PT300/PT400

[batwing4ever]

Every time I see one of the Motorola lunchbox (PT300 or PT400) radios on eBay the price goes sky-high for what is basically an MT500 (*yuck*) in a HUGE box. Anybody know what's so hot about these radios?

I could see possibly wanting one to fill out a Motorola shrine similar to the one in my home office, but that's about it.

Incidentally, I have several MT500's floating around here. The best use practical use (not including my "Great Wall of Motorola") I've found so far for an MT500 is to use one for blocking under a window air conditioner in a dilapidated storage building.

[Josh]

I have a PT500 and think it's pretty cool, granted it only has 2 channels.

With the PT line of radios, you can have a portable radio station that has a decent antenna (if it's the QW whip model), a loud speaker, and the possibility of using standard alkaline cells, whether they be 'C' 'D', or 6v lantern style.

The one I have uses 3 6volt batteries, it lasts forever, sounds good, is sensitive and just nifty in general for toting around when working on the car or when the power goes out.

I didn't pay a lot for mine though, maybe $40, how much are you seeing them run for? FWIW, the PT500 has an MT500 frame inside.

[Tom in D.C.]

MT500s in any form make great backup radios. The audio can't be beat
for plain loudness and the sensitivity, when properly tuned, is also great.
Problem is the cost of the elements. I have a mint slimline 500 set up to monitor
the local FD's trunked dispatch that is rebroadcast on VHF FM with the second channel
on 151.625 for which I'm licensed; just an all around great radio. Only REAL
problem is collecting them; after you've got a bunch of them together you
suddenly ask yourself, "What the hell did I do that for?"

[WB6NVH]

Yes, but remember that a PT-200 or a PT-300 is not an MT-500 in a big housing, it is an HT-200 from 1964 inside a big housing. The PT-300 adds a power amp so that it's a 5 Watt radio and the PT-400 has a 10 Watt amp and uses an elongated housing with different battery boxes than the others. PT-200/300/400 are Germanium transistor designs (although the 400 has silicon as well in it.)

The PT-500 is the one with the MT-500 in it and the PX-300 is the one with an MX-300 inside.

There's also a weird one called an MP-500 which is an MH-70 Handicom with a power amp grafted onto a lantern battery box and apparently sold to railroads for a brief period (AMTRAK ?) The MP-500 has no speaker and uses a Handicom speaker-mike for everything. I have never seen one in the buyer's guides or sales literature.

Back to the original topic, though, I don't know why PT-300's are going up in price unless Hawaii Five-O is starting up on cable once again.

[k2hz]

The MP500 was very popular with Conrail. When the PT500 was discontinued, the railroads still wanted a portable that could run from lantern batteries so the MP500 was the solution.

[STEVE W]

FIVE-O is coming back on cable in Buffalo, so there go the prices. I have an MP500 and it is a neat looking radio, sitting on the shelf collecting dust
Just my 2 cents
Steve W

[WB6NVH]

Steve McGarrett got to use a PT-300 in one episode but Chin Ho was permanently stuck with a Sears 2 channel CB kid's walkie talkie. No wonder he got killed off before the series ended. Even Wo Fat had a TLD-1100 "MJ" IMTS phone on his yacht. I seem to recall a DuMont head sneaking into one of the Five-O cars in an early episode.

HT-200 prices will remain low until McCloud comes back in re-runs, with Dennis Weaver speaking into the wrong side of the radio. Funny that the original Starsky and Hutch series never did much for HT-220 and Micor prices on eBay... Nor did Dan's Pulsar II IMTS phone in his '57 T-Bird on "Vegas" ever get popular.

On my CHP Radio website I get about one inquiry per month asking me where to find the "Motonics" branded radios used on the CHiPs KZ-1000 motorcycles... This alternates with inquiries about "what frequency were the radios in the Mayberry Sheriff's Office and Andy's car on?" Gotta wonder about this country these days...

[KitN1MCC]

there was a real nice Yellow Chessie System one on there i was this close to getting it for 50.00 then some railfan skyrocketd the price and it had the Railroad channel i needed i was gonna put it in out caboose at the valley


i have an ever older LB one with Pixie tubes,. i am thinking of takeing the pt200 i have and putting a ht50 or ht600 Guts init

[batwing4ever]

Steve McGarrett got to use a PT-300

HT-200 prices will remain low until McCloud comes back in re-runs, with Dennis Weaver speaking into the wrong side of the radio.

Funny that the original Starsky and Hutch series never did much for HT-220 and Micor prices on eBay

So is there a list out there of what radios various TV and movie cops used?

[Glen W Christen]

If I remember correctly the first "Conductor's Pack Set" was the PT100, which used the separate Tx & Rx boards of the HT100. Some were high power, with the external PA, but all that I worked on used D cells and would last for weeks in railroad use. I've seen it both low band and VHF: LB had an expansion deck between the battery and the radio with a rotary switch to allow for two different PL tones for use with two repeaters (local rural electric). They were extremely rugged and reliable. It's the only portable that I ever used a 1/2" drive ratchet on (to tighten the antenna mounting nut which would come loose occasionally)