Search found 105 matches

by W3AXL
Thu Jul 22, 2021 4:19 pm
Forum: Experimental - Mods, and how to do things a little out of the box
Topic: SB9600 on Astro25
Replies: 1
Views: 3304

SB9600 on Astro25

Hi all! Curious if anyone has any info on SB9600 communication with the XTL series (and by extension the other Astro25 radios as they share the same signal lines). I have a grand scheme to create a remote control utility able to remotely operate a couple radios in a similar way to the old vRCH tool ...
by W3AXL
Fri Jun 18, 2021 7:27 pm
Forum: General Motorola Solutions & Legacy Radio Discussion
Topic: VHF M1225 Low Out-of-Band Power
Replies: 4
Views: 5264

Re: VHF M1225 Low Out-of-Band Power

So after some investigation, I've determined that it's not in fact a software limitation resulting in low output power out-of-band. Firstly, I noticed that the power control voltages coming from the radio's MCU seemed to be very similar at 150 MHz and 144 MHz. So, either I got lucky with whatever ra...
by W3AXL
Fri Jun 18, 2021 10:29 am
Forum: General Motorola Solutions & Legacy Radio Discussion
Topic: VHF M1225 Low Out-of-Band Power
Replies: 4
Views: 5264

Re: VHF M1225 Low Out-of-Band Power

I think that's probably the route I'm going to take. The mod for manual power control using a potentiometer should work for the M1225 as well, seeing as the power control circuit is very similar.

Will report back with my findings!
by W3AXL
Thu Jun 17, 2021 1:06 pm
Forum: General Motorola Solutions & Legacy Radio Discussion
Topic: VHF M1225 Low Out-of-Band Power
Replies: 4
Views: 5264

VHF M1225 Low Out-of-Band Power

Hi all, I've got an M1225 that I'm trying to get up and running out-of-band on ham frequencies. In-band, power output is solid and I've tuned it to a 15W low, 30W high setup. Out-of-band, however, is another story. I've got the national APRS frequency programmed (144.390), and I'm getting 2.5W in lo...
by W3AXL
Tue Dec 18, 2018 11:10 am
Forum: Vehicle Radio Installs
Topic: 5th Gen 4runner Install Advice
Replies: 1
Views: 5501

5th Gen 4runner Install Advice

Just curious if anyone here's ever done an install in a 5th gen 4runner. I may be getting my hands on one to replace my old rig and I have a couple ideas for radio locations. Have 3 radios to mount up and while there's ample space in back for the bricks the front leaves a little to be desired in ter...
by W3AXL
Mon Oct 08, 2018 7:10 am
Forum: Vehicle Radio Installs
Topic: Anyone here install a late model Explorer?
Replies: 7
Views: 9181

Re: Anyone here install a late model Explorer?

Had to do some digging but I knew I had seen a console for the civilian package of explorer.

Here you go: https://www.havis.com/products/CON_VS_1 ... 51289.html
by W3AXL
Mon Jul 16, 2018 6:20 am
Forum: Radio Programming
Topic: VMWare and programming
Replies: 6
Views: 9100

Re: VMWare and programming

Interesting note, but you can actually program legacy radios like the Jedi and Astro series all the way up to Windows 10. It just has to be a 32-bit version of whatever OS you want to use. The CPS serial implementation breaks in 64-bit windows for whatever reason.
by W3AXL
Tue Jun 05, 2018 4:09 pm
Forum: Radio Programming
Topic: MTS2000 programming
Replies: 8
Views: 10402

Re: MTS2000 programming

You need to be using 32 bit windows and preferably a hardware serial port. The serial implementation Moto uses for older CPS versions is not compatible with 64 bit OS's and while the application will run serial comms won't.
by W3AXL
Wed May 16, 2018 10:40 am
Forum: APX Series Subscribers
Topic: APX7000 out of band question
Replies: 1
Views: 6485

Re: APX7000 out of band question

No APX radio can go out of band. The software can be hex edited to accept frequencies outside the rated bandsplits like other CPS versions, but the radio firmware will reject any OOB frequency that is programmed in to it.
by W3AXL
Sat May 05, 2018 10:32 am
Forum: APX Series Subscribers
Topic: DMR feature in APX
Replies: 37
Views: 30179

