Motorola 1970's Ham radio

[Naucenta]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a 12ch Motorola 2M FM from the early to mid 70's but I can only find brochure or ad photos of the unit. The radio was called a Metrum. Does anybody have any photos of a unit? Thanks very much for your help.

 

[rf_patriot200]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a 12ch Motorola 2M FM from the early to mid 70's but I can only find brochure or ad photos of the unit. The radio was called a Metrum. Does anybody have any photos of a unit? Thanks very much for your help.

Duck duck go has images of it, but didn't find any for sale.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

I think it was derived from the Motorola VHF marine radio of that era. I don't think many were sold.

 

[prcguy]

I had one in the 90s and they show up now and then on eBay. They are crystal controlled so if you get a working one and it doesn't have frequencies for your area it could get expensive.

 

[rf_patriot200]

I think it was derived from the Motorola VHF marine radio of that era. I don't think many were sold.

Yeah, I remember a Marine model that looked like that.

 

[Naucenta]

Duck duck go has images of it, but didn't find any for sale.

Thanks I had a look but could only find the vintage adverts. If anybody has one to hand it would be great to see some more photos of the unit.

 

[tweiss3]

If you can get a model number/name from the old advertising, you may be able to find one on eham, qrz, or one of the "boat anchor" sale sites.

 

[Naucenta]

If you can get a model number/name from the old advertising, you may be able to find one on eham, qrz, or one of the "boat anchor" sale sites.

This is all I could find unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a serial or catalog number for the unit

 

[rf_patriot200]

This is all I could find unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a serial or catalog number for the unitView attachment 177127

Yep, that's all I saw too.

 

[tweiss3]

From repeater-builder:

APA=Metrum II 2-meter radios - D23APA and 33APA - derived from the Modar Triton marine radio
(this mobile was Moto's only amateur radio product until the AP73 handheld)

Table of Motorola model number suffixes - a Rosetta Stone article

 

[MTS2000des]

$499 in 1976 dollars is $2767 in 2025 money. I imagine Motorola didn't sell too many, which is why they are a white elephant. Today's crybaby hams piss and moan about buying anything more than a $30 low audio muffleturd aka Baofeng. I imagine in 1976, there weren't many with that kind of cash, not including the $9 per channel crystals x 12=$108 which comes to another $599 in today's money, raising the price of your Metrum II to the equivalent of $3366- that could buy an APX8000. Which is why so few have them in the ham world. Luxury radios!

 

[Echo4Thirty]

$499 in 1976 dollars is $2767 in 2025 money. I imagine Motorola didn't sell too many, which is why they are a white elephant. Today's crybaby hams piss and moan about buying anything more than a $30 low audio muffleturd aka Baofeng. I imagine in 1976, there weren't many with that kind of cash, not including the $9 per channel crystals x 12=$108 which comes to another $599 in today's money, raising the price of your Metrum II to the equivalent of $3366- that could buy an APX8000. Which is why so few have them in the ham world. Luxury radios!

Ill bet Alphonso had one!

 

[hill]

Yeah, I remember a Marine model that looked like that

Motorola marine radios would called Triton.

They seamed to made marine radios from 1970's until much later like the sometime in 1990's.

I would guess they were marketed to government or commercial.

I saw a Triton that was about 6-12 channels, but had a guard receiver also on Channel 13.

 

[mmckenna]

raising the price of your Metrum II to the equivalent of $3366- that could buy an APX8000. Which is why so few have them in the ham world. Luxury radios!

That's just extravagant luxury, even for a radio with an iPhone built in….

 

[kayn1n32008]

$499 in 1976 dollars is $2767 in 2025 money. I imagine Motorola didn't sell too many, which is why they are a white elephant. Today's crybaby hams piss and moan about buying anything more than a $30 low audio muffleturd aka Baofeng. I imagine in 1976, there weren't many with that kind of cash, not including the $9 per channel crystals x 12=$108 which comes to another $599 in today's money, raising the price of your Metrum II to the equivalent of $3366- that could buy an APX8000. Which is why so few have them in the ham world. Luxury radios!

This is why I'm okay with a $150-$250 barrier to entry. In the grand scheme of things it's not a lot of money to buy a decent(ish) entry level radio. It keeps the baofeng mafia with their 'wercs grate' garbage from polluting the bands.

Edit: I can buy quality LMR gear for both VHF and UHF for under $250/radio all day long on the secondary market. All my LMR gear has been sub $300/radio, or less, for the better part of a decade.

 

[Naucenta]

Motorola marine radios would called Triton.

They seamed to made marine radios from 1970's until much later like the sometime in 1990's.

I would guess they were marketed to government or commercial.

I saw a Triton that was about 6-12 channels, but had a guard receiver also on Channel 13.

Yep the Modar Triton. I had a catalog a while back promoting the Triton. There are quite a few of those around on ebay. The unit was white and black. The main casing on the unit is identical to the metrum so I'm guessing if the Metrum didn't do so well they repurposed the injection molds for the Metrum to produce the Modar Triton.

