Dual Head Maxtrac

[airboss1634]

I have a maxtrac that I am using as a base station. I also have a spare maxtrac control head. I would like to mount the second head and mic into another room. I have seen a dual mount head on one of the fire trucks in my department, and wonder if it is possible to make this work with mine. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[DPapay]

A company called Quickmount, used to make a kit for that. Looks like they may have been purchased by IDA? Give them a call.

 

[kb0nly]

They made a kit to remote mount ONE head. I don't think they ever made a dual head setup for the Maxtrac, at least i have never seen one.

Totally possible though, both heads could be connected in parallel for channel control, display, and mic. Not sure how well the audio would work. The problem being that you have a single audio amp and the volume control feeds back to the logic board rather than just adjust the audio going to the speaker.

You would have to make one head the master and only it would have control of the power switch, best i can figure looking at schematics you would have to make the master in charge of the volume control and then if nothing else rewire the second head to put the volume pot inline with the speaker so you have seperate control from that head, or maybe just the power switch of the pot to turn on and off the speaker in the second head.

Possible yes... Easy no.. If they did actually make something like that i would like to see how they handled everything.

 

[rescue161]

Or he could use a local remote plugged into the 16 pin connector. Still doesn't solve the problem of the extra head as it would not be used, but at least he'd have control from two different locations.

I had one set up with a repeater (two Maxtracs) and it worked great. I could "turn off" the repeater and still transmit and receive through the remote.

 

[Citywide173]

If the heads were hooked up in parallel, it's possible to have taken the audio off of the expansion jack and either used amplified speakers or a DPDT (on-on type) switch to feed the audio to the desired speaker. I know I hooked up a lot of speakers using the switch, although I can't ever remember seeing a dual control head configuration for a Maxtrac

 

[SCPD]

Dual Headed Maxtrac

The maxtrac is one of the things our agency used extensively from 1989-1996 and I was on board for about 10 of those years at the end of maxtrac life. Great radio with numbers if you get spoiled by the alpha displays its a limited radio.

The control head. I would not recommend bridging the two. the mic circuit would work and the speaker now down to 1 ohm might work as maxtracs use 2 ohm speakers. I would consider using the 16 pin plug on the back for mic and speaker. i would use a 10 ohm speaker pot like they used in offices and church nurserys on a speaker for the remotes. Set the volume at a fixed level and pot it down at the speaker. The mic can be paralleled might have a tad of a load on it as its a transistor output that varies current vs a voltage source mic. ( shielding not required as the audio is at a higher level-mimicking the old carbon mike days)


If you really need remote control for 1 station real bad. I have a CPI remote for a Maxtrac in my junk pile. It has a board that goes inside the control head. A black box on top and a deskset and you can add whatever wire you want (ribbon phone wire). email to kb4rrc@yahoo.com if you are interested.

 

[wcr20]

they did make that dual head kit for maxtrac - in fact i have one. i might be willing to part with it.