Batboard

Hi guys,

Im new to the board here and I have a Spectra question. I bought a Spectra from a local hamfest last week. It is supposed to be the 110 watt, trunk mounted VHF-HI version. It has the System 9000 control head. It is supposed to be the 136-162mhz range radio with 128 channels. What I am wondering is if I can put in 146.520, all standard 2-meter repeater output channels with the proper splits, and as many other simplex 2-meter voice freqs as it will hold. Also, can it be programmed to allow the user to add a PL tone to the repeater inputs from the keyboard? I want to install this in a semi truck since it is milspec rugged. Any help would be appreciated.

Richard, KD8HMO

KD8HMO wrote:Hi guys,

Im new to the board here and I have a Spectra question. I bought a Spectra from a local hamfest last week. It is supposed to be the 110 watt, trunk mounted VHF-HI version. It has the System 9000 control head. It is supposed to be the 136-162mhz range radio with 128 channels. What I am wondering is if I can put in 146.520, all standard 2-meter repeater output channels with the proper splits, and as many other simplex 2-meter voice freqs as it will hold. Also, can it be programmed to allow the user to add a PL tone to the repeater inputs from the keyboard? I want to install this in a semi truck since it is milspec rugged. Any help would be appreciated.

Richard, KD8HMO

I am going to point you to the repeater builders site:
http://www.repeater-builder.com/motorol ... index.html

This should get you started in finding some of the information your looking for. You will need a real slow computer that runs pure DOS. This means no running DOS inside a window from a computer running Windows XP or what ever.

You will need a RIB (radio interface box) to go between the serial port on your computer running pure DOS. You will also need a cable to go from the DB25 connector on the front of the radio under the handle to the DB25 connector on the RIB. This is not a one for one wiring, but you can make the cable yourself.

You will need the Motorola software to be able to program the radio. As Motorola does not support this series radio, you will have top obtain the software from some other person that has it. Your not suppose to sell this software, but giving it away seems to have kept the Motorola legal staff off of the ham's back.

The Spectra is a fine radio and will do all that your asking it to. The 9000 style head has many features that you might find attractive. You can program the different buttons for different functions. Like scan, direct or talk around, zone up, zone down, multi PL and much more. I will say that you will probably have to bit bang the radio in some cases to make it do what your looking for. Zone operation is a little tricky, but with some help and careful planning, you can make it work. I found it was easier to obtain a zone codeplug and rework it to fit my channel plans.

My suggestion would be to find some hams local to you that could help. Get on some of the repeaters and ask around. There should be a number of them that know the Spectra.

I use them every day and they just keep on trucking. All of them have the 9000 heads on them. Some of them started out as a dual radio package with both a UHF and a VHF radio connected. They both had a security box attached and a siren package. This also required the use of a SIU (serial interface unit) that connected everything together with a single hand held control head (HHCH). There were just too many cables and the radios took up too much space. The UHF radio was on the low split UHF segment of like 403 to 436 or some odd range like that. They didn't like being moved into the 440 ham band. I found it easier to obtain a normal 450 to 470 low or mid power Spectra for almost nothing. Then pull the VCO board and put it in the 100 watt trunk mount. Then fight with the software to get it just to work on the 450 range. Once you get it working, then you can do the mods to the VCO to get it to go to the ham band range.

Anyway, I got slightly off the main topic at hand. Let us know on the group here how you make out. There are many that can lend a hand on here.

Jim

KD8HMO wrote:Hi guys,

Im new to the board here and I have a Spectra question. I bought a Spectra from a local hamfest last week. It is supposed to be the 110 watt, trunk mounted VHF-HI version. It has the System 9000 control head. It is supposed to be the 136-162mhz range radio with 128 channels. What I am wondering is if I can put in 146.520, all standard 2-meter repeater output channels with the proper splits, and as many other simplex 2-meter voice freqs as it will hold. Also, can it be programmed to allow the user to add a PL tone to the repeater inputs from the keyboard? I want to install this in a semi truck since it is milspec rugged. Any help would be appreciated.

