Need help with saber IIs

[JGrimm]

just purchased 8 saber 2s on 136-150mhz for my airsot team. Problem im having is on some of them the battery indicator on the LCD shows full but is flashing. And then on some of them when I transmit the battery lcd flashes and the red led flashes. and then on others when I transmit the red led turns on but doesn't flashes. And so what was happening was the one with the solid led could transmit and recieve from a 1/4 mile away while trying to communicate with the one with the constant flashing indicator. And the one with the lcd flashing when I transmit could transmit to the one that didn't flash and stayed solid. but when receiving from the others all that came through was pulsating static and all it transmtting was pulsating static. now Im very confused because all the battery I using had a green fully charged light on the charging bay.

Help, what do the different flashings mean

[Tom in D.C.]

The functions you're asking about are set up in the radios' programs, and until or unless you are sure the radios are all programmed the same you can have the problems you're experiencing. If you take the radios to a Motorola shop they can set up the radios so that everything is set the same way on all the radios. To do the job yourself you will need the Motorola program, plus a RIB (radio interface box) plus a programming cable, plus a laptop computer that can run pure DOS and not Windows or XP. The Saber has been a discontinued model for quite a while and the Motorola program may or may not still be available. If it is then the cost for a complete setup to do your own work on the radios could be in the $400 range, so all thing considered you are probably better off having a shop do the work for you.

What frequencies do you intend to use for your application?

[speedbird727]

Greetings! The battery indicator on the SABER radio LCD screen is of poor design... The battery image is always of a "full" looking battery. This icon starts to blink when it is low.

The LED can be programmed to indicate EITHER a low battery condition (blink) OR transmission in progress (solid).

Tom in D.C is right about the frequency issue. The only license-free VHF channels would be MURS (151-154 MHz) but you said your radios don't go that high.

I just Google searched "Motorola SABER Radio Programming Service" and a few places come up, so there are definitely shops out there that still program these radios. SABERs are good solid radios. If you program them yourself be sure to use a real RIB and cable with fully charged battery. They can be very finicky!

[FireCpt809]

there are plenty of people here that can still program sabers..I can for one.

[JGrimm]

Thanks, I got an entire programming setup along with the RIB, interface cable, old as :o 30mhz compaq laptop. And the program itself. only problem im having is getting the program onto the old laptop.

Also I discovered one of the batteries I was using was bad. It got mixed up with my good battery section some how.