Same here. Started around 1980, still had Business Dispatchers and the occasional T power cross the bench. Got out of it around 2000, this is sure a blast from the past!
Back in about 2000 I got an old 16 channel, 100W VHF SyntorX at a swap for $50. So I went to a Motorola shop, told them I was a ham, and asked them if I could buy a service manual or even just a copy of the schematic, and asked about how to program an old SyntorX for 16 channels on 2 meters. They told me they'd do the channel reprogramming for $100, but the retuning was all on me. The retuning was no problem for me as I planned on doing all of that anyway, but the charge for programming seemed ridiculous for a quarter century-old radio that I was going to put on 2 meters, and they told me that all of their radio info was proprietary, even on the old rigs. So I thanked them and took it home. Over the next month or two I reverse engineered it and wired it up through its EPROM socket to a laptop PC so it could receive or transmit on any channel or as many banks of as many channels as I wanted, or store or switch through PL tones, or do pretty much anything I wanted that a good commercial ham rig did. Mine just did it better. I even added RF output power steps. It was a lot of reverse engineering, doing it blind. But I was retired, so I had the time, and I had a scope, a logic-state analyzer, and a spectrum analyzer, and it was a fun challenge. But I never went back to a Motorola shop for anything.
My very favorite VHF/UHF rigs are the SyntorX rigs. They were the top of the curve where they built better rigs, right before they shifted to building cheaper rigs.
@@mattottie6410 Syntors, or X's? Was that one of the 30 MHz range? I'd love to get another one of the 75 to 100W X's for VHF or UHF. I lost mine in a fire, melting the aluminum casting into a pool of slag, the one thing that can destroy them.
Those radios can still be put to use on the ham bands. They can be reprogrammed to operate on 10 meter FM, 6 meter FM, 2 meter FM, etc. Those radios are built like a tank, you can't break them!
I have some Ideas, 1)use them for small mom and pop shop airports and put them on the DOT channels ones in the class G airspace.... Selling fuel and airport Maintenance 2)marine radios 3)146.52 + 146.54 4)144.39 National + APRS Local WB3CMR
These are great radios When my county went to 800 trunked in 87 I bought one of these radios and programmed the system and the talk groups for my county While no one else could hear the trunked. 4625 and 2625 NFN I heard everything clearly
I’d use them in the murs radio service. One in our van, one down stairs, and one in the front room. Just set them up on the higher 154 MHz frequencies, 154.570 and 154.600 MHz with it set up for wideband and set down to 2 watts lol. Not saying I want them n but that’s one thing you could do with them though.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking as well. Thank you for the comment.
21 ชั่วโมงที่ผ่านมา
Plenty of them get used for simplex repeaters with the addition of a talkback box.. A spaced repeater where one is receive and one is transmit spaced a mile apart and linked through the internet so you don't need a duplexer.. And of course they could be setup for use on two local repeaters which quite a number of people do who just use the club repeater.. The biggest problem I see is just like the idea of a "free" cat, they will cost someone to pay to have them programmed.. Around here that can be anywhere from $75 to $150 and this is why you see piles of them at local hamfest's that sellers can't give away.. It is just better to buy the used Kenwood, Icom or Yaesu mobile for $50..
I enjoyed the video. I’d love to be able to work on and learn about keeping a repeater in the ham bands going. All of the “repeater groups” around where I live, are kind of “closed up old boys clubs”. If you’re not a part of the clique, then you’re welcome to use the repeater; but nobody buy the chosen ones are allowed to see/touch the hardware. Disappointing, as imho; that’s not what the hobby is supposed to be about. But, that’s life I guess. Anyway, really enjoyed the video. Gained you at least one new subscriber. :) 73, KC4GPW
That’s kind of the way it is at the local ham club here in Texas. Not surprised. There is a lot of weirdness in ham radio circles. It’s not as much about teaching as some would have you believe. Just my 2¢.
