Motorola Dynatac - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

Electricdreams · 30th Jun 2025, 7:46 pm

Hello,

Are there anyone with interest/experience with early mobile phones?

I have a Dynatac that is “locked” and looking at ways to get into the programming to unlock it.

According to the Motorola’s Bible, grounding pin 6 enables you to get into programming. Has this been done by anyone on here before?

Paul

Jon_G4MDC · 30th Jun 2025, 10:13 pm

These things are a recurring problem. They are no longer useable for the most part. The network is long gone.
Just for looking at on a shelf.

Radio Wrangler · 1st Jul 2025, 6:35 am

There are no longer valid licences for mobile phone systems of the past, those licences which the service providers famously paid billions for about 25 years ago have been withdrawn. This is how the obsolete phone networks have been closed.

So if you were to fire up a preserved base station to make a handset do anything, you'd run afoul of the wireless telegraphy act by operating an unlicensed transmitter. The bands used have been or are being licensed to new service providers. Intruding signals of past formats which do not fit into the frequency/time/code multiplexing schemes of the current system can be very disruptive and you could make yourself quite unpopular.

As Jon's said, these things are display items.

They were once just the tip of an iceberg, the visible part of immense amounts of network hardware. But the rest of the iceberg is now no longer there.

David

30th Jun 2025, 7:46 pm	#1
Electricdreams Heptode Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Manchester, UK. Posts: 535	Motorola Dynatac Hello, Are there anyone with interest/experience with early mobile phones? I have a Dynatac that is “locked” and looking at ways to get into the programming to unlock it. According to the Motorola’s Bible, grounding pin 6 enables you to get into programming. Has this been done by anyone on here before? Paul __________________ What have you bought now??

30th Jun 2025, 10:13 pm	#2
Jon_G4MDC Nonode Join Date: Nov 2015 Location: Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, UK. Posts: 2,347	Re: Motorola Dynatac These things are a recurring problem. They are no longer useable for the most part. The network is long gone. Just for looking at on a shelf. Last edited by Jon_G4MDC; 30th Jun 2025 at 10:31 pm.

1st Jul 2025, 6:35 am	#3
Radio Wrangler Moderator Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Fife, Scotland, UK. Posts: 24,737	Re: Motorola Dynatac There are no longer valid licences for mobile phone systems of the past, those licences which the service providers famously paid billions for about 25 years ago have been withdrawn. This is how the obsolete phone networks have been closed. So if you were to fire up a preserved base station to make a handset do anything, you'd run afoul of the wireless telegraphy act by operating an unlicensed transmitter. The bands used have been or are being licensed to new service providers. Intruding signals of past formats which do not fit into the frequency/time/code multiplexing schemes of the current system can be very disruptive and you could make yourself quite unpopular. As Jon's said, these things are display items. They were once just the tip of an iceberg, the visible part of immense amounts of network hardware. But the rest of the iceberg is now no longer there. David __________________ Can't afford the volcanic island yet, but the plans for my monorail and the goons' uniforms are done