Attention X9000 Guys!

[George]

I wanted to point this out because it's interesting to note this SP. I won't post the link, but currently the State of Washington has a pallet full of X9000 VHF mobiles for bid that has the special Spectra aux receiver. This receiver has no power connection on the back side and was powered from the X9000 cable with a T connector. Antenna connectivity was provided by a mini UHF connector through a hole in the front of the case.

What is interesting to note is this shows how Spectra and X9000 have a common heritage in terms of buss structure and command set.

This should cause the gears in some heads to start grinding and think of the many ways the combinations can be accomplished. Think about it...a high power Spectra on VHF with a low band X9000 AND both supporting 128 channels. It would take some work, but there is no reason why this cannot be done.

Think about it...This could be fun.

George

[twowaytekk]

I'm not sure if everyone is aware these radios allowed the operators to talk on two channels w/o changing channels by using a dual rocker mic. By pressing up on the mic allowed the operatorn to talk on the "Area" or home channel. Pressing down keyed the selected channel. Two speakers were used, and dual RX was possible.

I agree these would be fun to look at, but since they were a SP model, I'm betting they could not be programmed easily w/o the SP software....which could be next to impossible to get.

[phillipsc84]

I happened to come across this post and as a current owner of one of these radios I wanted to shed some more light on the situation to the best of my knowledge. So here goes.

To start here are the technical specs I have found so far:

CH - HCN1073A SP03

Looks like a normal CH except for the fact that internally the rocker PTT button from the mic is connected to VIP Input 3. (This I discovered when trying to set up an aux switch for the siren\pa and everytime I pushed the PTT on the mic down and not up it turned on the siren\pa and MANUAL came up on the display.)
Other than this its a typical 8K control head.

The radio itself is the same other than an extra mini UHF jack on the back which went to the RX ONLY spectra. As far as I have been able to determine the Spectras used in this setup didn't even have the TX components installed in them ever at all.
The firmware however had an unusual nu,ber of 0106710T07.
The EEPROM was 2K only.

The siren when connected to these radios had to have a jumper soldered on JU8 in order to work.

I do not know of any special cable part numbers etc to connect the Spectra to the X9000 bus for functions such as power on/off etc. However just a simple second speaker was used for the RX audio of the Spectra. How the volume was controlled is unknown.

As far as RSS used for these the standard X9000 RSS can be used to program the radio just fine however you will not have the cool DUAL TX mic feature but the PTT button on it WILL act as a momentary switch for whatever you have assigned to VIP Input 3. The dual CH RSS available from M is of course only for the HHCH and SIU setup. Although I have the correct DUAL X9000 CH RSS I don't know the part number unfortunately but will try to find it and list it. The only difference in the RSS is the presence of the "Aux" and "Mute" buttons as well as the "Talkaround Mic" being programmed into VIP Input 3 be default. Also DEKs are not allowed.

More to come as I can and also if anyone else knows additional info please post.

[kb0nly]

Welcome to the batboard there Phillip.. Nice that you were able to get on here now!

We have been emailing back and forth about these SP WA state radios ever since he got it. A learning experience that's for sure!

[kc7gr]

I'm not sure if everyone is aware these radios allowed the operators to talk on two channels w/o changing channels by using a dual rocker mic. By pressing up on the mic allowed the operatorn to talk on the "Area" or home channel. Pressing down keyed the selected channel. Two speakers were used, and dual RX was possible.

I agree these would be fun to look at, but since they were a SP model, I'm betting they could not be programmed easily w/o the SP software....which could be next to impossible to get.

Actually, speaking as someone who still works on these units (we still have a number in service)...

These are surplus from the WA State Patrol. Pressing down on the rocker would key the 'Area' frequency, and pressing up would key 'Select.'

It is possible to modify these units to be standard X9000 radios. What you need to do to start with, if you do not make use of the mini-UHF on the front side to connect to another receiver, is terminate said mini with a 50-Ohm load. Failing to do so will cause severely degraded receiver sensitivity on the part of the X9000.

The load does not have to handle any significant power, since this port is very well isolated from the transmit side. I would suggest a simple mini-U to BNC female adapter, and just attach a BNC-based 1-watt or so load to it. One of those old 10Base-2 50-ohm coax terminators, that were used in early Ethernet network setups, should do just fine.

Second issue: The radio's firmware, as contained in the UV EPROM chip on the command board, is non-standard SP stuff that Moto did just for us. This means that the radios can only be read/programmed by the SP (dual-radio) version of the X9000 RSS.

HOWEVER -- If you change this EPROM out for one from a standard X9000 radio, or (using the appropriate equipment) erase the SP chip with a standard UV eraser and copy in the information from a standard X9000 EPROM, it should make the thing behave like a normal radio.

Third issue: The control heads also have SP firmware, but it may not be as much of an issue. You may or may not need to change it out to get them to behave like non-SP heads. Another user has already commented on the second microphone PTT input.

Fourth issue: If you plan to use these units on amateur 2m frequencies, the RF deck (preselector) becomes a problem. Like any other X9000, it is a bandpass filter that rolls off very sharply below about 148.500MHz. If you expect to use it in the 2-meter range, it must be sweep-tuned, using a spectrum analyzer and tracking generator combo, to sacrifice some of the high end to bring up the low.

I have to say I'm a little surprised to hear of these turning up at state surplus so quickly. Sounds like Fleet is trying really hard to purge the beasties.

If anyone else has questions on these units, please feel free to contact me off-board. I'll try to answer as best as I can.