@@jackdaniel4325Maybe I’m just weird, but if I have knowledge about a particular topic, that isn’t classified or under NDA, and someone who wants to learn about it or to help with or otherwise be involved in the project asks; I’m going to do my best to pass along/share any information I have as long as I think I can do it accurately and not lead that person astray…… Is that weird?! Apparently, when it comes to ham radio repeaters; at least in Metro Atlanta, Georgia; it seems to be. I got an old commercial Motorola compact commercial repeater, that’s just two Radius radios, a duplexer, a power supply and a basic cw ID controller, just so I could play with it myself and not have to ask to play in anyway else’s sandbox. I thought, great! Then I discovered there’s a whole other secret sect of ham repeaterdom, that thinks getting the Motorola radio programming software; requires something worse than a Secret Service background check. 🤯😠😤 Newsflash for all you Gatekeepers: This stuff isn’t the government secrets and exclusive club you think and want it to be! This hobby definitely isn’t what it was 30+ years ago when I got my license. All y’all Bitter Betty’s that want everything for yourself, need to calm down. And that’s the same group of folks who are wringing their hands and clutching their pearls not understanding why the hobby is dying off and there are no younger people getting licenses these days. Look in the danged mirror there, om! Thanks for the reply, Jack. Sorry I got into a rant. 73 de KC4GPW
@ That’s okay. Once in a while you have to rant. Don’t get me wrong I still enjoy the hobby. Or that’s what it is to me. Some people classify it as something other than a hobby. See ? Weirdness.
Hey buddy if you still have these three radios I need four of them and I need four of those 10 and black mics with the Motorola sign on them and I need them all programmed the same how do I get ahold of you
I sold off my Astro Sabers. I think after I did that I regretted it and now I don't get rid of old radios so fast anymore. The Saber was a great radio and fun to use. Thank you for the comment.
I still have my Astro Saber, works great but I need to find some Saber batteries for the earlier VHF Saber Radios that have DES. Like to find some control knobs for these earlier radios, plastic went to dust a few years ago.
Two channels huh? Ok like you said a weather repeater, out of all the options out there they are basic as it gets. 73’s I like your projects love radios and the world of radio. We should be getting the youth more involved when we can I know I’m installing radios in my niece and nephews cars.
Yeah, there isn't much you can do with a 2 channel radio. So making them a link, or weather radio is a couple of uses for them. I totally agree about getting the young people involved in the hobby. Thanks again for the comment and watching. 73
5 pin limit reuse, but the 16 pin make sturdy Winlink/packet gateways, APRS digipeaters, Allstarlink/Echolink link radios. There are cooling fan kits available on eBay, all manor of interface cables and interfaces easily available. 5 pin? Maybe MURS ( Not discussing power limits), just use some imagination.
Nice video ! Can't tell you how many cardboard box of Motorola radios or piles of them I've just walked by. I knew you could use them but also knew there was some programming involved. Do they duplex? Could you set up a repeater of sorts? Nice video.. 73
There always seems to be at least one table at a hamfest that has these older radios. They will not operate in duplex. But you can use them as a tx/rx repeater setup if you pickup two radios. You'll need an older DOS computer to program them. Thank you for the comment.
I bought a Micom Z and was the worst radio i ever bought, i lost lots of money on that radio, i owned a syntor X9000 that was a very good rig for two meters...just buy a yaesu or icom and be happy.
Make sure you have RF coming into the IPA, check voltage levels on the multi pin connector. You will need the manual to follow for accurate information. Just a FYI these repeaters have multiple PTT inputs with audio input following the PTT line input. Wish I knew where my manual is stashed but after a big move 18 years ago all of my radio manuals are till in boxes buried in my store room.
Blue/green Dot (murs) or two meter. I'd have a local repeater pair, one simplex or direct for same said repeater output. Yes, limited use but, i knew a guy with his own repeater and would leave town, out of range and only use his output frequency for direct, local comms at hamfests with wife and friends.
Back in the day we would pull the roms out of multi channel radios and read and store the data. If we came across a multi channel and wanted to expand it from six to sixteen channels we could just replace the roms written with the sixteen channel data. There was a lot of hacking that you could do since these radios worked with a very common Motorola HC11 series processors which were open source processors. Those with experience with these micros could read what was in the roms and do some comparisons between a bare bones radio and their top tier radio just by doing some serious bit banging and changing parameters of the radio. To bad they did not make narrow band conversions parts for these radios. The RF decks from these radios work great if you have a vehicular adapter for the HT1000 series radios that came out of 800 MHz portables. You can swap in the V or U pa deck to use the vehicular adapter with V or U radios but you will have to change out two surface mount resistors inside the controller on then"t" pad attenuator to compensate for the five watt portables. 800 MHz portables used a lower power PA. Without changing the two resistors you will get up to 65 watts out of a 40 watt PA. You will destoy the transistors in the PA deck. Where does one find crystals for channel elements for Mitreks or GE MASTR II RADIOS. The MSF5000 might need to have the IPA tuned to get it working. They were reliable repeaters but tricky sometimes to get them to work right. The manual for the MSF 5000 is almost three inches plus thick.
