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Historic Radio Museum

Metros Historic Motorola, General Electric, and Standard Radio Collection

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Below is Metro Communications Collection of ancient historic radios both portable and mobile dating back to 1950. You can see the amazing progress once synthezized radios came about. Metros favorite portable would have to be the Motorola MX300 series and the ingenuity motorola had back then. The radio was actually made and designed by motorola not like the newer equipment that is all manufactured out of the country and only assembled in the United States. Metro pick for best historic mobile radio would have to be the GE Ranger with the S-825 control Head. This radio was 422 channels, unheard of back then in any mobile radio. Check back from time to time as new historic radios are being added every week. Radios can be viewed at Metro Communications Office during business hours Any mistakes or new info is greatly appreciated. Feel free to email corrections or comments

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MOTOROLA MX340 WITH 1400 MAH BATTERY AND PUBLIC SAFETY SPEAKER MIKE. This is my personal reconditioned MX used everyday. Tuned to 5.0 watts uhf. Definate conversation piece umong clients

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Motorola HT200. The first real usable portable radio. All though extremly large it was the first portable radio to be used. Manufactured in the early 1960s

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MOTOROLA MX300-R. 1970s Super high tier radio designed for military submersible use. ie: Navy seals. Very rare to find in Public safety. Probably the first of the fully guaranteed submersible radios or at least until you take it apart for fix. Available in all bands. crystal controlled and later models prom burn based

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Motorola STX. Early 90s 800mhz radio. approx cost 1800.00

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Motorola HT600. Came in 2 and 6 channel versions as well as 2 , 4, and 5 watt. One of the first sythensized radios to come on the market in mid 80s that was programmed via PC. Average cost 800.00

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Motorola GP300. Came in 2, 8, and 16 channel versions. The 16ch was the first synthesized radio to have Motorolas MDC-1200 signalling built in. One of the most popular and economical for its time, early 90s. Many of these still in service today. Full blown 16ch radio appox 800.00

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Motorola GP350. Off sping of the GP300. not many changes except for the housing and battery. Very short production time in mid 1995

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Motorola Astro 1

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Motorola Astro 3

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Motorola Astro Saber. Shown is Astro 2. And so begins the birth of the digital radio age and the horrors and expense it will bring. 255 channels, P25 capable, Astro Digital Mode, DES-XL encryption, mdc-1200 or singletone repeater access, OTAR, and the only more recent radio to incorporate the old motorola modat (5 tone) format. First portable radio capable of decoding mdc-1200 on screen. 1992 to 2004 (Motorola killed it in 2004) and so ends the saber age with much regret by NYPD. approx. cost new 4500.00 and only available to gov agencies direct

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MOTOROLA ASTRO SABER II R RUGGEDIZED. All the features of the astro saber series with the addition of the submersible ruggedized housing features. Used by navy seals, marines, and fire depts that could affort the 7000 to 8000 dollar cost.

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MOTOROLA ASTRO SABER RUGGED MODEL 1

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ASTRO SABER SSE-5000. This radio was a special design for NYPD to replace the astro saber series after cancellation in 2004. Only available in the 450-490mhz version. NYPD needed a radio that untilized the millions of dollars of saber accessories presently in use in the city. This radio never actually went in to production for NYPD in wide use because of a 3 billion dollar digital radio system lawsuit against Motorola. The city of New York now primarily buying Vertex Standard Radios from 2004 on, in which vertex designed the VX530 series just for NYPD and only available in the 450-490mhz band. NYPD at present is continuing to maintain their sabers, astro sabers, and slowly as radio break replacing the MX300 radios(very few left).The SSE-5000 radio is not present in our museum for viewing but would like to acquire one of the prototypes

2-07 advised the Saber SSE-5000 was used in large numbers for the 2004 RNC. Than after that event, went into storage and never used again..????? why..????

If any one has any other info about this NYPD SSE-5000 radio we would like to know

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Motorola Motrac. 1970s radio, Mostly came in 1 channel format. Shown is a multi channel. Most units in the 1500.00 range. Radio pack had tubes in it that glowed. Huge current draw on 100 watt units. I can remember when these were in service and when transmitting in idle the patrol cars headlights would go dim. Contol head and speaker actually made of all metal. Boy those were the days !! The days of no darned cell phones and the only way to communicate in a car was with two way radio like this

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MOTOROLA MX300 SEREIS. SHOWN IS A MILITARY MX350-S AND NYPD MX340. COST WHEN THESE WERE AVAILABLE STARTED AT 1900.00.
PROBABLY THE MOST INDESTRUCTABLE AND RELIABLE RADIO EVER BUILT. CRYSTAL CONTROLLED. LATER MODELS TO BE PROM BURNED AND AVAILABLE IN 12 FREQS OR MORE. DESIGNATED WITH THE -S ON ESTUCHEN LOCATED ON TOP

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Motorola HT220 Omni and slim versions. Probably the most popular portable radio of the late 1960s to mid 80s. Originally released in 1967. Could find these things just about everywhere a two way radio was used. these things are so indestructable you can find them still in use today. First radio to bring portable use to the world because considered at the time to be compact. Cost around 800.00.Shown is an omni unit on left and a slimline unit on the right

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Motorola Expo shown with both high capacity battery and std battery. The smallest radio for its era of late 1970 mid 1980s. However only 2 watts on VHF and 1 Watt on UHF.
Also available in a submersible version. Many police supervisors battled for the use of these radios. Cost approx 1300.00

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Motorola P50. Odd crystal controlled radio but for its time in late 80s early 90s was a slim economical radio. cost apporx 500.00. and there was also the very rare P50+ that was synthesized.

