Batboard

kc7gr

UPDATE: I think I found my answer. It seems Moto designed the console to hook straight up to a Spectracom NetClock II. All of Spectracom's NetClock series output IRIG-B timecode over one of their RS232 ports by default.

Going with this... I'll update again if it doesn't work.

kc7gr

Fellow techies, I'm working on integrating a CommandStar Lite for my ham station. I've had no problems figuring out the programming, but I keep running across references to how the console is capable of sync'ing to an external clock source (through setting the serial port to CLOCK mode from the fron...

kc7gr

Fellow techies, Has anyone ever seen a case where the VOCON module, in an Astro Spectra, causes a full-volume 'howl' in the speaker any time the audio is unmuted? This can be when changing the volume, receiving a signal, whatever... Swapping the VOCON clears the problem, but darned if I can figure o...

kc7gr

Clean the entire board around the capacitor areas with 99% isopropanol (Isopropyl Alcohol). Dry thoroughly. Keep in mind the RF board is at least four layer, possibly six, so if capacitor goo got into the inner layers the only thing you can do for 100% reliability is replace the RF board. Just getti...

kc7gr

...at least, they want to buy the mobile phone ('Mobility') division. Get a load of this: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/02/regulators-to-google-you-can-buy-motorola-but-we-still-dont-trust-you.ars I think I can best sum up my feelings about this with one symbol: :o Keep the peace(es).

kc7gr

My own prediction is very simple, and has very little to do with the FCC.

Specifically: I predict a BIG flood of surplus radio gear hitting the hamateur market!

Happy hunting.

kc7gr

You have about a 50/50 chance of getting decent RX sense in the 440 band with the 9000's, better if it has the preamp option. In any case: Tuning the preselector properly requires a tracking generator and spectrum analyzer. You would need to feed it a sweep of 425 to 500MHz and, using the preselecto...

kc7gr

The Moto BOS is the same as the Cadex C7000.

The BOS-II is the C7400.

Manuals and other goodies can be found here.

http://cadex.com/support/analyzers.asp

Happy conditioning.

kc7gr

One thing Maxtracs were notorious for, with this symptom, is: If they've ever been dropped, or sustained even a mild impact to the front panel, the volume pot's resistive element would fracture.

I would pay particular attention to said pot.

Happy tweaking.

kc7gr

Don't trust at-a-glance visual inspection for the two 10uF caps. I've seen several heads and radios where, to the unaided eye, the caps look perfectly all right -- until you detach them from the board, and find ugly corrosion underneath! I almost lost my own UHF radio to that issue before I found ou...

kc7gr

Any one of several different packages, depending on the purpose of the schematic itself. In this particular case, I drew it with Protel 99, many moons ago, and then converted it to PDF with some PDF-to-graphic file tools. These days, I use Altium Designer or CircuitMaker if I'm serious about turning...

kc7gr

I've had many requests for the schematic I generated of the RLN4460B/C test set. Enough, in fact, that I've moved the file to the 'public' section of my FTP site. ftp.bluefeathertech.com Anonymous logins are fine. The file path is: electronics/testgear/Motorola/rln4460b-c Please note: The path is ca...

kc7gr

Thank you. Admittedly, some of the photos and data are out of date. For example, the IC706 was removed over a year ago, to be replaced by a low-band GE Orion. As far as the D-sub box is concerned: Just about any type of D-sub parallel arrangement will work. Motorola made a great design decision in t...

kc7gr

To do a true conventional conversion requires both changing the firmware EPROM, and using special RSS to blank the board and reinitialize it as the model and bandsplit you want. Once this is done, the radio must be put through a full alignment (yes, this requires a service monitor or equivalent disc...

kc7gr

The issue you're running into is a firmware version difference between memory modules. Zone operation is not supported in firmware versions below 6.x. Is it possible to upgrade the memory module? Yes, but you'd need a full-blown surface-mount IC rework station, a device programmer, the appropriate b...

kc7gr

I've done several of the low-band Maxtrac conversions. Yes, it's possible, but doing it right will require a service monitor. This is mainly because you need to do some tweaks to the receiver's front end, in the form of putting stainless-steel or brass set-screws into some of the coil forms. The fac...

kc7gr

I concur with the group so far. Nothing really to worry about. I've gone through security at SEA (SeaTac) several times with an MTS2000 which, except for the antenna, looks identical to those used by the local TSA and airport staff. The only question I ever got out of them was "Can it pick up o...

kc7gr

Those systems, if I recall correctly, are simply a rebadged Cadex C7000.