Yup, these require a dos machine. I still have about three of my old dos computers I kept just for programming the older radios. Thanks for the comment.
@@nine7295 Oh?! I have a couple Radius UHF radios that I would love to be able to reprogram. Any information you have about this software and would be willing to share, I’d really appreciate it. 73 KC4GPW
On repeater buildier have the interface cable for those Motorola. I buy one ( RIM MaxTrac) & work perfect- No issues at all- Good Luck New Subscribe here- #KE2AUM 73 📡
Happy 🎄 Christmas 🎁⛄
I worked on Motorola , GE and RCA radios and spent 25 years in a Motorola shop. All that stuff looked very familiar ! :D 73...K8JD
Same here. Started around 1980, still had Business Dispatchers and the occasional T power cross the bench. Got out of it around 2000, this is sure a blast from the past!
Back in about 2000 I got an old 16 channel, 100W VHF SyntorX at a swap for $50. So I went to a Motorola shop, told them I was a ham, and asked them if I could buy a service manual or even just a copy of the schematic, and asked about how to program an old SyntorX for 16 channels on 2 meters. They told me they'd do the channel reprogramming for $100, but the retuning was all on me. The retuning was no problem for me as I planned on doing all of that anyway, but the charge for programming seemed ridiculous for a quarter century-old radio that I was going to put on 2 meters, and they told me that all of their radio info was proprietary, even on the old rigs. So I thanked them and took it home. Over the next month or two I reverse engineered it and wired it up through its EPROM socket to a laptop PC so it could receive or transmit on any channel or as many banks of as many channels as I wanted, or store or switch through PL tones, or do pretty much anything I wanted that a good commercial ham rig did. Mine just did it better. I even added RF output power steps. It was a lot of reverse engineering, doing it blind. But I was retired, so I had the time, and I had a scope, a logic-state analyzer, and a spectrum analyzer, and it was a fun challenge. But I never went back to a Motorola shop for anything.
My very favorite VHF/UHF rigs are the SyntorX rigs. They were the top of the curve where they built better rigs, right before they shifted to building cheaper rigs.
I never had any of the Syntor x line radios. But I have a friend that still uses a couple in if truck. They are a great radio. Thanks for the comment.
I still have two syntors, i have not used them for years, programed for six meter ham band..
@@mattottie6410 Syntors, or X's? Was that one of the 30 MHz range? I'd love to get another one of the 75 to 100W X's for VHF or UHF. I lost mine in a fire, melting the aluminum casting into a pool of slag, the one thing that can destroy them.
Those radios can still be put to use on the ham bands. They can be reprogrammed to operate on 10 meter FM, 6 meter FM, 2 meter FM, etc. Those radios are built like a tank, you can't break them!
I have some Ideas, 1)use them for small mom and pop shop airports and put them on the DOT channels ones in the class G airspace.... Selling fuel and airport Maintenance 2)marine radios 3)146.52 + 146.54 4)144.39 National + APRS Local WB3CMR
Thanks, I enjoyed looking at all the stuff, even if I've never really done anything with radios
Thank you for the comment. These old radios are still useful and fun (sometimes) to work on. Thank you for watching!
These are great radios
When my county went to 800 trunked in 87 I bought one of these radios and programmed the system and the talk groups for my county
While no one else could hear the trunked. 4625 and 2625 NFN I heard everything clearly
I’d use them in the murs radio service. One in our van, one down stairs, and one in the front room. Just set them up on the higher 154 MHz frequencies, 154.570 and 154.600 MHz with it set up for wideband and set down to 2 watts lol. Not saying I want them n but that’s one thing you could do with them though.
Judging by the frequencies, I suspect that those radios were used for fire department use at one time.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking as well. Thank you for the comment.
