Maratrac with working phone style HHCH

[pdblues]

Hi everyone,

I picked up a bunch of Maratracs in a government auction and I was puzzled by what I unpacked. I wanted to see if anyone has ever heard of this option before on these radios. I am somewhat familiar with most of the big-M products and this one was a shocker to me.

It basically a smartnet Maratrac with a motorola bag phone handset that is used as an HHCH. My only guess is that it was used as an undercover option for cars so they would look like they just had a car phone in them. I originally thought they just shipped us two unrelated things when I opened the box and saw radio drawers and what looked like old phone handsets. After looking through the box there was one (and only one) remote cable in the box so I took a look at the cord and saw it had a modular plug on the end which I thought was odd for radios of that age. After carefully looking at the handsets (and almost throwing them out because I thought they were useless) I saw a TX and BUSY indicator in the display of the phone. Just to be crazy, I applied power and hooked everything up and lo and behold, the radios had a full alphanumeric display functioning as an HHCH on this phone handset. It changes zones and everything. I've worked with HHCH stuff before on syntors and other radios but this was a level of sophistication that I had not seen in the maratracs. Still haven't figured what to use as the PTT on the handset. Now I'm just trying to figure out how I'm going to make more of these cables because I have about 8 radios and handsets but only one cord .

Curious if anyone has any input or has seen this before.

Thanks.

[kt2728]

can you post some pics?

kt

[pdblues]

Yup, I'll power them up and get some pics online. I figure if anyone knows about them, it'd be someone from here.

[kf4sqb]

If I'm not mistaken, thats not a Maratrac you have. I forget what the actual name is, but it is basically a very early cellphone. I believe that would only work on a proprietary system, not on the general cellphone system. The drawer does, indeed, look a lot like a Maratrac drawer, but has a DB25 connector, instead of the connector the Maratrac used, IIRC. I've seen some of these, but it has been several years, and I've never used or worked on any.

[xmo]

The duplex MaxTrac fits your description [looks like a Maratrac]. They were made in 800 MHz and 900 Mhz models.

Radio model numbers T35CPA5GD1BH through T35CPA5GD9BH are high power [25 Watts]. Corresponding T25 series numbers are low power models.

The D1, D3, D4, and D6 models are for Privacy Plus systems.
The D8 and D9 models are for Smartnet systems and went by the designation "2000X"
There was also a CoveragePLUS 800 model T35VWC5GB7AK.

T35 series 800 MHz service manual 68P02985G90
T25 series 800 MHz service manual 68P02984G65
T37 series 900 MHz service manual 68P02985G80
T27 series 900 MHz service manual 68P02985G55

[d119]

It's probably a Privacy Plus 1000. Lots of those were out there. It's a duplex radio that was designed with trunked interconnect in mind. AMPS-era stuff but it's not cellular. I think the idea was that you could have your two way radio and cellular phone all in one box, but obviously the coverage area was limited because it ran on a trunking system, not the cellular network.

[PETNRDX]

If it really is the Maxtrac, the heat sink is narrower but longer than the standard high power Maxtrac so it shouldn't look like a Maratrac or Maxtrac.
I have one in my hand right now and it is a T25CPA5D4BH.
This was a full duplex radio on an early 800 trunk system.

[kf4sqb]

It's probably a Privacy Plus 1000.

Privacy Plus, thats the name I couldn't remember! I was only remembering them being cell phones. Guess I was half right, at least....

[mostar]

> Still haven't figured what to use as the PTT on the handset.

If in fact these are PP-1000 handsets, the PTT was on the left side of the handset, where, if you're holding it in your left hand, your thumb would hit it when it was held up to your face.

[pdblues]

Sorry for the delay on posting pictures. Took me awhile to make some time to get to the bench. I'm interested in all the replies. I thought it was a standard maratrac with a strange handset. Here are some pics. I'd appreciate any further info anyone has after seeing it.

[motorola_otaku]

Hmm. I have seen (sent several to the dumpster last week, in fact) the CoveragePLUS Maxtracs with that same handheld control head and the Privacy Plus 1000 which uses a slightly-different head and the Mitrek-era drawer like that one.. but yours appears to be a marriage of the two platforms. Truly a unique and bizarre beast.

Try popping the top lid off and looking for a RJ45 connector in the same place as it would be in a Maratrac. If it has one, it might read with Maxtrac Trunking Lab and a Maxtrac cable.

[PETNRDX]

Now that is a weird radio.
Sure does not have the normal Maratrac connections.
What does it look like inside?
Now you have me curious.
I too am thinking an early PP radio.
Even earlier than the Maxtrac.

[com501]

Its a PP1000, which had a footswitch and visor microphone, for undercover work. We had a few of these in our shop once or twice. I think I threw the last box full of that stuff away when we had housecleaning last year. Good solid 800 or 900 radio, though, depending on condition. I used one in my service truck for quite awhile.