MaxTrac and Spectra questions

My ARES group received a donation of several MaxTrac and Spectra radios. Photos of the front and serial numbers are attached.

Where can I find programming software, cables to attach the radios to a computer for programming and possibly digital operations, and product manuals for these radios?

I did look on the Motorola site but did not find anything.

They are not narrow band compliant. As such Motorola no longer supports either unit. There is no legal source of programming software. Some shop still have it and are willing to program them for a fee.

jhooten said:

They are not narrow band compliant. As such Motorola no longer supports either unit. There is no legal source of programming software. Some shop still have it and are willing to program them for a fee.

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Is the license for the software not transferable?

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AD0GI said:

My ARES group received a donation of several MaxTrac and Spectra radios. Photos of the front and serial numbers are attached.

Where can I find programming software, cables to attach the radios to a computer for programming and possibly digital operations, and product manuals for these radios?

I did look on the Motorola site but did not find anything.

Click to expand...

Have you tried to look at the repeater builders site? They have a bunch of info that you just need to look around to find. The software is available if you again look around for it.

You will need a RIB (radio interface box) or build yourself one. You will also need to have a programming cable that goes between the radio and the RIB. You can build one of these real easy. The information is available on the batlab site under the radios.

The hardest part of the whole thing is going to be finding a slow speed computer that will run pure DOS. Can't run Windows with a DOS window. Plus you need to make sure the computer has a true serial port.

Your best bet is to find some long time in business computer repair shops. Many times they will just give you the computer for taking it off their hands. You can download DOS from a number of places on the Internet. Just takes some searching.

Depending on the computer, you might need a small program to disable the "cache" in the computer. A simple program to do that is one called "cacheoff.com" that can again be found by doing a search.

Good lick on your efforts. I will say that there are several files around on converting the UHF Spectra radios into the ham band. It generally takes some modification of the VCO to get it to work low enough.

Let the group know how your doing. there are several of us that have been there and have done this mod your about to do. Before you do much at all, once you get all the test stuff up and running, read the existing codeplug in the radios and save them on a floppy disk before you make any software changes. This way if you bit bang or moflag any changes into the radio codeplug and it doesn't work, you can reload the original codeplug and start over. Again, I have been there and blew it and have had to start over several times.

I have both in my personal collection. Even aligned within an inch of their life they are only average radios on the receive side - and that took a few long evenings with all the shop bench toys running.

Ebay / Amazon worked for me on the cables. The Max is programmed through the mic port and the Spectra through the back port. They are of course different cables. A RIB and real serial port are a requirement. Forget USB cables.

You will need both RSS programs. Software is available through Mother's licensing department after paying up and signing your life away, or as an illegal bootleg download from foreign sources. Consider the numbers of lawyers in Schamburg before proceeding. Don't ask anyone on this forum to supply software.

They are genuine DOS 6.2 programs designed for old slow PC's. I use a 66MHz from a dumpster dive. There are workarounds that allow the RSS to work in Windows - sometimes - when the stars are properly aligned - when it wants to - on even numbered days of odd numbered months except in leap years - and you are lucky. Don't waste your time with newer and faster.

Read and keep an archive copy of the original codeplugs before you play with them. Going backwards in the RSS is not an option. The Max RSS allows you to program out of band with the right keystokes. Google that one because I don't remember off hand. I think the Spectra RSS does the same.

Do not drop the TX power on the Max. Perversely, lowering the power overheats the final PA section and the magic smoke will blow away.

Max's have a tendency for the mic jack to break loose. Not an easy fix. Spectras were built with an Easter Egg capacitor that bursts and kills the board. When budgeting programming and repairs remember that $350 will buy you a brand new narrow band legal radio with software, cables and all the bells and whistles with none of the limitations.

The above posts are all valid.

Moto doesn't care about the old software for no longer supported units. The software is out there and is easily had.

The spectra and maxtrac both make great ham radios. They should serve you well.

Kawamall on eBay or the web for a RIB.

Batlabs.com for wiring diagrams for programming cables.

Read about the "shift" trick for Maxtrac ham frequency programming. It doesn't work on the Spectra. The last version of Spectra software just works, so you don't need a thing.

P25.ca for NLA RSS.

There are a few of the infamous "Russian hacker sites" that have various RSS. It's generally ok, but if you go that route, virus scan it. There are horror stories, but no one I know has ever had a problem. The Ruskies with the software are hams, and they don't like virii either.

