-
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.
If you are having trouble legally obtaining software please state so. We do not want any hurt feelings when your vague post is mistaken for a free request. It is YOUR responsibility to properly word your request.
To obtain Motorola software see the Sticky in the Motorola forum.
The various other vendors often permit their dealers to sell the software online (i.e., Kenwood). Please use Google or some other search engine to find a dealer that sells the software. Typically each series or individual radio requires its own software package. Often the Kenwood software is less than $100 so don't be a cheapskate; just purchase it.
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).
This is a large and very visible forum. We cannot jeopardize the ability to provide the RadioReference services by allowing this activity to occur. Please respect this.
EDACS Programmer Software
- Thread starter tabarnak
- Start date
- Status
From an authorized dealer. Cost is about 250 dollars for the conventional only version.
For the EDACS trunking version, it's about 2500 dollars.
Newest versions are individually registered and authenticated via a central server. You won't be able
to make use of a "donated" copy of RPM. Be very sure of that.
These days you'll have a hard time trying to find anyone who's going to stick his neck out to
give you a copy of ProGrammer. The penalties are quite harsh for that. I sure as heck won't do it.
I spent 2500 bucks to buy RPM and I don't give away even old versions.
For the EDACS trunking version, it's about 2500 dollars.
Newest versions are individually registered and authenticated via a central server. You won't be able
to make use of a "donated" copy of RPM. Be very sure of that.
These days you'll have a hard time trying to find anyone who's going to stick his neck out to
give you a copy of ProGrammer. The penalties are quite harsh for that. I sure as heck won't do it.
I spent 2500 bucks to buy RPM and I don't give away even old versions.
DPapay
Member
I long for the old days when all you needed was a blank floppy...
i love the terror motorola has put in you /\/\oto guys lol
No MOTOterror in this thread---
ya... well, lets put it this way... unless you are incredibly stupid, nobody will be hunting you down for having programmer...
i own my copy, because i can buy one piece of software and program all my radios...
but nothing beats the /\/\oto police hunting people down at hamfests... its really really stupid... especially when you can just download most of their software from our friends who write in cyrillic
which is why i avoid /\/\oto radios like the plauge :lol:
I deal with all brands on a regular basis. I know what's great and what's not by how often they cross tech bench in need of assistance, relative to how many are deployed in the field.
Most of the time, Moto radios are the best of the bunch. In the M/A-Com world (which I may as well
call the Harris world from now on), their best products are discontinued. Rangrs were excellent, and
still are. Orions/M725s are solid and reliable. M-PDs and M-PAs win for sheer durability even though
most of them need a memory battery after about 10 years, and a lot of M-PA controllers have just
died of old age.
I don't like M/A-Com's rinky-dink approach to weather sealing. The case cracking issues on the whole
5100/7100 chassis series is very annoying. (Cracks near the accessory connector, starting at the
locking stud...very common.) Their PTT seals suck, too. I flat out don't trust their weatherproofing
and I've seen plenty of radios with water damage so I know I'm justified in my concerns.
Their audio quality is substandard. It's sad when a basic Motorola BPR40 has better audio quality than
a P7100 that costs ten times as much. Come on, M/A-Com...decent speakers don't cost that much!
The M/A-Com radio alignment system isn't very user-friendly. I dread having to do a full alignment on
all tracking data values.
Kenwood's radios look good and a lot of them ARE good radios, but I'm seeing a lot of problems with
their newest portable radio series. I've sent several back to the factory for warranty service in just
the past few weeks.
Icom gets it right. I almost never see a warranty repair issue on an Icom radio. They just WORK and
keep right on working.
My total customer base covers close to five thousand individual radios. I'm really seeing now what's
hot and what's not. Motorola still reigns supreme for overall quality of their product line although they
aren't the easiest company to deal with that you could ever imagine. But to be fair, they're not bad
at all in many respects. I can call Moto tech support and get service help on radios they haven't
made or formally supported in 20 years. Try that with M/A-Com. Good luck. I've got a pristine
Rangr VRS system that I can't use because they don't seem to have the connection diagram.
Elroy
Most of the time, Moto radios are the best of the bunch. In the M/A-Com world (which I may as well
call the Harris world from now on), their best products are discontinued. Rangrs were excellent, and
still are. Orions/M725s are solid and reliable. M-PDs and M-PAs win for sheer durability even though
most of them need a memory battery after about 10 years, and a lot of M-PA controllers have just
died of old age.
