MT1000/HT600 Programming

[Splat3249]

Hello, I got my hands on some used MT1000's and HT600's and was wondering what equipment and software I will need to reprogram these radios. They are in the VHF range, somewhere around 154 MHZ. I would like to try and convert them over to the Ham bands in this range.

RJ

[kf4sqb]

Hi, RJ, and welcome to the Batboard. To program these, or pretty much any other older Motorola radio, you need the RSS (Radio Service Software, legally available only from Motorola, and I'm not sure if they support the Genesis series that these radio are a part of any longer or not) for that radio or series of radios, a RIB (Radio Interface Box, used to interface the radio to a PC), RIB to radio cable for the radio or series of radios to be programmed, and an old, slow (think 386 or 486 processor, no faster than around 25 MHz) PC. While this may all sound a little over the top, I'm not trying to scare you away, just giving you the low-down up front.

The programming software is often the biggest hurdle for older radios like these. Each radio, or series of radios, has it's own version of RSS, so you sometimes have to acquire a different RSS package for each radio you own, if you have mixed models. For example, the HT1000, JT1000, and Visar radios are all in the same series (Jedi), and all use the same RSS. The MT1000 and HT600 on the other hand, while both in the same series (Genesis), use different RSS. As I said earlier, some older models are no longer supported by Motorola, and they no longer sell the RSS for them. I'm not sure, but I think Genesis series RSS is still available at this time. According to Motorola's software EULA, anyone buying RSS from them cannot copy, sell, give away, distribute, loan, lease, rent, or otherwise let anyone else use or posses their copy (yes, even for the models they no longer support), which sometimes makes it really hard to come across older RSS titles. Just in case you missed it in big letters at the top of every page on the board here, I'll throw in a friendly reminder at this point: OFFERING OR ASKING FOR RSS, OR POSTING LINKS TO WHERE RSS COULD BE DOWNLOADED, IS STRICTLY AGAINST BOARD RULES!!!. I'm not trying to be a jerk or anything, buy we've had several new members ignore the warning at the top of the page. Motorola does monitor this site, and we don't want to bring their wrath down upon our collective heads, and have them smite the board with a lawsuit, or just shut us down. You may be able to find a source for RSS on the web, just don't talk about where it is on here.

Next, the RIB. Luckily, Motorola isn't nearly so protective of it, and you can find knock-offs and clones, as well as Motorola originals, for sale all over the place. You do, however, have to be careful of some of the "aftermarket" devices out there. Some are very shoddily built, and can "brick" (corrupt) a radio. Polaris builds a clone RIB that is pretty good, and there are several people on the board who build good, quality clones. A Moto original is, of course, the best, but, if you're like me, a bit too pricey. For the experienced tinkerer, you can even build your own RIB. The schematic of the Motorola original RIB, as well as tons of additional information, can be found on the main Batlabs site, www.batlabs.com.

RIB to radio cables, like the RIB, are easy to find. Once again, be careful of what you buy. A poorly-made cable can do just as much damage as a poorly-made RIB. There are, again, several people on the board who make good, quality cables. Like the RIB, there are schematics for cables on the main Batlabs site if you want to make your own. In most instances, like the Genesis series, all you need is an old speaker/mic cable to build a good programming cable. Some speaker/mic cables, once again like the genesis series, do require a little mechanical modification to move/rearrange pins to use as a programming cable, but its nothing you need, say, a machine shop for. I have homebrew cables for lots of different radios, including HT600/MT1000 portables; HT1000/JT1000/Visar portables; Radius, Maxtrac, Maratrac, and Waris series mobiles; Spectra (high and low power) mobiles; Syntor X9000 mobiles; Saber/Systems Saber portables; Waris series portables; P1225 portables; and SP50 portables. I'm not sure if thats all, I may have left something out, but the moral of the story is that the most high-tech tool I used for any of them was a Dremel. A little skill and patience are all it takes in most cases.

Finally, the PC. Speed is an issue because when Motorola made their first PC programmable radios, around 4 MHz was blazing fast for computers. This matters because they wrote the software to use the processor speed to "time" the software's functions. As processors sped up, this tended to interfere with the software's operation, and prevented it from communicating with the radio properly. However, for reasons unknown, Motorola didn't do anything to correct this problem for a few years, so some earlier revisions of several older RSS packages are very sensitive to processor speed. Most older RSS packages, in later revisions, were rewritten to correct this, but most people don't recommend newbies using faster computers. Get a little experience under your belt, then start looking at faster computers for programming. Whatever computer you use, you will need to run DOS, version 6.22 recommended, or boot from a DOS boot disk. A "DOS window" under any flavor or Windows, or using the "shut down and reboot in MS-DOS mode" in Windows 95 and 98 won't work. Even then, you are still technically in Windows, and Windows has a nasty habit of sometimes querying the serial port in the middle of data transfer, which can brick the radio. If you're in need of a DOS boot disk, check out www.bootdisk.com. This site has boot disk images, as well as lots of other computer utilities and info.

I hope I haven't scared you away with all of this, I just want you to have a good understanding of what's involved. If all this is too much, you always have the option of taking it to the local Motorola shop for programming, or possibly a fellow Batlabber can help you out. You never know, you may have a Motofanatic right around the corner from where you live. If you have any more questions about programming, or anything else Moto-related, you're in the right place, just ask. Best of luck!

[Splat3249]

Wow! Thanks for the reply. I'll obviously have to do some hunting for the parts.

Do you have info on reprogramming a MT2000? I have access to one of these too.

[MTS2000des]

MT2000 requires same setup as above except a different RIB to radio cable. Also, the MT2000 is a much newer technology wise radio, and while it still requires a DOS based RSS, the computer can be alot newer (such as a P3 or even P4) however you have to use real DOS (not Windows anything) and have a real serial port on the machine (as DOS and USB anything don't mix. The MT2000's are newer Jedi series radios and come in all bands, the VHF version covers the entire 136-174MH band, and there are two UHF versions, an "R" split that covers 403-470, and an "S" split that works 450-520. The "S" split can usually do the 440 ham band without any hardware modifications, it does require some hex editing the RSS to accept the out of band frequencies.

Also, the HT600 and MT1000's (commonly referred to as "Genesis" radios as they were some of the first PC programmable Motorola radios) came in different sub bands for the VHF and UHF bands. Generally these radios don't go too far outside their bandsplits (1-3MHz max, with some loss of performance) unlike newer radios. The splits are:
VHF:
136-151
146-162
157-174
MT1000 also came in a wideband 146-174 split version.

UHF:
403-433
438-470
470-490
490-512

The only UHF ones that will do 440 are the 438-470. Both the HT600 and MT1000 have a 10MHz wide front end as far as separation, while you can put the full 438-470 stuff in, receiver performance drops to around 1uV outside the 10MHz window. It's easy to adjust the front end to work any 10MHz range within the bandsplit. The VHF radios don't require this adjustment and will work with rated performance in the entire bandsplit without retuning.

Unfortunately, the only way to know which bandsplit you have is to either read the radio with RSS, or open the radio and remove the front shield and read the numbers off the VCO module itself.

The main Batlabs site has much information under the "model specific information", lots to read there.