 

[K9RYR]

Yep the Modar Triton. I had a catalog a while back promoting the Triton . There are quite a few of those around on ebay. The unit was white and black. The main casing on the unit is identical to the metrum so I'm guessing if the Metrum didn't do so well they repurposed the injection molds for the Metrum to produce the Modar Triton.

The Triton came first. I was the group leader for the Triton design team in 1971. It was intended for use on pleasure yachts. The FCC had mandated the use of VHF FM radios on by 1972, Before that, boats used medium wave radios. We devised an "offset crystal" design that only required one crystal per channel for both Rx and Tx, plus one 21.4 MHz crystal. The Metrum 2 meter ham radio came later. There was eventually a synthesized version. We had to use a 2 ohm speaker to get 5 watts audio with 12 volts. But the cone surround had to be stiffened to make the speaker survive 5 watts. "Modar" was a fake company name because the Triton was sold through boat dealers rather than the normal Motorola sales department.

We had a white version and a brown version. We made one blue Triton for the Motorola VP.
The control panel was reversible for overhead mounting.
There was a 10 watt 6 channel version and a 25 watt 12 channel. Not including xtals.

The only reason Motorola bothered with a ham radio was that it was almost a zero effort conversion from the Triton.

The Triton was a prop in the Jaws movie.

 

[Naucenta]

The Triton came first. I was the group leader for the Triton design team in 1971. It was intended for use on pleasure yachts. The FCC had mandated the use of VHF FM radios on by 1972, Before that, boats used medium wave radios. We devised an "offset crystal" design that only required one crystal per channel for both Rx and Tx, plus one 21.4 MHz crystal. The Metrum 2 meter ham radio came later. There was eventually a synthesized version. We had to use a 2 ohm speaker to get 5 watts audio with 12 volts. But the cone surround had to be stiffened to make the speaker survive 5 watts. "Modar" was a fake company name because the Triton was sold through boat dealers rather than the normal Motorola sales department.

We had a white version and a brown version. We made one blue Triton for the Motorola VP.
The control panel was reversible for overhead mounting.
There was a 10 watt 6 channel version and a 25 watt 12 channel. Not including xtals.

The only reason Motorola bothered with a ham radio was that it was almost a zero effort conversion from the Triton.

The Triton was a prop in the Jaws movie.

Ah the other way around then. Using the triton case molds for the Metrum. The Metrum was actually the model used in JAWS and wasn’t a working model. In the 4K version you can see “Motorola” on the trim along the front of the unit. Of course it would’ve made more sense to use the marine Triton had it been working. Here’s a photo of another Triton colorway

 

[K9RYR]

$499 in 1976 dollars is $2767 in 2025 money. I imagine Motorola didn't sell too many, which is why they are a white elephant. Today's crybaby hams piss and moan about buying anything more than a $30 low audio muffleturd aka Baofeng. I imagine in 1976, there weren't many with that kind of cash, not including the $9 per channel crystals x 12=$108 which comes to another $599 in today's money, raising the price of your Metrum II to the equivalent of $3366- that could buy an APX8000. Which is why so few have them in the ham world. Luxury radios!

Motorola was not known for cheap 2-way radios. But we did stress quality. Every specification was verified. Radio prototypes were drop-tested, vibration tested, field tested, and life tested. And we tested them over the full temperature range -30C to 60C and frequency range. They had to work and survive I think 11 volts to 16 volts. For temperature testing, the radios would transmit 1 minute on, 4 minutes off for 8 hours, and then 5 minutes on, 15 minutes off for one hour. This was not true for some of our competitors. The plastic cases were ABS, which was nearly indestructible.

The first Triton prototype had a handle, because it was assumed that boat owners would not leave the radio on the boat, but take it with them. Hence the easily detachable cradle. But marketing decided the handle added too much to the cost.

We had some discussion about the color of the heat sink. "Everyone" knows that a black heat sink works better than a white one. We tested that and found that any color paint worked better than bare aluminum, but white worked as well as black..

List price usually ended up 5 times the manufacturing cost. The difference was not all profit. Other expenses were factored in, like development, marketing, and warranty

 

[K9RYR]

Motorola was not known for cheap 2-way radios. But we did stress quality. Every specification was verified. Radio prototypes were drop-tested, vibration tested, field tested, and life tested. And we tested them over the full temperature range -30C to 60C and frequency range. They had to work and survive I think 11 volts to 16 volts. For temperature testing, the radios would transmit 1 minute on, 4 minutes off for 8 hours, and then 5 minutes on, 15 minutes off for one hour. This was not true for some of our competitors. The plastic cases were ABS, which was nearly indestructible.

The first Triton prototype had a handle, because it was assumed that boat owners would not leave the radio on the boat, but take it with them. Hence the easily detachable cradle. But marketing decided the handle added too much to the cost.

We had some discussion about the color of the heat sink. "Everyone" knows that a black heat sink works better than a white one. We tested that and found that any color paint worked better than bare aluminum, but white worked as well as black..

List price usually ended up 5 times the manufacturing cost. The difference was not all profit. Other expenses were factored in, like development, marketing, and warranty

The other important test we always dd was operating into an antenna mismatch. The transmitter had to be stable and survive a 3:1 mismatch with every phase angle.