Richard, KD8HMO

One comment I didn't make was about your last statement about wanting to use it in a semi truck. I hope you don't have any intentions of using this radio on any commercial or public safety channel to transmit with. Reason I have said this is that come the 1st of January, 2013, all those radios in both commercial service and the public safety service on the VHF band have to be narrow banded. This radio can not be narrow banded and maintain it's certification to be legally used. It can however be used on the 2 meter ham band with no problems.

The next concern is that you need to be sure the truck is + 12 volts negative ground and not a positive ground or 24 volt electrical system.

This transmitter will pull about 22 amps or more at the 100 watt level. I would suggest that when you do get it operating, that you turn down the transmit power to about 75 watts. It will be much more happy with the long winded conversations that hams have. The radio is designed to only have a 5% transmit duty cycle. By turning down the output power and setting the time out timer to 120 seconds, you can keep it alive much longer.

Jim

I think it's worth pointing out that there are a number of licenses authorized under Part 22 that are not subject to narrowbanding. In fact there a bunch more not subject to narrowbanding: Part 74, 80, 95 and so on. So to say that all radios must be narrowbanded is not entirely painting the whole picture

I powered the radio up the other day, and the control head came to life and did a self-test. So far, so good. It does'nt seem to have anything programmed into it though. I found a local Motorola dealer that can check it out for me and program it. I see there are programming cables out there that dont require an external RIB box, like the one that RF Guys sell. Im reading around on the internet and it sounds like these are good for programming, but not for alignment settings. Would it be a good idea for me to have a RIBless cable just to change/add channels? I would like to learn a little bit about programming this radio.

a ribless cable is not ribless, the rib is built into the cable end. but I always say it's best to get a rib so if you end up with another radio in the future the cable will be cheaper. You sound like most new guys but in the end you'll wish you had just got the rib

Well, I took my Spectra to the local Motorola shop the other day, and found out a few things. The tech had not worked on very many of these models, but he tried to connect to the radio and program it. The RSS software (he might not have the most up to date version...) says that my model number is T83FWA7HA9AK. They were able to program a few buttons to do different things, but they couldnt get the control head to work. Something about a mode 0 error. According to the stuff i found on line, that model number says this radio has the higher split and stops at 146 mhz. It was sold to me as the lower split and I was assured it would track correctly down to 144 mhz with no problems. The control head is a system 9000 model with the number HCN-1073D on the back. Some other numbers they found were these, KR850795 and 671AVJ01. Is there any way to hack, program or trick this radio into covering 144 to 148 mhz? Also could there be firmware conflicts with the control head and radio?

Thanks,
Richard, KD8HMO

KD8HMO wrote:Well, I took my Spectra to the local Motorola shop the other day, and found out a few things. The tech had not worked on very many of these models, but he tried to connect to the radio and program it. The RSS software (he might not have the most up to date version...) says that my model number is T83FWA7HA9AK. They were able to program a few buttons to do different things, but they couldnt get the control head to work. Something about a mode 0 error. According to the stuff i found on line, that model number says this radio has the higher split and stops at 146 mhz. It was sold to me as the lower split and I was assured it would track correctly down to 144 mhz with no problems. The control head is a system 9000 model with the number HCN-1073D on the back. Some other numbers they found were these, KR850795 and 671AVJ01. Is there any way to hack, program or trick this radio into covering 144 to 148 mhz? Also could there be firmware conflicts with the control head and radio?

Thanks,
Richard, KD8HMO

Take a look at the repeater builder site and find the section on Spectra radios. In there you will find a couple of links to some good information. The Mike B site has a tone of information on it.

Depending on the version of software you can get your hands on, you should be able to program that radio yourself. You will need a slow computer (like under 500 MHz) that will run pure DOS. Not using Windows and go to a DOS window. Your going to have to start the computer in DOS to begin with.

You will need to obtain a RIB from some place. The interface cables between the radio and the RIB you can make yourself. Go to the batlabs.com site and get into the radio model section. Then select the Spectra mobile. They have the information there on how to build the radio interface cables. There is also info on how to build your own RIB. I just choose to buy one already built.

