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Manual for Motorola C73MHB-3140BR

Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 4:50 pm
by LITTLEMOUNTAINMAN
I have acquired a "vintage" Motorola C73MHB-3140BR, VHF Repeater, that appears in good condition, but can find NO reference or manuals for it. It is NOT a MOTAC (as posted by a post some years ago), is in a lockable cabinet, about 8 in. deep by 24 in. wide by 30 in. tall. Containes power supplies, control (programable ?) hardware, and RF Power hardware. I despirately need both an operator's and service manual. Thanks.

Re: Manual for Motorola C73MHB-3140BR

Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2012 5:02 am
by impalass427
According to that model #, that is a 100 watt VHF Motrac base station. with Private Line and I think 4 freq. I have a manual for the low power version, L43MHB. Unless someone changed the components in that cabinet, that was a Base radio as indicated by the "B", a repeater would end in a "Y" .

Re: Manual for Motorola C73MHB-3140BR

Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2012 6:05 am
by Jim202
LITTLEMOUNTAINMAN wrote:I have acquired a "vintage" Motorola C73MHB-3140BR, VHF Repeater, that appears in good condition, but can find NO reference or manuals for it. It is NOT a MOTAC (as posted by a post some years ago), is in a lockable cabinet, about 8 in. deep by 24 in. wide by 30 in. tall. Containes power supplies, control (programable ?) hardware, and RF Power hardware. I despirately need both an operator's and service manual. Thanks.

Do you mean a Motrac? I will tell you that the radio is from the 60's or early 70's. It will have tubes in the transmitter. It is a 100 watt VHF radio with 2 frequencies. Should have PL for both the RX and TX. It takes crystals for the frequency control.

These are a pain to work with without any documentation to work from. The caps in the power supply are probably dried out and will need to be replaced.

These use to be a real good radio back then. I use to have a number of them that I used on the ham bands back then. They are big, heavy, and generate a bunch of heat.

My best suggestion to you would be to gut the cabinet and go find something much more current that you can locate documentation on. With crystals going for about $35.00 each, it will get real costly real fast to even play with that radio. Plus the transmitter uses voltages in the order of 300 to 600 volts. It will put you on your rear if you get your fingers into that while messing with the radio.

Jim

Re: Manual for Motorola C73MHB-3140BR

Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2012 1:38 pm
by Will
Motrac Compastation. Great radios in their days, not that hard to work on.

The transmitter exciter and PA are the same as the mobile Motrac, receiver is much the same too.

Re: Manual for Motorola C73MHB-3140BR

Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2012 3:00 pm
by LITTLEMOUNTAINMAN
Thanks to those who have replied. While I'm very "computer literate", I'm a total "nubie" at Forums, so hope I'm doing this right! :-?

This unit was given to me from the estate of a "Silent Key", with the comment that it was a VHF Repeater. It's fully solid-state, and has never been "tampered" with, just covered with dust from storage. But as I've still not found any leads to a schematic, etc., I'll probably just scrap it for parts!

Re: Manual for Motorola C73MHB-3140BR

Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2012 6:01 pm
by abbylind