Disney Comms

[16b]

I remember going to WDW when I was a teenager and seeing the employees with MTX/MTS radios. I believe they were on a 900MHz Motorola trunk system at the time. Several years later, well after they moved to the iden system, there was a guy selling a big pile of their surplus 900MHz equipment at Hamvention. I bought a few MTX9000s and MTX9250s; still have a couple in a tub somewhere, complete with original engraving. Their communications history is definitely interesting.

 

[Rlahey]

I remember going to WDW when I was a teenager and seeing the employees with MTX/MTS radios. I believe they were on a 900MHz Motorola trunk system at the time. Several years later, well after they moved to the iden system, there was a guy selling a big pile of their surplus 900MHz equipment at Hamvention. I bought a few MTX9000s and MTX9250s; still have a couple in a tub somewhere, complete with original engraving. Their communications history is definitely interesting.

If you want to sell one of the engraved WDC radios send me a PM

 

[iMONITOR]

The old school phone is odd.

Maybe so they can hear on a bus full of noisy people?

 

[62Truck]

I remember going to WDW when I was a teenager and seeing the employees with MTX/MTS radios. I believe they were on a 900MHz Motorola trunk system at the time. Several years later, well after they moved to the iden system, there was a guy selling a big pile of their surplus 900MHz equipment at Hamvention. I bought a few MTX9000s and MTX9250s; still have a couple in a tub somewhere, complete with original engraving. Their communications history is definitely interesting.

I remember that too. My Freshman year in High School we went down, and they were using the Jedi series radios. Then I remember going down years later when they were using IDEN, they still had some of the Jedi radios laying around as props in some places.

IIRC I believe WDW did use what are now the GMRS frequencies for some of their ops.

 

[GraniteScanner]

If I may ask,
There is a listing for a 400Mhz trunked system from Motorola on the database. It says its mostly encrypted. Is that still in operation? It says it was last updated January of last year.

 

[Rlahey]

If I may ask,
There is a listing for a 400Mhz trunked system from Motorola on the database. It says its mostly encrypted. Is that still in operation? It says it was last updated January of last year.

the is the motoTrbo system there I believe they have migrated off of to PTT cellular devices

 

[IMPRES2]

So aaaa, asking for a friend, where did all that hardware go???

Radio One, Inc owned, operated, and maintained all subscribers and infrastructure for all domestic Disney parks up until the beginning of 2021 (it was a massive rental system). DLR bought half the installed system and partnered with Aulani going Motorola direct for a Capacity Max solution; WDW went PTToC with AT&T (which is WAVE resold (aka, Motorola’s Kodiak core)). A sales rep from Radio One, Inc said there are a lot of “Disney” radios they sell used. But those are apparently wiped, tuned, and firmware upgrade to 2.10 before resale. I have heard several repeated channels from the DMR system still in use around the park, some employees can still be seen carrying an XPR with large headsets, probably engineers or fireworks.

 

[pro961]

You guys might find this interesting.

https://cq-amateur-radio.com/cq_highlights/2015_cq/2015_08_cq/2015_01_02_cq_many_mouse_ears_ago.pdf

 

[mikewazowski]

The Disney Amateur Radio Club also has a website: https://wd4wdw.org

 

[wcu02mpa]

So aaaa, asking for a friend, where did all that hardware go???

I actually left before the transition. I will reach out to a contact who still works there and find out the status. It was thousands of radios

 

[trooper890]

IIRC I believe WDW did use what are now the GMRS frequencies for some of their ops.

Yes, and basically blocked most GMRS in the Orlando area for many years. They were GMRS then too, just were in use prior to the rule change, and grandfathered. Continued into the 90's until the 900mhz system came online. Monorail, watercraft, EPCOT ops, etc moved elsewhere and that was the end. Some of the other uhf channels continued on until and after nextel.

 

[radioman2008]

Yes, and basically blocked most GMRS in the Orlando area for many years. They were GMRS then too, just were in use prior to the rule change, and grandfathered. Continued into the 90's until the 900mhz system came online. Monorail, watercraft, EPCOT ops, etc moved elsewhere and that was the end. Some of the other uhf channels continued on until and after nextel.

I had a season pass in 1996 and the monorails were using a GMRS freq during that time

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

What system or freq is the WDW monorail operating on? A few years back they crashed two cars killing an operator. It was complacency and stupidity on the part of the track control operator who was "controlling " the tracks with a handheld while eating at Denny's.

 

[trooper890]

I had a season pass in 1996 and the monorails were using a GMRS freq during that time

That would have been at the very end.

 

[trooper890]

What system or freq is the WDW monorail operating on? A few years back they crashed two cars killing an operator. It was complacency and stupidity on the part of the track control operator who was "controlling " the tracks with a handheld while eating at Denny's.

At that time, would have been on Sprint-Nextel.

 

[Cameron314]

Are those HT600 batteries in that picture? Did they use HT600's on UHF and then Jedi when they moved to the trucked system?

 

[Rlahey]

What system or freq is the WDW monorail operating on? A few years back they crashed two cars killing an operator. It was complacency and stupidity on the part of the track control operator who was "controlling " the tracks with a handheld while eating at Denny's.

Seriously at dennys when that happened???

 

[trooper890]

It was actually at a nearby Perkins, but at the time there was no rule the manager needed to be at the console. Commonplace for them to be offsite for meal breaks.

 

[radioman2008]

Are those HT600 batteries in that picture? Did they use HT600's on UHF and then Jedi when they moved to the trucked system?

when I was there in 1996, they were using HT600s on the monorails.

 

[pro961]

You guys might find this interesting.

https://cq-amateur-radio.com/cq_highlights/2015_cq/2015_08_cq/2015_01_02_cq_many_mouse_ears_ago.pdf

I also see a Motorola MT500, a RCA or REPCO portable, a HAm portable, Radio Shack Scanner and a Portable repair tool- The Hammer.