Motorola in Trouble - Again

[WA1HZK]

RADIO BUSINESS: MORE LAYOFFS AT MOTOROLA

In business news, word that mobile radio and handset maker Motorola Inc. says that it will cut 4,000 more jobs in 2009. This, in addition to 3,000 it announced last year.

Some 3000 of those lost in the new round of layoffs will be in the mobile devices business. About 1,000 jobs are tied to corporate functions and other business units.

The company said the move will save about $700 million a year starting in 2009, and totaling $1.5 billion in annual savings when combined with the previous cut. The move is the latest in cost-cutting measures by Motorola, which has been struggling to revive its business in recent years. (Published reports)



Response by Motorola shop.

Hi All,
 
The "M" has not been with it since the V.P. wife was not able to use her cell phone while on vacation in the BAHAMAS.
 
This lead to the flying "BALLS IN THE SKY" debacle called IRIDIUM??
Start of the "M" problems to today problems, no engineering there that knows the real world.
 
When there is engineering back into the place, to have cutting edge product, then things will be profit driven again in products not flash and chrome.
 
Example is the noise problem with vocoder overload by external noise (CHAIN SAW, SIREN in background, ect),
is a 180 degree audio canceling system with (2nd audio channel) and auto notching filter before the vocoder
 is the approach to the digital vocoder audio failure to fix distorted TX audio.
 
 

[WA1GFZ]

I saw their quality go away in the mid 90s. Price stayed high. I knew it was just a matter of time. Then they started building stuff off shore which was real crap.
Another fine company destroyed by no talent bean counters.
Motorola made some of the highest quality components back in the '80s
Now all they make is excuses.

[AMroo]

Yep totally agree.
Even had a new chance with mobile market.
Only results were disasters.

[WA1GFZ]

Just another fine example of outsourcing core talent to save money.
Maybe someday this country will wake up and put bean counters back it their place. 

[Jim, W5JO]

When I worked for them in the 70s and 80s most of the components were built off shore in the Philippines, Taiwan, and South Africa.  They would send the components to FL for pagers and Schamburg for cell phones for final assembly. 

By doing the assembly in the US met the then standard of Made is the USA and they were so labeled.  When they decided to enter the cell market in a big way, they sold their collective souls.  That put them at the mercy of rapid consumer desires which meant recovery of costs had to be very fast. 

The Mocom 70 was built in an automatic plant in Ft. Worth, TX and the Micor line in Schamburg.  I don't know about the Maxar but its predecessor the Mocom 35 was from the Chicago area.  By the late 70s almost all components for the pager and hand held units came from off shore.  Something a lot of people didn't know is they had their own crystal department.  They grew the quartz, cut it and put it in holders.  They sold so many units before the synthesized radios they could do that profitably.

[Bill, KD0HG]

Jim, I worked in the test equipment lab the Schaumburg plant with Gary, WA9MZU/K6GLH. We built and maintained the specialized test equipment used in the plant. We also repaired all of the HP, Tec and other commercial test equipment used there.

That was right around the time the first Micors were being shipped, but still plenty of Motracs and Compa stations. That was also when Motorola tried getting in on the CB craze by introducing the MoCat.

I need to pass along one that still makes me laugh. During the final tests of the Motracs, the procedure was to whack the sides of the radio with a rubber mallet, looking for intermittents. They hired a new tester who used the mallet enthusiastically. *BAM* right on the rear heat sinks which contained the tubes. They did find the cause of the high failure rate fast enough.

I wish I still had access to the 40 foot wall of cabinets that stored almost every receiving tube known to mankind. Everything from 2A3s to Nuvistors.. Even the wire lead peanut tubes the early Motorola portable sets used. Crazy. All probably in a landfill somewhere.

There were still old pallets out back marked "Galvin Manufacturing Company". How old were they?

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

It's very likely the core talent that screwed up the company. They were stuck in the 60's and couldn't compete in the 80's. No different than many other companies.

[WA1GFZ]

I don't think so in the case of Motorola. They were into all kinds of  new stuff. back then. They had their high end  that went into government and public safety communications. First the commerical stuff got real cheap then everything else was built like crap. All of a sudden you couldn't even work on it because the snaps would break the first time you took it apart. We found the stuff coming out of the middle east the worst.
The company took a dive when Chris Galvin got in the diver's seat. He unloaded divisions till there was nothing left but cell phones and figured he could outsource everything else. I remamber a sales guy telling me he had a demo radio and part of his pitch was he would remove it from the mount and toss it across a parking lot. Then reinstall it and talk.  He couldn't use that approach with the new stuff. 
The service shops were just as bad. The biggest dirt bag usually got to be manager. Then he would beat the smartest people to death working them like dogs. Then Motorola sold all the shops to the dirt bags.

