X9000 help

[racerman1cars]

Hi, I have a Vhf 100 watt X9000, it has no receive or tx audio. What part should I look at? I don't have a manual. I an getting a 50 watter pparts radio hoping to find which board to swap.
Steve

[Jim202]

Hi, I have a Vhf 100 watt X9000, it has no receive or tx audio. What part should I look at? I don't have a manual. I an getting a 50 watter pparts radio hoping to find which board to swap.
Steve

It sounds like you have multiple issues with that radio. How are you determining that you have these problems? The simple test would be the TX audio. Are you getting RF power out on the correct frequency and at the rated level?

Am on vacation right now so don't have any documentation available to help you with. I would go to the batlabs site and the repeater builder site to get the control cable pin connections at the radio. Take an audio tone generator and cap couple it to the TX audio (mic high) pin and see if you don't get TX audio. It won't take a very high level tone signal to provide enough audio. Use the radio chassis as the audio low side for the signal generator. This way you can tell if the TX audio problem is in the control head or in the radio. The reason I say cap couple it is there should be a DC bias voltage on this line.

The RX audio issue can be much more of an issue to pin down. Again I would start with the control cable pins for the speaker output. Make sure you don't ground either side of the speaker wires. This could and probably would do damage to the RX audio output amp.

Jim

[HLA]

did this problem happen out of nowhere from a good working radio or did you just get it and it has this problem?

[Mike B]

This is typical behavior if the large red wire that goes to the radio drawer has no power (blown fuse, corroded or loose connection, etc.). The power from the control head will run everything except the RF PA deck and audio output amplifier. The control head power is through the green wire and into the radio drawer through the cable.
http://www.onfreq.com/syntorx/syntorx9k ... #x9kchpins

It is also possible your VCO is not locking. The X9k control head will not alert you if there is no lock and the radio PA function is inhibited where there is no lock. If you open the lid on your radio drawer, there is a LED mounted under a hole in the RF board that you can see (a little left of center line, just above the handle, before the big shield). The radio service manual has a picture of its location in the Description & Operation section. While operating, when the indicator is lit it means the radio's frequency synthesizer is not locked on frequency. It is normal for it to flash when changing modes or pressing the PTT. It appears to be lit while the radio is scanning, but is usually flashing so quickly from frequency changes that it is an optical illusion.

I am not aware of any specific 50 watt X9k radios. There are adjustable power ones that go down to 50 watts. There are 30, 40 and 60 versions plus some higher power variations.
http://www.onfreq.com/syntorx/syntorx9k/modelsx9.html

[Mike B]

It's been a long time, but I just remembered the large red lead sometimes comes loose inside the radio connector (the newer cables used epoxy inside the connector housing to prevent this). Open the radio drawer lid and measure the voltage on the A and B solder pads shown in the gif. If the wire is loose, pulling the radio cable connector out to measure the voltage on the pin will not tell you very much since a loose wire might do whatever it wants when you move it around.
http://www.onfreq.com/syntorx/images/s_x9kspins.gif

I also forgot that unlike the Syntor X, the Syntor X 9000 large red wire powers the microprocessor to keep the memory alive while the control head power is off. You should see a control head fail error if there is no power on this large red wire in the X9k. Except radios that started as Syntor X and were modified to be X9k radios do not always have this microprocessor power connection and will not give a fail error on the control head.

[racerman1cars]

Hi, The radio acted this way when I got it. It is on freq and puts out 100 watts.when changing modes you hear the beeps. just no TX or RX audio thru the sevice monoitor. I took the cable and head off of my uhf setup and still no audio. Mike the X9k for parts is a T43.
Steve

[Mike B]

If you get no errors, you hear alert tone beeps and you get Tx power it means your 9.6 volt, switched 5 volt and unswitched 5 volt power should all be good. The beep comes straight out the microprocessor into the audio and bypasses the normal Rx audio path, so the audio is working.
http://www.onfreq.com/syntorx/images/x9kaudioconf.gif

The only things that appear to be common to both Rx and Tx audio are the personality board U300 (filter chip), hybrid HY300 (analog audio switching), U301-B (analog ground buffer) and the U504 control chip. Everything else should only effect Rx or Tx, not both. It looks like an oscilloscope and manual would be required to trace the audio on the personality board and find out where it gets interrupted. Knowing where should lead you to exactly what failed.

I suppose if the Tx deviation pot was all the way down and there was a different Rx problem, then the problem might not be limited to common Rx/Tx audio circuitry.

[com501]

Two things.

You will never get TX audio if the programming cable is plugged into the radio, it shunts the mike audio. That should NOT affect RX however.

Check your personality board jumpers. Someone could have had a secure option board installed inside the radio or using an external housing.

Check ALL the jumpers against the manual, since those boards are completely interchangeable between bands and models, all this is different is the jumpers and eeprom programming.

[racerman1cars]

Thanks guys for the replies. I have another question I have a 1063 head it works on an X9000, but not a Spectra. I thought the 1063 was a Spectra head. Can it be changed to work on a Spectra?
Steve

[jmr061]

A 1063 head will work on a regular spectra. Once a Syntor head is programmed as a spectra head though, it is a pain to switch it back to work with a X9000.

Jason

[Mike B]

Does your HCN1063 head work on other radios? Does your Spectra radio drawer work? Is your RSS setup as a single radio with a S9000 control head? For example, I think the dual radio drawer that is setup for the SIU and HHCH is marked as an A9, but will not work with A9 heads. I can't remember if the control head type can be changed in the RSS or if you have to force a new code plug into the drawer? The A9, B9 and C9 heads are different from all the other 8 character alhpa display heads. The RSS A4, A5 and A7 settings will not work with an A9 head on the radio.

[racerman1cars]

No the head won"t work on my working Spectra,but it works perfectly on my uhf X9000. I do have another 1063 head that works on my vhf Spectra. the 1063 head that don't work on a Spectra, I am going to try and convert it to a W9 by replacing a chip to use on my uhf Astro Saber.

[Jim202]

No the head won"t work on my working Spectra,but it works perfectly on my uhf X9000. I do have another 1063 head that works on my vhf Spectra. the 1063 head that don't work on a Spectra, I am going to try and convert it to a W9 by replacing a chip to use on my uhf Astro Saber.

Before you go swapping things around, I would suggest that you spend some time doing
some reading about the Syntor X9000 radio and the different heads that will work with it.
Try looking at the repeater builder site and the batlabs site. They both contain a wealth
of information on the radio.

Jim

[jmr061]

Also take the head apart and make sure it has a PLCC chip instead of a DIP chip for the firmware. If somone switched tags or the back housing you could have a 1033 head and not a 1063 head. A 1063 head will work on spectra if you have an A9 codeplug loaded up, connect the 1063 head and program it it.

Jason

[racerman1cars]

I am not swapping parts around for the X9000, I am going to change the firm ware chip to make it work with my Astro.
Steve