Re: DMR feature in APX

I have to imagine they're going to at least try and make it more elegant than that. Maybe in the first testing release it'll require a reboot, but if their plan for the final implementation is the same then that's a non-starter for most agencies I can think of.
by W3AXL
Thu May 03, 2018 11:29 am
Forum: APX Series Subscribers
Topic: DMR feature in APX
Replies: 37
Views: 30179

Re: DMR feature in APX

I'm wondering if the 7000 will even be included in the DMR firmware. It should be by all means but it could easily become another "buy an 8000" selling point for the mothership to push.
by W3AXL
Wed May 02, 2018 9:29 am
Forum: Experimental and Next Generation LMR
Topic: Current selection of dual band commercial radios
Replies: 5
Views: 15989

Re: Current selection of dual band commercial radios

I suppose you could technically consider the APX8000 to be "dual band" but it's more of a full spectrum radio. Speaking of which, Harris still has their XG-100P/M series which is also full spectrum. EFwood has the VP900 which is a true dual band radio, similar to the APX7000. Those are the...
by W3AXL
Sun Apr 15, 2018 12:19 pm
Forum: General Motorola Solutions & Legacy Radio Discussion
Topic: Spectra Clean Cab
Replies: 4
Views: 5040

Re: Spectra Clean Cab

Thanks for the advice. I know that the RR spectras aren't the most well-known radios out there. Hopefully I can dive a little deeper without killing the thing completely. My biggest question right now is how the control head communicates with the radio. It doesn't appear to behave like a standard A ...
by W3AXL
Wed Apr 11, 2018 5:20 am
Forum: General Motorola Solutions & Legacy Radio Discussion
Topic: Spectra Clean Cab
Replies: 4
Views: 5040

Spectra Clean Cab

Hi all, My clean cab spectra has been serving as a fantastic base radio for a couple of years now. It's a great radio and just has one major flaw that I'd love to try and overcome: scanning. Now I know these radios were never designed to scan; there is no point for it on a railroad so it was never e...
by W3AXL
Wed Apr 04, 2018 3:11 pm
Forum: ASTRO25 Series (XTS/XTL 1500/2500/5000) Subscribers
Topic: astro spectra plus bootloop, loop, and loop, and loop
Replies: 2
Views: 6737

Re: astro spectra plus bootloop, loop, and loop, and loop

You've got the emergency jumper in place, correct? That would be the first place to check. If you've got another vocon on hand, swap them out and see if the radio boots up. You'll probably get errors related to the VCO and RF stuff but if you can get it to "POST" then you know the problem ...
by W3AXL
Wed Mar 28, 2018 3:57 pm
Forum: General Motorola Solutions & Legacy Radio Discussion
Topic: MCS2000 Poor RX Sensitivity
Replies: 2
Views: 2964

Re: MCS2000 Poor RX Sensitivity

Solution found, and an interesting one!

I opened the radio and tightened the torx screws holding the boards down. This was recommended by a p25ca member, and it actually worked to my surprise! Sensitivity went from -85dBm all the way down to -120dBm! Excellent advice that I'm filing away in my wiki.
by W3AXL
Wed Mar 28, 2018 9:03 am
Forum: General Motorola Solutions & Legacy Radio Discussion
Topic: MCS2000 Poor RX Sensitivity
Replies: 2
Views: 2964

MCS2000 Poor RX Sensitivity

Hi everyone, I've been working on my base station, a HP VHF MCS2000. Over the past month or so, I noticed a few fringe repeaters started to sound much weaker than usual. After testing my antenna system to make sure everything was A-OK, I narrowed it down to the radio itself. First things first was t...
by W3AXL
Mon Feb 12, 2018 8:48 pm
Forum: APX Series Subscribers
Topic: APX900 portable
Replies: 13
Views: 13873

