Abandoned Motorola Headquarters

[n0esc]

Where's the tower? Is that still standing?

Schaumburg. It's about the only thing left of the original campus. In the pic xmo posted, it would be the 12 story building in the background.

You can see on GMaps just how much of the original area has been redeveloped. Schaumburg · Schaumburg, IL 60173

 

[KG4INW]

Where's the tower? Is that still standing?

As @n0esc noted, that's really all that's left there in Schaumburg. The NOC is there, training, and a few other departments that I don't recall at the moment.

 

[N9JIG]

Motorola wined and dined customers in the Innovation Center, usually with tours of the museum. Sometimes it was a buffet style lunch but at some meetings they actually had table service with wait staff and menus.

They also gave a lot of souvenirs. My favorite was the leather bound notebook. I snagged as many as I could as often as I could and used them for years. Eventually coworkers "borrowed" them or they disappeared from my office until now, 30 years later, I have only two left. I did notice one on my Chief's desk but I didn't say anything as I was up for a promotion at the time.

They also had other items emblazoned with the "Big M" or the company name. These included polos, t-shirts and, if you were really lucky or a potential big customer, a windbreaker. I had several shirts and a windbreaker but they all seemed to have shrunk a few sizes over the years so ended up at the SA store. They also freely gave out Post-Its and little cheap tool kits and other bling at trade shows and customer meetings.

 

[jruta]

Part of the museum is in the CCSI in Elgin at least. I was there a year ago and took these.View attachment 108176
View attachment 108177

That’s amazing. APCOR and the base console. That’s what we had at work LONG before cellular was around. Where does Moto get these things from? Are they old pieces cleaned up? Or new from when manufactured? Possibly dummy units?

 

[a417]

Ahhh, the recieving end of oh so many phonecalls.

 

[KG4INW]

That’s amazing. APCOR and the base console. That’s what we had at work LONG before cellular was around. Where does Moto get these things from? Are they old pieces cleaned up? Or new from when manufactured? Possibly dummy units?

Good question. I'm not sure and didn't really talk about it with the CCSI employees. It's probably a combination of sources. Of what I saw there only the HT220 had a plaque on it that read, "Returned after 22 years of proud service with the Danish National Police". It was in immaculate condition. Far better than some of the few XTS3000s we still have in service that are approaching that age!

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

That’s amazing. APCOR and the base console. That’s what we had at work LONG before cellular was around. Where does Moto get these things from? Are they old pieces cleaned up? Or new from when manufactured? Possibly dummy units?

I was in final test when the first CC1 APCOR base console was made. It was ordered for a convention (APCO?) and there was a lot of pressure to ship it. I spent an entire day on that thing as it was wired wrong by the assemblers, who had never seen one before and just went with the jumpers normal CC1 console modules would require. The Product Manager kept coming by and bugging me as to when it would be finished. I explained I was a "Technician, not a magician" and he finally let me finish it. If you take a close look at the optional telemetry cassette recorder in those you would be horrified.

 

[jruta]

I was in final test when the first CC1 APCOR base console was made. It was ordered for a convention (APCO?) and there was a lot of pressure to ship it. I spent an entire day on that thing as it was wired wrong by the assemblers, who had never seen one before and just went with the jumpers normal CC1 console modules would require. The Product Manager kept coming by and bugging me as to when it would be finished. I explained I was a "Technician, not a magician" and he finally let me finish it. If you take a close look at the optional telemetry cassette recorder in those you would be horrified.

Incredibly enough, there is an old physician console collecting dust in storage at my station, and it has the cassette deck. My partner and I (now old timers) were showing a new kid what it was (he had no idea) and we actually got it to power up! Complete with whatever that beeping was and the screen came to life lol. Talk about nostalgia. So cool you actually worked on those! So much more fascinating than today’s throwaway junk. Those things are SOLID

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

I learned a lot working on those old consoles in final test. They were chock full of analog circuits, AGC, detectors and amplifiers. As well as RTL and DTL "logic". Usually a random diode or capacitor was put in backwards or a resistor was wrong (talk about a PITA). I fixed a lot simply by looking at them. Mostly they worked first time and I had to set the nominal levels and check distortion before they shipped.

 

[Steve162]

Incredibly enough, there is an old physician console collecting dust in storage at my station, and it has the cassette deck. My partner and I (now old timers) were showing a new kid what it was (he had no idea) and we actually got it to power up! Complete with whatever that beeping was and the screen came to life lol. Talk about nostalgia. So cool you actually worked on those! So much more fascinating than today’s throwaway junk. Those things are SOLID

That was the biggest PITA system when I became a medic and, later, a dispatcher. That along with the mobile repeaters with remote steering. In the communications disaster area that is New Jersey we sometimes spent more time screwing around with the telemetry than treating the patient.

