Brief History of MOTOROLA 1930 - 1997 (auto radios, TV, Cell phones, microprocessors)

[@bblod4896]

Back in the early 80s, I applied for a technician job at the Motorola site in Sunrise, FL. I also applied at Pan Am. Pan Am called first and I ended up there until the airline shut down. Motorola did call me about two months after I had started at Pan Am; I thanked them but was already settled at the airline as an avionics tech. Too bad I couldn't predict the future 😥 Thanks for the look back.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi B Blod, very interesting how things work out. Glad you enjoyed the look back! Glad you found our channel too! ~ Victor

[@ricknelson947]

Hi B Blod, Myself a former Navy Avionics guy, the sad truth is that I was just in Sunrise doing some work and stayed in the Hotel across the street from the Sunrise Motorola factory. The parking lot was empty and I was told that it shut down a while ago. In fact the Boynton Beach Motorola factory where I was originally hired just a few days after Hurricane Andrew, is now a Super Target and Condos.

[@bblod4896]

@@ricknelson947 Sad...I really enjoyed working at PanAm. Delta wanted to hire me for Atlanta, I didn't want to move the family. You never know where the trade winds will guide you. If I had jumped to Motorola, I would have retired there. Thank you for your service. 🇺🇲

[@smorrisby]

The 80s and 90s were the best years to work in telecommunications. Everything was still hands on back then yet very high tech and of staggering complexity. An installation project was a lot more than screwing boxes in racks and connecting cables.

[@tertia0011]

I worked for Motorola in early '90's as production technician & QA. Fault finding & repairing VHF/UHF Motorola microprocessor controlled mobile radio units (yes - designed for police & emergency services) was a very fulfilling for technologist trained in telecommunications, digital radio tech & programming for Motorola microprocessor based microcomputer systems. Motorola produced microprocessors were used in Tandy & Dragon 8 bit (MC6809) microcomputers & the 16/32 bit (Mot 68000) Macintosh 128K (etc) & Commodore Amiga 500/1000s. High quality. High reliability. Motorola production facility was clean & well equipped with top shelf HP test equipment (spectrum analyser, signal generators) but curiously IBM Intel processor based microcomputers. It was the first facility I had seen that used robotic SMD loaders/solder wave machines to mount IC etc. Like most other telecommunication manufacturers in my state, Motorola relocated production offshore top Asia during 1990's. Facilities became almost entirely automated.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Tertia, thank you very much for your fascinating background info on Motorola! I bet it was a great place to work. Yes, historically we can see that the shift to overseas production hurt many great company jobs, and the increase of automation brings its own challenges. Thanks again, great info! ~ Victor

[@visionsx8]

It's amazing how quickly telecommunication has evolved. I still remember as a trainee engineer in the early 90's installing the Motorola DataTAC network to provide customers with access to a radio data packet-switched service since the existing AMPS cellular network was too slow for Data. It was quickly abandoned and replaced by GSM then 3G/4G and now 5G. The early tech pioneers were just incredible.

[@ricknelson947]

One of my favorite things is to stop by the Motorola booth at trade shows and chat with the old timers. Never thought I would be one myself. I started at a private Motorola Service Center in the early 80’s and was hired by the Motorola paging division in the early 90’s as a Field Tech Rep. it was the proudest moment of my life at the time. Installing paging systems all over the world. I moved on when the end of paging appeared in the form of cellular text messaging. The decline of the company was very sad to watch. Seeing the Schaumburg factory leveled was surreal. I owe that company so much for the life experiences it provided me in world travel and all of the friends I still have worldwide.

[@uploadJ]

In the mid 1970's I modified a Motorola HT200 model H23DEN1100 by adding a TouchTone pad to make 'phone patch' telephone calls through WR5ABY (Dallas ARC) and WR5ABE (Irving club) two meter repeaters ... fun times and those kinds of things impressed regular non-ham people to no end ...

[@uploadJ]

@@ricknelson947 re: "was hired by the Motorola paging division in the early 90’s as a Field Tech Rep" I did a stint at PageMart Wireless in the late 90's ... worked for Steve Larghi - did you know him by chance?

[@uploadJ]

re: "since the existing AMPS cellular network was too slow for Data." We also ran "transcoders" on the A-side cellular system in the Dallas Ft Worth MSA market ... this didn't play well with modems either. This cut our cost for leased T1 trunks to a cell site to half though. I was with MetroCellular back in those days ...

