Scored an MT1000 w/ MDC front face

[mbnv992]

Figured I’d share this with the group for all you old school Motorola lovers. Got this really awesome condition UHF MT1000 with the extended front MDC panel. Mutes MDC incoming squawks, does ID, etc etc.


No engraving on any part of the radio either. It’s active and working on all our local GMRS repeaters and works better than a lot of my other much newer Motorola radios.

 

[GTR8000]

I'll see your MDC front and raise you my MDC + emergency/man down front, which was relatively rare.

 

[mbnv992]

I have a few of them in my collection as well. Those have popped up on eBay from time to time but I find the ones with the MDC face and no Man Down Button to be the rarest.


Supposedly there was models with the MDC man down button with the DTMF keypads as well. I’ve never seen one of them before so they are probably even more rare.

 

[steve9570]

Just aside note I have a HT100 and a Ht1250ES and with just the stock rubber duck
they seen to (Hear) better from my Boston channels then my two Uniden scanners most of the time.
And I am 30 miles west of Boston! And yes my scanners are on outside mounts.
Sorry cant beat the old school MOTO stuff sometimes.

 

[6079smithw]

Ah, those old-school 'bricks'... I still have a couple of HT600s a 1000 and a P200.
All still work like new plus they were the only units my kids (and later on theirs)
couldn't break...

 

[GTR8000]

Last time I used my MT1000 it worked great, but unfortunately both batteries are completely shot at this point. I don't have any reason to justify spending even a few bucks to replace or rebuild them, so the radio sits in a box for the rest of time now. 🤷‍♂️

 

[mbnv992]

Last time I used my MT1000 it worked great, but unfortunately both batteries are completely shot at this point. I don't have any reason to justify spending even a few bucks to replace or rebuild them, so the radio sits in a box for the rest of time now. 🤷‍♂️

If you ever wanna off-load that MT1000 w/ the Man Down button let me know how much you’d like for it. I might be interested!

 

[GTR8000]

I'm not even sure if the front panel is fully functional, it's been so long. Would not want to disappoint anyone if it's DOA.

 

[mbnv992]

I'm not even sure if the front panel is fully functional, it's been so long. Would not want to disappoint anyone if it's DOA.

I’d actually primarily use it for display on my desk to add to my vintage collection. The ones that I have with the MDC front are all beat up.

I’d add it to my Motorola vintage collection -

 

[mbnv992]

I’d PM you but I can’t sent you messages for some reason haha

 

[mikewazowski]

Last time I used my MT1000 it worked great, but unfortunately both batteries are completely shot at this point. I don't have any reason to justify spending even a few bucks to replace or rebuild them, so the radio sits in a box for the rest of time now. 🤷‍♂️

I've got a low band MT1000 that I use for monitoring the forest fire crews while up north. Drag it up to the cottage every spring and back home again in the fall.

These days, the antenna is probably worth more than the radio.

 

[MTS2000des]

It is so great to see the love and respect for these era of Motorola subscribers. This was their true best hours. The Genesis and Jedi radios were some of the most advanced and high quality radio money could buy. You could tell people put their heart and soul into making these things, the fact that so many are still alive 30 even almost 40 years later (Genesis series first appeared in 1986) is testament to what the USA could produce.

Back in those days, LMR was still thriving. Everyone had radios, not just the po-po and hose draggers: taxis, delivery services, service people like exterminators, flower delivery, plumbers, electricians- every trade you could think of got it done with TWO WAY RADIO. Motorola, Inc. Communications and Electronics, not to be confused with today's "Solutions" company was a force to be reckoned with. The best engineering in the WORLD. The best quality control IN THE WORLD.

I can't help but think many of the men and women who created this stuff are either up there in years or have passed on. They made the world a better and safer place, and these surviving instruments are proof of that.

 

[GTR8000]

I've got a low band MT1000 that I use for monitoring the forest fire crews while up north. Drag it up to the cottage every spring and back home again in the fall.

These days, the antenna is probably worth more than the radio.

When I first became a firefighter decades ago, our fireground portables were low band MT1000's with those massive antennas sticking out of our turnout coats. 🥴 I really do not know WTF we were thinking, but by the mid-90s we came to our senses and switched fireground to UHF and upgraded to the HT1000. The Jedi were some seriously tough radios, we beat the snot out of them. Although they may've been black when new, it wasn't long until they were all a grayish white from being caked up with the remnants of drywall. 😬

 

[daugherh]

When I first started driving a school bus in 2011 our district still had the older radios. They looked a lot like the MTS 2000 above but they were no display bricks and they were on an 800MHz system. Not sure the exact models but they had truly withstood the test of time. About 85% of our system was portables with a select few buses having mobiles for the really far out routes. I loved those old units. I know they were around at least since 1997 because that's when I started riding the bus and they already had them. It's what started my interest in two way.

Unfortunately about my 2nd week on the job one of our bus offices suffered a fire and lost everything in the building including about 25% of the portables on the system. Due to age and the cost of trying to replace them the district board decided to fund the purchase of a new TRBO Cap+ Single site system along with all new subscriber units. That's what got me started with DMR.

The XPR series can't hold out against the older units. Wish I knew the exact model we had so I could snatch a few up in vhf and uhf for ham use.

 

[mbnv992]

Back in the mid 1990’s my town traded in their super old Maxon SP2000’s for some brand new ( at the time ) MTS2000 model 1’s with the top display, doing MDC1200 ( which was brand new to the department at the time ). The town next to us were still using old Motorola P200’s, GP300’s, and P1225 radios.

That PD is still on that same analog UHF frequency to this very day believe it or not.

The department that had the MTS2000’s has now moved to Kenwood gear, P25 UHF with 100% encryption.


I’ve since moved to AZ where everyone is Phase 2 ( or Phase 1 ) 7/800MHZ Trunked using APX radios. The DPS is still using an old UHF analog system with zero encryption.

It’s amazing how far technology has come in the last 30-40 years, and where it’s gonna go in the future.

 

[ElroyJetson]

I once had an HT600 with a DTMF front cover. The DTMF keypad included the ABCD buttons.

Now how did THAT happen?

Easy. I got a front cover off a scrapped Icom Micro 2AT and transferred its DTMF pad to a replacement
HT600 front and figured out how to wire it up. Definitely it wasn't a Motorola factory job.

I even did a nice clean job of milling the front cover and got the DTMF pad to snap in tightly, so that glue
or screws were merely a formality. It wasn't likely to pop out by itself.