Vintage Motorola testing equipment - Anyone know anything about these?

[dirtman]

I bought these on the auction site on a whim. I just liked the way they looked and figured I could always use the pieces and parts if nothing else. I like integrating old stuff into my projects. My son, for example, thought it might be cool to make a vintage looking game controller or MP3 player out of one.

Before I do though, I thought it might be a good idea to learn a little more about them to be sure I'm not destroying something of value.

They are all battery powered and appear to be used in radio/broadcasting. That's all i got...

Here is a pic of them.



I was also wondering if the tone generator could be useful in troubleshooting amps, assuming it works of course.

Thanks for any insight!

 

[swechsler]

Motorola is big in the two-way radio industry. My guess is that this is equipment to troubleshoot/repair them.

Here is the Vibrasender that plugs into the second and third units on the left, and on the top right. My guess is that this stuff dates to the 1970s.

 

[arts]

They were used for testing mobile communications equipment. Companies could communicate using a single frequency, but by including a specific tone when transmitting could ensure that only the intended mobile unit could hear the message. Other than being somewhat rare, they are pretty much useless these days (damn, I actually used to work on that stuff...)

 

[dirtman]

Thanks for the insights. It’s been fun opening them up and checking them out although I will have to properly dispose of the old batteries.

swechsler - I was wondering about the vibrasender. That’s pretty cool.

Well I suppose they will be slowly integrated into various projects then. I may keep one of them on a shelf just for looking at. I don’t have a lot tied up in them.

Thanks again!

 

[gadget73]

The bottom items I believe are a "TVM", or transistorized voltmeter. Slightly more modern equivalent to a Vacuum Tube voltmeter. Basically its a very high input impedance meter that won't load down circuits. Most people would use a digital for this now, but personally I find analog meters easier to use when doing alignments. Not totally useless, but not exactly something in high demand either. The scale makes it a lot less user-friendly though.

The tone generator at the top left could be useful for basic signal tracing. If it spits out a fairly clean sine wave it would work as well as anything else for that purpose.

 

[dirtman]

Hello gadget. I was thinking the same thing about the tone generator. I should hook it up to the scope and see what’s it’s putting out. I’m neck deep in a workshop make over right now so everything is tore apart. When I get organized again, I’ll post a pic of the sine wave. Thx!