About Motorola Visar Radios

[Alpha359]

Hello all!

This is my first post, although I've already read up on the beginner's guide hosted here. I did a couple of searches on Batlabs and through google but I haven't been able to find out much info on the Visar radios and the software used to program them.

So, here's my story and the questions that go along with it. Over the summer, I was able to get my hands on a couple of Visar radios. They weren't programmed to talk to each other so I set out to find out what I need to get them programmed. From my search, the Visars use the same software as the HT1000. I know there are several RSS versions out for these radios. My first question is: (1) Does anyone know if Motorola made a CPS version for the Visars? I haven't called Motorola to inquire about this directly, I just wanted to know if anyone's seen or heard of a CPS version before I call them. These radios are sort of old (circa 2000 or right before the turn of the millenium), so there's a good chance that Motorola didn't bother updating to a CPS version.

I'm asking about a CPS version because it seems that CPS works on the current generation computers, whereas it seems RSS can only be used on slow/old computers. This leads me to my second question. In the event that only RSS software exists for the Visars, (2) Can they be run on fast computers like P3, P4, dual-core, and etc?? Can anyone confirm that the software I would be purchasing from Motorola would run on a computer I have?? My slowest computer is an 800 MHz P3. I checked the Motorola RSS Pentium Compatability Matrix thread. It states a "yes" in the Pentium-compatible box next to the HT1000 & Visar Conventional entry. However, I can't tell if that means it is compatible with all Pentium processors, or just the original Pentium 1 processors. BTW, this is ironic because before I got these radios I tossed out my oldest computer, which was a 100 MHz Pentium 1 made by Packard Bell (which doesn't exist anymore).

I want to know if the Visar RSS software will run before I buy it and realize I just tanked $200+. I appreciate any help, thanks!

-Alpha

[Tom in D.C.]

Start here:

www.batlabs.com

Go to the Model Specific section. At the bottom right click on "Visar."

The Visar has a reputation as a quirky radio, cute to look at (which attracts a lot of
people) but unfortunately adverse to hard use.

Look into getting licensed if you don't already have an amateur or commercial license.
Except in very limited situations you can't transmit legally without one or the other.

Regards,

[MTS2000des]

IIRC Visar RSS may be NLA, and keep in mind support for the radio ended not too long ago. As Tom said, the Visar was a neat radio when it came out in 1992/93 and when I first saw one as a high school kid, I had to have one. About a dozen Visars and almost 20 years later, I wish I never messed with them. They are very fragile, difficult to repair (the problem is the flaky thin controller board which is just literally clipped onto the front plastic housing with little to no protection against shock and water intrusion) and parts are becoming rare and expensive. The full sized cousin (HT1000) is much more robust and reliable, and built way better in all aspects. If you want your Visars to last, do NOT drop them, handle them rough and NEVER get them wet- not even walking in the rain. The sealing integrity of the O-ring sucks and since there ZERO protection of the controller board, a single drop of water can turn it into a nice small desk ornament. The depot will no longer flat rate them and IIRC they may even RUR them nowadays.

As far as the RSS, you MUST run it on a true DOS environment, NOT Windows of any iteration- otherwise you won't reliably be able to read/write to the radio and risk hosing it in the process. I have run HT1000 RSS V3.03 on a P4 1.6GHz booting to pure DOS from a boot disk and can read/write with no problems. The best thing to do is partition your hard drive with a 120MB FAT-16 partition and install RSS there, you will have to use a boot utility to setup your drive for dual booting (XP/Vista. etc). This setup works reliably for LATER radios such as the MTSX DOS RSS, HT1000 and GP350's but I would not attempt to use it on older radios such as analog Saber, Systems Saber, Maxtrac, Spectra analog, STX, MT1000/HT600- for that I break out the old ThinkPad 365.

[motorola_otaku]

Do you know what band these radios are in? If they are 800 or 900 MHz, they are probably Privacy Plus trunking radios and won't do conventional simplex.

GO here and scroll down to "Visar Model Chart."

[Alpha359]

MTS2000des--

I have no problems installing or booting into a pure DOS environment. I was worried about the speed of the computer itself. Since you said that you have no problems running RSS v3.03 on a P4 computer, I can assume that it will also run on a P3 800 MHz chip. I can only hope that Motorola still sells the software. I'll call them next week.

motorola_otaku--

The Visars I have are conventional at 403-470 MHz. One is version A, and the other is version D.

-Alpha

[motorola_otaku]

The Visars I have are conventional at 403-470 MHz. One is version A, and the other is version D.

-Alpha

All good, then. Get a GMRS license ($75, good for 5 years, no test) and you can operate them legit on GMRS.

Conventional Visars use the same RSS package as HT1000s. It will run happily on a PII 800 MHz system.

[hb001]

What I did in several P4 systems through a program call vmware setup all dos and various enviroments created on single image and ran it through all machines via a player didn't matter if it was windows or linux.

[t2k]

[snip]

As far as the RSS, you MUST run it on a true DOS environment, NOT Windows of any iteration- otherwise you won't reliably be able to read/write to the radio and risk hosing it in the process. I have run HT1000 RSS V3.03 on a P4 1.6GHz booting to pure DOS from a boot disk and can read/write with no problems. The best thing to do is partition your hard drive with a 120MB FAT-16 partition and install RSS there, you will have to use a boot utility to setup your drive for dual booting (XP/Vista. etc). This setup works reliably for LATER radios such as the MTSX DOS RSS, HT1000 and GP350's but I would not attempt to use it on older radios such as analog Saber, Systems Saber, Maxtrac, Spectra analog, STX, MT1000/HT600- for that I break out the old ThinkPad 365.

Wow! You made my year. I've been putting together old laptops with windows 95 just so I could run RSS, but you've actually confirmed that a somewhat newer machine (in my case, perhaps a 1ghz Toughbook) booted to DOS will work with RSS 3.03

I've been scrounging new batteries for 13 year old laptops (I found two, heh), bought a "new" copy of windows 95, a "new" 2gb 2.5" hard drive, and purchased (100) 1.5m floppies

I guess it was my horrible fear of bricking one of my HT1000s at this point that kept me from trying one of my faster machines. I may have some really well restored, older laptops for sale soon, with media, peripherals and *extra* batteries....hehehe..

73s