[@ricknelson947]

@@uploadJ I was also an FTR for the paging division. Probably knew you. Hired on in Boynton Beach but working from my home in North Florida. Then transferring to the new Hurst plant After project Falcon. Worked for Mike Cross and Frank Meacher. Spent a good portion of my time in Asia. The Falcon project was part of that. Having been 25 years since I left in 1997 and moved back to Florida, names are somewhat fuzzy now. Several have passed ( Rick Jemison, Henk Boxma, Wayne Sanning and Scott Zinn). I’m sure there are more by now. I do still stay in contact with a couple. Steve Larghi, I don’t immediately recall.

[@KsSpOiLeDBrAt]

I love this channel. I'm currently in school for computer technology and these videos have got me hooked and help me out a lot. Thank you..

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Thanks for letting me know. I am very glad you are finding our tech videos helpful! I hope you will continue to enjoy them as we add new material, as it becomes available. Computer Technology is a great field of study, good luck to you! : ) ~ Victor, at CHAP

[@mikemike7001]

As noted in the video, Motorola was a true semiconductor pioneer and once made virtually every type of semiconductor device. Its discrete semiconductor and standard analog and logic IC business, based in Phoenix, was spun off as ON Semiconductor, recently renamed onsemi. Its microprocessor business, based in Austin, was spun off as Freescale, which later merged with NXP, which was spun off from Philips, which was once one of the world's largest electronics companies and was, like Motorola, sadly broken up into many pieces.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi MikeMike, thanks very much for this info. "Onsemi" - did not know of this company. Great historical info... thanks so much! ~ Hunter, at CHAP

[@bobboscarato1313]

Protectionist laws break down potential monopolies!

[@Embargoman]

Yet Motorola also powered two of the most popular video game consoles.

[@bobjohnson904]

The film includes a street and aerial view of the Scottsdale, AZ Government Electronics Division on East McDowell Road. I worked there for many years before learning that the Apollo mission radios were developed "a few small steps" from my desk in the corporate computer center!

[@muridmili8137]

Motorola is a great and legend technology company in history.

[@TeslaTales59]

Good history! And the chat with the assemblers-

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Thank you for your feedback on this! Much appreciated! ~ Hunter, CHAP

[@WatchingDude]

I remember Motorola products were very robust even when they moved into the mobile phone market.

[@uploadJ]

My first actual ham radio in 1975 was a 1965 model MOTRAC U43HHT1100E single freq 40 W VHF hi-band radio ... ordered 146.88 repeater xtals from International Crystal in Oklahoma City ...

[@wrightmf]

@@uploadJ Did you also get a HT-200? or were they still too expensive at the time? I remember the HT220s, really cool and really expensive. I had to wait until later 1990s to finally get one!

[@uploadJ]

@@wrightmf I bought a single freq H23DEN model HT-200 back in the mid 70's too, at the sidewalk sale in Downtown Dallas! Had the drop in charger and leather carry case like used on 1 Adam 12 too! Years later I bought some used UHF HT-220's from a City of Dallas sealed bid auction ... sometime in the 1980s. Dallas had a 12 freq UHF system and the HT-220s were two freq and Dallas bought all new RCA TacTec handhelds for officers ...

[@wrightmf]

@@uploadJ those must have been some exciting purchases!

[@uploadJ]

@@wrightmf They were fun! I bought some motorcycle PD dispatcher radios and other odds and ends at the time too!

[@TheBrooklynbodine]

For my 9th birthday, I got a Motorola clock radio. It was AM only, but it was 1972, after all.

[@TheBrooklynbodine]

Thanks so much for this! Narrated by the inimitable Peter Thomas.

[@tessTN]

Do you know who was the narrator for this film? Watching it, I realized I'd heard that soothing voice most of my life, but have never known the narrator's name. Thanks for posting this, it's fascinating to see how much of our present tech is due to Motorola!

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi TessTN, good question. There is no indication in the orignal film of who the narrator was. If we discover who, we will post that info here to answer your question. Thanks! ~ Hunter,

[@anthonyrasberry6715]

Sounds like Peter Thomas that voices the Forensic Files tv show.

[@TheBrooklynbodine]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Sounds for all the world like Peter Thomas.

