Astro Spectra strange TX

[teratogen]

Hello everyone!

I have a Astro Spectra (T99DX+161W__ASTRO / D04RKF9PW4AN-UCM 100008000000 / 1 MEG).

I bought this radio on ebay 3 years ago and not having the necessary CPS have had it idle in storage. Finally I obtained the right CPS and have programmed some frequencies so I can use it with my Astro Sabre.

My problem is that when I press PTT I can hear 0-6seconds of clean audio on a receive radio and then the squelch on the receive radio will close. If I force open the squelch I can hear a distant cyclical noise, but sounding like it has moved off frequency.

I have a SWR/PWR meter attached inline between the Spectra and a 200W dummy load and the needle on the power meter doesn't change after this apparent frequency change - ie it stays stable while I keep PTT down.

The screen/head unit shows no errors. Receive works perfectly.

Any ideas?

Oh and also, how much current should it be drawing in the "low power" channel setting?

Thanks!

[Jim202]

Hello everyone!

I have a Astro Spectra (T99DX+161W__ASTRO / D04RKF9PW4AN-UCM 100008000000 / 1 MEG).

I bought this radio on ebay 3 years ago and not having the necessary CPS have had it idle in storage. Finally I obtained the right CPS and have programmed some frequencies so I can use it with my Astro Sabre.

My problem is that when I press PTT I can hear 0-6seconds of clean audio on a receive radio and then the squelch on the receive radio will close. If I force open the squelch I can hear a distant cyclical noise, but sounding like it has moved off frequency.

I have a SWR/PWR meter attached inline between the Spectra and a 200W dummy load and the needle on the power meter doesn't change after this apparent frequency change - ie it stays stable while I keep PTT down.

The screen/head unit shows no errors. Receive works perfectly.

Any ideas?

Oh and also, how much current should it be drawing in the "low power" channel setting?

Thanks!

The Spectra and the Astro Spectra are the tank if you want to call it of the older Motorola family of mobile radios. Sure they did have their issues. If you haven't had the caps changed in your radio, you should get them done before the leaky goop eats up the circuit boards. They are the time bomb to the good life of these radios. Normally the first indication something is going on is the RX audio tends to have a pop on it when the audio firsts starts. As time passes, you seem to have to keep turning up the audio output.

On the control heads of the A5 and A7 type, the 3rd display digit will go out. This is another indication that the caps have leaked and ate away the circuit land under one of the caps inside the control head. You might start to see a FAIL 001 show up now and then on the control head when you turn the radio on or change channels. This is an indication of more cap problems on the RF board.

Anyway, from the limited description of what is going on, I don't have a clue. Let me ask this question, if your not letting go of the PTT button, is the signal going away? This will probably take a service monitor, a frequency meter and an RF watt meter to figure out just what is going on. I would make sure that any MDC functions are turned off.

Jim