1979 Quasar Renovation

[TUD1]

That does make sense. Maybe they time travelled into 2000 and saw that nobody was buying radios anymore.

I just realized that this thread is in the wrong category. Maestro Webmaster, please feel free to relocate this thread to your satisfaction.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Captainclock

So then Motorola basically got out of the Radio and TV manufacturing business and went into cellphones instead because they thought that radios and TVs weren't profitable enough for them but yet they thought cellphones would be more profitable?!

The japs were under cutting prices of US companies on all consumer electronics making it futile to compete in that market, so they dropped their consumer electronics lines. They continued to make Cellphones, semiconductors, cable boxes, 2-way radio equipment and other things. All of which were profitable markets that the japs were not ruthlessly trying to take over.....It was a wise business decision that has preserved their existance.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Captainclock

So then Motorola basically got out of the Radio and TV manufacturing business and went into cellphones instead because they thought that radios and TVs weren't profitable enough for them but yet they thought cellphones would be more profitable?!

It all started out with pocket pagers, then cellphones.
They quit building home radios and phonos in 1969. Televisions in 1974. They built car radios for the US car makers until about 1975.
They were still heavy into two-way communications for the law inforcement and others for a while, but seemed to discontinue it later.
Every time, there's a problem in communications for the law enforcement, the Police Chiefs always mention, "We never had that problem, when we had Motorola radios."

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

It all started out with pocket pagers, then cellphones.
They quit building home radios and phonos in 1969. Televisions in 1974. They built car radios for the US car makers until about 1975.
They were still heavy into two-way communications for the law inforcement and others for a while, but seemed to discontinue it later.
Every time, there's a problem in communications for the law enforcement, the Police Chiefs always mention, "We never had that problem, when we had Motorola radios."

Motorola's defense electronics division dried up considerably in the 90s - but they were the leader in some defense electronics programs up until then - most notably Automatic Carrier Landing Systems, where they produced transmitters and receivers for the APN-154 and APN-202 ACLS systems. Fun fact - the system was so accurate, they had to introduce a random error, else the tailhook of the arrested aircraft would almost always hit the same spot on the flight deck, banging a hole through the non-skid coating. Reliable - most failures were of external nature.

Though they did produce comm equipment for the Apollo program, they made little for the DoD - I guess they left that to Collins, Magnavox, and RCA.

[Captainclock]

That's kind of interesting all of that information about Motorola I never realized that about Motorola Before...

[sampson159]

when i ran a beverage company back in the 90s,we had motorola radios.all employees carried them and never a moments trouble.they worked flawlessly for 10 years before we upgraded to the latest equipment.cell phones!worst decision we ever made

[TUD1]

Here is a screenshot of the 1979 Quasar. To be honest, I didn't expect it to be this good. Never underestimate the power of a good cleaning and some DeOxit.

[radiotvnut]

The CRT was made by Sylvania.

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by TUD1

Here is a screenshot of the 1979 Quasar. To be honest, I didn't expect it to be this good. Never underestimate the power of a good cleaning and some DeOxit.

That does look pretty good for being over 40 years old!

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

The CRT was made by Sylvania.

Interesting, wasn't sylvania at that time owned by GTE?

[zeno]

Just before Motorola sold out there was an interesting
story in one of the trade mags. Basicaly M was going to sell
sets in Japan starting with 25" then working down in size.
Was going to be quite profitable. Coincidence ???

As far as profits go on consumer electronics goes IIRC Sony,
RCA & Zenith were the only ones that consistently made a
true profit. And it wasnt much. Most others used $$ from other
divisions to keep CE afloat.

73 Zeno

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Captainclock

Interesting, wasn't sylvania at that time owned by GTE?

Motorola and many other firms were just customers of the Sylvania receiving and CRT division. It seems that the vacuum tube and lamp divisions remained with Sylvania Electric Products, Inc.
The Consumer Electronics division seemed to the be sold to General Telephone sometime in the early '60's. Later, Philips bought them both.
The small town, I live in now had General Telephone, later Verison, now Frontier. Right now, my land-line is Time Warner.

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

Motorola and many other firms were just customers of the Sylvania receiving and CRT division. It seems that the vacuum tube and lamp divisions remained with Sylvania Electric Products, Inc.
The Consumer Electronics division seemed to the be sold to General Telephone sometime in the early '60's. Later, Philips bought them both.
The small town, I live in now had General Telephone, later Verison, now Frontier. Right now, my land-line is Time Warner.

The area where I live GTE was the biggest landline provider before it was bought out by Verizon and then Frontier, my parents for the longest time had GTE for their landline company, but then it went to Verizon when they bought out GTE in the late 1990s and then they went to Frontier when they bought out Verizon in somewhere around 2012, but now their landline is owned by Comcast because they got a better deal with them than they could with Frontier plus they had issues with their landline under Frontier and they refused to come out and fix the issue without charging a ton of money to do so.

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by TUD1

Here is a screenshot of the 1979 Quasar. To be honest, I didn't expect it to be this good. Never underestimate the power of a good cleaning and some DeOxit.

That's a sweet set. I have wanted one with separate VHF and UHF knobs for some time. There was one at a friend's place when I was about 10. I would be stoked to find one like yours though.

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

Motorola and many other firms were just customers of the Sylvania receiving and CRT division. It seems that the vacuum tube and lamp divisions remained with Sylvania Electric Products, Inc.
The Consumer Electronics division seemed to the be sold to General Telephone sometime in the early '60's. Later, Philips bought them both.
The small town, I live in now had General Telephone, later Verison, now Frontier. Right now, my land-line is Time Warner.

My 1979 Sylvania carries the GTE logo, but the remote I'm using for it carries the NAP logo. No Sylvania name on that remote, but otherwise it's identical to earlier units. Must have been a limited run of replacement remotes made.

[Captainclock]

Originally Posted by Jon A.

That's a sweet set. I have wanted one with separate VHF and UHF knobs for some time. There was one at a friend's place when I was about 10. I would be stoked to find one like yours though.

My 1979 Sylvania carries the GTE logo, but the remote I'm using for it carries the NAP logo. No Sylvania name on that remote, but otherwise it's identical to earlier units. Must have been a limited run of replacement remotes made.

Interestingly enough I have an Atari Missile Command Upright Arcade game at my parents place that's from 1979 and the original Fluroscent bulb used to backlight the nameplate on the front is still in it and it was a Sylvania/GTE Branded lightbulb...