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Can mere mortals do this stuff?
Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 8:03 am
by wbickle
Our club is considering GM300's as link receivers for a voter system, and I just purchased this radio (already programmed to freqs of interest) on eBay.
I've read a lot about programming this radio, much of it dated and occasionally contradictory. My questions are these:
Can this radio be programmed by mere mortals? Is the RSS software still available from Motorola, and can it be run on relatively contemporary PC's? Does one have to learn how to manage hex code, etc.?
I know this ground must have been covered a million times, but I would very much appreciate a current view.
Bill
Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 8:30 am
by Bruce1807
The radios are simple to program, there is not much stuff in conventional analog. The
RSS HVN8177F SOFTWARE R05.00.00 GM/GR300/500/400
Programming cable 3080070N01
Plus you need a rib with these ones.
It needs to run in a pure dos enviroment on a fairly slow computer.
You don't need any hex unless you are doing out of band mods.
The standard RSS is simle menu driven stuff.
Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 9:33 am
by Victor Xray
Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 12:39 pm
by kb0nly
The stuff over at the batlabs site is so out of date that i would never reference it, as far as RSS info goes.
The problem is later versions were compatible with later Pentium based computers, and older versions needed the slowest box you can find.
For the GM300 i think you can use Pentium I and up, i just checked and it will launch just fine on my Athlon 64, 2.4Ghz, as to whether or not it will read and write a radio correctly i don't have one here to test on. And as already mentioned you need a RIB and Cable. The cable is easy to build from a chunk of network patch cable and a DB-25 from Rat Shack, but the RIB is the key.
Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 1:20 pm
by rrfd43
I use a p-300 thinkpad and this radio and it works fine, straight DOS only though....
Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2006 4:25 pm
by Woody_99
kb0nly wrote: And as already mentioned you need a RIB and Cable. The cable is easy to build from a chunk of network patch cable and a DB-25 from Rat Shack, but the RIB is the key.
Best setup I've found is to grab one of the unwired "kits" that's a DB25 to CAT5.
Just wire it up with the pin jumper, then match the gnd, bsy, data lines to standard CAT 5 jumpers....
Now ya have a dongle for a 'variable length' cable depending on what length jumper you need to use with it. Wonder if it'll work at 400ft?
Mine's just a 3 footer.
Imagine... raid the nearest LAN closet and connect a direct path to the first floor outlet near the door....
Drive-thru maxtrac programming from the 3rd floor!
Sorry.. couldn't resist...
Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2006 4:20 am
by Lake Effect
I don't know about 400 feet, but our shop has cat5 cable run to the service garage with about 100 feet of cable to 8 pin mod plug. Sure saves time for a reprogram job on maxtrac, radius, cdm, mcs, etc. I even made up an adapter to do spectra. Works great and never a problem.
L.E.