continue making videos for as long as it brings you joy.
After having several bag phones in the early to mid 90's since my family liked to go camping, and we needed the extra range, my parents got Motorola StarTac phones, and I always thought they were the coolest things lol!
I have several of those that have added on DTMF pads.Mine are the Pace brand vintage 1977.Strangely called Pocket Phones..I built my own automated phone patch unit that controlled a receiver and transmitter.My radios have CTCSS plugs next to the crystals.
Those are ham radio band frequencies. With an amateur radio license and some frequency coordination, you could use that today!
This radio is set up similar to my uncles (Silent Key 2017) Drake Marker-Luxury. The first two or three channels are 2 Meter ham repeater frequencies, the last ones are local Police/Fire crystals in the RX only position. He had Cook County Illinois Sheriff PD @ 155.535 Mhz (now digital, encrypted 800 Mhz) and the local FD frequency 154.370 Mhz (still in use to this day).
Reminds me of a one watt CB walkie talkie I had as a teenager in the '70s...about the same time period. I very seldom talked on it, but listened in a lot...
My last analog AMPS phone was a Motorola StarTAC. I loved the red LED display and the extra battery gave it very acceptable talk time. As long as you accepted that it was totally insecure and anyone could hear your conversation (with the right radio scanner) you were fine. Previously I had a Motorola Bag Phone which ended up in my vehicle. It had a cable so I could connect a MicroTAC, the bag phone would then take the "identity" of the MicroTAC. I also had a switch to enable test mode. Oh the fun you could have with your Motorola phone in test mode, I guess it's best not discussed in the clear! 🙂
I had a StarTAC back in the day, too, and I thought it did TDMA, not AMPS. Although back then (~2000) it might have done both for maximum compatibility.
@@flapjack9495 Mine was certainly used on an AMPS network. I do recall there were features that I couldn't use (like messaging) which may have been available when it was used on a TDMA network.
Imagine the alignment procedure for this funky VHF device, what a charm :) These TOKO-made can transformers have always fascinated me... it's really hard to tell what is the purpose of that coil, just by looking at it, or ohming it out. At least for everything TOKO that has an orange dot on it, it's safe to assume it is some kind of 10,7MHz IF transformer.
Most crystal controlled radios I have had did have crystal for RX and one for TX as the offset is different so the difference will be like 445 KHz apart
Fran, Yep, a 2-meter FM ham radio. I bet it will work just fine and you can converse with any other ham on that band. Be careful though, you need a ham license to transmit on it. That radio was often equipped with after-market accessories such as a GLB "Channelizer" to make it frequency agile. Additionally, many of the ham radio 2-meter repeaters had an auto-patch that allowed hams to connect to the public switched network and make actual phone calls. All that was needed was a DTMF keypad attached to the front of the radio. No business calls allowed, no pizza orders, or calls back to the office or customers.
My first "Ham" radio was a Wilson WE800. It was an early synthesized radio (144-148MHz) with 3 thumbwheel rotary 10 position switches. It had 6 preset frequencies that you could program by soldering in some 1N914 diodes in a matrix bank. Loved that radio. It could be operated hand portable with a battery pack at 1W output or mounted with an external power supply at 10W.
I have one, they are also made by Tama Denki, and was sold outside the US
as a Tamaphone T1510
Thanks for sharing :)
I love the way old electronics smell . must be the phenolic Pc boards. but have fond memories of tinkering with electronics as a teen in the 70's
I found an ad online for this radio and in '72 it sold new for $199.95. That's $1,495 in today's Monopoly money.
Great times that were, for people who might to buy it. I was not. I was kiddy, but love it. It was magic like.
I would die laughing if you heard someone from India claiming to be from Amazon asking you to go pick up gift cards from Walgreens because he accidentally gave you too much credit on your refund.
It seems to be your telephone is equipped to only 3 channels of a total of 6 channels.
For each channel it needs two x-tals. One xtal is for the oscillator building the carrier on the tramsmit channel and the second xtal is to make the local oscillator for the receiving path. This oscillator has a frequeny offset with the value of the first interfrequency (if).
By mixing (matematical muliplying) the receiving frequency with the rx xtal oscillator frequency you get the difference of them to be the first if.
So if you enable all 6 channels you need 12 xtals. There for it has 6 free sockets.
