I was just wondering: whatever happened to GE's "Progress Line" and
Motorola's competing commercial sets from the 70's? They were
crystal-controlled, transistorized or hybrid units that put out
something like 70 watts.

Of course, they've been retired from commercial service, but _where_ are
they? Unless they were all crushed for the gold content, they must be
sitting in warehouses, so why don't hams make use of them and set them
up on 52.525 (or whatever) or the other FM bands?

Just curious: I'd like to have the chance to use one.

Bill, W1AC
(Filter QRM for direct replies)

In t Bill Horne
wrote:

Of course, they've been retired from commercial service, but _where_
are they? Unless they were all crushed for the gold content, they must
be sitting in warehouses, so why don't hams make use of them and set
them up on 52.525 (or whatever) or the other FM bands?


I had a GE "Progress Line" rig (with a GLB synthesizer) and a couple of
Motracs and HT-220s in my youth, but that was back in the 1970s.

I suspect that when (relatively) cheap but very flexible ham band
VHF/UHF transceivers hit the market, the interest in such behemoths
simply dried up.

--
Bert Hyman W0RSB St. Paul, MN

On Sun, 16 Jan 2011 20:37:44 EST, Bill Horne
wrote:

I was just wondering: whatever happened to GE's "Progress Line" and
Motorola's competing commercial sets from the 70's? They were
crystal-controlled, transistorized or hybrid units that put out
something like 70 watts.

Of course, they've been retired from commercial service, but _where_ are
they? Unless they were all crushed for the gold content, they must be
sitting in warehouses, so why don't hams make use of them and set them
up on 52.525 (or whatever) or the other FM bands?

Just curious: I'd like to have the chance to use one.

Bill, W1AC
(Filter QRM for direct replies)



They were quite popular in the early days of 2-meter FM. However,
with the advent of smal synthesized rigs that became smaller and more
capable every couple of years, the old dinosaurs lost their appeal.

I haven't been to a hamfest for 3-4 years but as I recall the last
hamfest I went to I saw several old ProgLines and Motorola
xtal-controlled handhelds piled up for sale with no takers.

On Sun, 16 Jan 2011 20:37:44 EST, Bill Horne
wrote:

I was just wondering: whatever happened to GE's "Progress Line" and
Motorola's competing commercial sets from the 70's? They were
crystal-controlled, transistorized or hybrid units that put out
something like 70 watts.


IIRC under the manufacturers' trade-in policies in those days, those
rigs were subject to spin-off to the ham community - I had both Motrac
and MICOR heavyweights over the years.

One railroad radio ham source told us that under the "narrowbanding"
upgrade program, Motorola has withdrawn from the railroad radio market
-probably because it wasn't big enough, leaving it to Kenwood and
ICOM. On his railroad, Motorola radios used for trade-ins had to be
destroyed, and he related seeing a railcar full of "out of service"
Motorola radios enroute to the scrappers. This may have been a
condition imposed by the new suppliers.

Apropos of that -- those of us who started in ham radio in the 50s
remember lots of military "war surplus" radios that we could use on
the ham bands. Where are the retired radios from the Vietnam and
later eras now? Not on "surplus" sources available to us, for sure.

On 1/18/2011 2:37 AM, Kickin' Ass and Takin' Names wrote:
On Sun, 16 Jan 2011 20:37:44 EST, Bill
wrote:

I was just wondering: whatever happened to GE's "Progress Line"...[snip]

They were quite popular in the early days of 2-meter FM. However,
with the advent of smal synthesized rigs that became smaller and more
capable every couple of years, the old dinosaurs lost their appeal.

I haven't been to a hamfest for 3-4 years but as I recall the last
hamfest I went to I saw several old ProgLines and Motorola
xtal-controlled handhelds piled up for sale with no takers.

I understand that the _actual_ Progress line radios had to go: they were
tube units, after all. What I want to know is what happens to _any_ kind
of commercial transceiver when the FCC requires them to be retired: the
GE Mastr units, for example (a hybrid tube-solid state rig), and the
varous Motrac/Motran/Mo-whatever rigs that came and went before
trunk-tracking radios became the norm.

I have this vision of a warehouse full of 1970~1980's taxicab &c radios,
waiting to be put in service again. Granted, they weren't as small as
the synthesized rigs available now, but they could take a lot more
punishment and keep going, and I think an organized effort by hams could
restore them to service.

Bill, W1AC
(Filter QRM for direct replies)

On 1/19/2011 8:32 PM, Phil Kane wrote:
... those of us who started in ham radio in the 50s
remember lots of military "war surplus" radios that we could use on
the ham bands. Where are the retired radios from the Vietnam and
later eras now? Not on "surplus" sources available to us, for sure.


_*THAT*_ is a _very_ good question. I've seen some Korean-era rigs at
Deerfield (NH), but they weren't for sale: they were in use by hams who
had them mounted on surplus jeeps and trucks.

As for Vietnam, the stuff must be lying in moldy National Guard
Arsenals, or I don't know. The "portable" PRC-25 transceivers, which
IIRC covered 30 to 76 MHz, used wide-band FM and had fairly low power: I
remember that they burned batteries like crazy but could take incredible
punishment. The fixed and mobile radios must also be hidden away
someplace, and I doubt that anyone is keeping them for use: unless they
were sold to foreign governments, there are probably dozens of
warehouses filled with them.

Of course, there's always a trade-off between nostalgia and usability,
and it may be that the discrete-component designs of that era just don't
make economic sense now, but _if_ they're available, the critical part
is having a group that will maintain a market for whatever units hams
can use, offer maintenance, etc. Think of it: without TAPR, there would
never have been bulletin boards or packet clusters, but because there is
a central "authority", everyone was able to benefit.

My 2 cents.

Bill, W1AC