Motorola Spectra VHF Base Station

 

RAMCO auction lot from May 2009

12 Motorola VHF Base stations marked as from Northern Ireland areas.  They have a Keyloader interface box in series with the Boot Mount set to Control Box lead which has a keyswitch fitted for keyloading (not opened up yet).  One set has "May 1993" written on it.

Can anyone identify this system?  It has all been now scrapped and sold off.

VHF 155.400 MHz Simplex as well as 155.725 MHz, 147.775 MHz, 147.700 MHz and 147.875 MHz and Duplex channels with secondary channels fitted as well as clear channels.

These  radios look to actually be RUC radios, the number etched in them TR150A is a RUC designation for radio equipment. 
Other examples are

STORNO 5000 TR87
Pye Westminster TR103
Motorola MT500 TR99

So these would be used by the Army for intercommunication with the RUC on RUC secure channels

 

 

Keyloader

The sets seem to match the Home Office QUANTAR  VHF 156 - 154 MHz and 147 - 148 MHz Base Stations bought from from RAMCO last year.  Some are marked Cross Border comms.  There are about 49 channels in them - 147 MHz to 148 MHzz and 154 MHz to 156 MHz in clear channels and encrypted channels.  The Keyloader Interface Box has a lockd cover, when broken open a micro switch operates to ditch the keys and erase them.  The Motorola encryption board is in this box and not in the main spectra set. 

It had been previously believed that only Racal Cougar encryption was used in Northern Ireland, this can only be true if Racal encryption is used in a Motorola set.

The sets have no keys loaded but work OK in clear but carrier only in the secondary channels.

 

 

 

Encrypted systems

Securenet UHF Radio System

Securenet QUANTAR Base Station

SPECTRA UHF bootmount

SPECTRA VHF base station


THE PYE MUSEUM IS CLOSED
DAVE HICKS G8EPR, MUSEUM CURATOR, HAD A SERIOUS ACCIDENT AT WORK IN EARLY 2016.
SADLY HE DIED AT THE END OF APRIL 2017.
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11 May 2017 17:43:01

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The site deals mainly with Pye (and other companies) Radio Telephone and Telecommunication equipment.  It is very unlikely that we will be able to answer any questions about Pye domestic radios, radiograms, record players etc etc