Saber III help

[kcallis]

I just bought a Saber III that is listed as "MOTOROLA SABER III VHF 156-175 MHZ"... That can't truly be the band split... Would 138-175MHz be nore likely?

K.

[Hartley]

Hi K,

No, 156-175 is a legitmate Saber bandsplit. 138-174 is only the overall range of the Saber series, but sabers come only in specific sub-bands of that overall range - i.e., 136-151; 146-165, etc..
You can get a good idea of the various splits (and the associated module numbers) by searching the message board for "Saber bandsplit"

73 DE Hartley

[kcallis]

I read over the information about "saber bandsplits" through search. Did I read it correctly, that is I change the H43 to H33 I am able to have a broader bandsplit than 157-175MHz? And if that is try, what does that open the band split coverage to?

K. Callis

[Hartley]

Hi K,

Well, not really - changing to a low power will expand the range that the RSS will program the radio, but it really won't affect the radio itself. You can also modify the RSS to allow programming any freq you like (for Saber, not Syssaber), but that won't help if the VCO won't lock! (Batlabs has the instructions on modifying the RSS)
While I haven't played with a 157-175 Saber, I doubt you will get it to behave much below 150.. maybe someone who has tried can comment? I have taken a 148-174 SysSaber well below the ham band (143), but I have no idea how the 157-174 modules will do.

73 DE Hartley

[kcallis]

Here I thought I was getting a Saber III that I would be able to use on ham as well as Public Service frequencies and it looks like that is a bust to some degree... I need to start putting together a How-To for Motorola Dummies before I do any more e-bay purchases...

[AEC]

To place a Saber III into the ham bands, you'll need several modules, starting with the 5-pole filter underneath the VCO, then you'll have to swap the 2 pole filter and the Filter/detector/switch(FDS), the synthesizer and finally, the PA..

Of course you WILL have to realign the entire radio properly to get max. performance from it.

I can do the conversion for you if you don't have the modules or the RSS or test equipment to perform a proper alignment.

Contact me by my sig. below for more info...cell is best way overall.

Thank you in advance!

[kb0nly]

Coming soon on the RBTIP website is a full writeup on the Saber, info to digest before buying is a big reason for it, as well as the background info on the radios and features. An article on how to hex edit the RSS. Etc...

It should be up and available to the public soon, we are smoothing out the errors now. It will also be open to comment if anyone finds errors or has information to add. I will post up a link here when it's ready to go public.