I worked as an RF design engineer at Motorola in Florida for 41 years. We were wrapping up a new radio design called the STX, which was one of the first processor controlled trunking radios, and the first for the 800 MHz band in the mid 80's. We heard that there would soon be a new ham band opening up, so we retuned the ceramic microstrip filters with a Dremel tool in a few radios for 900 MHz and flashed them with the engineering test software which allowed direct frequency entry from the keypad.....in hexadecimal. We had three or four working radios by field day of 1985 and made a live 900 MHz QSO from the field day setup at a county park to myself up on my roof about 2 miles away and mostly line of sight. Within a year I had built a crude repeater with two antennas and placed it on a pole about 35 feet in the air west of Ft. Lauderdale Florida. I could see the Motorola plant where I worked from my roof and could hit my repeater from two different 2nd story windows in the plant. It got very little use and died from the effects of a nearby lightning strike after a couple of years. The old hacked STXs wound up in a drawer and have long since been scrapped. The old Motorola plant is now home to Chewy dog food! A few Motorola engineers still exist in a rented corner of the huge 5 building facility. I did collect lots of parts when the old 2G cell sites were being taken down and I have seen my power meter read north of 500 watts on 903 MHz, but I haven't been active on 902 since. I left Motorola and Florida in 2014 and moved to a small town in West Virginia. My QTH is surrounded by hills on all sides, so a new 902 repeater is unlikely. There is not a lot of ham radio activity here, so 902 would be ghost town, and the band is used for wireless internet as well as IOT control of fracking equipment here, and some of it is quite strong. The spectrum analyzer can be nearly empty, or it can look like a mess of noise and jumbled spread spectrum signals at any given moment.
Someone in my club gave me a 900 MHz TK-981 conversion radio. I've had it for a year and have never heard anyone on 900. Given the lack of repeaters within 50 miles of me, I get the feeling that a CB may be more useful, even if I use it just when I'm stuck in traffic and want to know which lane is closed. I think I'm going to remove the radio, but I'll keep it in case I change my mind in the future. The antenna may be useful for a Meshtastic node. Thanks for the video, BTW! -Scott
Yes, sadly in some areas the 33cm band is not used much. One of the reasons for making this video was in hopes of educating folks and changing this. It is also possible that there are some repeaters in your area you are not aware of, worth checking!
I am in Montreal Canada. I am presently operating on 900Mhz digital (DMR). I have one repeater not too far from me and we have coverage pretty much all through the Eastern Townships (900 DMR). To operate on 900Mhz you need to have a passion for high quality peaceful radio (no blips blops, kerchunking, static and the like). All the radios are preprogrammed. Pick a channel and talk. Half the fun is programming the radios.
The FCC is now accepting comments concerning the band reassignment from ham radio to high power wireless broadband. Let the FCC know that you want to preserve this band. Once it's gone. It's never comming back.
Yes..... and personally think it's allot of Squeeze for the Juice... Everything has to be modified or is So Expensive it's just not worth the price .... Thank You for doing this Video.
Have you ever operated on the 900MHz band? Would you be interested in it if given the chance? Let me know below!
Yes I have looked into it and seems like Allot of Squeeze for the Juice
I worked as an RF design engineer at Motorola in Florida for 41 years. We were wrapping up a new radio design called the STX, which was one of the first processor controlled trunking radios, and the first for the 800 MHz band in the mid 80's. We heard that there would soon be a new ham band opening up, so we retuned the ceramic microstrip filters with a Dremel tool in a few radios for 900 MHz and flashed them with the engineering test software which allowed direct frequency entry from the keypad.....in hexadecimal. We had three or four working radios by field day of 1985 and made a live 900 MHz QSO from the field day setup at a county park to myself up on my roof about 2 miles away and mostly line of sight.
Within a year I had built a crude repeater with two antennas and placed it on a pole about 35 feet in the air west of Ft. Lauderdale Florida. I could see the Motorola plant where I worked from my roof and could hit my repeater from two different 2nd story windows in the plant. It got very little use and died from the effects of a nearby lightning strike after a couple of years. The old hacked STXs wound up in a drawer and have long since been scrapped. The old Motorola plant is now home to Chewy dog food! A few Motorola engineers still exist in a rented corner of the huge 5 building facility. I did collect lots of parts when the old 2G cell sites were being taken down and I have seen my power meter read north of 500 watts on 903 MHz, but I haven't been active on 902 since.
I left Motorola and Florida in 2014 and moved to a small town in West Virginia. My QTH is surrounded by hills on all sides, so a new 902 repeater is unlikely. There is not a lot of ham radio activity here, so 902 would be ghost town, and the band is used for wireless internet as well as IOT control of fracking equipment here, and some of it is quite strong. The spectrum analyzer can be nearly empty, or it can look like a mess of noise and jumbled spread spectrum signals at any given moment.
Someone in my club gave me a 900 MHz TK-981 conversion radio. I've had it for a year and have never heard anyone on 900. Given the lack of repeaters within 50 miles of me, I get the feeling that a CB may be more useful, even if I use it just when I'm stuck in traffic and want to know which lane is closed. I think I'm going to remove the radio, but I'll keep it in case I change my mind in the future. The antenna may be useful for a Meshtastic node. Thanks for the video, BTW! -Scott
Yes, sadly in some areas the 33cm band is not used much. One of the reasons for making this video was in hopes of educating folks and changing this. It is also possible that there are some repeaters in your area you are not aware of, worth checking!
Lots of Motorola XPR 4580s and 6580s on eBay and work great on this band, can't forget the MTX one's either :)
Correct, the MTX units are a good catch!
I am in Montreal Canada. I am presently operating on 900Mhz digital (DMR). I have one repeater not too far from
me and we have coverage pretty much all through the Eastern Townships (900 DMR). To operate on 900Mhz you need
to have a passion for high quality peaceful radio (no blips blops, kerchunking, static and the like). All the radios are preprogrammed. Pick a channel and talk. Half the fun is programming the radios.
I would agree, that is half the fun! Thanks for the visit and 73!
The FCC is now accepting comments concerning the band reassignment from ham radio to high power wireless broadband.
Let the FCC know that you want to preserve this band.
Once it's gone. It's never comming back.
Thank you for sharing this, I have already commented on this. I hope others do as well!
I use MCS 2000 once you hack the software you just program it no mods needed for the radio works out of the box
That is also my experience, great radios!
Need a lot more ready to go ht. S )
One can never have too many !
Yes..... and personally think it's allot of Squeeze for the Juice... Everything has to be modified or is So Expensive it's just not worth the price .... Thank You for doing this Video.
You are very welcome, thanks for stopping by!
You can get Retevis radios on 900MHz for