Batboard

So whats all this loyalty/admiration for Sabers?Not very popular around here
,But have seen a few in the shop....intermittant problems(like all motos)
\So group>tell me just what is the attraction with sabers???????
mod

High power
Ultra durable
Easily found used
Module design
Decent options
Look good
Batteries are prevalent
Thin design

etc.........

I personally think the one piece tubular housing design was the best thing ever designed. You can't get much more durable than a single piece housing that is basically pulled together and capped at each end.


mancow

Firefighter proof!!

if need arise you could mame someone with one. Thats why i carry one as a firefighter. Plus you can tell by the mdc when your using a saber.

Not to mention that they sound better than the MTX radios.




Lowry K4RUR

Why all the loyalty? Why all the admiration?

Because it's a radio that was ahead of its time when it first came out. That generates the following the Saber has enjoyed.

Because I've owned about ten (10) Sabers, and among all of them I've had exactly one (1) problem over the years with one single radio, and that involved the radio not automatically switching between the onboard antenna and the antenna on the speaker/microphone.

And the above doesn't even begin to get into the seeming indestructability of the Saber.

The real short answer to the question is that there probably won't be another analog, multi-channel radio to equal the Saber for a long, long time, if ever.

- excellent audio quality
- durability
- high availability on used/surplus market
- commonality of parts/accessories (I use both V and U, so being able to standardize on batteries/spk mics/chargers/etc is a definite plus). there is even a large amount of compatibility between analog and astro in this regard.
- wide variety of models to suit every need - from the simple (and cheap) Saber I, to the Sys Saber III, and of course the "S" and "R" models, the intrinsicly safe versions, the 800MHz Si, Astro's, etc. in fact, i would wager that the Saber has more variants than anything else /\/\ has ever produced.
- relative ease of mainentance (radio is a hobby for me, not a profession, but i've been able to fix every Saber problem i've encountered).
- securenet
- design...small enough to fit in your back pocket, large enough to be used as a club if needed....
- lots and lots of /\/\ and aftermarket accessories
etc............

obviously, i'm a big Saber fan. time will tell if the XTS family will ever achieve the same status. I think the Spectra is pretty much the mobile equal to the Saber....they are definatly my personal favorites, for pretty much the same reasons.

they also bounce, and come back for more.

They also have the the best, loudest audio quality ever put in any portable radio, to this day. The Saber 1's are particularly good in this respect.

The type is getting a bit long in the tooth these days, but if you can find one that hasn't been beaten to death, and use it for a while, you'll see why they have a dedicated following.

It's my understanding that some major departments actually arranged for large numbers of Sabers to be made for them AFTER Motorola had intended to cancel the line, because those departments had a strong official preference for the type.

I'm still not sure that any later radio models, including Astro Sabers, were actually any BETTER than a Saber.

Elroy

Sabers and Spectras in particular (and the HT600/P200) were designed and introduced in the mid to late 1980s when Total Quality was very important at Motorola. This was also when they were applying for the Malcolm Baldridge award for the first time and well into getting their 6 Sigma program going.

Companies that followed this discipline at that time paid a lot of attention to meeting customer needs as well as to "designing for manufacture" and "designing for maintenance." Those principles are very visible in the resulting products, which met customers' needs and were extremely well thought out in their design.

Compare the design of these radios to the MT500 and MCX100/MCX1000. These earlier models were good performers also, but will simply not hold up as well under the kind of abuse that Spectras and Sabers can absorb.

Oh...it didn't hurt that these models came along at the time that surface mount components and board stuffing systems were hitting their peak in terms of availability and quality.

There is no longer much focus on meeting customer needs at many companies, and the manufacturing focus is on "how cheaply can we do it." Additionally, the base of knowledge that tells you not to build a radio with 2 holes leading directly to the guts (like the accessory connector on the GP300/P1225) has been mostly lost through retirement and layoffs. So the new model radios are generally incapable of withstanding even moderate industrial environments without premature failure.

Further, other later radios that are generally pretty good units have other shortcomings that are revealed on close inspection. VHF/UHF Jedi radios (HT1000, JT1000, et al) are very slow to lock up on the receive frequency when the PTT buttin is realeased, just as one example.

Hope this helps you understand a little more about our devotion to some of the 'older' radios.

Regards,