original motorola pager

mrwilmoth · Post by **mrwilmoth** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 12:59 am

does anyone know the model of the original motorola pager. back in the days where you would call a operator to check your messages?

n0wmh · Post by **n0wmh** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 9:51 am

Well, I have one sitting on the shelf above my desk - it's from about 1982... on the bottom it says (among other things):
Motorola RC0118

Good luck!

Jack
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mrwilmoth · Post by **mrwilmoth** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 12:16 pm

do you have a picture? I cant find any info on it at all.

n0wmh · Post by **n0wmh** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 1:54 pm

It look like this...
http://www.qsl.net/n0wmh/RC0118.jpg
and operates on a single "AA" size battery.

Good luck!

Jack
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Jason · Post by **Jason** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 2:03 pm

the original pageboy's came out in the early 60's, maybe even the late 50's. That unit from the 80's dosent come close, tho it is certainly a relic.

Bernie any ideas?

mrwilmoth · Post by **mrwilmoth** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 2:14 pm

no it used the motorola bravo case but had not lcd, it just beeped then you called the operator to see who called.

thats not the one.

Hoseman292 · Post by **Hoseman292** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 8:34 pm

If it was in a Bravo case, you might check to see if it was a Bravo "tone only" pager. I recall some of these available from Metrocall and a few other pager companies in the early to mid eighties. They used 5/6 paging or even possibly GOLAY. I've never seen one of that design which used QUIK CALL and never POCSAG.

The original pager would probably be the PAGEBOY which were either tone only (used alot by utility companies) or a tone and voice model. They were grey in color with a silver escuteon. They had a red button on the top which would silence it after paged. I have one in my collection that I found at a hamfest several years ago recrystalled to the 440 amateur band.

Hopes this helps.
Tim
N3WIR - Silver Spring, Maryland

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Wed Sep 01, 2004 8:35 pm

It look like this...
http://www.qsl.net/n0wmh/RC0118.jpg
and operates on a single "AA" size battery.

Thats a "newer" pager. Came out about 1975 (I have a service manual for it). That model was the "Metrx" and the ones we had were 5/6 tone.

The oldest ones I ever worked on were the "Tone 1" pagers. Red button on top, no speaker. Just a beeper. 2-tone, I think.

Looks like this one, but no speaker
http://www.az-apco-nena.org/Museum/imag ... g_0532.jpg

mrwilmoth · Post by **mrwilmoth** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 12:31 am

found it motorola bravo tone

now I need to find one in person

Tony Soprano · Post by **Tony Soprano** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 4:21 am

I'm gonna weigh in here on the Pageboy I. Earliest manual I have is dated 1971, but I am pretty sure they came out in '68, maybe '69 give or take a year.

phrawg · Post by **phrawg** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 4:45 am

Absolutely, Tony. Pageboy 1, late 60's had a 2 tone and voice.
used mechanical reeds to decode. used a fatter and somewhat
shorter battery than a AA (nicad) about the size of a king
sized box cigarette pack and must have weighed about a quarter
of a pound. Repaired many many many many etc of them
in a past life. AAAggGAgaggggg Memories

Phrawg

Tony Soprano · Post by **Tony Soprano** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 4:51 am

I haven't fixed that many of them, when I came into this biz there were only a few die-hards left, but I have laid hands on many, many Pageboy II's. One of the most sensitive paging receivers ever. I still know of several in daily service.

phrawg · Post by **phrawg** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 6:09 am

If anybody wants to see or maybe buy a nice p-boy 1
see ebay 3836511294 , There is one for sale CHEAP !
also a few pageboy 2's on there also. There are about
35-36 hours left on it as I write this message. Phrawg

radioconsult · Post by **radioconsult** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 6:12 am

Some of the early paging systems back in the 50's & 60's, were AM modulated and operated in the low band (35Mhz). The receivers were mostly superegen types the newer ones were superhet. They were carrier squelch with an off-on volume. The transmitter would remain keyed up all the time. The"dispatcher" would set in front of a mic, broadcast style and call out the messages, such as "unit 102 call your office" they would repeat this message until notified that it had been replied to. There was such an operation in Oklahoma City they used a transmit power output of 1Kw, they also had AM radio convertors for the car radios that would convert the paging signal down to AM broadcast band so it could be picked up on the car radio. To improve performance they would install a "buggy whip" antenna on the car. With such a setup they pretty much covered the entire state. BTW the name of the outfit was Radio Call.
RC

Jim202 · Post by **Jim202** » Thu Sep 02, 2004 1:48 pm

Another company that cut it's teeth on paging was a company called "The Doctors Exchange". This was operated by 2 brothers and their wifes out of New Orleans. They started it about 1955 or 19567. They had low band, VHF and UHF paging. Then they went into 900 paging.

The brothers later expanded into a company called Radiofone. They were also the A cellular carrier in the New Orleans and Baton Rouge area. SBC bought out the company about 2001 and then turned around and sold it to Alltel. The desimated the comapny, laid off all but about 15 employees and are running it out of Little Rock now under the name of Alltel.

Jim

bernie · Post by **bernie** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 3:09 pm

My two bits worth:
the first Motorola pager that I saw was used for in building coverage, 150Kc AM I think.
I started working for Niles Radio/General Communcations, an RCC in Tucson in Jan'68 and we were using Page Boy 1 at the time.
This was "tone & Voice" there was another model that used tone only, called the "Bell Boy". The telephone company used these.
The page boy 1 would run for 8 hours on a good Nicad battery.

We also had Non Motorola 35Meg AM system that used tube type regenerative receivers. As I recall it had an hearing aid tube and 22.5V B bat, and 1.5V A battery. It was housed in an aluminum box, with a wire antenna a foot long, or so.
The user would periodically press the button and listen to the messages until his number came along.
The operator would go in the back room and dictate the messages onto a recorder with a big rotating drum. the messages would constantly repeat.
The base station was made by "Dollar Steam ship Lines"
My cell phone is smaller than these units.

original motorola pager

original motorola pager

pager

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