[Jim, W5JO]

Bill my first 2 meter rig was a lunch box that I tuned down in frequency after buying some International Crystals for it.  The next thing I did is take a Motrac and a GLB synthesizer and interface the two, then later moved to a Micor.

One of the things that hurt shops is everytime them introduced a new line of equipment, they also introduced a new piece of expensive test equipment for that line.  

Motorola fostered a family attitude until the 80s when they moved into the cell phone markets.  They created a separate division just for that and the head did not promote the feeling with the other divisions.  Motorola, up into the 80s was the largest supplier of microwave gear and developed many innovations in land mobile.  I remember they introduced the digital carrier system in the early 90 which was the fruit of work done in the 80s.  

From then on, that was it.  Frank is very right about core talent screwing up the company.  One was the dis-embowelment of the semiconductor division.  They supplied many of the computer landline interface devices but let that fall in the ditch.  What a shame that such a fine company had to hire idiots to run it.

[WA1GFZ]

I remember when the guy in charge of the phones took all the 6811 CPUs for the phone line and shut down production on all radios and beepers.
Even from the bottom of the food chain everyone knew the company was run by idiots. I remember when our dirt bag bought the business. He wanted me to invest in his deal with no say or stake. I had all I could do to not laugh in his face. Motorola sold the shops about 3 months before my Son was born. As soon as they payed the insurance bill I found another job.
Anytime I have a bad day I always reset my brain by thinking I could still be working for that clown.

[Jim, W5JO]

Anytime I have a bad day I always reset my brain by thinking I could still be working for that clown.

What a difference Frank. 
I owned an MSS in the Texas Panhandle and remember thinking that cell phones would put a dent in the land mobile business.  I sold the business in early 83 and went to Dallas.  From 83 to last of 84 I was service manager for the Dallas Service Center and from last of 84 until mid 87 manager of the Plano Road Center.  Our boss was a great person to work with. 

He gave us some inkling in the late 80s that the service department was going to go away in the future along with other departments.  He alluded to the fact Chris wanted the money from the sales of everything to get into the cell business in a big way.  I left in mid-87 and my boss left in the early 90s.  One of the managers at another facility found an investor and bought the 4 shops in the metroplex.

Then sometime in the late 90s I went by to see him.  He had closed two of the shops and was doing a lot of computer work to keep the doors open.  I haven't heard anything about the situation since.  When Bob Galvin ran the operation, it was a great place to work full of inventive people.  Sad that things had to work out the way they have.

[K1JJ]

Yes, the BAT.

I worked in MSS's (Motorola 2-way shops) from 1975 - 1977.  It was a good, respectable gig at the time. I enjoyed the experience and people who worked there. I even moved to San Jose, Calif to work in one out there.

The Micor, Motrac and the older units were nice to work on.  I also worked on the little HT's  and pagers. That was fun.

For me, the technical problems started when they introduced the Pulsar digital cellular telephone.Remember that big complicated mess?  I spent weeks studying those film strips and learning the manuals, but it was a very difficult unit for me to service well. I moved on after that, but feel this was the point when the technology was about to leave the "service to component" era and enter the board swap era. The industry started to change after that as discussed here.

Yes, Motorola was a great company in its heyday.

Tom, K1JJ

[Jim, W5JO]

Well Tom, sadly the knowledgeable technician is not valued any more until some real difficult problem surfaces.  All of us have noted this trend and the people who use the AM mode and frequency this site are of that type.

I taught at a community college for 6 years after leaving Motorola and even there the family feeling is gone.  Much of it has to do with change.  As division director I insisted that AC and DC be taught in separate classes.  Today they are in one class taught in one semester.  Needless to say, the resulting students are very light on their troubleshooting skills.

But the businesses who employ this type of student has requested the change.  They tell the colleges they need someone who can think logically and follow the directions of the built in test equipment or computer hooked to the equipment.  The electronics department at the college were I worked is now morphing into a computer network interface with green energy equipment. 

They are busy developing curriculum around solar, wind and other "renewal" type of electric generation.  That is where our president is taking us and that is where the students will be for the next 8-10 years.