Re: APX900 portable

What's the pricing on a 1000 look like for comparison? If it's not that different than the 900 then I'm very confused as to why the two radios exist separately.
by W3AXL
Tue Jan 30, 2018 5:29 pm
Forum: Motorola Digital and Voice Paging
Topic: Minitor Band Change
Replies: 3
Views: 7075

Re: Minitor Band Change

I've done this several times successfully with Min IV's. I can't say if the V would follow a similar process as I haven't had one apart. Your receive will be attenuated as the antenna is tuned for a very narrow bandwidth and can't be (easily) changed, but the VCO can be tuned to work over a much wid...
by W3AXL
Thu Dec 28, 2017 10:23 am
Forum: General Motorola Solutions & Legacy Radio Discussion
Topic: Conventional P25 radio
Replies: 3
Views: 3539

Re: Conventional P25 radio

Any 1500, 2500, or 5000 should do P25 just fine. If you can, check the flashcode on the back of the radio to make sure it's got Astro in the flash, using the akardam tools. Other than that for basic conventional P25 you shouldn't need anything else.
by W3AXL
Thu Dec 14, 2017 7:03 pm
Forum: ASTRO25 Series (XTS/XTL 1500/2500/5000) Subscribers
Topic: Astro Spectra Plus VHF HAM question
Replies: 6
Views: 9123

Re: Astro Spectra Plus VHF HAM question

I am going to have to have a little more direction here. I convert 146000000 and get 8B3C880. Normally I add a leading zero to get 08B3C880. That gives me eight characters. If that is wrong then correct me. Also the only .exe file I see is the PatMob file. I am getting nothing in my hex-editor sear...
by W3AXL
Wed Dec 13, 2017 7:15 pm
Forum: ASTRO25 Series (XTS/XTL 1500/2500/5000) Subscribers
Topic: Astro Spectra Plus VHF HAM question
Replies: 6
Views: 9123

Re: Astro Spectra Plus VHF HAM question

It's five steps really. 90% of CPS packages can be patched this way no problem. 1) Figure out the lowest frequency you can program. Typically it's ~146MHz 2) Convert this number first to Hz (eg 146000000) and then convert this number into Intel unsigned long hex format (you should get something like...
by W3AXL
Fri Nov 24, 2017 6:41 pm
Forum: General Motorola Solutions & Legacy Radio Discussion
Topic: DMR 40 bit encryption
Replies: 7
Views: 6724

Re: DMR 40 bit encryption

ADP is easy enough to crack due to the fact that the end of every P25 transmission contains known silence packets. There was a paper I read somewhere that detailed one group's efforts to crack ADP keys using captured P25 frames and it took them only a couple of days at most. Here's the info on the p...
by W3AXL
Sun Nov 19, 2017 5:59 am
Forum: ASTRO25 Series (XTS/XTL 1500/2500/5000) Subscribers
Topic: XTL2500 simply won't passive scan
Replies: 9
Views: 11073

Re: XTL2500 simply won't passive scan

I've occasionally run in to strange issues with passive scan on Astro25 radios. Recently on a 2500 I had two identically-programmed systems and yet one worked flawlessly and one would constantly send logout messages to the controller. There was zero difference between the two systems' programming be...
by W3AXL
Wed Nov 01, 2017 9:36 am
Forum: General Motorola Solutions & Legacy Radio Discussion
Topic: NNTN4503 HT1550 FPP Red Battery Discontinued
Replies: 4
Views: 3555

Re: NNTN4503 HT1550 FPP Red Battery Discontinued

The red battery is simply a 1-wire dallas device with specific bits enabled to signify that it's a red battery. It's been a while since I did any research, but IIRC the standard 1250/1550 batteries also have this chip and it's just a matter of the programming that makes the difference. The modificat...
by W3AXL
Mon Oct 09, 2017 6:35 pm
Forum: Base Stations, Repeaters, General Infrastructure
Topic: RCH-3000 Deskset with MCS-2000 III setup issues
Replies: 6
Views: 4830

