Batboard

My friend has an Astro Saber III for sale that he no longer uses. I was thinking I could maybe somehow program it to use it to listen to local PD radio? Nothing that transmits, just recieves. However I never did understand freqs, etc so I dont know if this is plausable. I used these radios in the past as a Reservist and always loved the design and overall feel of these radios. It would be nice to use one again if I can... What do you think?

Yes, there is a provision in the programming for the Astro Saber and XTS3000
radios for "Receive Only" status per each individual channel. When you push
the transmit button on the side of the radio for these channels nothing happens.

So how do I facto in the frequency and such?

The radio my friend is selling is a Motorola Astro Saber Model III UHF 450-520 Mhz.

Here is the local scanner frequency for my county, http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?ctid=2230

Can someone take a look and let me know if those freq's can be added. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

The radio you're thinking about buying will receive only the
UHF (450-520 mHz) agencies in your area. It is not capable
of receiving the VHF channels.

The radio is programmed with special software, a special RIB
(radio interface box), two special cables, and a computer running
any Windows operating system EXCEPT Vista. You license the
software from Motorola for about $275.00 or so, the RIB comes
from either Motorola or an aftermarket supplier, and the cables
come from aftermarket sources, too. Total cost of a programming
setup runs anywhere from $400.00 to $500.00, depending on where
you get the stuff from.

I'm not trying to scare you with the above information, but if all you
want to do is to monitor public service broadcasts you could buy a nice
scanner and do the job almost as well, with more frequencies including
the VHF ones the Astro Saber won't receive.

Jim , check you PM's.