Radio Crystals

[VO1GXG]

Hi folks,

Came across a couple Motorola VHF FM portable radios from the 60's  ( tube transistor hybrids) they require the Motorola AN-1 style crystal for Tx and the AM-13 style for Tx. Anyone know where I could get these? Google has let me down on this.

Thanks!

[KX5JT]

You might try to email Bry, AF4K.  He is a crystal dealer.  (that didn't sound right)

http://af4k.com/

Good luck, John KX5JT

[VO1GXG]

That gave me a chuckle john, Thanks kindly!

[WB6NVH]

You will need to order them from International Crystal if you want to get something which will function correctly.  At $ 20 per crystal that gets expensive in a hurry.  Those radios also require a full alignment with any frequency change greater than about 200 kHz.  The receiver uses a derived IF which is a bit tedious to set up.

The high band ones usually tune to 2 Meters without much trouble but there are several low band ranges of about 6 MHz each and those won't pull too far away from their factory sent range.

[VO1GXG]

You will need to order them from International Crystal if you want to get something which will function correctly.  At $ 20 per crystal that gets expensive in a hurry.  Those radios also require a full alignment with any frequency change greater than about 200 kHz.  The receiver uses a derived IF which is a bit tedious to set up.

The high band ones usually tune to 2 Meters without much trouble but there are several low band ranges of about 6 MHz each and those won't pull too far away from their factory sent range.

The Two i have are highband VHF, an alignment is no problem for me. Unfortunatly International Crystal only has the RX crystal the AM-13, the TX crystal AN1 is avalible through Bomarcrystal but they want $55 for it.

[WB6NVH]

That doesn't make any sense (not you, but what you were told!)  The transmit crystal should be available anyplace, it's nothing special.  The only thing is, I think the type you refer to is a superseded number, which may be the issue.  I seem to recall the crystal you need is now a VN-1 Motorola number.

This reminds me that I have had some trouble recently with International as far as the sales people getting the part numbers wrong and that sort of thing, which once-upon-a-time never happened.

I have bought crystals from Bomar many times and I think they were running about $ 12 each most recently, but they had a minimum order of something like $ 55 which may be what you are referring to.

You might try the AF4K crystals if you can get ones close enough to what you need.  The reason I didn't like the idea at first is that the crystal frequencies wind up being things like 6.098750 MHz and that's a bit hard to find off-the-shelf, although there is some warp-range.

If you aren't in a big hurry I will try to find my paperwork on what the International numbers are for the high band Dispatcher crystals.  This assumes you have sets such as H23BAM or P33BAM, the metal ones with the handle on top?

[VO1GXG]

The radios are H23BAM. I was refering to the minimum order which would not be a problem if they had both crystals also I contacted AF4K and he did not know about the crystals. I somewhat suspect that the numbers on the crystals might have been changed over the last 50 years. I'm in no hurry for it to be operational i appreciate the help!!

[WB6NVH]

OK. I found them sooner than I thought.

The receiver crystal is a Motorola Type AM13, International Crystal Holder Type CS-05.  26 Degrees C non-oven operation.

The transmitter is a Motorola Type VN1, International Crystal Holder Type CS-05.  26 Degrees C non-oven operation.

They should have known that, but, there it is.

If you wanted to rock-up both radios, sounds like you would meet Bomar's minimum order and save some money.

I usually find the tiny wet slug electrolytics on the audio board have mutated into little flowers by now depending upon storage conditions, and will need replacement.  Hopefully you have the manual.  Hopefully you have the nicad version.  You can make up a new 6 Volt battery from some D cell nicads.  I found that a 6-cell plastic D holder fits in the space where the original sealed nicad went.  But I could only use five cells.  The voltage from 6 cells upset the receiver and it went into oscillation.

[VO1GXG]

Thanks so much!!

I've sent a request to International Crystal and Bomar!  

The radios i have are in pristine condition, not a scratch on them! I've got the manual, a couple sets of tubes and i do indeed have the NiCd version. the two i have were owned by radio station WSOY.
The guy i bought these from has several of these radios and so the information you've given me will help him get his working again as well

[WB6NVH]

Life is easier with the extender cable but you can do the work without it with a bit more cursing.  Don't slip with a probe or some three-legged-fuses will end their careers (personal experience speaking...)

The receivers should tune to about 0.4 microvolt /20db quieting.  Some of mine wouldn't go below 1 microvolt on 2 Meters as I think some of the tuned circuits wouldn't go to 146 MHz.  I haven't gotten around to adding some padder capacitors across them.

You may already know that these are instant heat transmitter tubes, so that you have to wait about half a second from pressing the PTT button before talking.

I have some bucket loads of scrap sets like these so should you need parts, let me know.

[VO1GXG]

I got the crystals ordered. Ordered a couple so they cost me $12 each which is not to bad. The radio's were already converted to the VHF amateur band; so no need for the conversion; i will probably do some tests and replace the capacitors on the audio board and the NiCd pack.

Thanks!

[WU2D]

I have a stash of Motorola crystals for FT-220s, mostly police freqs. that they were throwing away in the plant back in 1980. Give me some frequencies to look for. These crystals are wire leaded and many have compensation networks soldered in parallel.

Mike WU2D

[VO1GXG]

The crystals came in the mail for the radio today, bought 4 for a grand total of $73.56cdn , slaped them into the radio, did not need much aligning. with the crystal in there the transmitter was on 146.338 i need it on 146.340. Receiver was none to far off freq. managed to squeeze .7 watts out of the radio. Receiver has a sensitivity of .1 microvolt. What a fun little radio!

[k4kyv]

That's the kind of stuff I give, at most, a half glance as I pass by at a hamfest.

[K9PNP]

If you can, could you post a picture of the unit.  Have a few Motorola boatanchors myself.  Can't find my ancient equipment cross-reference, so can't remember what this unit looks like.  Thanks

[VO1GXG]

I have attached a photo of my unit.

The model is H23, it came in a single channel version and a dual channel version as well as a version with a built in speaker and hand mic or a headset. there was also the larger P33 set with had a 10W pa instead of a 1 watt Pa, both were hybride transmitter and receiver.  Later on it became a hybrid tube transmitter and solid state reciever, You can tell the diffrence by the colour of the centre caseing, the hybride transmitter and receiver had the grey middle case and the solid state receiver had the cream colour case.

[WB6NVH]

There is more information and also some photos on my Motorola History web pages under the 1941-1957 topic.  My web page index is reachable by the web icon over on the left.

There is also my Electric Radio "ER in Uniform" article from a number of years ago.

[VO1GXG]

There is more information and also some photos on my Motorola History web pages under the 1941-1957 topic.  My web page index is reachable by the web icon over on the left.

There is also my Electric Radio "ER in Uniform" article from a number of years ago.

Geoff , you're website was the talk of our last radio club meeting. thanks for the great info!

[K9PNP]

Thanks for the picture.  That's the one I though it was, believe it or not.  Our local PD had the 1W version.  Tried to get it when they were updating to HT100's, but nobody 'knew where it went'.  Still wish I knew who took it home.  Thanks.