If that's the case, the user's manual should be available here.

http://www.cadex.com/support/older.asp

Happy tweaking.

kc7gr

Gaah! Sorry, you're right, I missed that. There are only three ways I know of to get rid of that error. (1) Go in and 'bit-bang' the radio memory to a 'neutral' or 'factory-fresh' state, using the Software Which Shall Not Be Named, then reprogram with the codeplug build of your choice. May take a wh...

kc7gr

Not with a Range 3 PA deck in it. Sounds like it would be perfectly usable on 440 amateur. However, there are some caveats. (1) The 'time-bomb' electrolytic caps. If they haven't been replaced as yet, do so. Even if they look OK, replace them (or send the radio to myself or Will for re-capping if yo...

kc7gr

I would be happy to -- If I could FIND an E-series SmartZone Spectra! Where the heck are they? You'd think they'd be turning up on That Auction Place by now. And to answer an earlier question: No, I didn't actually try programming a radio with the mod to 134 modes. Based on other's experiments, I'm ...

kc7gr

Bump, due to update. Read the top post. Sorry, gang... I tried!

kc7gr

If only this could work on the Astro Spectra! Heh? The Astro's already got 250 modes or so. In fact, that's what inspired me to start digging in the analog radio. Is there some other feature I'm missing to put that in context? I should have been more specific, the W4 model Astro Spectra (what I hav...

kc7gr

@Zack: Sorry, I mis-typed. I meant dumping all 65,536 bytes could be quite a chore. @Batwings21: I think you may be right, but I'm still curious to see where, exactly, the limit is. What I may need to do is desolder the EEPROM, once I've got everything programmed, and read it to see how much free sp...

kc7gr

See top message. Topic updated. Results not good.

kc7gr

Ranger522 wrote:If only this could work on the Astro Spectra!

Heh? The Astro's already got 250 modes or so. In fact, that's what inspired me to start digging in the analog radio. Is there some other feature I'm missing to put that in context?

kc7gr

See top message. Topic updated. Results not very good.

kc7gr

OK, gang... I updated the topic from the top so as not to create false hope. I've got good news and bad news. GOOD: The channel limit byte, at MLM location 6128, can indeed be tweaked to increase the number of modes you can put into a conventional Spectra. BAD: Batwings21 was right. Trunking data is...

kc7gr

The tuning 'procedure,' such as it is, for getting the preselector down into 2 meters is pretty much: --Hook your spectrum analyzer and compatible tracking generator together. --Hook the output of your tracking generator to the radio's antenna input (you may have to temporarily bypass the preamp, if...

kc7gr

I fully agree. If the caps are not positively known to have been changed out, do so! You lose nothing other than a bit of time and effort (and a few dollars for the caps), and you could end up saving your radio from a horrid fate. Now, with that said... I've found, in times past, that loss of receiv...

kc7gr

Should be easy enough. Just open the radio up and see if there's a jumper across the power switch portion of the volume control. If so, remove it.

kc7gr

You don't have to use brass, Will. I've found that stainless steel hex-socket set-screws work very well indeed, and they're readily available at larger hardware stores. 6-32 should be the correct diameter. The trick is not so much the screw as making sure the material is non-ferrous (or, to put it m...

kc7gr

HLN1185B and later (I believe the last revision was HLN1185D) will work with either analog or Astro Spectras. HLN1185A will work only with analog radios. Keep in mind Astro Spectras have the same time-bomb capacitor problem the analog radios did. If the caps have not been replaced in yours, they sho...

kc7gr

Just for reference -- WaveLAN was a manufacturer of network cards. Without seeing the connectors that were on the cards you have, I can only speculate as to what they were. I can tell you that both early Ethernet and Novell used coaxial cable with BNC's.

