Motorola Saber III Wideband to Narrowband

[rodgrech]

Well ive did a bit of looking around and havnt found much info

but i have been given 2 Motorola saber III H44QXK7139CNSP303 for free (score) except living in the great land of australia apparently UHFCB is on the narrowband

my question is, will the radio support narrowband (as i see it its a wideband radio) if not is there any mods to make it able to do so.

if not, is there anything i could do with these radios (besides destroying them, selling on ebay ect)

[jnglmassiv]

Sorry, no. They won't do narrowband.

[OCSD117]

Unfortunately they will not and will never do narrowband! I think it is time to invest in an Astro Saber if you like the radio....

[motorola_otaku]

SP303, eh? Aren't those the SP SA Police radios with the "Local" switch in place of the channel selector and 170-channel memory capacity?

PM sent.

[FireCpt809]

I believe MrSyntrx had some of those.. dont they take a SP RSS?

[rodgrech]

possibly... i havnt tried programming them (still waiting on the programming cable to arrive)

[mr.syntrx]

UHF CB isn't narrowband! ACMA has raised a discussion paper to investigate this possibility, but in the meantime, Sabers are fine on this band.

SP303 is the infamous Australian Saber. If you try to read an Australian codeplug with U.S. RSS, it will crash spectacularly. You can shove a fresh U.S. codeplug in with no problems though, and if you remove the plastic stop inside the 16-position knob you gain full functionality.

Australian RSS, with a part number of AVNsomething will let you program up to 99 channels (talk about ripped off!), and give you use of the 'LOCAL' switch, but (from memory, because I programmed my radios like 2 years ago), you get no MDC1200 nor DTMF encode. The LOCAL switch was added to make these radios consistent with the Syntrx mobile, which is essentially a synthesized Mitrek with an A3 Spectra style HHCH, and the talkaround position on one of the switches marked as 'LOCAL'

Keep in mind that most of the SA plod radios have no secure or dummy module fitted, so you may need to jump the appropriate pins on the secure connector to get TX audio.

[rodgrech]

Thanks Mr. Syntrx. better late than never.

ive swapped these off now for a saber that will work with what i have to do. soon, it will sit nicely on my radio shelf next to my MCS2k

[motorola_otaku]

You can shove a fresh U.S. codeplug in with no problems though, and if you remove the plastic stop inside the 16-position knob you gain full functionality.

Australian RSS, with a part number of AVNsomething will let you program up to 99 channels (talk about ripped off!), and give you use of the 'LOCAL' switch, but (from memory, because I programmed my radios like 2 years ago), you get no MDC1200 nor DTMF encode. The LOCAL switch was added to make these radios consistent with the Syntrx mobile, which is essentially a synthesized Mitrek with an A3 Spectra style HHCH, and the talkaround position on one of the switches marked as 'LOCAL'

Interesting. Riddle me this, then: once "Americanized", can the Aussie RSS create and shove in a codeplug that will restore it to its SP configuration?

[mr.syntrx]

Interesting. Riddle me this, then: once "Americanized", can the Aussie RSS create and shove in a codeplug that will restore it to its SP configuration?

Yep.

The radios I've dealt with have all been "ERR 0 81", from when the cops sanitised them before sending them out the door. If you corrupt the codeplug as you normally would to do an upgrade etc etc, you can shove an Australian codeplug right in.

[kotaguchi]

I believe you can buy aftermarket parts to convert the Sabers from wide band 25Khz to narrowband 12.5khz but you will have to be knowledgeable in soldering.I know there was a aftermarket company that made them for the MT-1000,P200,HT600 radios.Not sure for the Saber though.

But as everyone says,BUY Astro Saber.Even if you can get a aftermarket part to mod it,its a permanent mod and you will not be able to remove the mod except to desolder the part off even if you can buy a aftermarket kit.

If someone is not good at soldering,they can touch the pcb board with the tip of the iron and burn into the board or damage a trace etc.

I am certified to do trace,thoughhole and pad repair but its a really hard.Sometimes unfixable.

[mr.syntrx]

For the effort involved in converting a Saber, vs the cost, why would you bother? Keeping in mind of course that it loses its type approval when you do such a mod, so you can't use it on the LMR bands anymore anyway.

[OCSD117]

Especially where Astro Sabers and XTS3000's Have come down in price so much!

[ces911]

DOnt some come already like that