Batboard

I've got to get some X9000s (vhf) programmed, with siren/pa packages,
and I'm having no luck in making the siren/pa package work.

If someone here is well experienced in programming a setup like this, please contact me via PM. I could sure use some help getting this sorted out.

The first question is, on an X9000, can a DEK box be used for siren/pa control, or is it only possible to use it for status/message operation?


I am also experiencing what looks like a control head codeplug corruption
issue when the siren/pa package is plugged in. Display characters
become jumbled garbage. The problem goes away when the siren/pa
system is disconnected from the radio set.


I'd be happy to send the two codeplugs (radio and head) out to anyone who can make the appropriate corrections and send it back to me.


Elroy

I just programmed one last week. Ill PM you.

Jason

Your email was received and I responded to it.

Jason

Elroy,

Is your personality board a HLN4925? If so, you are missing a jumper on the connector going to the cable. Check the Blenderman site for this jumper. It goes from A+ red to somewhere else on the connector...I don't remember where because I upgraded all my personality boards to HLN5299 a long time ago.

As for the issue with setting up a DEK box to do siren control, it is not possible on an X9000 like it is on a Spectra. The exception could be with modified software, but the standard package did not allow this.

I f there is a trick I am missing maybe KB9KST can enlighten me.

George

The personality board is a good thing to check. Seems to me you had to jumper A+ to pin 6 or 7 on the bottom side of the board. (only if the 4925 board)

Anyway he did send me the plugs. The radio plug didn't have the siren feature enabled. The control head plug had the buttons improperly set up. He is trying to use airhorn only and the PA along with ExRd, no other siren functions. Airhorn only works with the siren in manual mode so had to add that stuff and setup the ExRd as well.

Waiting to hear back from him.

Jason

I got your mail and the corrected codeplugs, thanks very much.

I should be able to try them out in about a day. The weather here isn't cooperating so I won't be able to get them to the radio today, most likely.


Would anyone know what might be the purpose of a second antenna connector on a VHF X9000? It leads to a small circuit board which appears
to be a Y connection. If there is any other important circuitry involved,
it's hidden beneath a soldered-on shield on the back of that board.

The radio with the extra connector is reportedly an ex-CHP radio.


The extra connector is a mini UHF and there are no SP identifiers on the
model number but the work is definitely Motorola factory work.


Elroy

Could be one of those Washington State Patrol models. They linked a spectra receiver to it to monitor another band. Seems the antenna did a pass through to the spectra for RX only.

Might wanna do a search on it. I know a bunch of them were recently surplused. (last 6 months to a 1 year ago).

Jason

I think that's it, actually.

So how did that setup work? Information, please.

I got one of these radios for free. It has problems and I may attempt to fix it. Knowing more about how they were running that option would be helpful.


Elroy

Here's a pretty good thread on that radio:

http://batboard.batlabs.com/viewtopic.php?t=57042

Elroy Jetson wrote:I got your mail and the corrected codeplugs, thanks very much.

<snippety>

Would anyone know what might be the purpose of a second antenna connector on a VHF X9000? It leads to a small circuit board which appears
to be a Y connection. If there is any other important circuitry involved,
it's hidden beneath a soldered-on shield on the back of that board.

The radio with the extra connector is reportedly an ex-CHP radio.

Elroy

Not ex-CHP. They use VHF Lowband. What you're describing sounds like one of our old X9000's. There's a bunch of them hitting the surplus market right now.

The mini-UHF was indeed designed to feed the antenna input of a second (and dedicated) receiver. You will need to terminate the connector with a 50-ohm load if you don't intend to drive, say, a scanner with it. Otherwise, your main radio's receive sensitivity will go straight down the tubes.

There is one other caution you should be aware of. Motorola did special firmware for our X9000's. I don't know of any problems using them with the siren/PA module (many of the older patrol cars did that), but I can't guarantee it. I would suggest changing out to standard X9000 firmware (check with Mike B) if you continue to see oddball symptoms.

I think it's time I submitted a knowledge base article about these old beasties...

Happy tweaking.

kc7gr wrote:
Not ex-CHP. They use VHF Lowband. What you're describing sounds like one of our old X9000's. There's a bunch of them hitting the surplus market right now.

Also, CHP went to GE in the late 1980's.. They migrated from Micor's with GE Exec-II hiband extenders to GE RANGRs.. Apparently some Kenwood gear is appearing for local area interop uses.

CHP radios do offer a similar function to the WSP radios in that the mic has a butterfly button that can key the radio on two different transmit frequencies. CHP uses a duplex loband system, although repeaters have been deployed in some areas, and the mobile units can transmit on either the car->base (input) frequency, or on the base->car (output) frequency for car-car use, while listening to a single frequency.

WSP has a dedicated receiver for their area dispatch? channel, and the radio can be keyed on either this channel, or the selected channel.

http://www.mbay.net/~wb6nvh/CHP2001.htm <-- CHP radio history