Good Stuff Fran
I still have a set of them Wilson's too....
That also was a nice 2mtr VHF ham tranceiver back in the day. Those crystals shown are in the commercial VHF band of frequencies. Those metal cans over the coils of wire were there for isolation and adjusting the coils. If you were using frequencies that were very far apart, you might have to spread the coil winding to reduce the "Q", or the bandwith of the rf amplifier to accomodate frequencies that were very far apart when transmitting. Those ferrite slugs with the rectangle screwdriver notch could be a real pain because you can easily break them. That ceramic filter (LF-C12) is in the receiver section and they were really good at reducing any adjacent channel interference.
I am a licensed ham (advanced class from ages ago) but not active any more. I just don't like where ham radio has gone (to the dogs if you ask me)! But this brought back memories, from a time when radios did not have memories, just crystals instead!! LOL....Thank God for Phase Locked Loop Frequency Synthesis!! BTW, the only ham radio I still have is an old Radio Shack HTX-202 HT!! It still works but I lost most of the extra accessories.
Amazing how the technology has advanced. I've got a relatively small Yeasu FT-60R handheld radio that will transmit with a maximum of 5 watts. POwered by NiMh batteries and covers more frequencies than I care to think of.
Fascinating!!
I'd like to see you do a video on Stroger Switches
As a Ham radio operator, I found the back plate and the current crystals in the radio interesting. The back plate has 2-meter frequencies, but the crystals are in the 151 MHz range. I suspect this radio was owned at one point by a Ham radio operator with 2-meter band crystals put in it, but the original crystals (151 MHz) were placed back in the radio. Crystals in the 2-meter band are still useful and often kept by Ham radio operators for old crystal frequency radios. If 2-meter band crystals are found, then this radio could be used with help from a Ham radio operator.
I was thinking back on watching this video and noticed that also. It suddenly occured to me that one item I did not see on the back was any FCC type acceptance. Anateur radio gear is exempt from such type acceptance because we can work on our own stuff. Other transmitting equipment is required to have that type acceptance, however. That being the case with this radio having those crystals in there means this radio was operated illegally, not that it matters now.
I remember having a CB radio that took 10 NiCd batteries to operate at 12V. You have to put conductive spacers in to replace two of the cells of you used alkaline 1.5 volt batteries.
Same here. NiCd and NiMH are 1.2V nominal. Doesn't matter for many devices but when you get up to 10 cells the difference between 12V and 15V was significant enough to include the 2 dummy cells for alkaline use.
I have a pair of Sea Star badged T-1502 VHF marine handys, exactly like the 2Meter ham T-1402,
but crystaled for 156MHz instead of 146MHz, in Europe the Ken KP202 version was popular
just like the T-1402 but the speaker grill sloped the other way. Tama Denki was a major player in vhf handys in the 1970''s.
My volunteer fire department had a bunch of radio walkie-talkie like that. In the mid 1980
@01:30 Wow. I did not know that the Western Electric Company manufactured two way police radiophones. Also, the frequencies this device operated on in in the 2 meter Amateur Radio band which goes from 144-148 Mhz.
I'm a radio head so this is awesome. Cool
Oh the fun we had with bag phones and dpc-550 flip phones and the oki900.
I don't often run into someone who knows about the oki-900. I was playing around with that when I was like 16. 😂
@@bsadewitz oh that and the CTEK cable. I wrote custom firmware to roll esn/min pairs at every power up. Stored in the contact memory. While I gave up having a contacts list, I gained 200+ ways to be anonymous.
@@BobDarlington Wow, that is awesome
@@BobDarlington I forgot all about the CTEK Cable and everything. I never had a firmware that did that. The one that I used just let u switch manually between a bunch of ESN/MIN pairs
Apart from the multi-way socket, and the controls being in slightly different locations, this looks identical to the Ken KP-202, a 2 watt transceiver for the two metre amateur band sold in Britain in the mid to late 1970's. Even the meter and the labelling on the channel switch (the circle around 1 and 2) look identical.
10 batteries....
Worst thing you want to see when you find a nice vintage piece of gear and open the battery door after it's been sitting for 40 years.
