Batboard

A friend of mine called me up and said he had picked up an old radio for me at an auction. Asked if I wanted it. I included pictures he e-mailed me because I’m not really to sure what it is. Looks like and old dispatch console of some kind. Is it just a controller or an actual radio? Thanks for any input.


http://www.campbellsphotography.com/pic1.jpg

http://www.campbellsphotography.com/pic2.jpg

Slowly step away from the ancient, old, POS, T-1600 series remote.

Only the remote, no radio..

tpg

There are many t1600's still in service, they can't be that bad.

There's quite a few of these ancient POS unit in service yet around here. Guess they're no that bad, eh?

We are looking into possibly using this unit for a dispatch console at are firehouse. what radios can i interface it with? any chance with maxtracs? and how? anyone have a manual lying around for one of these? thanks

The T1600 series are remote controllers - sometimes refered to as just 'remote'. The basic T1600 can control one radio. The T1617 can be configured to control up to four radios.

When I say 'radio' you have to understand that the intended application is to wireline control a base station or repeater station. Traditionally these are products like Micor[compa or upright], MSF5000, MSR2000, MTR, Quantar, etc. These products are designed to be controlled by wireline.

Control primarily means the ability of the 'remote' to send a signal through the wire line along with voice audio. The signal can be either DC voltage or special tones. This signalling is used to make the radio transmit [key] and is referred to as either 'DC keying' or Tone remote keying' [or DC control / tone control]

A wireline is a pair of wires - it can be local as short as a few feet or exend through a building - in which case it is usually called a 'house pair'. Lines that need to go some distance, i.e. across town, are usually leased from a phone company and are sometimes called a 'phone line'. Sometimes these are just copper from point A to point B - referred to as a 'dry pair'. Dry copper supports either DC control or tone control.

Sometime the phone company uses multiplex facilities. In this case all you get is an audio path [no DC continuity] so tone keying must be used.

You will need to determine what type of keying [control] your particualr T1617 is equipped with so you can configure the remote radios accordingly.

As far as the radios - a Maxtrac is a mobile radio. It is not intended to be wireline controlled. However, sometimes for cost sensitive applications folks want to use something like a Maxtrac as a fixed station. That can be done with a device called a remote adapter - which adds remote control capability to the radio it is attached to. They come in DC and tone varieties.

Consult your local radio shop for assistance with this project.

one thing about the T1600s is they're almost all discreet components, I've seen them take a nice lightning surge, replace a couple dozen transistors and diodes and they're good as new.. the exception, the audio PA ICs.. those are obsolete, I would imagine they're near impossible to find replacements for by now..