Keep the peace(es).

kc7gr

Speaking as an owner/user of the 1600, I really like it. My only real concern was the long-term life of the CRT, and what to change out to once it went. This concern was especially strong because of the video display format used (EGA). Fortunately, I discovered a company that makes an EGA-to-VGA con...

kc7gr

These are either carbon element or amplified dynamic (more likely the latter), which means the mic side will need a DC bias voltage to operate. The plug is called a 310 type, and is very common in telephone work (it has been around since the 1940's at least). It was co-opted for radio communications...

kc7gr

The Maratrac is basically a Maxtrac with a big power amp attached. This means it has (ultimately) the same guts in the receive audio section as the Maxtrac. This means it is a 'balanced' output circuit. Shorting either speaker lead to ground will cause the output chip to blow itself up. This may ver...

kc7gr

This is true, and it can work. What I was referring to was physically removing the EEPROM from the MLM, sticking it in a separate programmer, loading it with a "blank" codeplug image that has been bit-banged for the specific radio in question (as in MOFLAGS, serial number, etc.), and then ...

kc7gr

I would be a bit surprised if you do find something. Recovering the DPL signal, and getting it clean enough for decoding, would be quite a challenge for many sound cards. Doing so would require excellent low-frequency response and equally good S/N ratio. The closest thing I've heard of is WinCTCSS, ...

kc7gr

I can program those as well (and there are ways to do so without the suitcase programmer - third-party software, specifically, along with a separate device programmer), but you should be aware that the 82S129 is a one-time programmable device. They cannot be erased and reprogrammed. Also, with most ...

kc7gr

The Spectra MLM's can be reworked to be compatible with whatever radio you want to put them in, but doing so requires surface-mount rework equipment, a device (EPROM) programmer, and lots of patience with a hex editor. I have been successful in re-adapting a couple of MLMs to date. If you cannot fin...

kc7gr

The short answer is that you need to have the external security module plugged in, at least long enough to read the codeplug. Once you've read it, you can go in and disable the encryption option and reprogram. You will then have no more errors about the external housing. Let me add that the chances ...

kc7gr

Could be any number of factors. Some of the more common problems include severe reduction in receiver sensitivity due to blown PIN diodes in the antenna switch section; failure of the first local oscillator crystal; and failure of the audio stage due to one or the other speaker lead getting shorted ...

kc7gr

Try this link: http://www.multichannelrecorder.com/ Quick summary: Record up to 16 channels, VOX or manual control. Works with a variety of sound cards, including specialized multichannel telephony cards such as Dialogic (if you install the Dialogic .WAV driver). Personally, I'm using it with a Dial...

kc7gr

Batman & Sourapple613 -- Check your PM's. The choice between myself and Will usually comes down to geography or who's backlogged at the time.

Happy communicating.

kc7gr

In case Spectra owners were unaware, XMO did some amazing work dealing with the problem of programming out-of-band frequencies into Spectras, as detailed here. http://www.batlabs.com/specband.html With that in mind, another thought occurred to me (and perhaps XMO would like to take on another challe...

kc7gr

You should probably visit...

http://www.irlp.net/

Don't forget about FCC regs regarding control stations, remote control of transmitters, etc.

Happy tweaking.

kc7gr

There is a bit of an art to it, admittedly. Took me a couple of tries to get it right, and no two people will favor the exact same method. What I do, after cleaning the board of the old caps and electrolyte residue, is put the new cap into place with a fine-point probe, then hold it down with a midd...

kc7gr

Would those be the mil-spec tantalums, Will? In any case... I have found that high-quality electrolytics (the Panasonic HD series) hold up very well indeed. They're rated for 5,000 hour life at 105 degrees C, and they are almost the exact same form factor as the original parts. I will add that If yo...

kc7gr

Hello All! I would like for someone to explain what firmware is and how to get it. (snippage) Firmware usually refers to the operating code for a microcontroller or microprocessor. It is usually programmed into a non-volatile memory chip, such as an EPROM, EEPROM or FLASH device. Whoever manufactur...

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