Batboard

I was just assigned to this vehicle. I know this is a Spectra UHF/VHF radio system w/ handheld control. Other than that, I don't know what all the other components are. Please shoot me a PM with some info. Sorry for the horrible phone pictures. Thanks.

What does the "0" with slash mean?


This switch is in the glove box and I have no idea what it does.

Your 0 with the slash is the Securenet position which works with those two
external securenet boxes with the keys that appear to be in the trunk.
The photo of the box in the glove compartment isn't clear but I'm guessing
the setup is using a single speaker and this is the individual volume on/off for each band.

Ø is the secure communications key.
it enables the encryption

Ok, the control box in the glove box has a one way toggle switch on the left side that says "index." The two dials in the middle each start with "D" and then 1 through 8. On the right it says "Req Key" and also has a one way toggle switch. The setup does have two speakers.

In the rear (the secure control boxes), does the key need to have operate or standby. For right now I just need conventional VHF. This was given to me and noone i've talked to yet has able to explain its use, thanks.

Also what is the red toggle switch that says "delete" do??

What you have is one of the older Spectra dual radio systems
using the A3 control head you see people calling it the HHCH
or the Hand Held Control Head. The mic should have a funky
looking round connector on the end of the coiled cord.

The small box in the glove box is for the key selection for
use on encrypted communications.

Those 2 boxes each side of the SIU (Serial Interface Unit) are
the DES or encryption boxes for each of the radios. The control
cable comes out of each of the radios, goes through one of
the DES boxes and then to the SUI.

One radio is for VHF and the other radio is normally a UHF radio
in the 403 to 430 MHz range. Both should be 100 watt TX.

Normally there is also a siren package that goes along with
this lashup. In your case, I don't see it in the photos.

These radio combinations are from the fed government
agencies. Most have come from the IRS and the customs
people. Once in a while some of the older secret service
boys had some. Thought they had all been yanked out
by now and switched over to the narrow band equipment.

One of the weak spots of these units is the SIU. It has a
bad habbit of blowing one of the IC power sensing
circuits and won't power up the radios when it goes bad.
There is a simple fix to recover from this failure that
entails cutting one lead loose from one of the surface
mount IC packages.

As the UHF radio in non convertable to the ham band,
most of them end up as parts. The VHF radio on the
other hand can be used on both the comercial and
ham frequencies. No conversion, no changes. Just
program in new channels and away you go.

It takes some playing with the RSS to get the DES boxes
out of the picture. It can be done and I have a number of
these units in service. I make up new cables to go
between the radio and the SIU box. Makes for a much
neater install without all the extra cable being coiled up.

The RSS or software is no longer available from Motorola.
So find someone that has it and become friends with them.
I am told that there is software to use on the SIU. Have tried
several copies of it to no avail. Haven't found one that will
talk to my radio configuration. This is used to set the A3
control head display and how it shows you the radio
channels.

You can set each channel in the radio to have it's own
scan list. I currently have like 98 channels programmed
into my VHF Spectra radios. Each scan list can contain
16 channels.

Hope this starts to answer your questions.

Jim

The red toggle dumps the encryption keys.

RadioSouth wrote:The red toggle dumps the encryption keys.

Thanks for the quick responses, it will sure help me out tonight!