Motorola's for Packet Radio (Ham)

[restored]

I am brand-new to working with Motorolas and am thinking of this setup; query the thoughts of you all who are much more experieced in these matters than I.

How easy (or hard) would it be to use a Motorola setup on 2meter packet radio? The thought I have is to purchase a Saber II with a convertacom kit. The radio would serve two purposes. 1) it would be used as a portable for search and rescue work, and 2) it could be used in the convertacom, as an extra unit in the vehicle, hooked to packet (for EMCOMM/ARES work). So the question, is how to connect the Saber/convertacom kit to a TNC. Or, is there another Motorola unit (a mobile?) that would be easier to accomplish the latter? Or, would it just be much simplier to buy a basic 2 meter mobile radio, for which there is already known connections, etc.

Thanks!

John

[kf4sqb]

Hi, John, and welcome to the wonderful world of Motorola! If this is your first time messing with Motorola, it probably won't be your last (its kinda addictive).

I could be mistaken, but I don't believe there is any (easy) way to interface a Saber, any flavor, to a TNC. You would need discriminator audio to patch into the TNC, and I don't believe it is brought out to the accessory connector of the radio, so also wouldn't be available on the SVA (Saber Vehicular Adapter, ie. Convertacom). I don't know off hand of any (commercial) portable that would have this feature. You can, however, use several models of Motorola mobile to accomplish this. One that immediately comes to mind is the GM300. Fairly small chassis (app. 7"W X 7.75"L X 2"H), comes in 8 or 16 channel versions (the 8 channel can be hacked to 16 channels, the 16 channel to 40), 45 watts output, Ham frequency capable, and fairly easy to mod for packet operation. There are others, that's just the first that comes to mind. Go to the main Batlabs page (http://www.batlabs.com), scroll down untill you find the "Model specific information" link, scroll down on that page to "mobile radios", and start clicking links to individual radios. If a radio is moddable for packet, there will most likely be info on it's page for how to do it. As always, if you have any questions about how to perform a particular mod, the Batboard is the right place to ask!

Hopefully, I've given you enough info to at least make a good start. If you need more, feel free to ask. Myself or one of my fellow Batlabbers should be able to give you further assistance. Best of luck, and welcome to the board!

[Pj]

The 16pin Maxtrac comes to mind as well. Yup, still a mobile radio.

I haven't seen any SVA's or AVA's used for data. The data cables you see for the ASTRO Sabers if more of a radio to computer data deal for DataTAC/ASTRO networks, and does not involve anything that would work with TNC's.

Neat idea, but I don't think the pins on the radio would support what you would want to do.

[transistor747]

We used to use plain jane receive audio on VHF packet.. back in the old days.
My favorite dedicated packet rig of all time was an old Motorola Moxy mobile unit. Just hooked the tnc to transmit and receive audio, opened the squelch and let it fly.
Of course, in those daze we only ran 1200 baud.
Sam, WA5VDM

[motorola_otaku]

The data cables you see for the ASTRO Sabers if more of a radio to computer data deal for DataTAC/ASTRO networks, and does not involve anything that would work with TNC's.

The Astro Saber AVA cable is supposed to provide RS232 protocol data at the DB-9 connector end. It's described in the AVA manual as containing "level-shifting" circuitry, and there are 4 data lines in the schematic going from the DB25 straight to the radio with no described function.

[docb]

There are several of us, locally, who are using 2 ch MAXTRACs for APRS... One idea we came up with is the portable/easy to move from vehicle to vehicle package. The package includes a SMC Tiny Trac 3 mounted in the radio, one channel on APRS freq and the other on local repeater, a simple switch to disable the TT3, a db-9 connector are mounted on the front of the radio. A mag mount antenna, and gps antenna, and a 12v power cord. When a storm spotter goes out to do his/her thing, just pop it into the vehicle and go. For a 25 watt rig, this is very easy to use and does not require permanent mount. If you like I can send you some pics. I have several of these set up for local use in an emergency and the cost is minimal.

Enjoy the M as it is rugged enough to take the abuse and keeps on working in tough situations.

[kb0nly]

And i have been building them by the dozen!

