Astro Saber III w/ MODAT, Keypad Tones Question

motorolamaniac · Post by **motorolamaniac** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 2:02 am

I finally broke down and got an AS III VHF. Factory original and with a higher end FLASH including Q351. Out of the box it has one channel programmed tho the seller could not tell me the frequency for sure.

I am not sure what I did or should be doing but I am a little confused on something regarding the Keypad Tones. The tones on the ASIII do not sound like any typical MOTO radio (this is normal I know) When I first started playing around with it the Key Tones were higher pitched (valid press/invalid press) and on key-up it gave a very fast chirp. I know MODAT well and this was not it or at least at the time didn't sound like it. It sounded like doubling the speed of the sound on a tape recorder.

In fooling with the side buttons randomly the Key Tones changed to a lower pitch as above and now on Keying the radio I could get the MODAT tones to sound normal (slower) thru the speaker as they were being transmitted at the proper speed.

Just tonight I turned the radio on and I had not done anything with the side buttons or any other button and noticed that the Key Tones and MODAT signalling were back to the fast high pitched level. The only thing I did was enter "service mode" to double check the FLASHcode, something I had done before with no effects on the Key Tones. The constant tone on an unprogrammed channel is also higher pitched.

As I have said in other posts I am not new to M radios but the higher end Sabers can be a little cumbersome in operations, especially without a Manual.

Is there some Keystroke combination I did or should do to return the Tones to normal or have I raised a whole new series of unknowns about Astro Saber Series Radios?

Thanks,
Jeff

motorolamaniac · Post by **motorolamaniac** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 12:32 pm

This afternoon, I turned the radio on and it was back to "normal" and xmitted MODAT as you would normally hear it. I did nothing but turn the radio on this time. Strange!

Jeff

Post by **wavetar** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 1:20 pm

Anytime I've seen Moto radios emit tones such as you describe, there were definite hardware issues. The Jedi & GTX/LTS radios can both sometimes act as you describe. In the Jedi, it can often be poor solder connections on the board interconnect pins. In the the GTX/LTS, it is quite often the flex cable between the controller & radio board. Otherwise, it's a fault in the controller boards. Where yours is intermittant in nature, I'm leaning more towards a bad or poorly seated flex, or possible solder connections, and of course the ever popular liquid damage.

Todd

motorolamaniac · Post by **motorolamaniac** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 2:47 pm

would I need to send it out to a tech to confirm these possible issues?
I am not too comfortable taking apart a radio I paid around $600 for.

I did notice one thing when I was checking the radio over when I got it. It had fingerprints on the inside of the display screen.

Its like buying a used car, you hope it will work right and if it does not you hope it will not cost a bundle to get it right. I hope this is not the case with my first ASIII

Jeff