Could MOFLAG command board location be somewhere else?

[rjd]

I'm looking at B681 and up in my 900 MHz Spectra, and the data is all FF's.
Could the MOFLAGSs be somewhere else?

This was originally a trunk-only radio, but I've switched it over to conventional.
It appears changing the model number is all I had to do. But when I look
at a MODE screen, scan just says "Not avail". If I hit "F6" to access the
scan list, I get "Not available on this model;refer to model chart".

-Bob

[motorola_otaku]

The original trunking model wasn't B2 or C2 was it? Also, what's your MLM version?

[rjd]

Handwritten sticker on back of MLM says
HVN6006B
V1.12

Which I imagine is my problem.

[rjd]

Just some more things I found out about this radio:

* It was made in 1988
* MLM version 1.12. The board itself looks different than the MLM in my other radios. Instead of the dual-row header
for a connector, it has this weird custom connector where the pins are in a single row on the connector side, but the
board side as a stagger arrangement of two rows.
* The radio won't program more than 10 channels
* I can press "Phone" and use mode to get down to keypad, but pressing number keys after this doesn't emit any tones.
The number keys work for other applications. (Yes, I have DTMF enabled)
* The serial number and model number appear in the "right" place in the MLM range, but other things are wrong.
For example, the head type is not found at 6060. I haven't been able to locate it yet.
* The command board range is not where all the article say it should be for ANYTHING. When I have more time,
maybe I will go through the whole thing and try to find stuff.
* One more weird thing: When I first look at a mode, I have a bunch of stuff in the lower right under "DTMF options".
Once I scroll through all the modes (using F4 or F3), this disappears and won't reappear unless I reload the codeplug.

If any of these look familiar to you and you remember something somewhere about this, please let me know.

Thanks,
Bob

[tvsjr]

Don't expect you can do anything with that radio. It's a development unit. I have one in VHF... totally odd duck.

[motorola_otaku]

I had a 900 Spectra with a MLM that old once.. which coincidentally also came from the Dallas area. Yeah, aside from what you've already run into the memory capacity is physically smaller and they're very limited in their stock configurations. You can do the VCO mods to it and use it for a one-channel conventional radio, but that's about it.

[SlimBob]

On a B2, you're likely to find the codes in different places. Start walking further into the radio and see if you see familiar hex...

[rjd]

Thanks. I haven't walked through the whole code plug yet (maybe something to do during the snowstorm), but I have made some progress:

(1) First, I removed ALL the trunking personalities (including the first one using the trick found on another website).
After this, I changed the model number from D37KGA5JB7BK to D37KGA7JB7BK.

After I did this, the RSS says I have a conventional mode radio and will allow me to program up to 64 conventional channels.
An interesting node - I also tried changing the middle letter from KGA to KMA both with and without the other change. This
character in the model number doesn't seem to make any difference to the RSS.

(2) The DTMF keypad works, but in a way different from my other Spectras. I press "PHON" then use the mode button to get to
"Keypad" mode. So far, so good. After this, I have to press the "SEL" button first before hitting the digits. My newer
Spectras skip the "SEL" step.

This radio certainly is an odd duck. Here's a few other notes about this radio for those that might do a search and hit upon this
thread in the future:

(a) The power switch is a mechanical C&K 8161 pushbutton on-off rather than a momentary button with power controlled electronically.
I actually kind of like this as you get an instantaneous aural confirmation that the button push has registered (it clicks) rather than
the normal sloppy response time from when you push the button to when the lights come one. BTW The switch is not a
post-production hack - the switch is connected by wires to two pin connector that mates with the back of the display board.

(b) Instead of two torx bolts on each of the top and bottom plates, there are two long torx bolts on the bottom only that reach all
the way up to the top plate. The top plate has two receiving nuts welded two it.

(c) I tried swapping the A7 display with a newer 902-A5 radio. The A7 display worked fine with the other radio,
but when I put the A5 display on this older one, the radio goes into continuous transmit. The rest of the
buttons and display seem to be fine. The older radio's front cavity also has two columns on the left and right
side where the torx bolts from (b) make their way to the top. The corners of plastic frame on the back of
the newer radio's A5 display interfered with these columns. I had to cut the corners off to get it to fit.

(d) The buttons are a solid white as opposed to a more translucent white. The difference is subtle but noticeable.
When I got this radio, the 6,7,8,9 keys were all blanks. I happen to have 7 8 9 keys left over from an old
project and ordered a new '6' key from Moto (about $2). Now I have all the digits but the upper numbers look
a tiny bit different!

So now I have everything I want except scan. The output power was an easy 35W and I'm sure it would have gone higher if I dared.
Pretty good for a 22-year-old radio.

Bob

[motorola_otaku]

(a) The power switch is a mechanical C&K 8161 pushbutton on-off rather than a momentary button with power controlled electronically.
I actually kind of like this as you get an instantaneous aural confirmation that the button push has registered (it clicks) rather than
the normal sloppy response time from when you push the button to when the lights come one. BTW The switch is not a
post-production hack - the switch is connected by wires to two pin connector that mates with the back of the display board.

Yeah, you definitely have an oooold early-production radio - the mechanical power buttons were standard production in the early runs.

(c) I tried swapping the A7 display with a newer 902-A5 radio. The A7 display worked fine with the other radio,
but when I put the A5 display on this older one, the radio goes into continuous transmit. The rest of the
buttons and display seem to be fine. The older radio's front cavity also has two columns on the left and right
side where the torx bolts from (b) make their way to the top. The corners of plastic frame on the back of
the newer radio's A5 display interfered with these columns. I had to cut the corners off to get it to fit.

This is usually an issue with the control head interconnect board. Newer "advanced" heads need the HLN6285 interconnect board or an older 6058/6066 modified per the Batlabs instructions:

I am sure most of you are aware of the HLN6285 interconnect board for the Spectra radio. This is the newest board which will allow you to run an A4 head or the newer advanced heads on a Spectra with out the radio going into a hissy fit and keying up as soon as you turn on the radio.

If you are discarding your HLN6058's and HLN6066's and buying the HLN6285, YOU ARE WASTING YOUR $38.00 PLUS SHIPPING!!!!

Take your your 6058's and 6066's and isolate pins 4,5,22,and 29. To find these pins, look at your interconnect board while it is still in the radio after taking off the control head. They will be the pins at the top of the board, not to be confused with the lower black plug which the control head mates with.

Starting from the top row of pins at the very left which will be pin 1. As you get to pin 6 you will see that pin 7 is missing and then continues to pin 8 all the way to the far right which will be pin 19. Pin 20 starts at the bottom left bellow pin 1 and proceeds to the far right which will be pin 38.

You can cut the traces to each pin or just unsolder it and remove it like a bad tooth.

You now have an HLN6285.