Plenty of them get used for simplex repeaters with the addition of a talkback box.. A spaced repeater where one is receive and one is transmit spaced a mile apart and linked through the internet so you don't need a duplexer.. And of course they could be setup for use on two local repeaters which quite a number of people do who just use the club repeater.. The biggest problem I see is just like the idea of a "free" cat, they will cost someone to pay to have them programmed.. Around here that can be anywhere from $75 to $150 and this is why you see piles of them at local hamfest's that sellers can't give away.. It is just better to buy the used Kenwood, Icom or Yaesu mobile for $50..
Had a Spectra 900MHz at one time but never got around to installing it in my truck. Still have my Motorola HT but the batteries are shot.
I enjoyed the video. I’d love to be able to work on and learn about keeping a repeater in the ham bands going.
All of the “repeater groups” around where I live, are kind of “closed up old boys clubs”. If you’re not a part of the clique, then you’re welcome to use the repeater; but nobody buy the chosen ones are allowed to see/touch the hardware.
Disappointing, as imho; that’s not what the hobby is supposed to be about. But, that’s life I guess.
Anyway, really enjoyed the video. Gained you at least one new subscriber. :)
73, KC4GPW
That’s kind of the way it is at the local ham club here in Texas. Not surprised. There is a lot of weirdness in ham radio circles. It’s not as much about teaching as some would have you believe. Just my 2¢.
@@jackdaniel4325Maybe I’m just weird, but if I have knowledge about a particular topic, that isn’t classified or under NDA, and someone who wants to learn about it or to help with or otherwise be involved in the project asks; I’m going to do my best to pass along/share any information I have as long as I think I can do it accurately and not lead that person astray…… Is that weird?!
Apparently, when it comes to ham radio repeaters; at least in Metro Atlanta, Georgia; it seems to be.
I got an old commercial Motorola compact commercial repeater, that’s just two Radius radios, a duplexer, a power supply and a basic cw ID controller, just so I could play with it myself and not have to ask to play in anyway else’s sandbox. I thought, great!
Then I discovered there’s a whole other secret sect of ham repeaterdom, that thinks getting the Motorola radio programming software; requires something worse than a Secret Service background check. 🤯😠😤
Newsflash for all you Gatekeepers: This stuff isn’t the government secrets and exclusive club you think and want it to be!
This hobby definitely isn’t what it was 30+ years ago when I got my license. All y’all Bitter Betty’s that want everything for yourself, need to calm down.
And that’s the same group of folks who are wringing their hands and clutching their pearls not understanding why the hobby is dying off and there are no younger people getting licenses these days.
Look in the danged mirror there, om!
Thanks for the reply, Jack. Sorry I got into a rant.
73 de KC4GPW
@ That’s okay. Once in a while you have to rant. Don’t get me wrong I still enjoy the hobby. Or that’s what it is to me. Some people classify it as something other than a hobby. See ? Weirdness.
Hey buddy if you still have these three radios I need four of them and I need four of those 10 and black mics with the Motorola sign on them and I need them all programmed the same how do I get ahold of you
I would like them for an RMS Packet gateway!
You need to make a vid on the joys of programming an ASTRO Saber. I made mine sing and dance... after several days of work. Ahh, the bad old days.
I sold off my Astro Sabers. I think after I did that I regretted it and now I don't get rid of old radios so fast anymore. The Saber was a great radio and fun to use. Thank you for the comment.
I still have my Astro Saber, works great but I need to find some Saber batteries for the earlier VHF Saber Radios that have DES. Like to find some control knobs for these earlier radios, plastic went to dust a few years ago.
Two channels huh? Ok like you said a weather repeater, out of all the options out there they are basic as it gets. 73’s I like your projects love radios and the world of radio. We should be getting the youth more involved when we can I know I’m installing radios in my niece and nephews cars.
Yeah, there isn't much you can do with a 2 channel radio. So making them a link, or weather radio is a couple of uses for them. I totally agree about getting the young people involved in the hobby. Thanks again for the comment and watching. 73
what do you have in the shop that works on 6 meters?? wayne N6FGV
I haven't seen an MSF since mid 90s
narrow fm or wide only?
These are wide only radios. Thanks for the comment.
@ I just found your channel today and several interesting videos on it.
Thank you very much for watching them and the comment.
I would use aprs or winlink. How is the duty cycle on these?
