Novatel 8300, 8301, and 8305

Novatel 830X Cellular Transceivers 

Novatel was a a division spun off from Alberta Government Telecom (AGT).

Based in Calgary, Novatel manuafcturered a series of cellular analogue mobile phones using the AMPS standard, adopted throughout North America, Australia, New Zealand at that time.

Known quirks:

- There was a batch of PCB mount potentiometers used in the manufacture of the transceivers that were sub-standard, and this generated a major recall / modification of the units.

- The EEPROM used for configuartion and user programming had a limited life expectancy or 7 to 10 years, and had extensive software write / re-write facilities, which expired once the memeory size was exhausted.

- The RJ-45 handset and control interconnects used a 180 degree pin reversal cable, meaning that straight thru RJ-45 LAN interconnet cables would not work (and probably damage the unit).

- The unit can be configured as a cellular scanner in short order, and was always going to be popular among scanner enthusiasts.

A handbook of the era is included below.