[@wrightmf]

The Handie-Talkie in WW2 was quite revolutionary compared to "breakie-backies." Eventually there were commercial products, when the HT220 introduced in 1969 the handheld finally achieved a useful size (HT200 was a bit bulky). Handheld 2-ways never got smaller, probably a little larger and obviously more sophisticated. Those 2-ways such as the Motrac were tough, cover a car with these things and you will have an armored car. I'm old enough to remember their TV sets, "works in a drawer." Also back in the days if see someone with a pager, it was assumed they are a physician. Then later years see someone with a pager, it was assumed they are a drug dealer. If Motorola teamed up with Dick Elkus' team at Ampex with their VCR design and be supplied components from their Arizona plant, Ampex and Motorola could have conquered the video cassette recorder business instead of the Japanese.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Wrightmf, yes, just image Motorola and Ampex tech pros joining forces.... that would have been an unstoppable force! Nice idea! Great comments, thanks!~ VK

[@frankowalker4662]

Thank you, that was very interesting. I don't think I've ever owned anything by Motorola.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Hi Franko, Glad you enjoyed it. After we found this little film it was surprising to me that Google had bought Motorola and then sold it in 3 years. It was upsetting to hear that the Motorola Museum is gone too. They must have done something with all the great artifacts, but have not found out where they went yet. I think a number of other old museums have folded since the beginning of Covid too. We do what we can to preserve little bits of history. Thanks again! ~ Victor

[@frankowalker4662]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject That's terrible news. I bet Google bought it, gutted the IP's and then sold just the name. I just hope all the museum pieces did'nt go to the rubbish dump.

[@peterpcampbell9485]

If you owned a car, with an OEM radio (AM/FM), then you probably owned a Motorola...

[@frankowalker4662]

@@peterpcampbell9485 No, I don't drive. But I have probebly had Motorola transistors in stereos from other brands. But that does'nt realy count, as there would be Panasonic or Sony caps in there, as well as a whole bunch of components from other brands/manufacturers.

[@uploadJ]

re: "I don't think I've ever owned anything by Motorola." Moto was big in paging and paging base transmitters, and, in cellular infrastructure base stations too in the 90's .. so you could have used their 'gear' and not known it!

[@eiruggriffiths8491]

My first mobile phone was a Motorola, and also my second phone was a T2288e

[@dalecomer5951]

The film begs the question: What did Bill Lear have to do with the invention of the car radio? Lear was 1/3 owner of Galvin's company at the time. He worked with Wavering to build a prototype but Galvin was not interested in manufacturing it. Lear then continued development with Howard Gates of Zenith but Galvin decided to produce it. Lear and Galvin together agreed to change the company name to Motorola. When I was in school I lived across the street from what was then Lear-Siegler. I wondered if it was once Lear's own electronucs plant. Apparently, it was.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Dale, thank you. ~ Hunter, CHAP

[@TheBrooklynbodine]

Back in the '40s, there was a radio branded Detrola. It was a car radio. Detrola was named for Detroit, home of the automobile industry. Was it related to Motorola?

[@albear972]

Wow! Bill Lear of Lear Jets and 8 Track cartridges? I honestly didn't know that Motorola connection.

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

That was a surprise to me also. Lear has a fascinating history himself!

[@charlesstauffer9831]

Interesting. Thank you!

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Glad you enjoyed it. : )

[@mrbrent62]

My first cell phone was a Motorola 700 brick phone in 1989. Later in the 90s I had a StarTak phone.

[@bobboscarato1313]

I loved the bulky brick; dropped from 12 ft. up to a concrete floor and nothing happened to it!

[@sideburn]

Man, Peter Thomas was the voice of everything back then.

[@Pedro8k]

My last two mobiles have been Motorola great quality

[@uploadJ]

I'm still using a couple Moto MTS2000 portables .. refitted the battery to use two Li-Ion cells in series instead of a series of Ni-NH cells ...

[@_plastikman]

I had first mobile phone from Motorola

[@jamesslick4790]

I just bought a Motorola phone this week (I know that part is owned by Lenovo now). Great timing!

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Interesting. Sometimes hard to keep track of who owns what now. : )

[@jamesslick4790]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject IKR?

[@josepauloleli6026]

Não houve nenhuma ida à Lua, seja lá o que for que a Motorola apoiou.

[@josephpashka7369]

One evening in 1929, two young men named William Lear and Elmer Wavering drove their girlfriends to a lookout point high above the Mississippi River town of Quincy, Illinois, to watch the sunset. One of the women noted it would be even nicer if they could listen to music in the car. “Voilà!” Does anyone know the woman's name?

[@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject]

Was her name "Melody Blaupunkt"

[@josephpashka7369]

@@ComputerHistoryArchivesProject Dunno

[@rabautios]

Das Management war unfähig, wie fast immer. Wenn IBM die 68000 erwählt hätte, dann wäre es vielleicht besser gelaufen.

[@nickharrison3748]

this was 1G

[@Михазагрздин]

360

[@DJ-Brownie-UK]

first pictures of the moon close up huh 🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂

[@norcal715]

First!