Early 1950s Lorain Electronics Dual Control Head - Enlarged View
The text below the image explains the buttons' functions
The
information about this control head is from
Charles C. Reynolds, a former LEC employee.
He indicated that most of
these heads were gone by the time he started with Lorain in 1967.
The head
controlled both an 8 channel AM radiotelephone and an 8 channel FM
radiotelephone. The switch at the bottom was used to switch control
functions: A (for AM) and F (for FM).
The "buttons" in the row on the left are actually indicator lights to show which
channel is selected. On the right is a row of
momentary-contact push buttons to select channels. Some of the channel
designations shown on the head were changed later-on.
Number 5 is not lit up. It is white or yellow to make it stand out,
and is for the calling and distress channels:
2182 KHz or channel 51, on AM and channel
5, which is the present day channel 16 (156.8 MHz) on FM.
The button marked transmit could be used for keying the TX
if the VOX failed.
The weather button put one of the public correspondence AM
channel receivers on the loudspeaker so weather broadcasts could be
copied with the telephone handset hung up. Normally,
only the AM and FM calling channels would be on loudspeaker with the
handset hung up, and it would be impossible to select other channels.
When the handset was off hook, the AM transmitter was by default
in low power. The hi-power button selected high-power AM.
The FM side was always full power.
The FM equipment was not made by Lorain. It was somewhat modified but was
actually GE pre-prog (before Progress Line) with one transmitter, two
receivers, an eight channel local oscillator deck and the Lorain built
control circuitry. The FM portion was referred to as MC-261 with MC
standing for marine combination. It was in a six foot tall cabinet
& weighed about 200 lbs.
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