Batboard

I have just purchased a Ruggedised XTS5000 Model III 380-470MHz unit with the following options:

Q806/G806 IMBE / APCO-25 Digital Operation
H14/G114 Digital ID Display
H35/G48 Conventional Operation
Q387 Conventional voting scan
H38/G51 Smartzone Operation
Q173/G173 Smartzone OmniLink Operation
Q361/G361 Digital APCO-25 IMBE Trunking (9600kb Control)

My question is this, is it possible and how do i program the unit out of band by 5-8 MHz ?

I have also purchased the latest release CPS with the unit long with the USB programming cable.

If anyone out there knows how i can do this, please advise along with whatever programming equipment/software i might need.

To my knowledge, this hasn't been acomplished yet.

I have a feeling that some people have, but its not easy to do and is beyond the capabilities of most.

Actually rather easy to program conventional out of band. Trunking is another story...

Conventional out of band.
Same procedure as the XTS3000/Astro Saber CPS.

Hex edit the exe file. Replace each instance of 80A1031C with 0080841E
That will raise the upper band limit from 470.000 to 512.000.

NOTE - the VCO WILL NOT operate that high. Not sure how far out your radio will operate (mileage may vary).

The trick is when using Hex workshop to do a Save As and save the modified exe as patport.new . Exit Hex Workshop, rename the original exe to patport.old, then rename the new file back to the patport.exe

For the mobile version it is patmob.exe instead of patport.exe

WARNING - the radio will NOT be in FCC spec when out of band so I STRONGLY urge you NOT to do this to tx out of band!

Pj wrote:To my knowledge, this hasn't been acomplished yet.

I have a feeling that some people have, but its not easy to do and is beyond the capabilities of most.

It has been done on the XTS5000R III's issued to the NSW State Emergency Service in Australia. They've got the UHF CB band at 477MHz programmed into them.

I was told Motorola's Silverwater RSC did it.

Just tried this method of hexedit for my xts3000 software but it wont work for me, used hex edit found and replaced everything but no luck,

is there anything more i should know?

ive got R04.01.04 cps any sugestions?

found it, just had to search for 470 ie: hex 40716E1C and replace with 512 in hex ie:0080841E

only one instance also

Dave.au,


I am pretty sure you also have to do a search for 477 MHZ and change them as well in the Astro Product Software.

Radio43

Will this work with the FPP feature?

It will allow FPP radios to be programmed out of band via CPS. The FPP band limits are hard coded in firmware.

worked it out had to search for 470 and replace it with 512 in the cps exe file, got it to work finally!

how did u get 470 to be 0x40716E1C and 512 to be 0x0080841E ?

Just noticed a typo on the hex values I posted. To get the upper limit to be higher you can use Hex workshop and use the base converter to calculate the hex string to search for and also calculate the new value.

If you want to raise the upper limit from 470.000 to 490.000 you would enter 470000000 in the base converter under the decimal section and make sure it is set to Intel unsigned long. That yields 80A1031C. The value for 490000000 would be 80CE341D.

Some people said their upper limit was 477 and not 470. You need to check what the highest frequency you can enter before mod. Follow my instructions above to save as. then rename the original and then rename the new file. I just did this with the latest 8.00 Astro 25 portable CPS and it worked fine to bring the lower limit from 450 to 440.

Interesting people saying the 5k is harder and its only been done by gurus when in actual fact Its no harder than doing XTS3k/astro sabers. in fact its easier...

MattSR wrote:Interesting people saying the 5k is harder and its only been done by gurus when in actual fact Its no harder than doing XTS3k/astro sabers. in fact its easier...

It was said by one guy, who was quickly proven wrong.

...which at the time many of the ASTRO25 radios didn't have much "hack" information around...and there were other avenues that I didn't want to go down at that time.

MattSR wrote:Interesting people saying the 5k is harder and its only been done by gurus when in actual fact Its no harder than doing XTS3k/astro sabers. in fact its easier...

I'll beg to differ on the 5K being easier then the 3K. The 5K's have the P * * * * IC chip in them...........

Out of band 380 to 470 split can be taken up to 478Mhz without degragation in RX/TX (well at least mine does)

Hightower wrote:The 5K's have the P * * * * IC chip in them...........

The what chip?

Hex editing the 5k software requires fewer tables to be edited, hence my statement the mod is easier.

Patriot... not sure why it's *** out.

How does the type of host IC inside the radio ahve anything to do with how CPS is modified? The type of Host IC completely irrelevant to how the band split tables in CPS are arranged.

its like saying.. "ooh we cant fit 19 inch rims to your car, because the engine is red"

MattSR wrote:How does the type of host IC inside the radio ahve anything to do with how CPS is modified? The type of Host IC completely irrelevant to how the band split tables in CPS are arranged.

its like saying.. "ooh we cant fit 19 inch rims to your car, because the engine is red"

The thread kinda got split into 2 parts, 1) CPS hacking (out of band), and 2) actually hacking the 5K to do kewl fancy stuff.

Hex editing the CPS will let ya program outside the published limits, and is easier to modify the Astro25 CPS. The Patriot IC inside the 5K is supposed to prevent hacking and adding features/changing serial numbers/etc to the 5K, like so many have done with the 3K.

Motorola learned their lesson after everyone and their brother hacked the 3K, so they decided to tighten up security when they designed the 5K. That's where the Patriot IC comes into play.

In my original post I refered to the Patriot IC as "P * * * * ", cause I was not sure if is was OK to mention the actual name of the IC on the board here. Just trying to play it safe......

No worries, I see where you are coming from now

If it means anything my Q Split XTS2500I works nicely at 483Mhz.

Does XTS2500 is the same?
How low can S-Split go down?
Thanks~~!

has anyone experimented with the 2500 S split, going down to 440's?

Dunno, but ive had an S-split XTS3k running ASTRO on 434 no worries.

I've got an S split 2500 on 440 band with no problem. Follow the instructions for hex editing the CPS. Use the HEx Workshop base converter to calculate the hex value for 450000000 and then the value for 440000000 . Search for the first hex string and replace every instance found with the second hex string (440). Then save as and save the file with an extension of .new

Rename the original exe file to .old and rename the new file to .exe

Should be good to go.

Patriot is just a fancy MCU and DSP in a single package, probably with an onboard security supervisor to provide tamper detection, prevent power supply manipulation attacks etc. It's not like it's some national security classified kit from the NSA or something.

What sort of MCU core does that thing have anyway? PowerQUICC?

How far could I stretch VHF on a 5k

Try it and find out. Let us know. I know that years ago I was able to stretch a VHF Astro Saber down to about 121 MHz and get the VCO to lock reliably,
and go up to about 187 MHz, too. Not that there's really any point to that. It does allow you to receive some VHF air band traffic but as the receiver is
FM (well, IQ digital , actually) then the AM signals are often of low intelligibility.


Elroy

I dont have a service monitor or any other testing equipment, how will I know if it is working?

A lack of FAIL messages on the display or error tones.


Those messages will show up when the radio gets far enough out of the regular frequency band that the VCO won't lock.



Elroy

I will give it a try

I have 450-520 MHz XTS5000s, model H18SDH9PW7AN and 450-520 MHz XTS3000s, model H09SDF9PW7BN. I would like to extend the freq range of both to below 450 MHz.

I have tried Hex Workshop, and no luck finding the freq range limits to edit in either radio. What directories am I searching?

I'd appreciate an email on how-to.

Thanks for your help and newbie patience,
925adam (slowly going 918 Victor)