You ain't lying on that one, as I once found a box full of Coleco tabletop arcade games at a junk shop in the late 90's(gas was cheap, so me, and my sister loved to thrifting, and yard saling on Saturdays), all of them had batteries left in them, out of the 10 units I was able get 4 working after a good cleaning, the rest I kept for parts, and later sold on eBay in a lot.
Blimey!, that thing is as old as I am. 🤣
Marine telephone, used on boats. You would signal the marine operator, give her the number and place the call. Two frequencies are used. One for talking, and one for receiving.
I understand your laughter, but you have to realize, preferably every day, that without these technologies, you would not have the present. Do you understand ? :)
You could do further testing with this if you got an SDR. You could test that it is transmitting using an RTL-SDR, very cheap. like $30, and the software for doing FM is pretty simple.
If you wanted TX/RX I think the cheapest and easiest option is still HackRF.
you wouldn't need another Wilson to test it, since it transmits on the 2m ham frequencies, you could use any common vhf scanner or 2m ham radio, but as others have stated, legally you need a license to transmit on ham radio, but not to listen. It would probably transmit several miles (line of site) by itself, but if it connected to a repeater, 50-75 miles is possible
turns out the T-1402-SM was also sold with an optional touchtone key pad, so yeah this thing could be used as a phone if configured properly.
If it had the TT pad, It could be used with a phonepatch through a radio amateur repeater
2:23 HAH, wow that thing is STUFFED with batteries, that's nuts! crazy that most of it's size and weight is just a shitload of batteries!
It's funny how they used to call that a radiotelephone. It's actually a CB radio. It has crystals in it that allow a specific frequency however when it was updated those crystals were standardized frequencies for citizen band radio with 40 channels
It's not a CB radio, it is an Amateur Radio operating in the 2 meter band except someone has installed crystals for the 150 Mhz band.
Those resistors were mounted vertically so they had better temperature stability, as they got better airflow standing up like that. I don't think it was really necessary here, but it was done more as a matter of course back then.
That's a bit of a stretch to market that Wilson as a 'Radio Telephone'. It appears to be a walkie talkie. Simplex only. So you would have to say 'over' before releasing the PTT. Looking at the frequencies used for the channels, it was set up for VHF private mobile radio. Most countries have strict licencing requirements. This could be used for building sites, taxis, warehouses, shops etc. Having said that, I worked at sea and used Marine VHF (156-162Mhz). This was often referred to as a 'radio telephone', but it could be used to patch through to the landline system using regulated shore stations, in a 'link call'. Some of the 'posher' RTs were capable of full duplex, using two frequencies. You could then hold the PTT in and talk as if you were on a phone.
Not simplex. This radio was designed and manufactured to be used on the 2 meter amatuer band. The frequencies listed on the back are Amateur radio frequencies and they have a 600 Khz offset. It looks as though someone tried using it in an unintended fashion by installing those other crystals which this radio is not type accepted for.
That Wilson meter was probably old stock from Philips as they used that in their early joystick controlled cassette recorder. Its exactly the same!
The battery compartment is made to hold ten cells, but you would only use eight primary (carbon-zinc, alkaline) batteries and two dummy batteries to complete the circuit. This would give you just a hair north of 12V. When using nicads, you would use all 10 spots for cells, as nicads only make 1.25V per cell, as opposed to 1.62 for a fresh carbon-zinc with no load, and about 1.5 under a moderate load. Judging from the sound of the hash from the receiver, I think that set may have used amplitude modulation.
No, 12kHz FM bandwidth, there is a simple slope demodulator in there, which is why the unit will receive both FM and AM noise, as it will have a lot of impulse noise if there is no FM carrier to squelch it. Will work with a modern HT just perfectly, though getting those crystals is now a hard thing, the manufacturers that used to make the overtone crystals in those sizes now are all mostly gone, leaving you with having to scour fleabay to get the odd crystal removed from sets, and leaving you stuck only being able to use certain channels in the 144MHz 2m amateur band allocation.
