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1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2018 11:07 am
by fineshot1
Anyone know of a website that i can find a variety of pics of old control heads of not only
moto but also ge/rca from that era. I recently saw on a tv episode a ch i can not ever
remember seeing and its driving me crazy. I notice these things that to most just seem
like the back ground. I have been all over the internet on just about every moto and ge
history website that can be found via google and still can not find said ch. I did not see
any ID info but would remember it if i can finally find it somewhere.

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2018 3:54 pm
by KitN1MCC
There is the moto selfie group on FB also the hams who use moto group

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2018 6:28 am
by Andy Corbin
Take a look here. Scroll down to the very bottom of the page and there is a section on old Motorola mobiles and their respective control heads, and there is also several sections on California HP radio systems.
http://www.repeater-builder.com/rbtip/mojoindex.html

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2018 8:23 am
by fineshot1
Andy Corbin wrote:Take a look here. Scroll down to the very bottom of the page and there is a section on old Motorola mobiles and their respective control heads, and there is also several sections on California HP radio systems.
http://www.repeater-builder.com/rbtip/mojoindex.html
Thanks Andy but I have been their and what I seek is not at that web location.

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 11:50 am
by tgo
Radios used during that time would be Motorola, GE, RCA, and Aerotron. Each manufacturer offered various controls to accommodate features such as multi-channel, multi-PL, multi-single tone, DTMF, and scan. That's the short version.

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 2:58 pm
by abbylind
Did it look like this?

http://shop.mechemelectronics.com/produ ... ductId=247

Micor systems 90

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2018 5:09 pm
by abbylind

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2018 12:04 pm
by fineshot1
abbylind wrote:Did it look like this?

http://shop.mechemelectronics.com/produ ... ductId=247

Micor systems 90
No - not at all. The one i saw was very much smaller than that

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2018 12:06 pm
by fineshot1
abbylind wrote:Heres some GE RCA Aero stuff

http://shop.mechemelectronics.com/categ ... egoryId=31
Thanks but i have been all threw them and none of them were even close.

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2018 12:21 pm
by fineshot1
If anyone has access to hulu perhaps they can take a jpeg pic with a camera or cell phone camera.
The original Hawaii 5-O Episode 122 "Draw me a killer" (i am hoping i have this correct)
In the last 30 minutes there were two extremely short glimpse scenes that
focused on the control head during received transmissions via ME-TV (WJLP)

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2018 4:58 pm
by Andy Corbin
Is this the control head you are speaking of?
http://s918.photobucket.com/user/1hogri ... 3.jpg.html

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 2:45 am
by fineshot1
Yes - Andy - thanks i think so. I only had two very brief glimpses and since i had no idea these images were coming i was caught by surprise when they appeared.

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 2:52 am
by NSPD
That looks very RCA-ish.

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 3:44 am
by Andy Corbin
It is a screenshot from the episode you mentioned, towards the end and it was very quick so I had to do a freeze frame for the capture. I don't see any markings on it. It sort of reminded me of one of the old "Link" control heads but they date back to the 40's & 50's. Also reminded me a bit of the Motorola "T" model control head, but again that was way too old for when this show was on. NSPD mentioned RCA and I can possibly see that. Looking at the mike, it certainly wasn't Mother "M" from that era.

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 4:45 am
by jackhackett
Dumont

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 5:02 am
by NSPD
jackhackett wrote:Dumont
I’ve never even heard of Dumont but a quick image search yielded this:

http://www.dcaptain.com/radios.htm

Think we have a winner!

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 5:14 am
by fineshot1
Andy Corbin wrote:It is a screenshot from the episode you mentioned, towards the end and it was very quick so I had to do a freeze frame for the capture. I don't see any markings on it. It sort of reminded me of one of the old "Link" control heads but they date back to the 40's & 50's. Also reminded me a bit of the Motorola "T" model control head, but again that was way too old for when this show was on. NSPD mentioned RCA and I can possibly see that. Looking at the mike, it certainly wasn't Mother "M" from that era.
Andy - there was a second scene image from right in front of the control head that would yield a better image
rather than the side of it.

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 6:27 am
by jackhackett
NSPD wrote: I’ve never even heard of Dumont but a quick image search yielded this:

http://www.dcaptain.com/radios.htm
Okay, now what's different about the mic in that picture?