Gone are the days of the family type atmosphere.  When I worked at the Motorola shops, we tracked each technician to assure they billed at least 90% of the hours they were paid.  We received a computer print out of that each week along with our inventory status.  That procedure was fairly new and no one placed emphasis on firing techs who didn't meet the 90% standard.  That later changed.

In many ways I am glad that I am retired and out of the work force.  I get real sad when I see some of the stuff that goes on in todays work world, Motorola in particular. 

[Mike/W8BAC]

I worked in a private land mobile service shop in the late 80's early 90's. We serviced the county sheriff's department, local police and same day fire service. Mostly Motorola and some GE equipment.
It seemed to me what hurt the big M was the Japanese competition from Icom and Kenwood. You could buy 2 or 3 Icom HT's for the cost of a single Motorola. If one broke you could literally toss it, buy another, and be money ahead.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

You make my point. Moto was so used to working on gov/mil contract and they got fat. They didn't know how to compete in the commercial world.

I don't think so in the case of Motorola. They were into all kinds of  new stuff. back then. They had their high end  that went into government and public safety communications. First the commerical stuff got real cheap then everything else was built like crap. All of a sudden you couldn't even work on it because the snaps would break the first time you took it apart. We found the stuff coming out of the middle east the worst.
The company took a dive when Chris Galvin got in the diver's seat. He unloaded divisions till there was nothing left but cell phones and figured he could outsource everything else. I remamber a sales guy telling me he had a demo radio and part of his pitch was he would remove it from the mount and toss it across a parking lot. Then reinstall it and talk.  He couldn't use that approach with the new stuff. 
The service shops were just as bad. The biggest dirt bag usually got to be manager. Then he would beat the smartest people to death working them like dogs. Then Motorola sold all the shops to the dirt bags.

[WA1GFZ]

I accounted for 100% bench time until I found the office bimbo diverting some of my time to a noload who fixed radios by pounding on them.
I loved whatching these clowns when they had any Fed work. They lived in fear because the local Fed inspector didn't miss a beat. He was a great guy and demanded perfection.
The shop I worked in, one other guy knew ohm's law...and it wasn't the manager. AC theory yes turn the knob this way and get forward power and turn the knob the other way to get reflected. anything better than 3:1 and you are done.
Motorola just kept raising the hourly rate and managers replaced talent with cheap help to keep labor costs down.
When I wouldn't invest in the shop our moron bought he dropped my pay a buck an hour. I bit my lip for three months waiting for the hospital bill to be paid then split.  It cost him at least $2 an hour screwing me out of $1.
Chris destroyed that company. He should have been married to HP Carley.

[AMroo]

What happens when you outsource stuff.

This related to a product that I designed while working in Taiwan.
It was put into production in a country not to far from there.
The product was suffering badly from faults and resulted in returns from overseas customers, maybe real close to your home town.

The problem was due to faulty electrolytic caps from a supplier that was co located, you guessed it, over there.

We asked our own factory to stop using those caps and they refused.
So I went over at the request of the owner.
The factory manager made it clear that he was getting a good kick back from the guy who supplied them and refused to change and challenged me and the factory owner to do anything about it.
I realized that the company owned the factory but we had to except that junk as nothing could be done.

When you outsource stuff you have no control over what you get, you may think you do but I was personally taught, by experts, how to defeat the best of QC inspections. They even divert trucks on the way from the factory to the ship and do repacks shipping and QC labels and all.
And we are still dumb enough to by it " cause its cheaper"

[flintstone mop]

Things went South for Motorola when junk like the MICOR came into being. There used to be extraordinary quality in Motorola stuff years ago and worth the higher price coz it always worked. We saw things go down hill in their Microwave radio line. They just couldn't compete for the quality and service. Soooo we spent an extra half million for NEC.

We are doing quite well in our Kenwood 2-way sales. People are tired of paying twice the price.

Fred

[W9GT]

Seems rather ironic, but I think the cellular revolution is doing them in.  Not much of a market, or not nearly as much of a market now for two-ways, when they can do the same thing with cell phones and IDEN phones which work like PTT walkie talkies.

