Mostar programming

[motoBob]

Hey everyone. I picked up a VHF Mostar today for $5. I know these radios are despised by many but for $5 I figured it would at least give me something to tinker with. It transmits and receives fine and is in great shape overall.

I don't want to send it off anywhere to have it programmed and from what I understand you can set up a new PROM for the radio using an EPROM programmer. I have an idea of how this would work, but I'm confused about what sort of EPROM programmer I would need. Can anyone recommend one? Would I use the same PROM that is currently in the radio or do I need to get a new one?

Thanks for the help.

[Bill_G]

The weight of your doors and the general breeze strength in your area will determine what size of rubber feet you put on the bottom of a Mostar because they slide pretty easily across most surfaces. OTOH, it is winter, and curling is huge in some places. You can easily screw a handle into the top. Too bad you couldn't get two - then you could make bookends!

No, but really - finding a new prom for that will triple the value. Finding a working prom burner for it may be impossible. Ours gave up the ghost a long time ago.

[motoBob]

Didn't realize that getting a EPROM programmer and an EPROM would be an issue.

This article made it sound like the EPROMs and programmers were standard, easy-to-find parts. I guess that's not the case.
http://www.batlabs.com/mostar.html

[tvsjr]

Take radio out back.
Locate sledgehammer.
Proceed to reprogram the radio repeatedly with sledgehammer, preferably until the radio is in multiple pieces.
Throw remainder in the dumpster.
Order a new modern radio.

Seriously, those radios sucked when they were new and they really suck now. Finding the PROM burner is nearly impossible, as is finding PROMs. They won't do narrowband. And any modern Yaecomwood/Baofeng/etc. radio will easily beat them on specs.

Unless you're a masochist, it just isn't worth it.

[wavetar]

Didn't realize that getting a EPROM programmer and an EPROM would be an issue.

This article made it sound like the EPROMs and programmers were standard, easy-to-find parts. I guess that's not the case.
http://www.batlabs.com/mostar.html

That information is close to 20 years old, so yeah, not so easy to find parts anymore.

[motoBob]

http://www.futurlec.com/Memory/2732pr.shtml
Couldn't I use the EPROM at the above link? The article mentions that the Mostar can take the 2732.

I mean, am I missing something? I see EPROM programmers and the EPROMs listed in the article all over the place online. Are these something different or what?

[Andy Brinkley]

To parphrase the State Farm "French Model" Commercial - just because it's on the internet doesn't make it true.

Much of the information I see posted on the Internet about the Mostar radios is at best inaccurate. The conventional Mostars do not use proms or eproms, they utilize reprogrammable memory in the form of either a 70C020 NVRAM or 2804 or 2816 series eeprom depending on the particualr command board.

You can review our FAQ about the Mostars at:

http://www.brinkleyelectronics.com/mos/mostar_faq.htm

[Bill_G]

No. You can give them a try. Nothing stopping a man from exploring. Obviously, support for the product is long gone, and most of us have forgotten what the specifics were in maintaining the model. You'll be venturing into the territory pretty much alone. But, by all means go for it if it interests you. I suspect you will need to find an old R1800 suitcase programmer, or the Epson, to get what you want accomplished.

[motoBob]

Much of the information I see posted on the Internet about the Mostar radios is at best inaccurate.

Not trying to sound rude or anything, but shouldn't the info from "Batlabs" be trustworthy?

As it stands I'm just going to either donate this radio or trash it. I hate to do that since it's in good shape. I've got plenty of other, more modern radios(including a few Maxtracs) that I use. I just happened across this Mostar for $5 and had never heard of the model name so I bought it to see if something could be done with it.

[wavetar]

I have no doubt the proms are readily available. I think the biggest issue will be doing the actual programming. Most of us here that have done it used the purpose-built Motorola R1800 suitcase programmer, which had specific hardware modules per prom type, and specific programming routines based on those modules. I have no idea what you would need to do to program a prom properly with any other type of burner. I programmed some trunked Mostars way back in the late 90's, and RSS was also involved...but as Bill_G says, specifics are lost.

[motoBob]

That's what I was curious about. Would I even have to use the R1800 programmer or could I just use a generic EPROM programmer? From reading around I've seen that the Syntors could be programmed by using a new 2816 prom and a generic EPROM programmer, would the same be true for the Mostars?

The Mostar page I linked to says "Using a conventional EPROM/EEPROM programmer, you can program up a new PROM for your radio using the following Excel spreadsheet", which makes it sound like you can just get a new 2816 and then use any programmer that supports that chip to program it.

[Will]

Much of the information I see posted on the Internet about the Mostar radios is at best inaccurate.

Not trying to sound rude or anything, but shouldn't the info from "Batlabs" be trustworthy? .

Not all the time, there are many errors in some of the Batlabs articles. Same goes for some on RB.

[wavetar]

That's what I was curious about. Would I even have to use the R1800 programmer or could I just use a generic EPROM programmer? From reading around I've seen that the Syntors could be programmed by using a new 2816 prom and a generic EPROM programmer, would the same be true for the Mostars?

The Mostar page I linked to says "Using a conventional EPROM/EEPROM programmer, you can program up a new PROM for your radio using the following Excel spreadsheet", which makes it sound like you can just get a new 2816 and then use any programmer that supports that chip to program it.

Yeah, I had a look at that spreadsheet. Having never programmed a prom beyond using the R1800 programmer, it's all Greek to me. Well, not really, but it does look like a lot of hassle. But hey, give 'er a shot & let us know how it goes!

[Bill_G]

However, I think Andy is right - the conventional models came out with ee, and according to my old Toshiba laptop, there was a dos version of rss for it. I have version AA00.00.00 from Feb 88 installed! Amazing. Can't tell you what cable to use. If I recall, it was a six pin, not the RJ45 like Maxtracs. Apparently we don't have the rss box or service manuals anymore, but we do clean house here sometimes. Conventional Mostars were not a popular model around here. I think the sale people were under pressure to load the trunking systems back then. VHF and UHF equipment became scarce for a while.