Batboard

gday all, i understand that a few reasonably priced 400- 437 W5 astro spectras have been comming up for sale from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base ive been reading that they use a motorola type II trunk system with talkgroups and also some conventional channels in the same band .. im just curious as to what flashcodes i should expect to see because id liek to use them as 430-440 ham use in conventional and im hoping to see that they are flashed for digital aswell . im certain some of you here have purchased some of these ex gov radios before and alot of you are quite kinowldgeable about these places and what they use ... cheers all

motoguy

It takes quite a bit to mod one of those to do the ham band, FYI.

SG

There is a flashcode decoder on this board if you want to dig into
all the dirty details. Meanwhile, you can just take a look at the
flashcode now on the radios' labels with particular attention to
the first character. If it's a 1 or a 5 you have a radio that does
digital; if it's a zero it's an analog radio that will have to be
reflashed to do digital.

our ham band is 430 - 440 so no worrys there, im just curious if the Wright patterson base use digital. they have a digital system but i am unsure if they actualy make use of it, and also confirmation on if they also use conventional channels as well as there moto smartnet trunk system.cheers
motoguy

This is a question best asked over at Radioreference.com

Their system is indeed digital, but they have only recently switched. It was 100% analog a couple of years ago. So, I really have no idea what to expect from an Astro Spectra from there. I don't know why they would be getting rid of Astro Spectras anyway.

I don't think they use any conventional channels.

DPL wrote:Their system is indeed digital, but they have only recently switched. It was 100% analog a couple of years ago. So, I really have no idea what to expect from an Astro Spectra from there. I don't know why they would be getting rid of Astro Spectras anyway.

I don't think they use any conventional channels.

Their system was trunked, I don't remember if they used encryption or were IMBE.

Good luck getting the VCO to lock much past 435, been there, done that.

They are getting rid of them because the freq's they are on now (380), tha Astro Spectra won't go that low.

SG

I bought a couple of Astro Sabers from there last Dayton, all the radios had DES-XL modules in them. I havn't had the time to read their radios to see what kind of trunking they have. Also if the radios are Q split they will not be able easily to work on the ham bands, all the portables I bought were R split, don't know if the Spectra's are the same. where are you seeing these radios coming up from? DGS?

some are popping up on fleabay from time to time mate.. anyone have any idea how much a motorola flash for imbe and conventional operation is worth ?

When I worked for Riverside Fire, just next to WPAFB, we would MA back and forth with them. At that time they, WPAFB Fire, used analog. I never recall them (fire) using digital.

On a side note, while MA'ing to WPAFB I thought I had seen one of the aliens brought there from Area 51. Then it (he) locked his keys in his car. I knew then it was a human!

can you take the complete image of one astro spectra of the same head and band but with a better featured flashcode (imbe, conventional and what not) and slap it straight in to the radio with the crummy function lacking flashcode? liek a clone?