Modat pack unit

[metro121]

I recentlty picked up what I thought was a Pac RT unit but the tag says it is a MODAT unit. Does anyone know what it is , what radios it can be used on and which cable I need for any particular setup. I paid $1.00 for it at the Mesa Swapmeet so don't laugh if I bought a door stop.

[Mike B]

MODAT is a status/message/unit ID data system that is different from and precedes the MDC systems (i.e. MDC-600 or MDC-1200). Your unit was designed to work with a properly equipped dispatch console. The control head shown in the manual is an old Micor style white System 90 type.

The manual part number is 68-81029E10 which is no longer available from Motorola.

The manual lists cables for Micor, Motrac and Mocom 35 radios. I am sure you could modify the interface to work with lots of other radios.

The reason it is in the large housing that looks like a PAC-RT is because it uses old real estate hungry discrete logic chips (individual gates, flip flops, encoders, decoders, etc.) that are hard wired (i.e. no microprocessor here).

MODAT uses audible tone combinations to encode the data and it is more pleasing to the ear than a modern digital data burst.