ASTRO Saber options

craig · Post by **craig** » Sat Apr 13, 2002 2:57 pm

I am looking to purchase an ASTRO Saber III. One of the radios I am looking at has the following options enabled:
Options Installed on this Flashcode: 581001 - 041a00 - 1

Q806/G806 IMBE / APCO-25 Digital Operation
H14/G114 Digital ID Display
H868/W298 Conventional Multikey and Analog Conventional MDC OTAR
G170/H43 Remote Monitor and Radio Trace
H35/G48 Conventional Operation
Q352 Soft ID
W947/Q947 APCO Packet Data
Q387 Conventional voting scan
G182 Enhanced Radio Call Protocol

My question is, I wish to be able to page, and receive MDC pages in analog mode as well as encode and decode MDC PTT-IDs. Do this radio have the options to do it, or do I need the advanced stat-alert features enabled? I was also wondering if any ASTRO Sabers can encode or decode QCII. Is there somewhere I can look to find exact explainations of what all these options mean? I am new to ASTRO Sabers and want to learn as much as possible before I buy. Sorry for the long post and multiple questions. Thanks for any help!

Elroy Jetson · Post by **Elroy Jetson** » Sat Apr 13, 2002 3:01 pm

No, that radio won't do what you want it to.

Refer to the Batlabs main page under the category 'utilities and other resources' and from there, look at the flashkey decoder document and you will be able to figure out what has to be in the flashcode for you to have those options.

Elroy

CHEFA2001 · Post by **CHEFA2001** » Sat Apr 13, 2002 5:14 pm

Not to knock Elroy's reply to you, as Elroy is a encyclopedia for astro saber radios, BUT
My radio has most of the options as yours does, and and afew more, but none more which would have and effect on MDC features, and my radio currently, via MDC turns a local repeater off and on. Not sure about the MDC paging, but my radio does decode the MDC now, and displays the packet data just fine.
Obviously, I had to enable these features.

I might have misunderstood your questions, but if anyone else has a comment, step right up.

Good luck

Elroy Jetson · Post by **Elroy Jetson** » Sat Apr 13, 2002 5:53 pm

<small style="color: red ">Not to knock back, but I've been operating under the assumption that MCD call/page is not a basic feature, but is instead part of option Q181, which in the flashcode appears in Digit 6 and has a value of 1 if present, making all ODD values for digit 6 a positive indicator of this feature. Q181 is Stat-Alert (MDC1200) Features.

But I've never had an Astro that DIDN'T have this feature enabled, so I am NOT 100 percent sure that this option is required for MDC call/page operation.

Elroy

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Elroy Jetson on 2002-04-13 21:55 ]</font>

CHEFA2001 · Post by **CHEFA2001** » Sat Apr 13, 2002 6:10 pm

Elroy, I am not sure about the flash code option on which you speak of, but I just verified and my radio can send mdc pages. I do not have any option called stat-alert, or the like, but I still have mdc.

I have a 1m vocon and this radio is flashed up the wazoo from motorola. Maybe with newer radios the flash issue is different. HOWEVER, I do not believe that I can do two tone paging, I dont even knowif these radios can do that, I can however do singletone paging with the rat buttons. Not that I would ever want to enable this for something more than testing it.

Post by **HumHead** » Sun Apr 14, 2002 8:36 am

I'm currently running flash code 581001-041A00-1. I have MDC Call Alert (page) and Selective Call encoode and decode.

After much searching, I have come to the conclusion that you can not get the following features in the Astro Saber, at least under analog conventional operation:
1) QCII encode or decode
2) MDC Radio check encode (decode is OK)
3) Transmit MDC with the PL tone stripped (like the Waris series radios can)

I also haven't found any way (even after some quality time on the phone with // tech group) to get the radio to reverse alias MDC IDs to the MDC call list, although the CPS help files indicate that it should do it. Maybe an badly written help file?

Great radios, but some odd feature choices / limitations.

craig · Post by **craig** » Thu Apr 18, 2002 5:19 pm

Thanks Humhead for the reply, that is the kind of stuff I was wondering. I know this seems crazy, but I think I am going to go with a HT1550 instead of an ASTRO Saber. I want the features that you mentioned, and I have no need for APCO 25 operation. It is a shame that Motorola doesn't put a little more quality into the WARIS platform. That is about the only complaint I hear about them. I also wish the WARIS platform had a better public safety mic configuration.