Motorola Car Phones Early 1970s
Discussion
Anyone tell me more ?
Inc a photo if possible. The CSL aparently had one fitted from new in July 73.
I have been told that Motorola were the first to bring these out over here ?
I remember seeing a lovely Bronze / Gold S111 Intercepter in the late 80s that had the remains of one fitted.
Inc a photo if possible. The CSL aparently had one fitted from new in July 73.
I have been told that Motorola were the first to bring these out over here ?
I remember seeing a lovely Bronze / Gold S111 Intercepter in the late 80s that had the remains of one fitted.
I had a Motorola phone in my Granada in 1981, direct dial wold wide from Scandanivia but only worked in Scadanivia to send or receive calls, you had to manually select a country, Norway Sweeden Finland or Denmark, no automatic selection, used to work for about 20Km into Germany but never worked in the UK, but when I came to the UK on holiday it looked cool,
roscobbc said:
It was only in 1986/7 that duplex car phones became available - had been simplex (connected by operator) before and very exclusive. Had a Philips car phone fitted to a new 'D' registered 205 GTI back then. Cost was an unbelievable £1100!
The early one were VHF and called radiophones.Re your Philips phone, that price sounds too low. I was the first field sales guy to get one (mine was Motorola) in our company in April 1987 and it cost 3 grand. If used when parked the engine had to be running or it would flatten the battery in 30 mins.
We had one in our rally service van in the early eighties.Huge thing bolted to the dash with a big speaker.Trouble is every where we went rallying there was no service!!it only worked in towns and main roads.The team owner had another portable one,it was like walking in the pub with a phone on top of a car battery.We all laugh now but we were real cool dudes in those days.
Deva Link said:
The early one were VHF and called radiophones.
Re your Philips phone, that price sounds too low. I was the first field sales guy to get one (mine was Motorola) in our company in April 1987 and it cost 3 grand. If used when parked the engine had to be running or it would flatten the battery in 30 mins.
Can't remember whether that was £1100 including install or phone only - it was most definately the price, 20 channels I recall, huge power pack about the same size as a attache case but ten times heavier - not too much room in a 205 GTI. Like Deva I was a rep at the time and the cost was easily repaid by the significant additional business it bought in - probably as much for the novelty value as anything - business boomed for 9 to 12 months and then competitors 'caught-up' and then the 'system' couldn't handle the user no's within M25 where I was mainly active.Re your Philips phone, that price sounds too low. I was the first field sales guy to get one (mine was Motorola) in our company in April 1987 and it cost 3 grand. If used when parked the engine had to be running or it would flatten the battery in 30 mins.
Dad was a GP in the North East and had a car phone fitted to his Jag MK10 in the early '70's I know it was pre-1973.
It didn't have a telephone receiver as per SV8Predator Jensen or the Z cars but a radio mike clipped to the centre console.
You're right about not leaving it switched on for long lol!
I used to answer it when he was in seeing a patient- "Aircall Medic 30 zero over..."
The small ariel was mounted next to the fuel filler cap on the rear bulkhead. Our Jag was black and also Glasgow registered, the combination was to offer us much "street cred" when ever we visited over the border lol!
Thanks all, Some Very intersting replys !
Re Aircall, in around March 1973, my dad bought a Silver V-12 E Type 2 x 2 ( BJN 438K Where are you now ? ) and subscribed to Aircall . He was Topaz 108.
As a then nearly 12 year old this Early Car phone fascinated me and back then a V 12 E Type especially in Silver ( Very rare colour ) was an extremely Desireable car.
One day I was out with him I think somewhere in West London, when we saw a young guy lying on the left pavement , propped up against a wall and bleeding badly from an arm and head wound if my memory is correct.
My Dad was an amazing guy and would help anyone , within seconds we had stopped and he called up the Aircall operator to ask her to send an Ambulance. he then rushed over to give first aid to the guy. I can still see him holding the guys arm trying to stop the bleeding.
Once the Ambulance arrived we left, thank god we had Aircall in that Jag !
Re Aircall, in around March 1973, my dad bought a Silver V-12 E Type 2 x 2 ( BJN 438K Where are you now ? ) and subscribed to Aircall . He was Topaz 108.
As a then nearly 12 year old this Early Car phone fascinated me and back then a V 12 E Type especially in Silver ( Very rare colour ) was an extremely Desireable car.
One day I was out with him I think somewhere in West London, when we saw a young guy lying on the left pavement , propped up against a wall and bleeding badly from an arm and head wound if my memory is correct.
My Dad was an amazing guy and would help anyone , within seconds we had stopped and he called up the Aircall operator to ask her to send an Ambulance. he then rushed over to give first aid to the guy. I can still see him holding the guys arm trying to stop the bleeding.
Once the Ambulance arrived we left, thank god we had Aircall in that Jag !
dartissimus said:
Saab 900i in about '87. If you used the phone without the engine running, it then wouldn't start for half an hour.
That was so long ago that it was in the days when everything was in black & white.
Hi dartissimus, you weren't living in N Ireland in those days? I bought a 900i in late '87 with the phone gone but the rest of the kit (including rear wing mounted aeriel) intact. Great car - funny enough just came across pictures of it yesterday !That was so long ago that it was in the days when everything was in black & white.
First car phone we had was a pye 9 channel one, which as has been said, was a ptt connected via the operator. They had a huge box hidden away, separate handset and control box, with a huge cb style antenna on car. This was then upgraded to a Storno 55 Channel version, but still via operator. You could listen to other calls being made, whilst you waited for a channel to become free! Think they were called officially as a gpo phone?
As cars were swapped on a regular basis, it got fitted to a huge briefcase to save swapping and leaving large holes in the cars.
Next version was a system 4, first direct dial, you had to pay for different sections of the UK you wanted to use it in, I recall London being one on its own, south, midlands and north being the others. Same thing with separate box, handset/keypad and huge antenna.
A few years later and the first portables were available. You could have a fixed phone, transportable which made one arm longer than the other after frequent use, or a Motorola 8000! 2 network providers, Cellnet or Voda and one line rental choice with no include calls!
Leasing of the equipment was the majority norm as they were thousands just for a in car one.
Need to dig some photos out, still have some of the phones in the loft, the 8500x Motorola is still one of my all time favourites, could be used in self defence now I recon it seems so big now, not to mention the extra batteries you had to carry, just to get through the day!
As cars were swapped on a regular basis, it got fitted to a huge briefcase to save swapping and leaving large holes in the cars.
Next version was a system 4, first direct dial, you had to pay for different sections of the UK you wanted to use it in, I recall London being one on its own, south, midlands and north being the others. Same thing with separate box, handset/keypad and huge antenna.
A few years later and the first portables were available. You could have a fixed phone, transportable which made one arm longer than the other after frequent use, or a Motorola 8000! 2 network providers, Cellnet or Voda and one line rental choice with no include calls!
Leasing of the equipment was the majority norm as they were thousands just for a in car one.
Need to dig some photos out, still have some of the phones in the loft, the 8500x Motorola is still one of my all time favourites, could be used in self defence now I recon it seems so big now, not to mention the extra batteries you had to carry, just to get through the day!
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