Got interested in tube type Motorola FM Transmitters & Receivers in the mid 70’s. Art Garibedian had a warehouse full of unused OLD equipment. I talked him out of some low split Motorola “A & G” strips and a power supply. The transmitter finals… was a pair of 2E26’s driven by some loctal base tubes. Quite a nice looking rig. The receiver had a lineup of tubes making a limiter and was .35 uV for 20dB quieting.
My site noise was about 2uV so the sensitivity was wasted on my home station. But I had some great contacts over a period of five or six years. Had 29.5 and 29.6 crystals… JA2BAY every day at 4pm. Stronger than locals.
Eventually toward the 80’s I built a remote base using a Mastr MVP as a repeater on 70cm and a 50W Mastr II mobile. Bob Gilbertson (OC Food Inspector) got me into the Disneyland Hotel Sierra Tower, and we put a Sears 1/2 wave vertical and a 7dB Stationmaster up on the hotel roof. We were the only occupants so the site noise was quite low. Many of the “Big Boys” on 70cm were unable to hear what I could, so the ‘talkback’ became quite well used by many… Transmitting on their site and listening through mine.
I still have the remote base and hope to revive it when the weather is warm enough to spend some time in the garage.
I gave up the Motorola C cabinet to Bob Gilbertson and lost track of him during my divorce, and relocation to Sacramento CA. Unfortunately Bob passed away and nobody knows where the equipment went. Most likely some local ham has it or has tossed it… not knowing the value it has to me.
Those were some fantastic times in my life… and I miss the fellas that were there with me.