I don't like M/A-Com's rinky-dink approach to weather sealing. The case cracking issues on the whole
5100/7100 chassis series is very annoying. (Cracks near the accessory connector, starting at the
locking stud...very common.) Their PTT seals suck, too. I flat out don't trust their weatherproofing
and I've seen plenty of radios with water damage so I know I'm justified in my concerns.
Their audio quality is substandard. It's sad when a basic Motorola BPR40 has better audio quality than
a P7100 that costs ten times as much. Come on, M/A-Com...decent speakers don't cost that much!
The M/A-Com radio alignment system isn't very user-friendly. I dread having to do a full alignment on
all tracking data values.
Kenwood's radios look good and a lot of them ARE good radios, but I'm seeing a lot of problems with
their newest portable radio series. I've sent several back to the factory for warranty service in just
the past few weeks.
Icom gets it right. I almost never see a warranty repair issue on an Icom radio. They just WORK and
keep right on working.
My total customer base covers close to five thousand individual radios. I'm really seeing now what's
hot and what's not. Motorola still reigns supreme for overall quality of their product line although they
aren't the easiest company to deal with that you could ever imagine. But to be fair, they're not bad
at all in many respects. I can call Moto tech support and get service help on radios they haven't
made or formally supported in 20 years. Try that with M/A-Com. Good luck. I've got a pristine
Rangr VRS system that I can't use because they don't seem to have the connection diagram.
Elroy
and that has anything to do with their software how?
and for the record, best handheld motorola ever made was the saber series, no doubt... id rahter have my p7100 than an xts too
and for the record (and not to be a dick, but seriously) you can talk real good, but until you start puting screws in your radios, then you can complain about build quality
and for the record, best handheld motorola ever made was the saber series, no doubt... id rahter have my p7100 than an xts too
and for the record (and not to be a dick, but seriously) you can talk real good, but until you start puting screws in your radios, then you can complain about build quality
rfradioconsult
Member
There is an 800 EDACS Orion currently on EBay, the listing also includes a copy of ProGrammer R-18B. The item is 320373198729
I do agree that Sabers were the best. Or Astro Sabers. I really prefer their ergonomics. But my XTS5K managed to impress me a great deal.
One of my other complaints about M/A-Com radios is their relatively slow CPUs, which becomes a problem when you've got one of the more demanding firmware packages running. My primary radio
supports AES encryption, P25 Phase 2 trunking, ProVoice, and everything else, with F9-code DSP
so it's actually all operational. But it takes almost TEN seconds for it to come to operating condition
from power-up. And, M/A-Com's radio code and firmware tends to be perpetually buggy. If I go to
change groups while the radio is scanning and there is active traffic, the radio jumps two groups down
the list instead of one. That's a silly little error but very annoying.
Screws do not impress me. A well-engineered spring clip will retain parts every bit as well as a screw,
without creating the need for a hole in the part. Holes allow intrusion of water, dust, dirt, armadillos, etc... and if you can avoid putting holes in the housing for screws, you've avoided their complications.
Fewer holes, fewer gaskets required. Fewer stress risers, points where cracks start.
When I first observed Motorola using snap-together radio construction, I had my doubts, too, but the
method is well proven by now. I'm not seeing ANY more water intrusion problems in radios built with
that method, compared to radios held together with screws. In fact, I think I'm seeing slightly LESS
in the way of water intrusion problems with snap-together radios for the simple reason that screws can
loosen and back out. The snap-together system holds together up to the point at which it completely
pops off.
The springiness of a snap system also adds another benefit: Enhanced ability to withstand shocks,
as the small amount of movement it allows between parts reduces peak shock loads.
Elroy
One of my other complaints about M/A-Com radios is their relatively slow CPUs, which becomes a problem when you've got one of the more demanding firmware packages running. My primary radio
supports AES encryption, P25 Phase 2 trunking, ProVoice, and everything else, with F9-code DSP
so it's actually all operational. But it takes almost TEN seconds for it to come to operating condition
from power-up. And, M/A-Com's radio code and firmware tends to be perpetually buggy. If I go to
change groups while the radio is scanning and there is active traffic, the radio jumps two groups down
the list instead of one. That's a silly little error but very annoying.
