Batboard

Howdy! I just acquired a Spectra T44KXA7JA9AK radio and A9 HCN1073D Control head. Fired it up, all seemed well with the CA CHP programming. Reprogrammed via RSS, wrote to the radio and now the display shows "Mode 0". The mode button beeps, but will not change the display. Put a monitor on it and sure enough, 41 watts on the programmed freq! Tried several different freqs, same results. A second cable made no difference.

I tried four other A9 control heads on this radio - all showed gibberish on the display. I tried my A9 control head on a known good radio and it worked like a champ showing all the programming that originally came with the radio.

I've been a Ham for about 8 years but am fairly new to the Motorola gig. I ran this by a good friend who happens to be a county comms tech and we are both stumped. I sure could use some help!!

The A9 Spectra programs mode names into the A9 head therefore you need to reporgram the radio and refresh it so that the mode names appear. Did you convert it to an A9 or was it always an A9. Mode 0 usually means that the control head is missing the mode names.

No, this radio was always an A9...so I believe. It worked great when I read the codeplugs from the radio. But after making some freq mods and rewriting I came up with the Mode 0 thing. I'm thinking it might have been something I did while dinking around in the software but I just can't seem to figure it out. Can you elaborate regarding the "refreshing" stage? I simply assumed that when you write to the radio that all the programming mods, including mode names would be written as well. What am I missing here? Please keep in mind that I am an RSS novice. I've got the basics...I think!

Thanks for the reply!!

Reprogramming the radio should refresh the control head. Make sure that the control head type is set to S9000 in the RSS. if it is set to a7, a5, or a4. you will also get this error!

Well, no luck with the A9 head. I connected an A7 and it works like a champ! I reprogrammed and all went well. Put the A9 back on, same old problem(s). Tried other A9's and got gibberish even after rewriting. Any other ideas?

Thank you!

can you e-mail me the codeplug? rpdm313 at aol dot com

You must set the spectra control head type to S9000E in the RSS before it will work with the A9 control head. The A2, A5 or A7 is set to standard or enhanced and the A4 is set to rotatory. Enhanced allows the use of the back lighting presets, VIP ports and DEK if the control head supports these enhanced functions (the older A2, A5 and A7 head versions do not).

The big difference is the A9 control head stores the mode names inside the control head and the radio only tells the A9 which mode number to use. The A2, A4, A5 or A7 stores the mode names inside the radio and the radio sends the actual mode name to the control head.

With an A9 control head when the RSS is set to standard, enhanced or rotatory, it sends mode names to the A9 control head that only knows mode numbers. This confuses the A9 control head and prevents it from working correctly. If your A7 control head display is working, then your RSS control head type is not set to S9000E. The A7 doesn't know what to do with A9 mode numbers, so the A7 wouldn't work if the RSS was set to S9000E.

If your RSS doesn't do S9000E control head types, then you need to update the Spectra radio Moflags to allow S9000E to be selected.