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 8:53 am
by abbylind
I think thats an RCA mike from the 60s. 1960s and 70s RCA and Dumont radios look very similar. A friend had an old Dumont VHF portable it was a clone to the RCA. I had a RCA TAC 100 CVC the mike looked like the one in the pic

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 10:52 am
by fineshot1
I knew Dumont made radio base station equipment but was not aware of them making
mobile radio gear which is why i was so perplexed as to the make of the ch.
Thanks folks to all that have and others that will offer more help/info.

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 11:29 am
by Andy Corbin
fineshot1 wrote:
Andy Corbin wrote:It is a screenshot from the episode you mentioned, towards the end and it was very quick so I had to do a freeze frame for the capture. I don't see any markings on it. It sort of reminded me of one of the old "Link" control heads but they date back to the 40's & 50's. Also reminded me a bit of the Motorola "T" model control head, but again that was way too old for when this show was on. NSPD mentioned RCA and I can possibly see that. Looking at the mike, it certainly wasn't Mother "M" from that era.
Andy - there was a second scene image from right in front of the control head that would yield a better image
rather than the side of it.
This image while still at an angle was shown a few minutes after the first one I uploaded. This one does not have the mike in it.
http://s918.photobucket.com/user/1hogri ... g.jpg.html

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 10:27 pm
by WB6NVH
That DuMont head is featured in a number of episodes. Usually with a Motorola Twin-V 1957 era mike attached to it. Some pretty shabby work by the prop department. Other episodes feature Wo Fat talking on an MJ IMTS car phone head, and McGarrett using a Motorola PT-300. The "walkie talkie" Chin Ho uses in the opening credits scenes is a Sears 100 mw CB item circa 1967.

By way of background, when Fred LInk departed Link Radio, it was a short period of time before the company fell on hard times and folded. The name was picked up by assorted owners who tried to support the original Link gear, and by the late 1950's Link equipment was re-badged Gonset gear and rather obscure as they had little to no advertising and no service organization. The name Link finally expired sometime in the 1960's and at (I think a Long Island location.

Fred Link went with Allen DuMont after leaving his own company, circa 1955, and I have always suspected he talked DuMont into creating a line of mobile radios. The mobiles that went with this series control head are nearly identical to the final one piece Link radios of 1950-51. The last of them had T-power supplies. Fairchild bought DuMont around 1961 and Fred Link then went to RCA as a consultant. DuMont is more famous for their line of TV sets. DuMont developed the Trinitron color TV picture tube for Sony and also made a line of oscilloscopes.

The DuMont name in mobile radio continued through the 1960's, at the end as re-labeled hand held radios actually made by iTek and also sold as Repco, Comco, Aerotron, Bell & Howell, Federal Signal, RCA and probably some others.

DuMont gear was more or less OK and unremarkable. I still have a couple of low band T-power DuMont mobiles from Pennsylvania Power Co. that were on 37 MHz and now are on 6 Meters. They were unique in that by changing a bunch of coil taps you could make them go anywhere from 29-53 MHz. The Hawaii 5-0 head is from the vibrator powered mid 1950's DuMont mobile. The T-power ones are black wrinkle with shiny aluminum front escutcheon and smaller black knobs.

Historical trivia...

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2018 5:50 am
by fineshot1
Thanks for the trivia Geoffrey. In one episode i ID'ed a GE Portamobile II being used by Chin Ho. The unique hand mic gave it a way.

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2018 6:19 am
by jackhackett
For those who didn't notice what was funny about the mic in the Dumont radio picture.. someone put the hangup button on the front.

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2018 7:31 am
by Andy Corbin
jackhackett wrote:For those who didn't notice what was funny about the mic in the Dumont radio picture.. someone put the hangup button on the front.
Didn't pay any attention to that but looking again, I notice the mike hangup clip is attached to the bottom of the control head.

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Fri Feb 16, 2018 9:10 am
by impalass427
That front hang-up button is correct for the chrome mic. I have a Polytronics CB here with that same mic. I believe it's made by Shure.

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 6:48 pm
by WB6NVH
The shiny mic that came with the DuMonts did have the hang-up button on the front, as did the Collins mobile mic for the KWM-2. Mine say they were made by Turner. I always thought that was weird. I think they are either nickle or chrome plated.

Re: 1960's 70's and 80's control head ID

Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2018 7:39 am
by Andy Corbin
I remember them being on the old PolyCom 4 channel CB's back in the 60's. As I recall, they had a carbon mike element and really crappy audio but the radio had a receiver that was hot as a firecracker.