Batboard

Hello all, I have several Motorola Saber radios and can program them with out issue but I have recently got two Saber 3's that when you read/program them you have to press Menu, Select and Enter on the radio, they program and read fine but I have never see then this and was wondering if there was a way to not have to do that when you program them?

Edit: Forgot the Model number
H33QXK7139AN for both.

That "AN" is something i've never seen on a Saber 3. It means that the radio is not capable of scanning, and was seen on very, very early Sabers. I've seen it only a few Saber 1 units. As to the three-button requirement I've never seen that, either.

We had quite a few type 2 Sabers that way. Most were 2K. If a user required scan we replaced the front shield.

All of our Saber stuff has long gone to salvage.

GlennD wrote:All of our Saber stuff has long gone to salvage.

But, I managed to get one VHF Saber out of the salvage.

Alot of Glenn's Sabers were all over Ebay for a long time.. I think I even had a few..Some might have been hand me downs from WHCA too as they had engraved tags glued over the engraved WHCA engraving on the front.

OT but I got one too! Still has a yellow tag and some "LBFD" engravings.

Back on topic, you must have some really early units. Is the keypad "sunken", for lack of a better term? That is, is it noticeably different looking from more common keypads? Those early models certainly looked different.

They look like the others I have, here is a quick pic I just took.

Well, I guess it could have been re-housed but the old cases were slightly different. I'll have to try to find a picture.

Pressing the three buttons was the original way to put a Saber into programming/service mode. The model # ending in "AN" shows that it is the first generation radio. Major changes in models would change the suffix to "BN", "CN", etc. I don't remember if you had to replace the processor to get rid of the "programming mode" or if a keypad change would take care of it.

I had about 600 of them form LBC UHF&VHF that I sold here, ebay and also at the TRW swap in LA in 2008-2009. I have a box still of mostly VHF. Maybe 1 WHCA and several w/ LBCF tags. I have 2 that I use for scanners in VHF till this date. Also had about 300 from Burbank, CA PD/fire but those had holes drilled in the back. I used most of those for parts as just the PC board and the synthesizers got drilled. The fronts where intact and converted several model 1's = model 2's. I parted out a good amount of the other sabers for electronic gold recovery.

Since we narrowbanded PD and changed to DPL hundreds of UHF Sabers are surfacing. If we had not changed to DPL the officers would continue to use them FCC be damned.

Many officers liked the Sabers better. I will admit the audio in our analog mode sounds better.

Does anyone have a part number for the plastic collar that goes on the switch/pot shaft and adapts to the rubber knob? I broke a pair.

SlimBob wrote:Does anyone have a part number for the plastic collar that goes on the switch/pot shaft and adapts to the rubber knob? I broke a pair.

post or send me a pic, i have hundreds or parts in a box.