Re: RCH-3000 Deskset with MCS-2000 III setup issues

I had one remote in the host port and one remote on one of the front jacks. RCH was acting like it couldn't find the radio. I'm thinking now that if you need to have a jumper between Host and Guest that was probably one of my issues. The RCH3000 really suffers from a lack of proper documentation. Th...
by W3AXL
Mon Oct 09, 2017 1:22 pm
Forum: Base Stations, Repeaters, General Infrastructure
Topic: RCH-3000 Deskset with MCS-2000 III setup issues
Replies: 6
Views: 4830

Re: RCH-3000 Deskset with MCS-2000 III setup issues

I would be looking for the same information, as you saw in my other thread. I could get a single RCH3000 to connect to the radio via the junction box's host port but anything connected to the front jacks wouldn't be detected by the radio.
by W3AXL
Tue Sep 26, 2017 11:05 am
Forum: ASTRO Series (Astro Saber, Spectra, XTS3000/3500) Subscribers
Topic: I and N DSP why?
Replies: 4
Views: 7923

Re: I and N DSP why?

N for 'N'ot Intel, obviously...
by W3AXL
Thu Sep 21, 2017 5:18 pm
Forum: ASTRO Series (Astro Saber, Spectra, XTS3000/3500) Subscribers
Topic: Is my Saber Slowly Dying?
Replies: 4
Views: 7713

Re: Is my Saber Slowly Dying?

Wow, I would've never guessed it. I think my trusty rib has given up the ghost after three years. It's a Kawa rib that worked fantasticly for everything I needed it to do. Suddenly it won't program the Saber and any spectra I plug it in to fails 01/90 until it's removed. Looks like another one is go...
by W3AXL
Thu Sep 21, 2017 3:42 pm
Forum: ASTRO Series (Astro Saber, Spectra, XTS3000/3500) Subscribers
Topic: Is my Saber Slowly Dying?
Replies: 4
Views: 7713

Is my Saber Slowly Dying?

Hi all, My trusty Astro Saber, after two years of loyal service, is now refusing to read and write. The radio will get put into programming mode but will wait a while before timing out. I checked in DOS trying to read it and the same thing happens, resulting in either a timeout error or an "Int...
by W3AXL
Tue Sep 05, 2017 11:37 am
Forum: General Motorola Solutions & Legacy Radio Discussion
Topic: Coax recommendation portable UHF base station
Replies: 5
Views: 4281

Re: Coax recommendation portable UHF base station

LMR240 ultraflex wouldn't be a bad idea. If you wanted lower loss you could bump up to LMR400 UF. 240 is the size of RG8x and 400 is the size of RG8.

If I wanted portability and low loss I'd put my money with LMR240 UF. At 50' you'd have 3dB of loss on 440. LMR400UF would be ~1.5dB loss at 440.
by W3AXL
Mon Aug 14, 2017 10:41 am
Forum: General Motorola Solutions & Legacy Radio Discussion
Topic: HT1550XLS Won't Dekey
Replies: 0
Views: 3082

HT1550XLS Won't Dekey

Interesting issue here with a used 1550. It reads, writes, powers up, and receives fine. For what ever reason, once it's keyed up it refuses to dekey without powering down the radio. This happens with both the local PTT and with a speaker mic. I'm wondering if RF is somehow getting in to the PTT cir...
by W3AXL
Fri Aug 11, 2017 8:46 am
Forum: General Motorola Solutions & Legacy Radio Discussion
Topic: Maratrac continuous duty transmit power?
Replies: 9
Views: 5067

Re: Maratrac continuous duty transmit power?

Maratracs will run headless just fine. We have two currently on the bench for a new 6M machine. We dialed power back to 50W and have two high-flow fans going across the radiator fins and haven't run in to issues with overheating. We're planning on adding a temp probe as well but for now it seems to ...
by W3AXL
Wed Aug 02, 2017 6:15 pm
Forum: Radio Programming
Topic: XTL5000 Scan List Programming Setup Question
Replies: 3
Views: 3245

Re: XTL5000 Scan List Programming Setup Question

1) You'll be able to select channels to scan from any zones but the scanlist itself will still be tied to the personality(ies) you've got the list assigned to. If all your personalities are tied to one scanlist then this would work just fine. 2) I believe that selecting channels to scan is the same ...
by W3AXL
Sat Jul 29, 2017 7:25 pm
Forum: ASTRO25 Series (XTS/XTL 1500/2500/5000) Subscribers
Topic: xtl5000 w series ignition sense
Replies: 2
Views: 4237

Re: xtl5000 w series ignition sense

As far as I'm aware that is correct. I believe the power for the W series power button comes directly from the ignition wire.

