Pye Telecom PF8

In the end, we did not sell that many of these at Pye Telecom. It took a lot of time to get to market and, really, it was not worth the effort. It has some innovative ideas for its time: it used a multi-layer PCB (a first at that time), a DC-DC converter (what a nightmare!), an internal antenna, looked before its time like a cellphone, no external parts to break,etc..

It featured on TV in "The Professionals".  

Some were converted to 70cms. They are rare these days and I do not have one! Your best bet is eBay. There is a PDF manual on my website.

See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/vhfuhfmicrowaves/vhfuhf-commercial-rigs/pye-pf8 .

PFX Manual

 Years ago, I worked on the Pye PFX.  An old friend has just pointed me to a PFX service manual for sale on eBay.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pye-PFX-Pocketfone-VHF-UHF-FM-Transceiver-Reference-35-06-2021-/133800248662?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286

I have just spotted that it was my personal copy with my name on it!

No, I shall not be bidding, HI.

The PFX was widely used by the UK police and some were used on 70cm. It was the first synthesised portable Pye Telecom ever made. It had a few false starts, but was very successful in the end. The PF85 was a crystal controlled handheld using many of the same modules.

Previous Life - NOT amateur radio

In 2008, after many years in the empire that started as Pye Telecommunications, I retired. Over the years its name changed as did the products we designed and made.

I ended up in Sepura designing world beating Tetra radios that were widely used across the planet.

At one time I worked for Philips Paging where we made vast quantities every day in places like Mexico and Singapore.  For a time I worked in California for Philips Paging. My abiding memory of California is the always blue skies! In Mexico, the factory was very modern, but just outside the gates there was poverty everywhere.

There is a good website on the history of Pye Telecom.

See http://www.pyetelecomhistory.org/index.html

Pye PF8 on 70cm FM

The Pye Telecom PF8 was, in its time, a very futuristic handheld UHF transceiver. They are very rare. I was fortunate to be part of the design team a very long time ago. I was responsible for the TX audio and the antenna which was quite novel. At the time Sir Clive Sinclair asked me for advice!

The PF8 was made famous in the UK TV series "The Professionals". If you can find one, they can be made to work on 70cms. Finding one is very hard. Before you ask, no, I do not have any. TX power was 500mW.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/pf8 .

Pye Telecom - NOT amateur radio

http://www.pyetelecomhistory.org/prodhist/portables/chiefexec/jan31-2005-0020-800p.jpg

Please note the picture above is at the Pye Telecom History Site and NOT on this blog. The link will be removed if a problem. This link may not work with https links to this blog.
My first job was with Pye Telecom in 1970 in the Portables Lab. I had to put 12.5kHz channel spacing into the PF1 receiver. My boss was a John McLean and his boss was, now SK, Mike Gotch (later G0IMG). At the time I did not know that Mike was interested in amateur radio. In his latter years he was keen on 10m and 6m.

The 2 unit PF1's sold in good volumes to the UK police. These were the first common UHF portables in the world.  A few specials were made for chief constables and the like.

Work was very different then! These days people would not get away with what we did back then. There was very little competition and work was easy.

Pye Telecom PF8 - NOT amateur radio

Some years ago I was professionally involved in the design of this innovative transceiver. I am sure I mentioned this on the blog not too long ago.

Some people managed to find rare examples on the secondhand market and converted them to 70cms use. They are hard to find as not that many were made.

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/pf8 .

Pye PF8

See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/vuhf/pf8 .

In my younger days I was a design engineer with Pye Telecom and one of the projects I worked on back in the 1970s was the Pye PF8.  In its day this was a very novel transceiver, with few controls to get broken, an internal antenna and a DC-DC converter so it ran on a couple of rechargeable batteries.  I was responsible for the antenna and the TX audio but was also heavily involved in debugging the many issues we had.  The product became world famous as Bodie and Doyle used the radio in the TV show "The Professionals".  Not that many were sold and on the second hand market they are very hard to find. I know some have been put to use on 70cms. They worked well in the end but they were a nightmare to work on at the time.

It was around this time I met Clive Sinclair.  He was interested in compact antennas for his little TV and was interested in co-operating  on RF ICs. Neither happened but I was flattered he had asked me for advice!

Pye PF1 and PF8 handhelds

I've justed added a couple of pages to my website on two Pye Telecom PMR products I had involvement with in my early days in the development labs there.

See Pye Telecom PF1 Handhelds and Pye Telecom PF8 Handheld

For far more information on Pye Telecom see the website http://www.pyetelecomhistory.org/

Incidentally there is a drive to set up a permanent museum of radio history in the Cambridge area in which Pye Telecom products would be featured. £30k is needed to get this project off the ground. See the Pye Telecom History pages for more information on this project.