 

[jruta]

That was the biggest PITA system when I became a medic and, later, a dispatcher. That along with the mobile repeaters with remote steering. In the communications disaster area that is New Jersey we sometimes spent more time screwing around with the telemetry than treating the patient.

Lol yep I remember that stuff. Although it was cumbersome and quirky, it seemed like pretty neat stuff for its time (from a non-technicians point of view) definitely nostalgia

 

[xyz321]

I still have a telemetry MT500 on the shelf. It was way easier to carry that into the house instead of the APCOR - especially since you also needed O2, drugbox (Plano 747) & Lifepack

 

[jruta]

I still have a telemetry MT500 on the shelf. It was way easier to carry that into the house instead of the APCOR - especially since you also needed O2, drugbox (Plano 747) & Lifepack

Man I miss the 747 and LP5! Much less complicated than the overstock.com crap we carry today
We never had the MT500, we had the MT1000 and damn that thing was solid

 

[chrismol1]

I still have a telemetry MT500 on the shelf. It was way easier to carry that into the house instead of the APCOR - especially since you also needed O2, drugbox (Plano 747) & Lifepack

What kind of telemetry? An EGC MT500? My most prized Motorola possession is an HT220 Electrocardiogram, the real portable version of the APCOR

KMG 365

 

[FedFyrGuy]

Spent plenty of time there going to classes, etc. They had a series of buildings in an industrial complex about a half mile away on Basswood Drive as well - Data Radio Network, Hi-Tech Service Center and Motorola Central Dispatch, all part of National Service under Frank Legere at the time. That's were I worked.

 

[jruta]

What kind of telemetry? An EGC MT500? My most prized Motorola possession is an HT220 Electrocardiogram, the real portable version of the APCOR

KMG 365

View attachment 108473View attachment 108474

now THAT is some collectible, it looks like it was built yesterday. And I’ve never seen a brochure for APCOR before! Very cool

 

[xmo]

This topic has certainly brought back memories for a lot of us.

I have a few more of these pictures. Here's one:

 

[jruta]

This topic has certainly brought back memories for a lot of us.

I have a few more of these pictures. Here's one:

View attachment 108487

love the old MODEN 36/100 in the background. Had one I bought from a hamfest like 30 years ago and could never figure out how to work it. Lol I was young at the time

 

[wa8pyr]

Motorola wined and dined customers in the Innovation Center, usually with tours of the museum. Sometimes it was a buffet style lunch but at some meetings they actually had table service with wait staff and menus.

They also gave a lot of souvenirs. My favorite was the leather bound notebook. I snagged as many as I could as often as I could and used them for years. Eventually coworkers "borrowed" them or they disappeared from my office until now, 30 years later, I have only two left. I did notice one on my Chief's desk but I didn't say anything as I was up for a promotion at the time.

They also had other items emblazoned with the "Big M" or the company name. These included polos, t-shirts and, if you were really lucky or a potential big customer, a windbreaker. I had several shirts and a windbreaker but they all seemed to have shrunk a few sizes over the years so ended up at the SA store. They also freely gave out Post-Its and little cheap tool kits and other bling at trade shows and customer meetings.

Got the windbreaker and other bling myself (including a nice little notebook and a legal pad folio like yours, both embossed with the batwing logo), when we went up for pre-deployment testing of our P25 system and various training courses. They also fed us very well indeed; some nice restaurants around the campus in Schaumburg, and the cafeteria in the building was pretty darn good for lunch.

If the windbreaker wasn't made by North Face, it was made by someone who did a pretty darn good copy of it. Nice windbreaker, but mine too appears to have shrunk over the years. Guess I need to "unshrink" it.

 

[wa8pyr]

That’s amazing. APCOR and the base console. That’s what we had at work LONG before cellular was around. Where does Moto get these things from? Are they old pieces cleaned up? Or new from when manufactured? Possibly dummy units?

Like any good innovator, they kept at least one of nearly everything they made, or at least the first-generation product in a particular line (first military radio, first cell phone, first car radio, first TV, etc). Everything I saw in the museum at Schaumburg was in 100% working order, not demonstration units or display dummies.

They also have lots of other stuff like Motorola tube caddies, colorful neon signs, repair shop signs, and so on. It all works.