Incidentally the main reason Fran is not getting any reply is because that unit is missing the add on subtone generator ,that is often used by a lot of amateur repeaters as a method to prevent random noise actuating the repeater, you need to be both above the signal level, and be transmitting the correct low level audio tone, before it will switch the transmit side on, filtering out the tone from the received audio before sending on. Modern sets it is part of the unit, just needs enabling and the frequency, but with these old sets it was a whole small board you shoehorned into the case by the transmit audio processing, that added the tone in to the audio modulator at a specific level, set by the manufacturer of the HT, and selected to not overmodulate the carrier. A lot of the audio side is common for transmit and receive, with there being a IF used to shape the RF signal, and PIN diodes used to select either the RF power stage, or the speaker amplifier as the output, and here a few transistors instead of a relay to do switching as well.
@@SeanBZA Thanks for the correction. I'm amazed they relied on slope detection. The only difference in parts for a real FM detector would have been a few diodes and the correct IF transformer to drive them.
@@ScottGrammer Easier to do slope demodulation if you have a nicely behaved 10.7MHz IF, and then use those 2 slug tuned transformers up together to do it, as that gives as well a easy way to get signal strength to operate the squelch, along with an AGC signal for the modulator, as you can use the bleed through to the IF as a way to prevent over modulation, as you get a DC level proportional to deviation as well.
Makes sense I guess, especially for the early 1970s.
I had the import Ken KP202, similar to this one, in 1973, 50 years ago, with a drop in
charger and 6 channels, but 146.94 simplex
and repeater, .34-.94, 600 Khz split wired in,
so only 4 channels were available to put in
4 chosen sets of frequencies.
73 de W2CH Ray New Hampshire. 1962-?.
my friends father and scoutmaster had one of these radio phones. we wouild prank people from the woods . we thought we were so clever.
This wasn’t a “phone” it is an amateur ham radio handy talkie. May repeaters it was used with had “auto-patch” which allowed licensed hams to make remote phone calls. I built two such systems back in the 70’s. This is still on the amateur band which requires a license!
Very nice! Its frequency plan looks like an offset schema (TX and RX are on different frequencies) in the 2m amateur band. They might have operated a repeater station for this in an elevated location. I wonder how one might have "dialed" without a keypad.
This is not a telephone-it's a two-way radio.
radiotelephone was the original name for voice transmitters(as compared to non-voice modes).
The tx and rx are on different frequencies because the unit came set for two of the most common amateur radio repeater frequency pairs.
146,34/146.94, and 146.16/146.76.
However, it does seem to have been recrystaled, as others have noted..this is not the if offset, because this would only apply to the receive crystals-but ALL of the crystals are above the ham band.
Well early radio telephone systems didn't have a dial; they were all operator handled.
But this is a ham radio, not a early mobile phone.
that 2 meter ham radio frequency scratch in the back cover, those are business frequency crystals in the radio
The first car phone I ever installed was the size of a briefcase. I think 1989 Australia.
Those cans over the fixed coils are shields, not insulators.
I hope you have a licence to transmit on those frequencies! :)
Star Tac my first mobile. Is incribele!.pure ostentation in those days😊😊😊😊
I am most intrigued by the 9-pin serial port. First, because I wasn’t aware that it even existed in 1974 and just exactly what equipment interfaced with the radio. Could it have been an external microphone connection?
Obviously belonged to Luke Wilson and likely used during the rehabilitation sequence evidenced by the boing-y antenna that emulates the boing-y hood ornament.
Elementary.
I was from the days when you had to make mobil calls through the opperator would tell you wich channel to use and then connect you.
Fran; You are transmitting in the US HAM band. You need a license to do that. The 2 meter band from 144 to 148 Mhz
No one is going to enforce that...
Uou got a loicense for that, mate?
😂 Officer: "Send my credentials -to the- house of De-Ten-tion"...
The crystals inside aren’t actually ham frequencies. They’re in the 155MHz range. Still requires a license of course. 😊
When I use my Marine VHF in Europe, I always tell them I have "American License". They cannot demand casual American boaters to acquire license for every tiny country in Europe. -- Realized now that you can also get VHF-license from Monaco just by emailing some form, the license will be mailed to you for free.
I don't think that's really a radio-telephone from that era--it's more just a walkie-talkie. I remember seeing an actual telephone (the old indestructible kind, with a dial and a separable handset) in a car owned by a very successful businessman around 1969-1970. The way it worked, I believe, was it used radio to connect to a special telephone operator (remember operators?) who could patch you in to the telephone network.
I have no idea how well it worked. I never had an opportunity to play with it.
Denki in Japanese means electric. So it's Electric Limited.