At the Telco, we dealt with Motorola in a big way for many years for mobile tel and paging businesses.  They were first class to deal with and built quality products.  But now the old IMTS mobile tel and paging systems are either long gone or going that way fast and just too many others are making cell phones and associated equipment.
Our 2-way 450 MHz maintenance radio stuff (mostly GE) also was largely replaced with cell phones and mobile terminals.  We never used Motorola microwave...always used Lenkurt and Collins...and later NEC and Fujitsu.

73, Jack, W9GT

[Mike/W8BAC]

Kinda off topic but interesting, I think. In the mid to late 70's the State of California Highway Patrol needed new radios and the state put it out for bid.
The radio needed was a vehicular repeater. The CHP uses low band land mobile and a low band HT would need to be huge to have the power to communicate in fringe areas. The repeater wanted, would be VHF high band between the officer and vehicle and low band vehicle to dispatch.
For some reason the contract went to GE for the high band and Motorola for the low band radios. A modified GE Master Exec II QRP rig and a Micor 100 watt low band rig. GE provided the VHF HT and the interconnect cabling was a joint venture.
Every service call would bring a GE and Motorola service tech. Competition was high at the time. I can just imagine the cooperation between the techs and the money California must have paid back than for this kludge must have been staggering.
Hundreds of those radios went to surplus in the late 80's. I picked one up and moved the Master Exec to UHF at 100 watts and the Micor went to six meters. It still works today.

[WB2YGF]

We are doing quite well in our Kenwood 2-way sales. People are tired of paying twice the price.

Fred

Wait till people see the price on 2-ways the Chinese are offering.  Kenwood and the like will be the next to fall.

Up for Sale is a 100% Brand New Feidaxin FDC FD-460A (UHF 400 - 470Mhz) Two Way Radio in MINT condition. + (PTT (E-066M) earpiece/mic(FREE))

Features:

Built-in 50groups of CTCSS and 104 groups of DCS
- LCD&keypad backlit display ,blue digital keyboard
- Standby time:120hours
- Scan function,keypad lock
- Rainproof
- Hi/Lo power select(1W-5W)
- Programming method:computer/manual
- Charger LED indicator(red-charging;green-fully chaged)
- Signal strength indicator
- Key sound
- Battery indicator
- Semi-duplex operation
- Reverse Frequency
- Adjustable squelch

Includes:

- 1x FD-460A (400 ~ 470Mhz)
- 1x Battery Pack.
- 1x Antenna.
- 1x Belt Clip.
- 1x ENG Manual
- 1x Desktop Charger ( 100V ~ 240V ).

I can't believe they can sell this for $20.30 buy-it now (+ $38 shipping)

[Bill, KD0HG]

$38 shipping?

If they're shipping the things directly from China, I'll be they're *not* FCC type accepted and hence illegal to use in the USA.

[nq5t]

I think there's been a lot of non type accepted stuff for sale there.  There used to be a guy selling all sorts of Chinese SS amps HF/VHF, what have you.  I asked him more than once (very politely, too!) if the stuff was type accepted, and never got a reply.  I suspect there was an answer in there.  He seems to have disappeared, so either he sold everything from his container load or maybe got shown the door ...

[Jim, W5JO]

Up for Sale is a 100% Brand New Feidaxin FDC FD-460A (UHF 400 - 470Mhz) Two Way Radio in MINT condition. + (PTT (E-066M) earpiece/mic(FREE))

Features:

Built-in 50groups of CTCSS and 104 groups of DCS
- LCD&keypad backlit display ,blue digital keyboard
- Standby time:120hours
- Scan function,keypad lock
- Rainproof
- Hi/Lo power select(1W-5W)
- Programming method:computer/manual
- Charger LED indicator(red-charging;green-fully chaged)
- Signal strength indicator
- Key sound
- Battery indicator
- Semi-duplex operation
- Reverse Frequency
- Adjustable squelch

Includes:

- 1x FD-460A (400 ~ 470Mhz)
- 1x Battery Pack.
- 1x Antenna.
- 1x Belt Clip.
- 1x ENG Manual
- 1x Desktop Charger ( 100V ~ 240V ).

Regency and Wilson tried this type of thing back in the 70s.  Where are they today.  There always will be a market for quality products, quality service and reliability.  Motorola has a pretty large portion of the government market, I wonder about the petroleum market.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Since when do the Chinese worry about illegal. They sell tons of knock off copies of various electronics. Then there's the huge software pirating action. If someone buys it, they will sell it.

$38 shipping?

If they're shipping the things directly from China, I'll be they're *not* FCC type accepted and hence illegal to use in the USA.