x9000 fail recovery

[havmedic26]

Hello all. I have a stack of old x9000 radios that I have been trying to program. I tried programing a couple of them and their control heads with a 386 that I thought would work. It read the radios and control heads, but when I tried to write them each one failed to verify, and afterwards would display an error on startup (fail 05/92 I believe). I believe the problem was the speed of the computer. I have since acquired three 286 8mhz computers to program with. Unfortunately I have been unable to read the radios or control heads (bad checksum) of write a new code plug into them (failed to verify). Once I have a "fail" error, do I need to recover the radios somehow before reading / writing to them again? Perhaps some type of programming mode or use of "special" software?

Thanks

Jt

[Andy Brinkley]

First try to reprogram them using the saved archive you made when you read them (First rule of radio programming)

If you forgot to make an archive or this doesn't work you can generate one from scratch using the RSS, but make sure the eeprom size (2k or 8k) is correct for the radio and for the control head.

A 05 error would tend to indicate a problem with the control head programming.

An excellent reference is Mike Blenderman's site www.onfreq.com

[Jim202]

Hello all. I have a stack of old x9000 radios that I have been trying to program. I tried programing a couple of them and their control heads with a 386 that I thought would work. It read the radios and control heads, but when I tried to write them each one failed to verify, and afterwards would display an error on startup (fail 05/92 I believe). I believe the problem was the speed of the computer. I have since acquired three 286 8mhz computers to program with. Unfortunately I have been unable to read the radios or control heads (bad checksum) of write a new code plug into them (failed to verify). Once I have a "fail" error, do I need to recover the radios somehow before reading / writing to them again? Perhaps some type of programming mode or use of "special" software?

Thanks

Jt

The first question I would ask is how many channels your looking to end up with? The original Syntor X9000 was 32 channels. There were some that made it to 64 channels. If you upgrade the EEPROM in the radio, you can go as high as the 255 channel mark. Same thing for the control heads. there are a number of control heads that will work with this radio. Again it sort of depends on what flavor the head is and if it has a replaceable EEPROM.

I have had to use a small program called "cacheoff.com" that I run before starting the Motorola software. It has solved a number of problems in programming these radios. The computer I use normally is 120 MHz clock.

There are 2 different programs that you need to use. The "rdprog.exe" is used to program the radio. The "chprog.exe" is used to program the control head. Depending if your only going to use the radio on the commercial channels or the ham band will point you to which software you will need to use. The commercial version will not allow you to go outside the normal band limits to get to either 10 meters or 6 meters. The radio will go the entire range with basically no tuning. But the antenna will be the big problem.

You can run into a control head that just won't program. In this case, I have taken a Spectra radio that is working and do a read with a good 9000 style control head. Shut the radio off and change in the head that is giving you problems. Power up the radio with the trouble head. Then write back to the radio without changing anything. You should be able to then have a working head on the Spectra. Take the head off the Spectra and put it on the Syntor X9000. Then start the "chprog.exe" program. Do a create new, if you don't have a good head you can read from. Make the channel setup in the program and write it back to the head. If you have a good head, read it and then swap in the head you fixed on the Spectra. Write back to the repaired head. I have fixed a number of heads this way.

Check out the Mike B site for all the radio and control head details and model numbers. His site has the best info you will find anyplace.

The Syntor X9000 radios come in low band, VHF and UHF. I have never managed to find any UHF versions to have and play with, but own both of the others. Use them all the time.

Keep the group posted as to how you make out.

Jim

[HLA]

what's your programming setup as far as cables and rib? I still own some of theese radios and I program them with a pentium 266 started with a ME startup disk. And are you using both programs, there is one for the drawer and another program for the head

[havmedic26]

Thanks for the replies!

Yes I have a backup of everything that I read.

Interestingly, the stack of radios that I have are all UHF. look around - many departments are switching to newer radios and disposing of these radios. I got many from my dept when we changed over. Three towns around us sent theirs to our "transfer station" (dump) where I picked them up.

I am using both programs, chprog and rdprog. I have multiple revisions of each. I am using a 286 com1 serial cable, to a sandy gantz RIB and a karma mall RIB (trying both) to a motorola programming cable / interface.

I can't seem to reprogram the heads or the radios. they both fail to verify. Thats why I was wondering if I needed to get it out of the "fail" mode first.

For the moment I am staying with 32 channels or less. Since they are former dept radios, they are programmed that way to start with. I would be happy to start there before trying anything else. For that matter I would be happy to stay with commercial channels for the moment.

I have previously looked for and never been able to locate the program "cacheoff.com"

I believe I may have a good spectra, so I will try that trick. Thanks

What is a ME startup disk? Motorola Edition?

Jt

[resqguy911]

I have previously looked for and never been able to locate the program "cacheoff.com"

http://www.repeater-builder.com/motorol ... ontrol.zip

What is a ME startup disk? Motorola Edition?

Windows Millennium Edition (ugh) http://www.allbootdisks.com/download/me.html

[havmedic26]

Millenium Edition? I didnt know anyone ever bought / used that!