BBC Tomorrow's World - Experimental Mobile Phone - 1979

[gpo706]

It's not GPO, not British (in origin), but the handset was used back in 1979 for a field trial for mobile phone networks.

Thats why when I seen this clip, I couldn't get a fix on a GPO handset like it, because it wasn't!

Good ole USA Trimline which plugged into a black box with a rubber duck on your belt.

I wish you could see the clip over there, here's the link if you can crack it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/tomorrowsworld/8018.shtml?all=2&id=8018
( dead link 03-26-22 )

I'll try and get some screengrabs, if anyone can suggest a free flash/video grabber, the BBC site is encrypted to Downloadhelper etc.

A peach for £10 all in, just needs a bit TLC and some oxidising treatment when the weather get kinder here.

[Phonesrfun]

I guess I'll just have to imagine the video.  This is one of those cases where the BBC and/or my internet provider won't allow me to view....."Not available in your area"  It comes up with the web page, but as soon as I click on the arrow to play, it tells me I can't.  Oh well, I have had this problem with BBC before.

-Bill Geurts

[gpo706]

Bill, if I can hack the vid, or get some grabs will post 'em.

Anybody suggest a hack/grabber?

[Jim Stettler]

I have an AE rotary trendline breifcase radio phone. It was designed to be stored in your trunk and you could attatch a cable to connect  a car mounted handset for car use.
In normal usage it is a very heavy briefcase telephone.  It is one of those items that even non-collectors find interesting.
It has a lot of frequency buttons. You needed to be licensed for each frequency you used.

I am thinking it is from the early 1970's. I will see if I can dig it out and take a photo.

Jim S.

[Phonesrfun]

GE and Motorola both had FM based tranceivers that were crystal controlled at about 150 mHz for mobile telephone service. 

Us hams used to grab them up and re-tune them for 144mHz 2 meter FM use.  It was a matter of getting crystals that would operate at ham radio frequencies and do a little tweaking of the RF stages. 

I had an old Bell System GE Progress Line in the trunk of my car and a control head wired to mount under the dash board.  It was a tube-type from the 60's with a vibrator power supply.  My how times have changed.

-Bill

[gpo706]

I like these sets and just bought a button DTMF/pulse  switchable for less than £5 all in.

These were marketed in UK as "Minstrel".

http://www.britishtelephones.com/t5011.htm

Also got a very scruffy linesman set for about the same price, as it was listed with only a pic of the reverse on ebay.

http://www.britishtelephones.com/t290.htm

[McHeath]

Never seen a dial with the numbers only like this Trimline, must have been a custom job or I've just not seen them all. 

Early mobile phones are pretty interesting even for non phone collectors, the whole idea of calling from anyplace was super cool back in the day.

[gpo706]

I'm tinkering with this again, in the gloom of the night the dial numbers turned red!

I thought it was someone had used a red pen to dial on it and I hadn't noticed, nope it GLOWS in the dark, now I thought it needed a tranformer of some sort for this?

The line cord is US corded colours, and attaches to a GPO 420 plug, inside the plug it's colour coded to UK coolurs so it goes like thie:

yellow to red
white to white
red to green
black to blue

It works fine but no bellring, although I'm experimenting with the 420 socket wiring, wish me luck!

[gpo706]

Its now on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vix6TMnj9vY&feature=related

enjoy

[twocvbloke]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=vix6TMnj9vY

It's funny to think that the GPO wouldn't free up space for those early mobile phone attempts, but then, it wasn't far off being broken up into BT and the Post office...

And I can't help but notice the handset, it looks like a Trimline handset to me...

[gpo706]

I posted this up a while back 2CV, I too was amazed the prototype was a US handset!

[twocvbloke]

I must have missed it...

I guess the prototype needed the rotary dial (DTMF not being widespread here back in them days), and compact to be able to be carried, so, one of them Trimline style handsets would fit the bill, once they pried them from Ma Bell's hands to be played with here in blighty...

[gpo706]

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=2001.0

Its a Trimline with an on/off switch and hooked up to a belt clipped RX/TX.

The out-takes at the end are funny when it doesn't quite work first time...

[twocvbloke]

Yeah, that thread was definitely missed by me, cos I only joined the forum at the end of last year...

I loved the outtake at the end, dialling someone's number accidentally, inadvertently including someone in the radiophone tests... 

Speaking of Trimlines, I couldn't help but notice this Dialatron phone yesterday, looks very much like a Trimline with a few design adjustments:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/350564359219 ( dead link 03-27-21 )

[Dialvintage]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=vix6TMnj9vY

It's funny to think that the GPO wouldn't free up space for those early mobile phone attempts, but then, it wasn't far off being broken up into BT and the Post office...

And I can't help but notice the handset, it looks like a Trimline handset to me...

That was cool!