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Motorola P23AAC packset
This is a Polaroid print of my first Motorola radio. It was a 1960s P23AAC packset. I think it was purchased mail order from Mann Electronics somewhere in Los Angeles County. It was in surprisingly good shape.
Police detectives saw me with this and took it away from me. They were 100% certain I'd stolen it. Sometimes I got detained for a while. I recall being locked in a windowless interview room at the police station for maybe an hour. When it came back clear, they were sure it was unreported. They talked to the police radio techs and called around. Eventually, they relented and gave it back to me. You can see the serial number plate under the handset in the photo. This went on for a few decades with other Motorola portable radios. They'd confiscate the thing then be astounded when it was discovered to be legitimately purchased. A peace officer who was not involved in taking away the radios told me, "I'm surprised they gave it back to you. I thought you'd never see it again. They're supposed to give you a property receipt." They hadn't. Apparently there are some honest people in law enforcement.
These had peanut tubes and I think a 1-watt transmitter power. They took a pair of 67.5-volt dry cell batteries, which are impossible to find, and (I think) two filament batteries. If I wanted to get one of these to work today, I'd buy 14, 9V lithium batteries and put at least two strings of 7 in series for 63 volts. There was a rechargeable nickel-cadmium wet cell option which this did not have. The NiCd was 12 volts and very heavy. They ran a DC-DC inverter to get high voltage for the tubes.
Transistorized! There were a couple of transistors in the audio stages and this was heavily advertised. A modern wonder.
This was purchased to experiment and learn. What I was surprised to learn almost immediately was: there is no speaker on this thing. For cryin' out loud, how're you supposed to listen for a radio call from dispatch? I guess you walk around with the handset glued to your ear. (Like a modern phone?) I never did anything useful with this but it looked cool and I learned some things. In a museum, I saw that a short-line railroad that used these speaker-less radios. I later bought a 5-watt transmitter model in order to get one with a speaker. It had four, 45-volt dry cells and a 2E24 power amplifier tube.
No idea what channel this had installed. Except for the "F63" stencil and the crystal frequencies, there was no clue of who owned this before Mann bought it.
The federal repeater network design standard is 85% coverage within jurisdictional areas.
— IDIP November 2016
Journalism grade image.
Source: 600x600 pixel 8-bit gray scale TIF file Polaroid print scan.
Do not copy this image for any purpose.
Motorola P23AAC packset
This is a Polaroid print of my first Motorola radio. It was a 1960s P23AAC packset. I think it was purchased mail order from Mann Electronics somewhere in Los Angeles County. It was in surprisingly good shape.
Police detectives saw me with this and took it away from me. They were 100% certain I'd stolen it. Sometimes I got detained for a while. I recall being locked in a windowless interview room at the police station for maybe an hour. When it came back clear, they were sure it was unreported. They talked to the police radio techs and called around. Eventually, they relented and gave it back to me. You can see the serial number plate under the handset in the photo. This went on for a few decades with other Motorola portable radios. They'd confiscate the thing then be astounded when it was discovered to be legitimately purchased. A peace officer who was not involved in taking away the radios told me, "I'm surprised they gave it back to you. I thought you'd never see it again. They're supposed to give you a property receipt." They hadn't. Apparently there are some honest people in law enforcement.
These had peanut tubes and I think a 1-watt transmitter power. They took a pair of 67.5-volt dry cell batteries, which are impossible to find, and (I think) two filament batteries. If I wanted to get one of these to work today, I'd buy 14, 9V lithium batteries and put at least two strings of 7 in series for 63 volts. There was a rechargeable nickel-cadmium wet cell option which this did not have. The NiCd was 12 volts and very heavy. They ran a DC-DC inverter to get high voltage for the tubes.
Transistorized! There were a couple of transistors in the audio stages and this was heavily advertised. A modern wonder.
This was purchased to experiment and learn. What I was surprised to learn almost immediately was: there is no speaker on this thing. For cryin' out loud, how're you supposed to listen for a radio call from dispatch? I guess you walk around with the handset glued to your ear. (Like a modern phone?) I never did anything useful with this but it looked cool and I learned some things. In a museum, I saw that a short-line railroad that used these speaker-less radios. I later bought a 5-watt transmitter model in order to get one with a speaker. It had four, 45-volt dry cells and a 2E24 power amplifier tube.
No idea what channel this had installed. Except for the "F63" stencil and the crystal frequencies, there was no clue of who owned this before Mann bought it.
The federal repeater network design standard is 85% coverage within jurisdictional areas.
— IDIP November 2016
Journalism grade image.
Source: 600x600 pixel 8-bit gray scale TIF file Polaroid print scan.
Do not copy this image for any purpose.