RE: [Repeater-Builder] Re: Moto Pulsar 120 (IMTS phone war stories)
I have a TLD-1100 vhf rcc unit in my garage somewhere. I used to use it many years ago on the local rcc. Are these things worth anything? I think I also have an old motrac vhf radio that I had on rcc before that. I bolted a duplexer on the top of it and made it full duplex and turned the power down so it didn't fry the final. Worked pretty good! 73 Gary K4FMX -Original Message- From: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com [mailto:Repeater- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Milt Sent: Monday, March 26, 2007 10:50 PM To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Re: Moto Pulsar 120 (IMTS phone war stories) If it was a copper colored square channel element, then the radio should have been about 2ft long, 6high, and 15 wide and weighed enough to eliminate the need for the extra couple of sandbags in the trunk in the winter. TLD-1100 comes to mind but that was the VHF version. Based on a Motrac, the VHF units still used 3 tubes to get up to 50 watts before the duplexing filter. The UHF was solid state and ran about 18-20 watts out. They were very popular with the telephone company folks around MD. Then there were the people who discovered they could make a mint by packaging an old TLD-1100 radio with new fancy looking control head Pulsar 120's and Pulsar II's were the same box as I recall, just different control heads. Very nice radios. Milt N3LTQ - Original Message - From: Ken Arck [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, March 26, 2007 12:39 PM Subject: [Repeater-Builder] Re: Moto Pulsar 120 (IMTS phone war stories) I don't remember if it was the Pulsar 120 or not but I did indeed build a repeater in the late 70's, based on a Pulsar. One channel element (square copper as I remember) and a 5 mHz 1st IF made it a piece of cake. It worked surprisingly well for what it was. As this was in SoCal where UHF splits are upside down (low in, high out ham repeaters), the Pulsar was a natural. The biggest problem was that it used germanium RF devices. Fortunately for us, there was a MSS nearby to keep us stocked in those devices (which was needed!). Ken -- President and CTO - Arcom Communications Makers of the world famous RC210 Repeater Controller and accessories. http://www.arcomcontrollers.com/ Coming soon - the most advanced repeater controller EVER. Authorized Dealers for Kenwood and Telewave and we offer complete repeater packages! AH6LE/R - IRLP Node 3000 http://www.irlp.net Yahoo! Groups Links Yahoo! Groups Links
[Repeater-Builder] Re: Moto Pulsar 120 (IMTS phone war stories)
Great to see someone describe the Pulsar well. They came into the SF Motorola Service Station well through the 80's. I don't remember ever having to really repair one other than small stupid user things and some control reprogramming. Built like a fort with a pretty neat internal duplexer hams used to get fooled excited about using it for amateur repeater work. No cigar big boy... I used to say they were a hybrid style of Mocom 70 just because they looked a bit like a Mocom 70 and had the same quality of construction. The Mocom 70 and the Pulsar are probably of the same design generation or familiy. To make you cry I'll say I can't remember how many of the Pulsars we trashed when Motorola Recon wouldn't even pay the freight fees to Recon (where they would crush them) upon customer trade in. Speaking of IMTS Radios... we also saw and serviced a number of Harris phones, which made very easy repeater conversions. The Harris UHF units had a really nice internal duplexer... call it a flat pack but it was more a mini cigar box size and it works great for Amateur Aps. A rush of memories flood back to those days. I can actually remember a few RCA, GE, Harris, Aerotron IMTS phones... oh boy, what joy. The phones were an easy service ticket... the #$* taxi cabs right behind them were the stinky cluster of the morning.. a whole line of them out the door. All the drivers with great attitudes. cheers, s. nj902 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The Pulsar mobile phone is not a 1969 product, they were produced from the late 1970's through the 1980's. These drawer units make good raw materials for building repeaters. They can be had for next to nothing or even for free, so you can build a complete repeater for lunch money. Much of the circuitry is of the same vintage as Micor. The PA's are continuous duty - after all, a duplex phone transmitter is active for the duration of a phone call - no PTT. Also, these are synthesized radios- but the nifty thing is that there is no microprocessor - the synthesizer loop is programmed with a diode matrix. Once you master the logic - you can move it to other frequencies - and without spending a dime to have channel elements re-rocked. [these units actually do have a microprocessor for the supervisory logic - but we remove that for amateur repeater applications] They do have a fixed offset from TX to RX. Since that offset is 5 MHz at UHF, those can be a full duplex link or repeater in one box. For VHF, it would be easier to use two drawers since there is only one VCO. Also, there is no squelch circuit so you will need an audio or squelch gate board from a Micor or a squelch circuit like the one from Link. Finding a manual is necessary for a successful project. The drawer unit will have a model number such as T1739 or T1839 [A,B,C,D, etc.] This will help tell what band the unit is and what book to look for. You can also open it and look for assembly numbers that begin with TLD or TLE to determine the band.
