Servicing an "Ebay" Astro Saber III

nylawman · Post by **nylawman** » Mon Sep 02, 2002 5:04 pm

I bought a UHF Astro Saber III on eBay from someone who reportedly remanufactures them. The case was new and had no tags on them. After receiving the radio, which I use for law enforcement use, I purchased RSS from Motorola and read the serial number. The radio is not listed in NCIC as stolen (If it was a missing police radio I'm sure it would have been).

Recently, on power-up, a condition surfaced where the radio beeps, displays the appropriate mode info, and goes into "Self-Check", then keeps repeating that sequence. The battery "lugs" were tightened. A Motorola technician, who stated they now send all their portable work to "the debot" for flat rate repair, opened the radio but did not see anything obvious that was "loose" (I do recall dropping the radio during a scuffle - it landed flat on the sidewalk - problem was noticed the following day).

The Motorola tech suggested sending it in to the Motorola depot. Should I expect a problem from them just because the radio was re-cased and bears no tags? Should I print tags and affix them?

What I find annoying is that when I sought to purchase an Astro Saber III, for personal use in the performance of official duties, a Motorola sales rep was very stand-offish and basically implied that, without a bulk purchase on an agency purchase order, there would be "no way" to do so. What is with these people?

Jonathan KC8RYW · Post by **Jonathan KC8RYW** » Mon Sep 02, 2002 5:15 pm

How about all of us on this board work together, and see what deal we can get from /\/\otorola for a bulk AS-3 order.

Let's see... secure, submersable, every option...

What do you say?

Post by **xmo** » Mon Sep 02, 2002 7:24 pm

"Should I expect a problem from them just because the radio was re-cased and bears no tags? "
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I suppose the only way to tell for sure is to send it in, but I had similar concern about sending in my XTS3000 that I bought at Dayton. It has the kitchen sink 'Chicago flashcode' and I was concerned because I believe that this set of features is not a "supported" combination(i.e. I don't think you can get Motorola to sell you a radio with that combination)

They fixed it and sent it right back (with new serial number tag) and never said anything. If you are sending it through an MSS that sends lots of radios in, they aren't very likely to question a re-cased radio.

The real worry about these 'built' radios is that if they were cloned, how many are out there with the same serial number??? If it turned out that the Depot had already seen a radio with he same S.N. who knows what might happen.

CHEFA2001 · Post by **CHEFA2001** » Mon Sep 02, 2002 8:28 pm

I had one of those "ebay flashcoded" radios go into the depot recently, it was one (the only ebay one) out of three that I have depot'ed and it came back with a new shield, (guess there was something wrong with it that I was not aware of) and flashcode came back identical to the way it was sent, less the over the air channel steering and the other over the air thing, (forgot the name of it), I simply did nto want them in there, and the reason I sent the radio to the depot was that it had horrible RX sometimes, Came back working 100% for the $365.00 I think it was but not too sure on that one. If someone wants to knwo the exact figure, I'll check my paperwork on that raido and post the info.

Ciao

CHEFA2001 · Post by **CHEFA2001** » Mon Sep 02, 2002 9:23 pm

Hey Shawn, I thought I was clear with the above post, but now that I re-read it I see I was not, I wanted them out as I have NO use for them and added a notation to my full page description of what I would like to have done to the radio....

It was and will likely always be a hassle to get the depot to do anything with a new astro radio, as the one that was in warrantee was a disaster in getting them to fix it, they were pointing the finger @ each other, no it goes here, not it goes there, blah, blah, blah, but eventually (mostly) due to the dealer who I have stuff depot'd through, I got done exactly what was requried....

IN simple answer terms, yes I wanted those 2 opts deleted, and I figured I wopuld get a normal f/c back, but I am not sure if they can delete parts (options) int eh flashcode, or if they need to re-flash ti entirely, btu I did get the newest host & dsp....

Gotta love flat rate...

I think it was Elroy who mentioned that ANY radio that goes to the depot, espescialyl an A/S, have a lengthy letter stating that the radio is MINE and the flashcode is MY property, etc.. and that altering it w/o my concent is against the law... I did type a letter similar to that but I was not hasty or anything,,,,The dealer laughed his ass of when he read it though....

nylawman · Post by **nylawman** » Tue Sep 03, 2002 2:40 am

Thanks for the info, guys. Your comments/sexperiences sound most encouraging. I will also review and evaluate the current flashware configuration for needed features but this one is pretty basic and appears to meet my needs. I will prepare detailed correspondence to accompany the radio and will let the local service center send it in. Hopefully my WTB ad won't be appearing on this board anytime soon

johngo1 · Post by **johngo1** » Wed Sep 04, 2002 8:27 pm

How can one do a search to see if a radio is stolen?

Thanks
John

CHEFA2001 · Post by **CHEFA2001** » Wed Sep 04, 2002 8:31 pm

tHERE are a # of ways, depending on if you have the radio already, compare the codeplug stored # to the tag #, actually look at the #, some are seriously fake, (anyone say ebay astros??)

I've seen two radios sold on ebay, (different ones) and they had 1 number difference in the s/n. One was Imbe, other was not.....

Hacked......

You can also call Motorola and ask them to tell you who was the original buyer of the radio...

I've done this a lot... Only with astro radios though, sometimes they don't even have a record of the s/n....

Not sure if thats good or bad though...

johngo1 · Post by **johngo1** » Wed Sep 04, 2002 9:38 pm

How can one do a search to see if a radio is stolen?

Thanks
John

Post by **alex** » Thu Sep 05, 2002 6:03 am

John,

You can goto your local police department and ask them to run the serial number for you.

However - keep in mind that if it comes back stolen, they are obligated to take it from you.

You should also be able to call motorola - they should have a database of sorts, but I don't know what department you'd talk to check the radios info.

-Alex

XDCLabs.COM · Post by **XDCLabs.COM** » Thu Sep 05, 2002 5:52 pm

Is this just for Canada? Does it cover US as well?

mike m · Post by **mike m** » Fri Sep 06, 2002 1:54 pm

http://www.radtek.sdione.net/

You can also go to the radtek site at the URL above and do a stolen radio search, along the left side of the opening screen look for RADIO HOT SHEET.

Mike

Servicing an "Ebay" Astro Saber III

Servicing an "Ebay" Astro Saber III

Servicing an Untagged Astro Saber

NCIC

NCIC