> "hybridfan" <wa6...@...> wrote: > OK, since we've activated the Waaaay Back Machine again, does > anyone remember the VHF high band West Coast Electronics remote > mount mobiles? > > I'm still looking for photos of the radio, especially an > interior picture and control head. > > These were built in Los Angeles, used an 832A in the final > and had silver plated tuned lines in the receiver rf stages. > > I know San Diego Yellow Cab used them in the early 60's. > That's how we got our FM start down here. The model was > MFM 15-150B. > > Ken
No good deed should go unpunished... I asked Geoff who operates a very nice CHP History web page at: http://www.wb6nvh.com/ ... and he replied with the following. [pasted text] West Coast Electronics was a division of, or somehow hooked up with, Mobile Communications Company of Los Angeles. It is my understanding that they were wholly owned by Yellow Cab and existed from only about 1949-54, more or less. Apparently Yellow Cab did not like paying the prices Motorola and GE were asking for their gear. They never branched out to public sales, as far as I can tell, as no one has seen an example with ownership documentation other than a Yellow Cab franchise somewhere. They made at least two mobile radios, a two-piece and a one-piece set. Dynamotor powered. Quite a bit smaller than Motorola, and cheaper in design. As Ken says, they used an 832 in the PA, probably because 832's were available on the war surplus market for about fifty cents at the time. The control head, at least the one I saw on an old Superman serial (!) was just a square box with pilot lamps and a volume control, with a Western Electric F3 handset hanging across the lower portion. I have an example of the transmitter from a two piece set and can send you photos when I find what I did with them. They are probably in my computer at home. In a true comment of what it is often like working in an independent mobile shop, my transmitter, tagged with "Yellow Cab of Salinas, California" had a yellowed scrap of paper wadded up and crammed inside the crystal oven. Written in pencil, the note on it says: "Unable to warp back on frequency. He made me use it anyway." [end of pasted text] cheers, skipp