Screws do not impress me. A well-engineered spring clip will retain parts every bit as well as a screw,
without creating the need for a hole in the part. Holes allow intrusion of water, dust, dirt, armadillos, etc... and if you can avoid putting holes in the housing for screws, you've avoided their complications.
Fewer holes, fewer gaskets required. Fewer stress risers, points where cracks start.
When I first observed Motorola using snap-together radio construction, I had my doubts, too, but the
method is well proven by now. I'm not seeing ANY more water intrusion problems in radios built with
that method, compared to radios held together with screws. In fact, I think I'm seeing slightly LESS
in the way of water intrusion problems with snap-together radios for the simple reason that screws can
loosen and back out. The snap-together system holds together up to the point at which it completely
pops off.
The springiness of a snap system also adds another benefit: Enhanced ability to withstand shocks,
as the small amount of movement it allows between parts reduces peak shock loads.
Elroy
Elroy,
I partly agree with you, but then I'm looking at the radios from a maintenance perspective and not a user.
First of all, I can't stand Astro Sabers. Those radios have a few major design faults which give me nothing but grief. The battery plates are weak but even worse the chassis mounted studs are too. When the studs pull out and the chassis shatters it sends debris inside the radio which shorts out the fuse. The chassis' are also plated with a chrome like finish that flakes off and shorts out the logic board or wedges under the BGA chips. Speaking of BGA's they suck. The board flexes and they lose connection, try to reflow them without a twenty thousand dollar machine and it's darn near impossible. I'd better stop.
I do like the snap-tite radios though, they are so much easier to work on. Just pop open the radio, do what you've gotta do and slap it back together. To tune the reference oscillator on an M-RK you have to completely disassemble the radio which means removing no less than 14 screws. Argh! The only problem you have to watch out for is wear on RF shielding connections. That little bit of flexing can cause a buildup of resistive oxides from the worn shields which makes them virtually useless. This was accentuated in the GP300/P110 as those radios also got their DC power ground through their RF shield connections so when they would transmit it would sound like you're in a wind tunnel. Get that kind of distortion on a digital system and nothing goes through.
I disagree with you that the Macom's slowness is due to an underpowered microprocessor. The hillary is a pretty good chip and has worked well from its inception in the LPE and can still handle P25 Trunking. The weak link is the software, specifically the flash code. Macom have stuffed every conceivable operating environment and option into one package. There is absolutely no reason why an 800MHz P25 trunked portable radio needs G-star, VHF/UHF narrow band or a low band noise blanker for a mobile! Fix this little problem for that radio and now an 800MHz P7100 direct FM has no power out on conventional talk-around. (PS don't use J2R17xxx on FM P7100 if you need conventional TA) You spend $3500 dollars for a radio and until flash code R15 the damn thing wouldn't even be able to handle conventional CG. The beauty of Motorola's code is keeping it simple. The flash includes what is needed as the radio is equipped.
I partly agree with you, but then I'm looking at the radios from a maintenance perspective and not a user.
First of all, I can't stand Astro Sabers. Those radios have a few major design faults which give me nothing but grief. The battery plates are weak but even worse the chassis mounted studs are too. When the studs pull out and the chassis shatters it sends debris inside the radio which shorts out the fuse. The chassis' are also plated with a chrome like finish that flakes off and shorts out the logic board or wedges under the BGA chips. Speaking of BGA's they suck. The board flexes and they lose connection, try to reflow them without a twenty thousand dollar machine and it's darn near impossible. I'd better stop.
I do like the snap-tite radios though, they are so much easier to work on. Just pop open the radio, do what you've gotta do and slap it back together. To tune the reference oscillator on an M-RK you have to completely disassemble the radio which means removing no less than 14 screws. Argh! The only problem you have to watch out for is wear on RF shielding connections. That little bit of flexing can cause a buildup of resistive oxides from the worn shields which makes them virtually useless. This was accentuated in the GP300/P110 as those radios also got their DC power ground through their RF shield connections so when they would transmit it would sound like you're in a wind tunnel. Get that kind of distortion on a digital system and nothing goes through.
