A few Spectra questions

[WP2014]

Hello everyone,

I've recently bought a few high-band VHF Spectras from govt surplus auctions, and I intend to set them up for ham use. I've run into a couple issues that confuse me, and hopefully you guys can help me out. I've done a significant amount of research and haven't really found any helpful answers.

1. I have a zone-capable radio, and have successfully configured some zones into the radio, but when I attempt to mute certain zones by pressing the Mon button, it simply says "mon off" and audio keeps coming from the speaker. I suspect that it's related to scanlist priorities.

2. I hear a "clicking" noise when scanning certain zones. I also think this is related to scanlist priorities, because it doesn't "click" when some modes are active.

3. I'm interested in converting my A5 Spectra to an A9. I understand I need an adapter for the drawer, a cable, and a compatible A9 head. Do I need a specific firmware version MLM to use an A9 head?
I also know that to convert to the A9 head the radio would need to be bit-banged, specifically address 6060 for the control head type, moflag 08 (address B689), and optionally addresses 6051 and B67E for the model number.
Are there any other addresses that would need bit-banging or any other hardware/software changes needed to convert an A5 radio to use an A9 head?

4. This thread http://batboard.batlabs.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=22696 was very helpful, as was http://www.batlabs.com/moflag.html but I see that natedog224's page no longer exists, and it doesn't exist in archive.org's... archive. Does anyone have a copy of his moflag.xls file, or does anyone know if it has any information that the moflags page here on BatLabs doesn't have?

Thank you in advance.

[RadioSouth]

I'll take a shot at #1. Monitor does not mute a zone, it simply removes the signalling requirement (PL,DPL) for the receiver to open (to monitor all activity on a channel as opposed to only those signals that matcthe PL or DPL programmed in the radio for that channel).

[WP2014]

Thank you for the reply. So, essentially, it turns a programmed tone-encoded squelch into simple carrier squelch. Good so know. Thanks.

[Bill_G]

The clicking he's hearing is probably priority scan.

[WP2014]

The clicking he's hearing is probably priority scan.

Thank you for the reply. That's what I was thinking it was, but it's good to hear from someone with more experience with these radios that it's to be expected with the priorities.

I'm assuming the only way to make it stop would be to set all modes in a scanlist to non-priority. Is that how you'd do it?

[Jim202]

Hello everyone,

I've recently bought a few high-band VHF Spectras from govt surplus auctions, and I intend to set them up for ham use. I've run into a couple issues that confuse me, and hopefully you guys can help me out. I've done a significant amount of research and haven't really found any helpful answers.

1. I have a zone-capable radio, and have successfully configured some zones into the radio, but when I attempt to mute certain zones by pressing the Mon button, it simply says "mon off" and audio keeps coming from the speaker. I suspect that it's related to scanlist priorities.

2. I hear a "clicking" noise when scanning certain zones. I also think this is related to scanlist priorities, because it doesn't "click" when some modes are active.

3. I'm interested in converting my A5 Spectra to an A9. I understand I need an adapter for the drawer, a cable, and a compatible A9 head. Do I need a specific firmware version MLM to use an A9 head?
I also know that to convert to the A9 head the radio would need to be bit-banged, specifically address 6060 for the control head type, moflag 08 (address B689), and optionally addresses 6051 and B67E for the model number.
Are there any other addresses that would need bit-banging or any other hardware/software changes needed to convert an A5 radio to use an A9 head?

4. This thread http://batboard.batlabs.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=22696 was very helpful, as was http://www.batlabs.com/moflag.html but I see that natedog224's page no longer exists, and it doesn't exist in archive.org's... archive. Does anyone have a copy of his moflag.xls file, or does anyone know if it has any information that the moflags page here on BatLabs doesn't have?

Thank you in advance.

Sent you an email, check for receiving it.

Jim

[Jim202]

Try looking here on the Mike B site. There is a load if info on both the Spectra and the Syntor X9000 radios.

http://www.onfreq.com/syntorx/spectra/index.html

Check your email from this site for a message.

Jim

[Jim202]

Here is another site that has some of the bit bang info.

http://www.repeater-builder.com/motorol ... nging.html

Jim

[WP2014]

Thank you for the links. I've been reading Repeater Builder, and looks like I'll be spending a long time on OnFreq.