Problems & Questions with an old Saber 2...

[Tom in D.C.]

I picked up what looks and reads like a 120-channel Saber 2, an H43QXJ. The shield looks okay and it appears to have a
full keypad inside. Here's the problem: It had one zone set so I expanded it to ten zones, but the front buttons do nothing
when asked to move to zone 2, etc. I managed to load in a QXJ codeplug I had on the old DOS computer and it took all of the
information, but the redio won't let me get out of zone 1.

All ideas and suggestions appreciated.

[MTS2000des]

Is zone and channel selected under the radio wide options?

[Tom in D.C.]

Yes, zone and channel operation selected. I've been programming Sabers for well over ten
years and this one has me stumped but good. I would have changed the shield but the only
spare shields I have with 8K memories are the short ones and this radio is a secure model.

[RadioSouth]

Maybe the guts of a Saber 1E in a 2 case ? I recall here years back someone reported the 1E as having a non functional display inside the Saber 1 case and the zones be changed thru the top rocker which would normally be assigned the secure function. Futther reading showed the E in 1E to mean 'Extra' function. Further discussion was found on the 1E that stated it was capable of 1 extra function, either the zonable rocker or display but not both. Nothing I verified but read some of that here.

[Tom in D.C.]

No dice. It reads as a QXK, and it has an 8K, five-chip, memory on the shield, plus a full interior keypad, the newer style with the blue circles on a white background. I think I'll take the shield out of another QXK and see if that fixes it, but please keep the suggestions coming.

[motorola_otaku]

I recall here years back someone reported the 1E as having a non functional display inside the Saber 1 case..

When programmed as a 1E it displays all characters lit at once. They will happily take full model 2 or 3 codeplugs, and I have seen both 2k and 8k COPE boards used.. but a factory or depot-repaired 1E has no front keypad membrane.

Tom, hate to say it but it sounds like you've got a torn flex.

[Tom in D.C.]

I haven't gotten around to changing the shield yet, but will soon. I also changed the case so it's not the
flex inside the case. To add to the mystery the secure switch buzzes when the switch is activated. One
thing I didn't double check when looking inside the shield was the multipin data plug to see if it was
properly seated. The mic/speaker plug fell out but I got that back in place correctly. That one is easy;
it's the other one that's the b**ch.

More later as it happens.

[Tom in D.C.]

Finally found time to do the shield swap. Took a good QXK shield and put it on the radio in question,
and as expected the radio followed the data in the shield and worked fine. Put the "bad" shield on
the donor radio and it did the same thing it had been doing, which is it had no reaction to the switches
on the case.

At least we found out the source of the problem. I'm thinking the shield somehow got zapped or someone
tried some nutty loading scheme on it that it didn't like.

Thanks to all who participated in this frustrating exercise.