Change all the electrolytic caps in the Spectra. Don't ask why, just do it.

Hit yard sales, swap meets, and thrift stores for a laptop with a serial port. Mine cost $25. It'll need DOS. Don't screw around, just get DOS 6.22 on the web, and make the damned thing boot straight to DOS. It's not difficult. There's plenty of DOS support on the web.

You can throw XP on top of that if you want to mess with new radios. Don't sweat the computer being really really old. Spectra and Maxtrac RSS (latest versions) will both run on fast Pentium class machines. Hell... Spectra RSS will actually run under XP, it just won't talk to the serial ports.
Use real DOS (6.22 was the latest MSDOS), and a real serial port - not a USB to serial adapter.

Have fun. They're both good radios and make great ham rigs.

zz0468 said:

Kawamall on eBay or the web for a RIB.

Batlabs.com for wiring diagrams for programming cables.

Read about the "shift" trick for Maxtrac ham frequency programming. It doesn't work on the Spectra. The last version of Spectra software just works, so you don't need a thing.

...

Use real DOS (6.22 was the latest MSDOS), and a real serial port - not a USB to serial adapter.

Have fun. They're both good radios and make great ham rigs.

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Spot on!

In my personal experience with both radios, The Maxtrac is a good radio, a Chevy so to speak. The Spectra is a fabulous radio, a BMW by comparison, but the Spectra has caps which will leak, & cause damage to the circuit boards, while the Maxtrac doesn't have this problem. Will out in California changed the caps on my Spectra, & us a guru on that radio. But any radio that's free & works is a gift.

" Will out in California changed the caps on my Spectra, & is a guru on that radio. " Thanks Gary.

We still work on Spectras here. Maxtrcs too.....

Will

Thanks for all the feedback! It seems that this project is more complicated than I had anticipated.

I will pass a link to this thread along to other members of my ARES group.

For my part, I searched for info on these radios and visited the Motorola site without coming up with much. Then I started this thread and have not looked elsewhere since.

I have a working desktop with a serial port running Win 2000 which I could donate to this cause. And I probably have copies of DOS on disks also. But I think that this desktop is post P66.

At this point, I expect that we will use the info in this thread to look for someone in the Colorado ARES community who is already equiped to help us with these radios.

Thanks again!

krokus said:

Is the license for the software not transferable?

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Not according to the EULA.

As alluded to earlier, here should be hours worth of excellent reading for both radios and many others: Motorola Information Index

AD0GI said:

Thanks for all the feedback! It seems that this project is more complicated than I had anticipated.

I will pass a link to this thread along to other members of my ARES group.

For my part, I searched for info on these radios and visited the Motorola site without coming up with much. Then I started this thread and have not looked elsewhere since.

I have a working desktop with a serial port running Win 2000 which I could donate to this cause. And I probably have copies of DOS on disks also. But I think that this desktop is post P66.

At this point, I expect that we will use the info in this thread to look for someone in the Colorado ARES community who is already equiped to help us with these radios.

Thanks again!

Click to expand...

If you plan to use the hard drive for storing the software you expect DOS to use, the hard drive needs to be formatted in a FAT32 format. otherwise the DOS software will not see the hard drive. Also stay 80 GHz in size or smaller for the hard drive.

jim202 said:

...Also stay 80 GHz in size or smaller for the hard drive.

Click to expand...

Isn't the DOS hard drive size limit about 2 Gb?

For the record I am using an Inspiron 7000 with win 98 booted to DOS, not a dos window F8 at start up to boot to DOS, and have not run into an RSS I cannot run. Ditto on a Latitude XPI.

I legally have every RSS and CPS Motorola has turned out. I can program your radios for $50 ea.

I CANNOT give you any of the software though sorry
Cable and RIB diagrams and pinouts can be found on batlabs or you can order them off ebay..

DO NOT try to program any of these radios on a PC running windows XP or higher in fact you may need to get yourself an old 486DX or P1 and load it up with DOS and the radio programs.
If your adventurous then you can venture into programming them on a PC running Windows 98se in DOS mode...

The only exception in radio programming and computers is the Saber series radios which need a real dinosaur to program (386SX or older in pure DOS) - I use and old Intel 286 for this one.

Now newer radios like the HT1250, APX and Mototrbo stuff you can use a modern PC