GM300 - MAXTRACK 300

[elmanoduarte]

Hi.

Could the Front case from a Maxtrac be swithed by I Front case from a GM300 ? It will be compatible?

 

[a417]

Hi.

Could the Front case from a Maxtrac be swithed by I Front case from a GM300 ? It will be compatible?

Separate radio families, i doubt it.

maxtrac and gm300

 

[elmanoduarte]

Ok, I see, I dont have the Max with me iet!
When it arrives, I will see!
How ever, bad conncetions sould result of fail ,, so a little afraid to try it, even the connctor weill be same!

 

[petnrdx]

No. Not directly. The front panel plugs are slightly different.
You can remove the "guts" from each of those front panels and swap the parts to be able to swap fronts.
Or you can modify the plugs.
Not a simple swap.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

The heads are 100% backward compatible between the Radius, Maxtrac and GM300's especially for the models with dual 7 segment displays. I'm not saying that the buttons are backwards compatible but the entire control head itself. You can even use them on a R1225 repeater...

You actually have be careful when going through surplus Radius/Maxtrac/GM300 supplies as it was pretty common for parts to be frankensteined. Smash a head? Just pull a head off of one the junk pile radios with a blown PA. Or, just put a Maxtrac PA on that GM300 with a blown head. Really have to pay attention to the model numbers and not what the head says and hope the PA hasn't been changed.

 

[petnrdx]

The heads (front panels) are NOT 100 % backward compatible.
The GM300 series has a 15 pin plug for the mic, etc board.
It has the speaker leads on it increasing the pin numbers from the13 of the old Radius and Maxtrac to 15.
And those speaker leads are not "added to the end" but placed in the middle of that longer connector.
The older Radius and MAXTRAC had mic, handset audio, HUB, and programming leads, but the speaker was a separate plug
going to the logic board.
The display boards are interchangeable, but since the form factor and pinouts of the panels are not exactly the same,
you can't just swap them.
Go try it if you don't believe me.

 

[petnrdx]

Part of the confusion may be from the fact that there was a "RADIUS" product line that was the same form factor
and boards as the MAXTRAC.
But they used different RSS and firmware. You could blank and reinitialize these earlier boards interchangeably,
Later the "RADIUS GM300" came along and the boards were different, but the outer form factor was nearly the same.
The boards are not interchangeable between GM300 series and the older RADIUS (plain) and MAXTRAC.
Maxtrac models are like D44Mxxxxx
Radius models are D44LRAxxxx
GM300 models are M44GMCxxx
These are not exact and covering all possibilities, but general.

 

[redbeard]

The heads (front panels) are NOT 100 % backward compatible.
The GM300 series has a 15 pin plug for the mic, etc board.
It has the speaker leads on it increasing the pin numbers from the13 of the old Radius and Maxtrac to 15.
And those speaker leads are not "added to the end" but placed in the middle of that longer connector.
The older Radius and MAXTRAC had mic, handset audio, HUB, and programming leads, but the speaker was a separate plug
going to the logic board.
The display boards are interchangeable, but since the form factor and pinouts of the panels are not exactly the same,
you can't just swap them.
Go try it if you don't believe me.

I wasn't sure and vaguely remembered there being a difference of two pins but couldn't remember why. You are right, the speaker on the Maxtrac is separate flying leads where it's integrated on the Radius GM-series. An improvement for sure, the Radius mobiles are like 'BN revision' Maxtracs fixing a number of flaws of the former.

 

[petnrdx]

I think the original reason for the "flying lead" going to the circuit board for the speaker was to be able to just EASILY unplug the
internal speaker rather than cut the wires in the front panel.
That has always been my assumption.
As much as I like those old radios (have worked on thousands, owned hundreds) they really could use the external speaker in any mobile environment.
And the early ones came with the 5 pin accessory plug that had a kit with the plug, speaker and such.
I have used them on all bands, even modified to 220 mhz and 700 mhz.
And dozens of them from 900 trunk to conventional.
Decent "platform" for their day.
Still a cheap solution for simple field expedient "repeater" or cross band "relay".
ANY band to any other.