Seems that putting a TinyTrak in a Maxtrac is pretty popular now. I have used both the SMT and the regular versions of the TinyTrak. Eventually i will get to putting the pictures on my website under radio mods on the Maxtrac page.

www.kb0nly.net

[W8RW]

I am brand-new to working with Motorolas and am thinking of this setup; query the thoughts of you all who are much more experieced in these matters than I.

How easy (or hard) would it be to use a Motorola setup on 2meter packet radio? The thought I have is to purchase a Saber II with a convertacom kit. The radio would serve two purposes. 1) it would be used as a portable for search and rescue work, and 2) it could be used in the convertacom, as an extra unit in the vehicle, hooked to packet (for EMCOMM/ARES work). So the question, is how to connect the Saber/convertacom kit to a TNC. Or, is there another Motorola unit (a mobile?) that would be easier to accomplish the latter? Or, would it just be much simplier to buy a basic 2 meter mobile radio, for which there is already known connections, etc.

Thanks!

John

If you are using 1200 baud packet, the Saber/Convertacom setup would work fine. Both of these items are going cheap these days. However, I think it would still be less trouble to do as others have suggested and use a MAXTRAC. Keep in mind that with either choice you will need to have the radio programmed.

My APRS setup is a 2 channel MAXTRAC with a Tinytrak (although I like the Opentracker better).

[kb0nly]

The newer Opentracker + is a sweet little unit. I like the ability to load in firmware and make it suit my needs. Weather, Digi, Tracker. Pretty cool. The comparable TinyTrak4 from Byonics costs a lot more to do the same things. With the Opentracker + you can load in the Kiss firmware and hook it up to a computer running UI-View and you have a full blown digipeater and igate. Compared to the price of a Kantronics KPC-3+ there is NO contest.

I have one Opentracker+ running as a remote weather reporting station using a 1-Wire weather station. The added benefits is that the OT+ can also report the temperature in the building from its onboard sensor, you can cable it away from the OT+ enclosure, and it can report the supply voltage to it. We use those benefits to monitor the repeater site's building temp and dc supply, and if its on battery backup we can monitor the battery conditions.

I think the next tracker i buy will be an OT+, one of these days i need to put a tracker in the wife's car. No, not to spy on her.. lol

[kb9suy]

can you use the tiny trac and use it as a tnc to interface to a aprs program or is only designed to be used for tracking want to put a aprs mapping program on my toughbook wondering what kind of tnc to get.

[W8RW]

The traditional Tinytrak is only an encoder. In other words, it can send packet data but it cannot decode data, so it won't work if you want to run an APRS program and see the data on other stations. For this you need a TNC that can go both ways. There are plenty of them used, but if it is used you need to get one that supports APRS (GPS). If you want something new I suggest the Argent Data Tracker2 https://www.argentdata.com/products/tracker2.html

It looks like Byonics also has something for this called a tinytrak4 http://www.byonics.com/tinytrak4/

One reason for buying a new one is that changes have been made to the APRS protocol to help prevent packets from running around in circles between digipeaters. It is good to have a TNC that supports this.

[kb0nly]

Get the OpenTracker+ from Argent, load the KISS firmware into, and enjoy.

With that you have a full blown KISS TNC that works great with programs like UI-View. The OT+ kit can be had for $24, fully assembled for $36.

https://www.argentdata.com/catalog/inde ... rbf5lgouk6

The nice thing is if things change you can re-gear it, upload firmware to it and make it a tracker, a weather station, etc.. There is some other open source stuff coming out for it on various websites.

The TinyTrak4 by comparison is $65 for a kit and $75 fully assembled. Its a good product too, nothing against it, but its a lot spendier. Twice the cost of an Opentracker+ that does the exact same thing!!!

There is also the TNC-X, www.tnc-x.com, that can be a KISS mode TNC, the kit and enclosure runs about $70 shipped, the added benefit here is you can add modules to it to make it a smart digi using uidigi firmware.

[W8RW]

[quote="kb0nly"]Get the OpenTracker+ from Argent, load the KISS firmware into, and enjoy.

yes, you are right...I am still thinking of the old Opentracker (not +). There is no need to buy the more expensive models.

The OT+ is the way to go!