I could be wrong though; I'm basing that solely on personal experience.
by W3AXL
Thu Jul 27, 2017 4:22 am
Forum: ASTRO25 Series (XTS/XTL 1500/2500/5000) Subscribers
Topic: Convert XTL5K Consolette to Mobile questions
Replies: 5
Views: 5341

Re: Convert XTL5K Consolette to Mobile questions

You want the Astro Control Head Service Manual. It's a great reference for more than just jumpers, but you should be able to find the W7 schematic and locate the circuit for power. Repeaterbuilder's got this manual and almost every other Astro service manual you could want. http://www.repeater-build...
by W3AXL
Sat Jul 22, 2017 6:05 am
Forum: Base Stations, Repeaters, General Infrastructure
Topic: Deskset RCH-3000, L3208A, MCS2000 III (need manuals and help)
Replies: 5
Views: 3720

Re: Deskset RCH-3000, L3208A, MCS2000 III (need manuals and help)

Same manual as above. It's included towards the back. There are only a couple jumpers to move and they're all spelled out in a table.
by W3AXL
Tue Jul 18, 2017 8:39 am
Forum: MotoTRBO Portables and Mobiles (3xxx/5xxx/7xxx/SL) 2.0 Series Subscribers
Topic: Roaming Talkgroups & Timeslots
Replies: 3
Views: 7088

Re: Roaming Talkgroups & Timeslots

Okay, I think I've been overcomplicating things. You've just shed some better light on roaming. I was originally under the impression that each talkgroup needed to have its own roaming list. Now that I've seen how it behaves, and now that you've explained the way you've programmed roaming, I realize...
by W3AXL
Mon Jul 17, 2017 6:04 pm
Forum: MotoTRBO Portables and Mobiles (3xxx/5xxx/7xxx/SL) 2.0 Series Subscribers
Topic: Roaming Talkgroups & Timeslots
Replies: 3
Views: 7088

Roaming Talkgroups & Timeslots

I've been playing with DMR roaming on a 7350, for ham use on the various networks. Obviously being a 32-channel radio I need to get creative to be able to use all the talkgroups I want. The way I've currently got it set up is that each channel represents a talkgroup, tied to a roaming list which fin...
by W3AXL
Sat Jul 15, 2017 3:36 pm
Forum: APX Series Subscribers
Topic: New APX stuff coming! And SOFTWARE AES for APX900?
Replies: 35
Views: 21510

Re: New APX stuff coming! And SOFTWARE AES for APX900?

sjxts3000 wrote:the XPR7550 doesn't have an SMA connector on the antenna... but it looks like the APX900 does, so we know it fits, so why omit it from the XPR?
I'd imagine it was the same line of reasoning behind forgoing the Mini UHF in favor of a QMA connector on the 8500...
by W3AXL
Sat Jul 15, 2017 3:32 pm
Forum: Test Equipment & RF Equipment Alignment
Topic: Motorola R2600A versus HP8924C
Replies: 25
Views: 11651

Re: Motorola R2600A versus HP8924C

I was actually considering an 8901 for my home bench. At the shack our club has every piece of test gear imaginable, but it's not always accessible and I'd like to be able to work on radios without dragging them up three flights of stairs. I figure that since I don't need much more than frequency an...
by W3AXL
Thu Jul 13, 2017 9:26 am
Forum: Base Stations, Repeaters, General Infrastructure
Topic: Quantar local station microphone and speaker for P25
Replies: 5
Views: 8358

Re: Quantar local station microphone and speaker for P25

An MC3000 won't work with a quantar, period. The MC3000 simply emulates a radio control head, sending commands via SB9600 which the quantar doesn't understand. IIRC, the front microphone jack and speaker only work with analog operation as the quantar has no onboard vocoder to encode/decode P25. The ...
by W3AXL
Tue Jul 11, 2017 10:14 am
Forum: General Motorola Solutions & Legacy Radio Discussion
Topic: Astro Spectra - bad caps - every production run?
Replies: 11
Views: 5671

Re: Astro Spectra - bad caps - every production run?