[Repeater-Builder] Re: Moto Pulsar 120 (IMTS phone war stories)
I don't remember if it was the Pulsar 120 or not but I did indeed build a repeater in the late 70's, based on a Pulsar. One channel element (square copper as I remember) and a 5 mHz 1st IF made it a piece of cake. It worked surprisingly well for what it was. As this was in SoCal where UHF splits are upside down (low in, high out ham repeaters), the Pulsar was a natural. The biggest problem was that it used germanium RF devices. Fortunately for us, there was a MSS nearby to keep us stocked in those devices (which was needed!). Ken -- President and CTO - Arcom Communications Makers of the world famous RC210 Repeater Controller and accessories. http://www.arcomcontrollers.com/ Coming soon - the most advanced repeater controller EVER. Authorized Dealers for Kenwood and Telewave and we offer complete repeater packages! AH6LE/R - IRLP Node 3000 http://www.irlp.net
Re: [Repeater-Builder] Re: Moto Pulsar 120 (IMTS phone war stories)
If it was a copper colored square channel element, then the radio should have been about 2ft long, 6high, and 15 wide and weighed enough to eliminate the need for the extra couple of sandbags in the trunk in the winter. TLD-1100 comes to mind but that was the VHF version. Based on a Motrac, the VHF units still used 3 tubes to get up to 50 watts before the duplexing filter. The UHF was solid state and ran about 18-20 watts out. They were very popular with the telephone company folks around MD. Then there were the people who discovered they could make a mint by packaging an old TLD-1100 radio with new fancy looking control head Pulsar 120's and Pulsar II's were the same box as I recall, just different control heads. Very nice radios. Milt N3LTQ - Original Message - From: Ken Arck [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, March 26, 2007 12:39 PM Subject: [Repeater-Builder] Re: Moto Pulsar 120 (IMTS phone war stories) I don't remember if it was the Pulsar 120 or not but I did indeed build a repeater in the late 70's, based on a Pulsar. One channel element (square copper as I remember) and a 5 mHz 1st IF made it a piece of cake. It worked surprisingly well for what it was. As this was in SoCal where UHF splits are upside down (low in, high out ham repeaters), the Pulsar was a natural. The biggest problem was that it used germanium RF devices. Fortunately for us, there was a MSS nearby to keep us stocked in those devices (which was needed!). Ken -- President and CTO - Arcom Communications Makers of the world famous RC210 Repeater Controller and accessories. http://www.arcomcontrollers.com/ Coming soon - the most advanced repeater controller EVER. Authorized Dealers for Kenwood and Telewave and we offer complete repeater packages! AH6LE/R - IRLP Node 3000 http://www.irlp.net Yahoo! Groups Links
Re: [Repeater-Builder] Re: Moto Pulsar 120 (IMTS phone war stories)
My first job in the business was as a service tech for an RCC. We had a GE IMTS terminal with hand wired 5th Selector Level stroger switches on the direct inward dial trunks complete with sleeve lead control. There were 4 selector switches, and one block on 1000 numbers. In addition to the GE IMTS terminal there was also a Motorola LO9DAL dial access paging terminal that used code plan 'S' The code plan determined which 2 groups of tones were used in two tone sequential. The pagers were Bell and Howell and KEL - that used either alkaline or mercury batteries. The IMTS system had about 20 T1433AE full duplex FACTS (fully automated car telephone system) radios and control heads. (there were fewer than 50 pagers in Temple, TX in 1975). Drew about 2 amperes while idle. Took a channel element like you described (radio was similar to a Mocom 70) and ran it up to about 40 watts VHF before it hit the varactor tripler and the duplexer. There was one Moto base station and one GE PRO series station - (we had only 3 channels to start with) I never will forget the day when it got so hot at the site in Temple - south of Waco abt 30 miles that the plastic relay covers on the Moto melted and kept the TX from keying - no isulation or anything - just a tin shed on a hill top in a corn field. When the stations were keyed via remote control phone line, the station would change the load resistance to tell the terminal that it had come up to full power, else there was a remote fail indicator at the terminal. Next came the customer owned and maintained units - Moto Pulsars and GE / Secode Mark 5 heads. We also has some Secode DID1 terminals and VP1 control heads, but these were on VHF with the TLD1100's. Interesting, the TLD1100 also drew 2 amperes in standby, due to the 5894 PA and driver tubes, not like the T1433AE with the all PNP transistor supervisory logic pack. All this for just $3.50 an hour just out of tech school. 1/2 a day Saturdays at overtimeyou could almost make a living. When I left the RCC in 1981 for a microwave / T1 transmission job at Centel in 1981 there were 600 pagers and 40 some odd mobile phones. We implemented metered service in 1979 - cost went from $72.60 per month unlimited to the same plus $0.20 per minute or portion there of. I remember seeing some $300 phone bills - we got about 1/2 the rental phones back - and continued to make the same revenue with 1/2 the equipment in the field. Tone and voice pagers were running $15 per month, and tone only were $9 per month. Those were the days. Steve NU5D We On 3/26/07, Milt [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If it was a copper colored square channel element, then the radio should have been about 2ft long, 6high, and 15 wide and weighed enough to eliminate the need for the extra couple of sandbags in the trunk in the winter. TLD-1100 comes to mind but that was the VHF version. Based on a Motrac, the VHF units still used 3 tubes to get up to 50 watts before the duplexing filter. The UHF was solid state and ran about 18-20 watts out. They were very popular with the telephone company folks around MD. -- Ham Radio Spoken Here.NU5D Visit the Temple Ham Club Website http://www.tarc.org www.yahoogroups.com/group/Temple_arc www.yahoogroups.com/group/60meter
