Syntor X9000 newbie

[mogman]

I am at the point I can program the head and radio, it will let me with warning enter ham frequencies (2 meter) but will not receive on them, it will receive on the other "modes" that have the original frequencies (155.xxx etc.) So I am thinking I have ether picked the wrong span (148-174) or the VCO is dropping out??? So what say YOU!
Thanks

[Jim202]

I am at the point I can program the head and radio, it will let me with warning enter ham frequencies (2 meter) but will not receive on them, it will receive on the other "modes" that have the original frequencies (155.xxx etc.) So I am thinking I have ether picked the wrong span (148-174) or the VCO is dropping out??? So what say YOU!
Thanks

That radio should not have a problem with the 2 meter frequencies. I would suggest that you spend time on the repeater builder site and download the information there on these radios. there should be some links to other sites. Mike B has a site that has a ton of information.

Jim

[mogman]

Thanks Jim, I am on to messing other stuff up now, I did an eeprom update to one of my control heads and am at the point the mode display is blank, the volume and squelch display work so I now think because I did not enter any names into the modes they are "blank" I assumed (yep know what that gets me) that they would default to "mode1" etc. Man these are allot different than any other Big M I have dealt with...

[Jim202]

Thanks Jim, I am on to messing other stuff up now, I did an eeprom update to one of my control heads and am at the point the mode display is blank, the volume and squelch display work so I now think because I did not enter any names into the modes they are "blank" I assumed (yep know what that gets me) that they would default to "mode1" etc. Man these are allot different than any other Big M I have dealt with...

The software for the Syntor X9000 is a different animal all together if you have used any of the recent radios like the XTS or XTL family. I always get myself frustrated with the scan function of these radios. There are 2 ways to set the scan up. it can be operator selected or fixed. i like to use the fixed as it can be slaved to the channel selection. In the operator selection mode, you have to set it up each time you power up the radio. To me that is just a pain in the but. i don't have time for that each time I want to power up the radio and take the time to set each channel I want to listen to.

A second comment on the scan setting is that in the fixed scan selection, you need to set up your programming ahead of time. I use an Excel spread sheet to put all my channels down and into which groups I want the scan to work. Bear in mind that there are two types of firmware for the radio. The normal will only allow a max of 64 channels to be scanned. Doesn't matter how many combinations you set up, you only get 64 channels. There was a firmware upgrade that would allow you to go to 128 channels. I have never been lucky enough to obtain any of the prom's to get me to this feature. Don't have a prom burner to even make a prom. So I have been stuck with the 64 channel scanning. I do generally set it up for only 10 to 15 channels in A SCAN LIST.

Also in the subject of scan settings, there are at least 2 versions of the software for this radio. The standard which I have to use to set up the scan selection and then there is the ham version. The ham version will not allow you to do any scan setting changes. Have no idea why. But I end up having to originally set up a radio with dummy channels up to the point you go over the first 64 channels in the radio. The software will allow you to copy a channel to just mass inject the same information into x number of channels. I use this copy feature to get the number of needed channel into the radio. Doesn't matter what the frequency info is, it just has to be within the normal commercial band limits. You only need to do this once to set up the scan channels. This also assumes that you have installed the new added channel capacity prom.

After you have used the original commercial version of the software to get the first 64 channels into the radio, you can now switch to the ham version of the software and go back in and now put the out of band channels into the radio. The ham version will allow you to go up to 255 channels with some limitation on the names for the top channels. i have never got to the limit. Think the most I have gone up to is like 150. But once you go over the first 64 channels, there is no scan for the higher channels depending on the firmware prom your using.

Enough for now. I have to hit the road and go to a customer location about 2 hours drive away.

Jim

[mogman]

Thanks Jim, I am using R07-and R08 RSS (two different floppies, one for CH and one for RD) I have had no issues programming "ham" frequencies in 2 and 6 meter radios other than the warning that you get when entering the frequencies.
My low band radio unfortunately has horrible receive sensitivity (10 uV) on the commercial and ham frequencies looks like a problem with the RF board, the 2 meter will receive down somewhat into the 2 meter band then quits, I am thinking the VCO is dropping out, I have another high band unit I have not messed with yet, still trying to sort out all the junk heads and cables I have, I am getting ALLOT of the dreaded 01/90 codes, just got another "cheap" head in today and it is dead as a hammer, the head that seems to work best has a dim display and needs some attention there.....

[mogman]

Well I am making some good progress, the high band unit's front end dropped off fast after 150mc and I was not putting enough signal in to un-squelch it in the 2 meter bands, simple "touch up" on the front end brought it to .3uV@12db sinad.
Got both the radio's and several control heads upgraded to 8K eeproms,(actually using 32K eeproms I think) got the "dead" control head working from a tip on C6 being bad, figured out the # of named "modes" must be filled out or they will be blank, all others do default to "mode X"
The second high band unit only lights the TX lamp when powered up, will need to investigate that, maybe missing e or eeproms.
One thing I have not been able to look up is the little option boards on the personality board, it has 1ea 79R01 80R01 and 81R0, any idea's???
I am going to look at the low band unit, maybe someone "tweaked" it for the 10M band and that is why the receive sensitivity is so bad..
Thanks
PS to answer my own question those are hybrid boards not option boards,,,
PSS the "other" high band unit has a Syntor X not a X9000 personality board, it seems someone converted an X9000 back to an X

[Jim202]

You might run into a control head that you can't seem to program for the Syntor X9000. It might have been used on a trunking system. The easy way to get control of these control heads is to fall back to the good old standby Spectra. Get a Spectra up and working with one of the 9000 type control heads. Read the radio with your computer. Then shut the radio off, swap in the control head that is giving you a problem and then turn the radio back on. Then write back to the radio without changing anything. The computer should write to the control head you couldn't get to work directly on the Syntor X9000.

Pull the control head off the Spectra. Go back to your working Syntor X9000 and read the control head that is working on the Syntor X9000. Without doing anything, shut the radio off and swap in the control head that you just wrote on the Spectra. Turn on the Syntor X9000 with the control head you wrote from the Spectra. Now write back to the control head with the Syntor X9000 control head information.

If all goes well, you should now have a working control head on the Syntor X9000.

Jim