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Motorola Saber. One of the most popular sythesized public safety radios ever produced. These things were everywhere in large police/fire departments that could afford them such as NYPD and CPD etc and many still in use today, 2005. Production from mid 80s to mid 90s. Cost anywhere from 1700.00 to 3000.00

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MOTOROLA SABER 1 WITH 1800MAH BATTERY

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VERTEX YAESU VX210 VX210A. Vertex Yaesu backbone radio, This radio was the beginning of Yaesu amatuer radio entering the commercial radio sector. Very popular for there tiny size and cheap pricing around 300.00. Introduced mid 90s and just discontinued sept 06. Replaced with the vx410 series

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Motorola Astro XTS-3000R ruggedized version. Produced to replace the Astro Saber which it eventually did. 500+ channels, large display, astro P25 modes both conventional and trunked. late 90s to 2006. cost depending onoptions between 3000 and 6000. Uhf Vhf 800 900 mhz

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Motorola Micor. Became available in the late 70s and ran to the mid 80s. Available in Low band, VHF and UHF. Mainly a single channle radio. Wide Spaced option had to be purchased in order to run a 5mhz split in uhf. Most units 100 watts

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Motorola Mitrek System 90 Heads. Unique stacking design. Allowed the mitrek radio to do system scan, multiple pl, mobile repeater, siren, lightbar control, front rear control heads switch, instand access to channels with push button design,and many other options. With its unlimited stacking capability a uhf vhf and low band can all be neatly integrated into one console.

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MOTOROLA MOSTAR. 80s prom burn based radio. extremely expensive, difficult to program, mostly found in 800mhz for motorolas new 800 mhz trunking systems but can be purchased in uhf and vhf. all low power. not very popular

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MOTOROAL MAXTRAC. First fully sythesized and PC based programmable radio. mid 80s to mid 90s. Available in lowband, vhf, uhf, 800mhz and 900 mhz. est cost starting at 600.00

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1980s and older pl, dpl, and pager reeds. Used to emulate ctcss tone, dcs tone, and pager page out tones from the mid 80s and older..these things used to cost as much as 100.00 each to purchase from the factory.

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MOTOROLA MX300 DARK. The ever elusive Dark MX or Black MX. basically the same as a standard MX300 series radio. Not sure of the signif. of the black front cover. Military maybe ??? If anyone knows I would like to hear from you on this radio

10-06 Informed this radio was a special order for gov. for surveillence at night. The silver cover would reflect light giving away your position.The dark cover would not reflect light

02-07 Informed radio with shadow bronze front cover was introduced as a marine radio for use on ships, The dark cover would prevent corrosion from the salty air. It was eventually adopted by police for surv. as to not reflect light. The radio also had the option of taller knobs which police, fire, and marine applications for use with gloves

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Motorola HT210. Released end of 1970s and ran to beginning of 1980s. the only difference I have ever noticed between the HT210 and HT220 was the color and the HT210 was slightly thicker. HT210 was black, and the HT220 was stellar blue

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Motorola MT500 Portable Radio. A spin off of the popular HT220 series. Only in production for a few years before synthesized radios started to become available.

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Motorola HT90 and HT440. Both identical inside but the HT440 was also available in 6 channels(very rare) Approx cost of these was 800.00 and mid 1980s

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Motorola HT50 and P100. The first synthesized radios to be invented. Both radios were identical inside. approx cost in mid 1980s was 600.00

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MOTOROLA SYSTEM SABER 3. Radio was an upgraded saber radio with wider freq bands and trunking capable. priced around 2000.00 new mid 80s to mid 90s

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Motorola SP50. Came in both std and compact versions. 2 6 and 10 channles. Many of these sold to business companies. Only low cost seemingly reliable radio at the time. Turned out in later years to be a costly radio to maintain

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Motorola P1225. Available in 2 and 16ch versions. Not that popular but many still out there. One of the first Motorolas to have Windows based software. Approx cost 800.00 and has just been discontinued in Feb 2005

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Motorola Motrac Radio Pack, Shown is the inner guts of the early 50 s 60 s 70 s radio pack, had glowing tubes in it and all. Probably the only radio in use in police vehicles throught out the country in various channel forms in that time frame. Made of all metal..Can be seen when tx keyed to dim the head lights of the patrol car

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Motorola Maxar 80. Mostly a low power 25 watt 4 channel crystal controlled radio of the early 1980s. One of the more inexpensive radios produced by motorola at that time. Cost approx 550.00. Very popluar in the corporate sector. A 5 watt version was actually produced (why ?).

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Motorola Syntor, Syntor X Systems 90 Heads. Allowed the syntor radio to do multiple pl, scan, dtmf, siren, lightbar control, instant channel access, etc. Very similar to Mitrek system 90 except used black housing instead of white. These heads allowed the customer to build out a mobile radio to his/her specs

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GE RANGER. Born form the ge delta unit. Available in many configurations. Shown is a full blown 422 channel 110 watt unit with S-825 control head. The radio pack is actually only 16 channels and the frequencies are stored in 16 channel banks in the control head. As you change 16 channel zones the control head actually reprograms the radio pack, Very advanced and inovative for the day. Only drawback is limited pl tones and dpl tones. 80s to 90s series radio..GE star is standard

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Motorola Mitrek. Available from Mid 80s to Mid 90s. Capable of 4 crystal controlled channels. Low band, VHF and UHF. 30 50 70 and 110 watt versions.

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Motorola Radius M216. Alomst identicle to the Maxtrac. contol head slightly changed and used different software to program. First of the new motorola model line which was programmed via dos software in the mid 80s. cost around 600.00. available as a 2ch 6ch or 16ch

Any suggestions, corrections, additions, or photo submissions please email to the link below..all are welcome to keep this page as accurate as possible..Thank You

METRO300