Batboard

Greetings all!

I have a little project I would like to do with some Maxtrac LPI300's. Since these mobiles are low power units, 4watt 16ch. I was wondering if I could take the heads off of them, and use the chips inside of them to convert some more higher power 2ch radios to 16ch. Can this be one easily? And if so can someone give me a little info on how to do this? I am thinking that since all the parts internally are interchangeable that this could possibly be done. I have not really experimented too much with these older radios....But they work great, just not powerful enough and the people were just throwing them away. I just thought I could try and salvage some of these things and keep em alive. Thanks Much! Please email me directly at [email protected]

Welcome to the batboard.

FYI - we don't email people off the list - we reply to messages so that other people can learn too.

Yes, what you want to do can be done. You'll have to pull the logic boards most likely, but you need to do some homework.

Read about it on this page:

http://www.batlabs.com/maxrad.html

or on this one:

http://www.repeater-builder.com/maxtrac ... index.html

Good luck,
Jay

MotoRadioTec4783 wrote:Greetings all!

I have a little project I would like to do with some Maxtrac LPI300's. Since these mobiles are low power units, 4watt 16ch. I was wondering if I could take the heads off of them, and use the chips inside of them to convert some more higher power 2ch radios to 16ch. Can this be one easily? And if so can someone give me a little info on how to do this? I am thinking that since all the parts internally are interchangeable that this could possibly be done. I have not really experimented too much with these older radios....But they work great, just not powerful enough and the people were just throwing them away. I just thought I could try and salvage some of these things and keep em alive. Thanks Much! Please email me directly at [email protected]

With the low cost availability of the Maxtrac these days, you would be better off just going and finding the radio with the power and channel capacity you want. Then program the radio with the channels you need.

Trying to play musical chairs with the parts of different models is not always the best move. I believe that there are some connections inside the radios going to the PA modules that may not wire directly between the different models. I also think that not all the different versions of the control head will connect directly with the different versions of the interface boards. Unless your technical skills are good and you have the documentation for the different radios, your asking for allot of time and trouble to accomplish this.

Jim

Hello:
If your wanting to increase the power output of the LPI300 Maxtrac then youd need to replace the low power finned amplifier on the back of the radio with a higher power out . (And then blank and reinitiate the logic bd.)
The wattage for transmit out is done in the power amp on the rear and is only controled by the bds inside the radio for what its set for .
You cant just go into programming and increase the tx wattage to 25 or forty watts because the pa is not built for it since its a lo power intinerant model.
The Maxtrac LPI 300 was by specs only a 2 watt radio in VHF and UHF
from my manual so if in fact your getting 4 watts - someone has already turned up the power out by program and it will if used for long tx more than likely eventualy fail.
The Maxtrac line did use many parts that were the same in 800/UHF/VHF/Lo Band models but were programmed for the specific freq band and whether it was conventional or trunking ect.
So with out blanking the logic bd and making certain you had the corect prom and reinitiating the logic bd to what you wanted the radio to be it wouldnt perform corectly anyway.
Now if you want you could try putting a 25 or 40 watt pa on the radio in qestion and maybe get more power out but not likely the full out put because as i recall the lower power models did not have enough pa drive to acomplish this because when the logic bd was programmed for lo power it had a lower value for LPI models.
But you could blank and reinitiate the logic bd with a higher power pa put in place of the lo power pa and then it would provide the higher pa drive needed.
If you blank and reinitiate the logic bd then you WILL need a service monitor/good volt meter /DOS computer along with maxtrac lab and the corect maxtrac rss to do so.
Also you will need to know during reinitiation the corect model number of the radio your going to make and the front panel number for the front your going to use and be prepared to fully align the radio for tx wattage / frequency / enter the dc voltage at pin 1 of the logic bd / ect.
Id consider if your going to try it :
Taking the 2ch front off of the 2ch higher power maxtracs you have and reinitiate it as such with the 16 ch front off of the maxtrac 300 LPI radios and realign ect.
If you have never done one then it can be rather confusing .
But you will gain experience .
Good Luck
Satelite

Just change out the Power Amplifier with the two channel radio's PA.

Then all you have to do is go to the Service menu and do the Replace Power amplifier section. This calibrates the TX power amplifier output across the band.

No other blanking or Lab work needed....

Will wrote:Just change out the Power Amplifier with the two channel radio's PA.

Then all you have to do is go to the Service menu and do the Replace Power amplifier section. This calibrates the TX power amplifier output across the band.

No other blanking or Lab work needed....

This, although I'd recommend still going ahead and checking output on a calibrated wattmeter afterward and adjusting up or down as needed.
Also, the factory output on a LPI radio is 2 watts, not 4, and the LPI PA will go up to 10 watts safely by just turning the power up in the alignment screen.

Hello :
Looks like i have been doing it the hard way.
I stand corected.
I too have now gained valued info.
Thank you for the info.
satelite