Jim

Richard

the 671avjxxxx serial tells me that this radio was once part of a FED dual radio handheld control package
that is why the sys9000 head will not respond correctly the radio will have to be converted to single radio
easily done with normal rss I am suprised that thay could read this without the siu in place (maybe they didnt)
as for programming in the 2 meter band the last version rss will program a range 2 (146-174) down to 140 mhz with no problems

73 kd5ual

KD8HMO wrote: Is there any way to hack, program or trick this radio into covering 144 to 148 mhz?

Thanks,
Richard, KD8HMO

No trick required. The 146 - 172 range 2 radio will work just fine down to 144 without any changes. The last version of Spectra RSS will allow the ham frequencies to be programmed.

Seems that you need someone who IS familiar with the Spectra to help. I see that you are near Kalida OH.


I am glad to help, I am on the west coast tho. Telephones still work on weekends.....

Jim202 wrote:

KD8HMO wrote:Well, I took my Spectra to the local Motorola shop the other day, and found out a few things. The tech had not worked on very many of these models, but he tried to connect to the radio and program it. The RSS software (he might not have the most up to date version...) says that my model number is T83FWA7HA9AK. They were able to program a few buttons to do different things, but they couldnt get the control head to work. Something about a mode 0 error. According to the stuff i found on line, that model number says this radio has the higher split and stops at 146 mhz. It was sold to me as the lower split and I was assured it would track correctly down to 144 mhz with no problems. The control head is a system 9000 model with the number HCN-1073D on the back. Some other numbers they found were these, KR850795 and 671AVJ01. Is there any way to hack, program or trick this radio into covering 144 to 148 mhz? Also could there be firmware conflicts with the control head and radio?

Thanks,
Richard, KD8HMO

Take a look at the repeater builder site and find the section on Spectra radios. In there you will find a couple of links to some good information. The Mike B site has a tone of information on it.

Depending on the version of software you can get your hands on, you should be able to program that radio yourself. You will need a slow computer (like under 500 MHz) that will run pure DOS. Not using Windows and go to a DOS window. Your going to have to start the computer in DOS to begin with.

You will need to obtain a RIB from some place. The interface cables between the radio and the RIB you can make yourself. Go to the batlabs.com site and get into the radio model section. Then select the Spectra mobile. They have the information there on how to build the radio interface cables. There is also info on how to build your own RIB. I just choose to buy one already built.

Jim

About the computer part, as long as you get a recent version of the RSS, it shouldn't be a problem with the whole speed/cache issues. I have a laptop with a Pentium III, 1 GHz processor with the processor cache left on and it programs the radio just fine. But yes, you must be in PURE DOS, such as MS-DOS 6.22, which I have used with no problems whatsoever. And with the Spectra, you MUST use a RIB.

Thanks for all the help, guys. I'm going to order a power supply and RIB box this week and then I will be back with more questions for sure.

KD8HMO wrote:Thanks for all the help, guys. I'm going to order a power supply and RIB box this week and then I will be back with more questions for sure.

Not sure what RIB you are getting, but if made to Moto specs, you will not need a power supply for the RIB. The High power spectra will power the RIB itself. Unless you are talking about the power supply for the radio, then yes you will have to have the radio powered up to program it. Make sure the RIB comes with the serial cable. Also make sure to get the programming cable that is made for the HIGH power spectra. The Low and High power use different cables.

Besides not being able to narrow band, the Spectra is still a great radio. And once you get it running, take a look at my guide to make it an even better radio (see signature).

Good luck!

Well I finally got my Spectra to a shop and found out what I really have. The seller put the wrong ID number on the case. The real number is 221ASQ0388. I couldn't get any response on it because it was set up for an A7 control head, not an A9 which is what was sold to me and is actually the correct head. It needed the leaky caps replaced, and it has firmware version 6.06 in it. The tech said it will be as good as new when he is finished with it. I cant wait to get it back and start using it.

Seems that Richard's Spectra was hacked. The serial plate was missing. I got it back to the correct model and serial number, and control head type.
After cleaning and repairing leaking capacitor damage the radio IS working and will be like new.
Now to get the list of repeaters around his home QTH.

Oh hi will, I didn't realize you and Moto Doc were the same person LOL Im going to email a list of local repeaters right after lunch today.