My Dad's 40 Years with Illinois Bell and his "Collection"

[MagicMo]

The car phone examples are also collectible, but know that this is only part of the whole phone.  The control head mounted in the car usually under the dash or on the hump, and consisted of the handset, cradle, and sometimes a dial.  The rest was the actual VHF radio that usually mounted in the trunk, and would have been made by GE or Motorola.  There would have been some thick cables to connect them together, and an antenna.

I have it all! It just wasn't pretty enough to take a picture.
Maureen

[MagicMo]

I didn't realize the phone connected like this. My husband said you wear it?!!
Huh?
Maureen

[DavePEI]

The car phone examples are also collectible, but know that this is only part of the whole phone.  The control head mounted in the car usually under the dash or on the hump, and consisted of the handset, cradle, and sometimes a dial.  The rest was the actual VHF radio that usually mounted in the trunk, and would have been made by GE or Motorola.  There would have been some thick cables to connect them together, and an antenna.

Bill beat me to the punch with his answer, ans he is absolutely correct. There is only one photo which shows the actual radio portion and head - there is a chance your father had the trunk units for the others.

We used to convert these, in particular the Motrac units to use on Ham Radio  back in the day.

Dave

[dsk]

My father used those when he served, and that plug fits the BD71 & BD72 Switchboards and the EE-8 field telephone.

You may see (click on it) a picture down on this page: http://tinyurl.com/cswbne5

I guess the EE-8 phone is the longest lasting field telephone ever made.
The first were made about 1936 (please correct me if I'm wrong) and it was used to about 1970 in the Norwegian forces.

dsk

[Bill]

I have a buddy who has stashed several of the trunk-mounted transmitters that Phonesrfun mentions for the phones in picture 12. He would be glad to get rid of them at a VERY modest price, if anyone cares. Cables, manuals, spare parts, too.

I still have the phone in picture 20 mounted in my truck. I don't think it has much value. Or maybe it is worth more than my truck - wouldn't take much!

As you are discovering, Motorola had some kind of relationship with the Bell System, as a developer of new equipment, but more important as a co-operative inventor of new concepts. I'm not sure what that relationship was, but I do know that for stuff involving RF and transmitters, Chicago and the 312 area code was some kind of experimental area as far as the FCC was concerned, as well. Motorola could apply to the FCC for special permissions for experimental stuff, and the FCC would find a way to structure permissions that could not be had anywhere else in the country. I worked for Motorola C&E (Communications and Electronics) Division on West Augusta Blvd for several years in the late 60's, and witnessed a lot of the develoment work on both mobile phones and pagers, as well as on walkie-talkies and portable / mobile gear. It was a blast for a kid fresh out of college to be part of all this.

Bill

[MagicMo]

Does anyone know what the big gray thing is with the dials on it? Just curious.
Thanks,
Maureen

[Phonesrfun]

Need to see more of it.  Maybe a PA (Public Address) amplifier?

Are there tubes inside?  Connections on the back for inputs and outputs?  Is the speaker shown in the photo hooked up to it?  More questions than answers.

[LarryInMichigan]

As you are discovering, Motorola had some kind of relationship with the Bell System, as a developer of new equipment, but more important as a co-operative inventor of new concepts. I'm not sure what that relationship was, but I do know that for stuff involving RF and transmitters, Chicago and the 312 area code was some kind of experimental area as far as the FCC was concerned, as well. Motorola could apply to the FCC for special permissions for experimental stuff, and the FCC would find a way to structure permissions that could not be had anywhere else in the country. I worked for Motorola C&E (Communications and Electronics) Division on West Augusta Blvd for several years in the late 60's, and witnessed a lot of the develoment work on both mobile phones and pagers, as well as on walkie-talkies and portable / mobile gear. It was a blast for a kid fresh out of college to be part of all this.

Bill

Don't overlook the fact that the Motorola division which designed and made all of these things was (and perhaps still is) located in the Chicago area.  I had a couple of job interviews at Motorola in Arlington Heights decades ago.  One was with the group who designed mobile radio telephones.  One of the engineers gave me a ride in his car and showed me the equipment which he and all of the members of the group got to install in their personal vehicles so that they could do real life testing of the products.

Larry

[Bill]

Larry -

Good to know that they are still in the area - and good to know that they still exist! When I joined Motorola, SPD (the Semiconductor Products Division) had just moved to Phoenix. They had a good run there, but in the end couldn't compete with the Asian semiconductor companies. The Motorola building is still there (actually in Scottsdale), but now says General Dynamics on the front.

As far as C&E Division goes, it had begun the move to the western suburbs of Chicago - Schaumberg, as I recall - while I was there. Augusta Blvd on the near west side, especially during the Richard Daly regime, had ceased to be a viable location for a copany employing a lot of high tech workers.

Yes, Motorola was very good about asking its engineers to field-test prototypes and pre-production versions of new devices. I remember a bunch of going skiing in Upper Micigan with brand-new HT-220 Handie-Talkies in our pockets. And I had a mobile phone in my beat-up old Oldsmobile! Fun!

Bill

[LarryInMichigan]

Bill,

You're right.  The division which did the radio telephones was in Schaumburg.  I was confusing it with the mobile phone division in Arlington Heights where I also interviewed.  It was all so long ago.  When I was young, a good friend of my mother's married the president of the semiconductor division and moved to Phoenix or Scottsdale.  I do not recall his name.

Larry

[Dave F]

Does anyone know what the big gray thing is with the dials on it? Just curious.
Thanks,
Maureen

It looks like it might be homemade.  Any I.D. tags/model numbers/etc?  Any plugs/sockets/cords?  Maybe a close-up of some of the rotary switches would help.

DF

[MagicMo]

Need to see more of it.  Maybe a PA (Public Address) amplifier?

Are there tubes inside?  Connections on the back for inputs and outputs?  Is the speaker shown in the photo hooked up to it?  More questions than answers.

I will take more pics next time I go there.
Thanks!

[MagicMo]

It looks like it might be homemade.  Any I.D. tags/model numbers/etc?  Any plugs/sockets/cords?  Maybe a close-up of some of the rotary switches would help.

DF

I will take more pics. I just thought there was a chance it was a common item that everyone would know about.

Ps. What do the autovon cards look like? Just curious, you never know if I come across it.
Thanks
Maureen

[DavePEI]

It almost looks like it is a decade box...

Dave

[Dave F]

It almost looks like it is a decade box...

Dave

That's what I was thinking too.  Judging from the kind of metal box and the labels on the switches, it could be homemade.