I disagree with you that the Macom's slowness is due to an underpowered microprocessor. The hillary is a pretty good chip and has worked well from its inception in the LPE and can still handle P25 Trunking. The weak link is the software, specifically the flash code. Macom have stuffed every conceivable operating environment and option into one package. There is absolutely no reason why an 800MHz P25 trunked portable radio needs G-star, VHF/UHF narrow band or a low band noise blanker for a mobile! Fix this little problem for that radio and now an 800MHz P7100 direct FM has no power out on conventional talk-around. (PS don't use J2R17xxx on FM P7100 if you need conventional TA) You spend $3500 dollars for a radio and until flash code R15 the damn thing wouldn't even be able to handle conventional CG. The beauty of Motorola's code is keeping it simple. The flash includes what is needed as the radio is equipped.
i meant until YOU start puting screws in your radios... i was having all sorts of strange issues with that t-band M-RK i bought from you, opened it up and realized there were no screws anywhere in the radio! doh! lol
Don't blame me for that. I never even opened that radio and it didn't occur to me that someone would
have put it together without any screws in it. I just ASSUMED it'd be properly screwed together. I'll always assemble a radio properly if I have all the parts, and if I don't, I wait until I have them.
The issues with the Astro Saber chassis are valid concerns. Frame breakage is a problem, for sure, but I haven't personally encountered the flaking plating in the circuits issue, though I certainly can see that happening when the frame breaks.
M/A-Com does have a pretty interesting variety of software bugs, that's for sure! I'm running J2R15E05 code with F9R06F03 DSP on my own personal radio and there are two very interesting
bugs I've found in it so far:
1: While scanning an EDACS system, when a scanned channel is busy and audio is coming out of the speaker, pressing the group up or group down button increments TWO groups instead of one. So if' I'm trying to get from tac 1 to tac 2 I'll end up on tac 3 instead.
2: The Busy LED does not work while the radio is (a) in conventional mode and (b) scanning the
system channels of a Motorola trunked system. I can hear voices, I can hear data, but the busy
LED will NOT light up. ONLY when scanning the channels of a Motorola trunked system. Scan
in conventional mode for non-trunked traffic or EDACS traffic, and it works. Quite interesting. I
suspect it's because of the presence of low speed data on all active Moto system channels, even
if the radio doesn't know what to do with that low speed data.
And...this is fun...the oscillator warp function of the Radio Maintenance Tools reportedly has never
been functionally implemented until RPM. I've got one radio that's off frequency by almost 2 KHz
and if it were warped correctly it'd be just fine. I've changed the softpot value from end to end even
WITH RPM, and so far it's never changed its operating frequency. I've tried different master oscillators
as well, without any change. To complicate things, the radio also periodically shows a synth
unlocked error. But not all the time. Sometimes it's fine, other than being 2 KHz off frequency.
Motorola's softare based servicing is better and simpler.
Nobody's perfect.
Elroy
have put it together without any screws in it. I just ASSUMED it'd be properly screwed together. I'll always assemble a radio properly if I have all the parts, and if I don't, I wait until I have them.
The issues with the Astro Saber chassis are valid concerns. Frame breakage is a problem, for sure, but I haven't personally encountered the flaking plating in the circuits issue, though I certainly can see that happening when the frame breaks.
M/A-Com does have a pretty interesting variety of software bugs, that's for sure! I'm running J2R15E05 code with F9R06F03 DSP on my own personal radio and there are two very interesting
bugs I've found in it so far:
1: While scanning an EDACS system, when a scanned channel is busy and audio is coming out of the speaker, pressing the group up or group down button increments TWO groups instead of one. So if' I'm trying to get from tac 1 to tac 2 I'll end up on tac 3 instead.
2: The Busy LED does not work while the radio is (a) in conventional mode and (b) scanning the
system channels of a Motorola trunked system. I can hear voices, I can hear data, but the busy
LED will NOT light up. ONLY when scanning the channels of a Motorola trunked system. Scan
in conventional mode for non-trunked traffic or EDACS traffic, and it works. Quite interesting. I
suspect it's because of the presence of low speed data on all active Moto system channels, even
if the radio doesn't know what to do with that low speed data.
And...this is fun...the oscillator warp function of the Radio Maintenance Tools reportedly has never
been functionally implemented until RPM. I've got one radio that's off frequency by almost 2 KHz
and if it were warped correctly it'd be just fine. I've changed the softpot value from end to end even
WITH RPM, and so far it's never changed its operating frequency. I've tried different master oscillators
as well, without any change. To complicate things, the radio also periodically shows a synth
unlocked error. But not all the time. Sometimes it's fine, other than being 2 KHz off frequency.
Motorola's softare based servicing is better and simpler.
Nobody's perfect.
Elroy
- Status
