Maxtrac Labtools vs. RSS

[telemetryguy]

I have a 42-50 mhz 6 channel Maxtrac working now on 6 meters. I want to do the conversion "right" as per repeater-builder and make it into a 32 channel scanning Maxtrac. It has the full-button front panel, not just the UP/DOWN and MON buttons so I just changed the escutcheon to reflect the new functions I want to program in it. It has 5.34 firmware and what I am wondering is: why is it that Labtools has to be used to blank the board but RSS has to be used to reprogram it? Or is that even true? I have looked here and Repeaterbuilder and can't seem to find a good answer.

Can one of you gurus please tell me why that is?

PM fine or maybe a good "once-and-for-all" answer to post here.

Thanks,

Bob

[PETNRDX]

Regular RSS does not have the "make blank board" selection in the service menu.
So, you have to use LAB to blank.
I use LAB to blank then re-initialize the radio to the features I want.
After re-init and re-tuning, I then use normal RSS for channel programming.

[wavetar]

why is it that Labtools has to be used to blank the board but RSS has to be used to reprogram it? Or is that even true?

Bob

As PETNRDX has already said, obviously only the LAB can blank the radio, which I assume you knew. The main reason (that I'm aware of anyway) it's recommended to use regular RSS to initialize is because the LAB version floating around is much older than the latest regular RSS. As such, there could very well be later models of the Maxtrac which don't exist in the LAB ".mdf" file, so you wouldn't be able to initialize it as those desired models.

[telemetryguy]

Thanks to all who responded.

This is a great group...good people, lots of useful knowledge.

It is a privilige to belong to this group.

Bob