Batboard

Hello! I am new to the 33cm band, and I have a lot of questions but I figured that I would start with the radio. I currently have the opportunity to purchase a Motorola MaxTrax radio for $25 and I am trying to figure out if this is a quality radio to start out with and any problems that I would have. The model number is D37MOA5GB2AK. Is this a quality radio?

I have some worries as I have never programmed this type of radio. I have three repeaters in the area, and understand that this is a two channel radio, so I think that I would program the closest repeater and then the nation call frequency, 903.1. What will I have to do for programming?

At the same time, I have heard that 33cm is going away, is this true? In the future I am looking at setting up a repeater once I start to learn a little more about the radios (in the next year).

1. There are no stories floating around, rumors or otherwise, about the 900 mHz hamband "going away", as you put it.

2. If you have a two channel radio it would make more sense to program your channel 2 for simplex on the repeater's output channel. In my area the 927 mHz channels are used for simplex operations but I'm not all familiar with any use of 903 which is at the repeater input end of the band. You can get an up-to-date check on the bandplan by consulting ARRL.

The Maxtrac is a good radio. Another one you might consider is the GTX in the 900 mHz version.

The ARRL Band Plan for the 902 MHz band is complete garbage. There's another band plan that's taken over, but since this band is above 30 MHz, the league probably won't change anything for another 25 years.

The current band plan that's been adopted in most parts of the country calls for repeater inputs in the 902-903 MHz range and repeater outputs in the 927-928 MHz range. The simplex frequency most people would use is 927.5 MHz, but in some areas of the country that's a restricted frequency due to government use.

The model number you have is D37M Q A5GB2AK and it is just a 2-channel radio, probably trunking. With the appropriate parts and firmware, it could be converted to have more channels, but as Tom stated, the GTX radio is easier to get onto the ham portion of the band. The MaxTrac will require some work to get it to play well on the ham band. There are articles on http://www.repeater-builder.com describing the various things you'd need to do.

Bob M.

Welcome to 900MHz, it's a fun band as you do have to do a bit more than just turn on the radio and dial up the local repeater on the VCO. Some radios require just programming (but you will have to hack/mod the programming software to accept HAM freqs) others will need some hardware work to work up to specs. The Maxtrac is a good starter unit, but for good RX sensitivity you will want to change out the RX front end filters, it can also be upgraded to 10 channels.

The info on repeater builder is great, I would take a look at it. Also there are a few good Yahoo groups that deal with 900Mz ham activity.

Also as Tom pointed out the GTX is a great starter rig, as you normally don't have to do any hardware mods and they are priced well. A lot of hams also use the Kenwood TK981 and may be the best overall rig for 900 but expect to spend 2 to 3 times the cost of a used GTX. I have seen 900 GTX's for as low as $25.00 but they average around $50.00 to $75.00, the Kenwoods are $100.00 to $225.00.


Jim

Hmmm now I am looking. I am going to search for a GTX now, and maybe I will get lucky. I just would like to know how to program the radios as well since I think that would be something interesting to know. Thanks!

The Maxtrac is a good cheap radio if all you want is a 1 or 2 channel radio. Follow the instructions at repeater-builder.com. I just modified the MDF file in my version of MAXTRACS software and programmed in 1 channel for the local repeater. I got 10 watts out and the sensitivity of about .5uv for 20 db quieting. Not bad for about an hours work on the computer. The model number you have decodes to a 30 watt 2 system, 2 subsystem trunked radio. You can mod the MDF so the radio will do 1 channel conventional. If you delete the final trunked mode you can get the radio to do 2 conventional channels. The radio will not receive on the low end 902, unless you remove or replace the front end filters.

i have a 2 channel maxtrac in my work truck works great