Anybody remember these?

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Confuzzled

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Not a scanner as such, but I don't see a section for 'vintage' single channel monitors. They had to be special ordered with the frequency and decode tones factory set. VHF-HI and used the Motorola two-tone pager tones. No alert tone, just opened up for broadcast audio. I think they were around $150 or so back in the 70s.
 

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mmckenna

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Yeah, we used a similar model in our dispatch center up until about 10 years ago. There were 3 of them, one for adjoining agency fire dispatch, one for adjoining PD dispatch and one for the Sheriffs Office. The speakers had been remote'd with a remote volume control, and the radios had been stuffed under the console. I was always afraid to touch them because if they failed I'd be stuck. Ended up replacing them a while back with a couple of mobiles. They were still going strong when we shut them off, had probably be running for 30 years non stop. They had a layer of dust on them like you wouldn't believe. We put dust masks on when we demoed that center after they were moved. A lot of old wire and crap buried in layers under the console.
 

W8RMH

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These were issued to all our volunteer firefighter/EMTs in the 70s.

In "Alert" mode the radio would only open if the tones were sent. "Reset" would return the radio to tone only mode.

In "Monitor" mode it would receive everything on the frequency. (All other department pages and other communications). We only had one channel for the whole county back in those days (VHF low band). They had great reception with a wire antenna on the back of the radio and were loud enough to wake the dead.

They were referred to as "Plectrons" although I believe they were a cheaper alternative. Some guys even had them mounted in their vehicles.
 
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RohnsRadio

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remember them well. we never had any of the insteralert we had plectron in my first fire dept and when i moved we had motorla monitors then we go minitor 1 pagers. last department i was with we had minitor 2 and 3's that was when the ems volunteers were run out of town.
 

joen7xxx

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The controls are exactly like the Plectron receivers we used for fire departments associated with CDF (now CalFire). Same position and all!
 

WA4UPO

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We sold the Federal sign and Signal 10-10 receiver, did the same thing. Also worked on all of these old units.
 

DJ11DLN

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I remember my dad having one of these for awhile, late '60s or so, before the VFD switched to a fire conference (phone) system. It was set up for our channel but they didn't have any tone capability so it was just open all the time. That was fine until a duct would open or the ground wave would come up, then it became interesting (at first) and later a P.I.A. But it got him interested in buying a Bearcat III a couple of years later -- since that could be turned off when it got annoying -- so it wasn't all bad. They were turned in when the fire conference became active, and I have no idea what happened to them...they're certainly not in the firehouse attic or anywhere else, and the dep't wasn't known for selling stuff off...maybe one of them will turn up one day. I'd love to have it as a reminder of my dad and his involvement in the VFD.
 

adamr368

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Definitely remember these - they had a siren type of alert that would wail when activated!
 

Hoseman292

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Yep... the sound was oscillated by what sounds like the discharge cycle of a capacitor.

Instead of a pilot lamp mine has a round meter about the size of a silver dollar which says "ALERT" when paged.

Cool looking radio with a reliable receiver. The decoder had a flaw where it either had to be physically reset to decode the next page or required a specific amount of time.
Motorola's Alert Monitor and Plectron's P1 were my favorite.

As for versatility, Uniden nailed it with the BCD-996, 396. BCT-15X Fire Tone Out.
I have a rack mounted BCT-15X programmed to alert / unmute on multiple alarm incidents.
It has never falsed or missed a page.
TYT's TH-9000 60 watt mobile transceiver does a great job as well.
 

ratboy

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A friend's dad who was a volunteer fireman before he got hurt at work had one next to his chair for years. I always thought he had it set too loud. When it died, he had me get him a Pro-2006 from RS, and set it up for him, and he finally was able to hear all the stuff he couldn't for all those years.
 

radioman2001

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That was the late 60's early 70's vintage and the basic model of the Installert. It was capable of multiple tone alerts and even switchable (third panel mount switch) as to what set of tones to receive (IE Night/Day officers call etc) Our Dept had about 70 of them and I believe they were a lot more than $150.00 more like $500.00 each. I used to align them as the RC tone decoder network would drift constantly as the components would age. This model has an alert light ours had a round meter ( like the decal in the top right of top picture) that would swing from standby to alert or monitor to let you know what mode the receiver was in. Alert tone was like a siren that would charge up during the tone sequence and then down Mobile use was iffy since the RC networks would drift due to the temperature differences. The round plug on the back of the unit was for a backup battery.

The tone sequences we not always Mot 1+1 (had RC tunable tone selection board no reeds or plugs) our agency had Z codes and the timing was 6 seconds A tone 1 second B tone which is more like a Plectron sequence. The agency I now belong to still uses Plectron sequence timing even though we have all the Minitor 5 and 6 units.

Quote"The computer-looking connector on the back of the unit. I assume it's not stock, and aided in installing in a vehicle.

That DB plug was probably was for a siren control, I did the same when we lost our Gamewell call box system in the mid 70's due to telco no longer supporting the phone lines.The unit had 2 types of power plugs that fit in the television cheater cord type plug an AC and a DC with a cigarette lighter plug.

Quote"How about this one?
That's one from a very scary time, when people built bomb shelters in their back yards, I remember seeing one in the basement of an agency whose radios we repaired in 1976.

BTE Installert actually made an older tube model like the Mot shown as did Plectron.
 
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W9NES

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I have 2 of the above pictured receivers set up on 42Mhz when Indiana State Police were on low band. I also had a GE receiver that was set up for 42.420Mhz again for Indiana State Police statewide. Nice picture.
 
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