Spectra E series: 250 Modes WITH Zones: Any History ???

[Leadenwah]

I had forgotten about a Spectra E9 which I have had for a while. It will accept 250 Modes WITH Zone enabled. I know that in the model breakdown, E = "Enhanced", but I'm not sure what additional attributes and E series offers other than increased modes with Zone.

As I recall, many of the E series were in use in Louisiana a while back, but I have little other history on the Spectra E.

Does anyone have more on this ?

[alex]

I had forgotten about a Spectra E9 which I have had for a while. It will accept 250 Modes WITH Zone enabled. I know that in the model breakdown, E = "Enhanced", but I'm not sure what additional attributes and E series offers other than increased modes with Zone.

As I recall, many of the E series were in use in Louisiana a while back, but I have little other history on the Spectra E.

Does anyone have more on this ?

I haven't seen many E Series spectra's floating around anywhere. I think this might have been the start of a bridge product towards the Astro Spectra - since it used a different logic board/mlm type configuration.

I don't know if it uses different software - I do not believe it does.

If you open it up - it should look very different than your standard analog spectra. I think I've seen photo's of one.

I'd like to say the E series added a couple of conventional features - but did something more so on trunking - but it's all speculation.

-Alex

[Victor Xray]

800mhz and 900mhz E-series Spectras support SmartZone operation, realtime talkgroup & radio ID display on SmartNet/SZ systems, and as mentioned, 250 modes with Zones enabled. Their MLM versions start at 7.X and above and the MLM is integrated onto the command board. The 800 versions are not rebanding capable.

They've been discussed here in the past at-length, just do an archive search.

[motorola_otaku]

E-series Spectras are capable of full, true Smartzone trunking operation. They were sort of a carry-over item until the MCS2000 and Astro Spectra product lines were released. They do not use the regular MLM/command board combo as A-D model Spectras; instead, they use an integrated command board with Flash memory (which, unfortunately, is not FLASHable). Everything else hardware-wise, however, is identical to a "normal" Spectra.

They will not read/write with older versions of Spectra LAB, and even the B99.99.99 haXX0r version will fail writing to the radio with a memory overrun if you have more than a couple of systems/personalities enabled. To get the full 250-modes with zones out of it, you have to use regular RSS.

The state of Louisiana was the biggest customer, but Portland/Multnomah County (OR) had some too. An electric utility company in Georgia had some for 900 as well. Since they were the last revision of Spectra produced, they're generally (but not completely) immune from the leaky-capacitor problem.

Oh, and they have AWESOME audio quality compared to a regular Spectra.. almost Astro-quality, which makes sense when you take the command board design into consideration.

Pictures:







You'll note that the ^ arrow is on the #2 button.. AFAIK, this was only done on the E-series radios.

[Leadenwah]

Thanks for the background research. It was in a box tucked away with a few radios I'd plan to sell, but I might just hold on to that one. I'm going to fire it up right now and see what the codeplug tells me.

It's nice to find that I've got something worthwhile. Usually when I run a model number by the board I find out that I've got goose on my hands.

Thanks for those those good pics, too.

[Will]

E-series Spectras
Oh, and they have AWESOME audio quality compared to a regular Spectra.. almost Astro-quality, which makes sense when you take the command board design into consideration.

The audio output stage is the same as the B thru D Spectras. And the E's suffer the same demise from leaking/allready leaked capacitors.