At the risk of incurring the wrath of the leaky cap gods, I'm going to agree with Moto_Otaku here. I've owned thirty or so Astros and haven't seen the bad caps issue pop up yet. Hell, I've got a classic railroad spectra from '91 that hasn't died yet. (knock on wood, I've been meaning to recap it for...
by W3AXL
Tue Jul 11, 2017 4:22 am
Forum: APX Series Subscribers
Topic: New APX stuff coming! And SOFTWARE AES for APX900?
Replies: 35
Views: 21510

Re: New APX stuff coming! And SOFTWARE AES for APX900?

The FCC ID for the 8000 has all the frequency bands included. In comparison, the ID for this new 900 has separate IDs for VHF, UHF, and 800. My guess would be that it's "dual band" in the sense that LTE/Wifi counts as a band. Interestingly though it looks like they've extended the UHF1 ran...
by W3AXL
Sat Jul 08, 2017 1:12 pm
Forum: ASTRO25 Series (XTS/XTL 1500/2500/5000) Subscribers
Topic: Double sidetone beep on PTT-ID XTL5000
Replies: 4
Views: 3551

Re: Double sidetone beep on PTT-ID XTL5000

Clear TX Beep is what it sounds like. Check your secure settings and see if that's checked.
by W3AXL
Fri Jul 07, 2017 9:26 am
Forum: APX Series Subscribers
Topic: New APX stuff coming! And SOFTWARE AES for APX900?
Replies: 35
Views: 21510

Re: New APX stuff coming! And SOFTWARE AES for APX900?

Some searching yields an interesting document:

https://fccid.io/pdf.php?id=3415404

My suspicions may not be too far off.

EDIT: Found the FCC info page, including user manuals and additional PDFs.

https://fccid.io/AZ489FT7097
by W3AXL
Fri Jul 07, 2017 9:24 am
Forum: APX Series Subscribers
Topic: New APX stuff coming! And SOFTWARE AES for APX900?
Replies: 35
Views: 21510

Re: New APX stuff coming! And SOFTWARE AES for APX900?

I wouldn't be too terribly surprised to see a budget APX from Moto. They could use a lower-tier P25 radio if they want to stay competitive with the other manufacturers. That could explain the 900 instead of 9000; lower than the 1000 as opposed to even fancier than the 8k.
by W3AXL
Sat Jul 01, 2017 6:03 am
Forum: General Motorola Solutions & Legacy Radio Discussion
Topic: MC3000 Inquiry
Replies: 7
Views: 4433

Re: MC3000 Inquiry

The MC3000 is just a radio control head in a different package. You can control every function through it, the same as a regular control head.
by W3AXL
Thu Jun 29, 2017 4:07 am
Forum: ASTRO Series (Astro Saber, Spectra, XTS3000/3500) Subscribers
Topic: XTS3000 PL Unmuting Problem
Replies: 2
Views: 6667

Re: XTS3000 PL Unmuting Problem

It could be an alignment issue, but the fact that your DPL personality works fine would seem to contradict that. The times I've had an issue like this have either been something not programmed correctly (check your codeplug again, and then again!) or occasionally I'll have the SelCall muting set to ...
by W3AXL
Tue Jun 27, 2017 9:32 am
Forum: ASTRO25 Series (XTS/XTL 1500/2500/5000) Subscribers
Topic: XTL P2 Connector
Replies: 1
Views: 2565

XTL P2 Connector

Hi all, The parts lists and manuals aren't helping me much here. Is there a part number for the P2 accessory connector for the XTL series? I know you can buy the whole ignition & speaker cable, but it's $30 and all I need is the connector itself. I'm planning out a mobile repeater setup and I do...

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