Colibri

The Colibri is a 27 MHz portable radiotelephone, made by IEMI in Bucharest [1]. An improved version, the R 8201, was made after 1985 [1]. Together with the strain gauge system, it was one of IEMI’s export successes, sold to Comecon countries [1]. IEMI made radiotelephones under a licence bought in 1968 from the Swedish firm SRA (Svenska Radio Aktiebolaget), later modernised by IEMI itself; they were used in industry, on the railways, in rescue services, agriculture, transport, construction, by the police and the fire brigade [1].

IEMI’s production table lists 176 ‘27 MHz’ portable radiotelephones made in 1979–1985, without naming the model [2].

Annex III.2.15 gives the prospectus of the Colibri 1000, made to CMEA recommendations for simplex links of 1–2 km, depending on the terrain, in industry, agriculture, transport, construction or at sports events; it could be set to any one of the 32 channels of the 26.965–27.275 MHz band. It had 9 transistors, an integrated circuit and two quartz crystals, a 100 mW AM (A3) transmitter, a superheterodyne receiver with a 455 kHz IF and a sensitivity better than 5 µV, and a built-in dynamic microphone; it ran on eight Ni-Cd cells and was delivered as a pair with a power supply. The annex’s table of radiotelephones made after 1985 lists a Colibri M with 0.2 W and a sensitivity of 2 µV [3].