• To anyone looking to acquire commercial radio programming software:

    Please do not make requests for copies of radio programming software which is sold (or was sold) by the manufacturer for any monetary value. All requests will be deleted and a forum infraction issued. Making a request such as this is attempting to engage in software piracy and this forum cannot be involved or associated with this activity. The same goes for any private transaction via Private Message. Even if you attempt to engage in this activity in PM's we will still enforce the forum rules. Your PM's are not private and the administration has the right to read them if there's a hint to criminal activity.

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    To obtain Motorola software see the Sticky in the Motorola forum.

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    For M/A Com/Harris/GE, etc: there are two software packages that program all current and past radios. One package is for conventional programming and the other for trunked programming. The trunked package is in upwards of $2,500. The conventional package is more reasonable though is still several hundred dollars. The benefit is you do not need multiple versions for each radio (unlike Motorola).

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Astro Spectra

msgmconway

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Has anyone here successfully changed a Motorola Astro Spectra VHF (146-174 MHz) radio to operate on 136-162 MHz? We (a fellow Civil Air Patrol member and I) acquired a couple for these only to discover that they won't transmit on the necessary frequencies. Can the be modded or should we just resell them and look for other radios? I have the necessary software and can program the radio but get a warning message about being out of band.
Thanks in advance! 73
Mike
 

MTS2000des

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Start here. Note that the Astro Spectras are 30 year old radios and the VCO's may not like more than 3MHz or so before they start unlocking. No harm will come, just may not work. Usually the VHF models will work just fine down to about 144, but below that, may or may not work well.

Also, these radios are notorious for bad "pissy" electrolytic caps which cause them to first start acting weird, popping audio, then they will start throwing fail codes. They aren't too difficult to replace but if the electrolyte has leaked, the multi-layer boards may be beyond economical repair.
 

nhfirefighter

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Also if you decide to sell, keep your eyes open for a J-split instead of K-split radio. They are out there and are factory set to the lower bands. There are even some Astro Spectra Plus models in the J split.
 
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