Old time GE question

[KevinC]

Does anyone know if the model names on old GE radios stood for anything?

I used to tell people MVP stood for Maximum Value and Performance and PCS was Professional Communications System. Those are the only two I remember making up names for.

Makes me think…I installed and repaired a ton of 800 mHz MVP’s.

 

[tvengr]

Baltimore City Office of Disaster Control and Civil Defense had quite a number of the old GE Progress Line radios with 6146 output tubes. There were also some GE RC4 remote controls. We also had some GE MASTR Executive II solid state base stations. There were 3 Proglines in the basement of each police station, two for the civil defense nets and one for the police district radio. I rebuilt a stack of old Baltimore City Police VHF RCA Super Carfone mobiles for our radio team to use. I had my own HT220 handheld. I found it humorous that Ikegami ENG cameras used the prefix HL in model numbers for Handy Looky. My TV station had a number of RCA Tactec handheld radios which stood for Totally Advanced Communications Technology. Of course, Motorola used PL for Private Line as their trademark for CTCSS. GE used CG for Channel Guard and RCA used QC for Quiet Channel. It brings back a lot of memories.

 

[merlin]

Well, sort of. MVP was many of other 'types' and any number of specific models within.
After some painstaking sorting, I compiled the following.
Just an example of a few pages:

 

[d119]

Didn't MASTR stand for Mobile And Station Transistorized Radio? Or something like that?

 

[WB5UOM]

Wow- you all are making my head hurt trying to think back.
And oddly enough- its only been 6 or so Months since we trashed all the old service manuals-test sets- etc for the GE MASTR PRO- EXEC - DELTA lines- heck even found the PROGRESS line manual for the City water dept dated 1971
Only thing I have left is a stack of MASTR II repeaters and or bases in all the various ranges...
Where is that Alieve pill?

 

[Reelfishguy]

Then there was TPL—transistorized progress line. Don’t forget the Pacer series

 

[WB5UOM]

TPL I remember...Pacer? tell me more

 

[xyz321]

TPL = Toilet Paper Line

 

[WB5UOM]

GE MOBILE RADIO HISTORY

Well I decided to google and found this link...... And it shows that PACER too !

 

[lenk911]

I came to work for GE in 1971 as a sales engineer. It was the end of the TPL era and GE was replacing TPL's free of charge with Mastr Pro's to anybody that formally complained. In my opinion, TPL wasn't a poorly electronically engineered radio but one that was very poorly mechanically engineered. Those problems allowed Motorola to catapult further ahead in the market. Motracs were a great radio!

Other little known GE radio was the Mastr Imperial. Every 5 years or so GE required a product to be value engineered to reduce production costs and improve performance called CIP. The Imperial was a CIP of the Mastr Royal Professional (100% solid state Professional) and painted brown (Mastr II colors). It was short lived by the announcement of the Mastr II line.

 

[tvengr]

Motracs were a great radio!

Our TV news department had quite a number of them. I still have the tuning meter.

 

[prcguy]

Then there was TPL—transistorized progress line. Don’t forget the Pacer series

I come from the Progress Line era and had a tube type Prog Line in my car on GMRS and also maintained a few Prog Line repeaters.

 

[ElroyJetson]

LPE = Little Piece of Excrement.

Or at least, that's what I've always thought it stands for.

 

[redbeard]

I'm still trying to figure out the origin of my Progress line mobile done up in Civil Defense livery.

 

[lenk911]

The "orgins", if you mean who was the original owner, are probably lost forever with the parade of descendants of GE Mobile Radio. But, this was a big deal for the users and GE to participate in the Civil Defense matching grant program. The user got a radio for 50 cents on the dollar, albeit adorned with red white and blue stickers and a radio that met the 1963 FCC narrow banding mandate that even affected low band. That act, declared a large percentage of the public safety fleets junk. Many of which were surplus WW2 non-tactical radios.

The downside was the incessant auditing by the federal government. For years, they would require access to verify the radio was still in service. For a state agency, it meant days of travel and dedication of escort personnel almost every year. It got to the point, it wasn't worth the 50-50 match except for the very small users.

Today that grant lives on through the Aid to Fire Fighters (AFF) grant offered by FEMA. A qualified fire department can get a radio now for 10-20 cents on the dollar. Thank goodness the stickers and the incessant auditing are gone.

 

[wa8pyr]

Today that grant lives on through the Aid to Fire Fighters (AFF) grant offered by FEMA. A qualified fire department can get a radio now for 10-20 cents on the dollar. Thank goodness the stickers and the incessant auditing are gone.

Most federal grants still have an auditing component, usually for about 5 years after the equipment is received, but it's not nearly as stringent as in the old days. The equipment has to be marked with the grant name and number (a label is sufficient), and at least once during the grant period the agency has to certify that the equipment is still in their possession and in use. Once the grant period is up, the agency is free to dispose of the equipment.