At TwoWayRadiosFor.com, we pride ourselves on providing highly innovative and effective communications products. That’s why we partner with Motorola, one of the nation’s oldest and most successful communications equipment manufacturers. You might think two-way radio technology is relatively new. Fact is, it’s been around for nearly a century.
Motorola (originally called Galvin Manufacturing Corp.) was founded in 1928 and two years later, introduced what would become one of the world’s first commercially successful car radios. He came about the moniker “Motorola” by linking the word “motor” (for motorcar) with “ola,” which implies sound (as in viola, pianola or Victrola). Ergo, the word quite literally means “sound in motion.”
Galvin quickly saw an untapped market in the nation’s police force. At the time, field patrol officers communicated with headquarters via telephone call boxes on the street. Galvin and his team of engineers developed a solution initially by customizing commercial radio receivers specifically for patrol cars. Then in 1939, the company introduced the Motorola Police Cruiser radio receiver, a totally redesigned car radio that allowed patrol officers to both transmit and receive messages to and from police headquarters. The receiver was the company’s first entry into the emerging field of wireless mobile communications.
As the company grew, it would claim a string of industry firsts and major innovations. In 1943, the company debuted the world’s first FM portable two-way radio, a backpack model made for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Dubbed the “walkie-talkie,” it weighed 35 pounds, had a range of up to 20 miles and became a World War II icon.
In October 1946, the company’s communications equipment carried the first calls on Illinois Bell Telephone Company’s new car radiophone service in Chicago. Nearly four decades later, Motorola would introduce the world’s first commercial handheld cellular phone, the Motorola DynaTAC phone.
In 1958, (a decade after officially becoming Motorola, Inc.) the company introduced the Motrac radio, the world’s first vehicular two-way radio with a fully transistorized power supply and receiver. Its low power use enabled the radio to transmit without running the vehicle’s engine.
In 1969, it was a Motorola transponder aboard Apollo 11 that relayed the first words from the moon to the earth. Two years later, NASA’s lunar roving vehicle used a 1.5-pound Motorola FM radio receiver that became known as “the first car radio on the moon.”
1994 saw the launch of the iDEN digital radio, the world’s first commercial digital radio system that combined voice dispatch, cellular, paging and data communications in a single radio network and handset. The world’s first two-way pager came along the next year. Motorola’s Tango allowed users to receive text messages and e-mail, and reply with a standard response. And in 1999, the iDEN i1000plus handset was the world’s first to combine a digital phone, two-way radio, alphanumeric pager, Internet microbrowser, e-mail, fax and two-way messaging.
Motorola is certain to have many more firsts in two-way radio technology. Check TwoWayRadiosFor.com for the latest and best Motorola two-way radio products and accessories.
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In 1939 Galvin Manufacturing Corporation introduced its first Motorola AM two-way radio. Public safety officers used the radio to transmit and receive voice communications from their cars. Image courtesy of Motorola.
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In 1936 Galvin Manufacturing Corporation introduced the Motorola Police Cruiser radio receiver, a one-way car radio designed to receive police broadcasts. The heavy-duty radio was tuned to a single frequency specified by the customer. The company had been adapting standard Motorola radios for public safety use since 1930. Image courtesy of Motorola.
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In 1943 Galvin Manufacturing Corporation (later Motorola) designed the world’s first FM portable two-way radio, the SCR300 backpack model, for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Weighing 35 pounds (15.9 kilograms), the “walkie-talkie” radio had a range of 10 to 20 miles (16-32 kilometers). Image courtesy of U.S. Army Signal Corps
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A Motorola radio transponder relayed the first words from the moon to Earth in July 1969. The transponder aboard the Apollo 11 lunar module transmitted telemetry, tracking, voice communications and television signals between Earth and the moon. Image courtesy of Motorola.