5 pin limit reuse, but the 16 pin make sturdy Winlink/packet gateways, APRS digipeaters, Allstarlink/Echolink link radios. There are cooling fan kits available on eBay, all manor of interface cables and interfaces easily available. 5 pin? Maybe MURS ( Not discussing power limits), just use some imagination.
I may mod one or two of these to use for winlink/APRS etc. I think it will be a good winter project. Thank you for the comment.
The 800 radios had 2 different firmware
One gave 2 to 10 conventional analog Frequencies
The other firmware made the radio a trunked only radio
Hold those you may need them soon
Wish I could obtain a Moto I'm licensend radio amateurs in English England thanking you most kindly
Any cheap uniden scanner w close call will give u the tx freq and the pl or dpl
Nice video ! Can't tell you how many cardboard box of Motorola radios or piles of them I've just walked by. I knew you could use them but also knew there was some programming involved. Do they duplex? Could you set up a repeater of sorts? Nice video.. 73
There always seems to be at least one table at a hamfest that has these older radios. They will not operate in duplex. But you can use them as a tx/rx repeater setup if you pickup two radios. You'll need an older DOS computer to program them. Thank you for the comment.
Could make a poor man 2M repeter. 73
an ex-Motorolan, just shy 15 years, plantation Florida
I bought a Micom Z and was the worst radio i ever bought, i lost lots of money on that radio, i owned a syntor X9000 that was a very good rig for two meters...just buy a yaesu or icom and be happy.
I’d love to see how to turn it in to an all star node. I have a few maxtracs here too! They’re great for ham use. Subscribed!
Packet Radios as you mentioned . You can use them to make Allstar Node Radios .
Make sure you have RF coming into the IPA, check voltage levels on the multi pin connector. You will need the manual to follow for accurate information. Just a FYI these repeaters have multiple PTT inputs with audio input following the PTT line input. Wish I knew where my manual is stashed but after a big move 18 years ago all of my radio manuals are till in boxes buried in my store room.
Blue/green Dot (murs) or two meter. I'd have a local repeater pair, one simplex or direct for same said repeater output. Yes, limited use but, i knew a guy with his own repeater and would leave town, out of range and only use his output frequency for direct, local comms at hamfests with wife and friends.
Back in the day we would pull the roms out of multi channel radios and read and store the data. If we came across a multi channel and wanted to expand it from six to sixteen channels we could just replace the roms written with the sixteen channel data. There was a lot of hacking that you could do since these radios worked with a very common Motorola HC11 series processors which were open source processors. Those with experience with these micros could read what was in the roms and do some comparisons between a bare bones radio and their top tier radio just by doing some serious bit banging and changing parameters of the radio.
To bad they did not make narrow band conversions parts for these radios. The RF decks from these radios work great if you have a vehicular adapter for the HT1000 series radios that came out of 800 MHz portables. You can swap in the V or U pa deck to use the vehicular adapter with V or U radios but you will have to change out two surface mount resistors inside the controller on then"t" pad attenuator to compensate for the five watt portables. 800 MHz portables used a lower power PA. Without changing the two resistors you will get up to 65 watts out of a 40 watt PA. You will destoy the transistors in the PA deck.
Where does one find crystals for channel elements for Mitreks or GE MASTR II RADIOS. The MSF5000 might need to have the IPA tuned to get it working. They were reliable repeaters but tricky sometimes to get them to work right. The manual for the MSF 5000 is almost three inches plus thick.
Why are you talking about Mitrek, GE Mastr II and MSF5000 ?
@ these are all classic radios that can be converted to repeaters on six meters if you find the right split within the six meter range.
MURS.
Anything DOS programming, I threw away long ago.
Yup, these require a dos machine. I still have about three of my old dos computers I kept just for programming the older radios. Thanks for the comment.
Someone wrote a Windows software for the Radius series
@@nine7295 Oh?! I have a couple Radius UHF radios that I would love to be able to reprogram.
Any information you have about this software and would be willing to share, I’d really appreciate it. 73 KC4GPW
Motorola: Over engineered, over priced, and over rated!
Who's better in your opinion?
When a lot of other things have become decidedly under-engineered, Motorola looks pretty attractive.
On repeater buildier have the interface cable for those Motorola.
I buy one ( RIM MaxTrac) & work perfect- No issues at all- Good Luck
New Subscribe here- #KE2AUM 73 📡