Hi,
I would like to know who can personally flash my astro saber to to 9600 baud digital trunking.
I found a way to monitor trunked radio systems w/o affiliating; from reading the forums on radio reference.
thanks,
Alex
You cannot just smash an S record with 9600 trunking into any Astro radio. There is a fork in Astro Host firmware with a separate version (R06.X) that supports 9600. Under normal(legit upgrade purchased from moto) circumstances, this firmware is loaded onto the radio during the flashport upgrade process. If you try to "turn on" or whore the P25 features with lab, the radio will have no idea what 9600 trunking is.
Having said that, it is possible to rip the firmware from the eprom of a 9600 radio and clone it to your radio, but this is an exponentially more complicated undertaking then a simple S record jam.
Problem: It's not CONFIRMED yet with EVERY radio, but supposedly, a 9600 baud system requires an authenticated affiliation or the radio won't unmute. This is known to be true with XTS5000s but may not
be proven either way on Astro Sabers.
There is a workaround that has been tested and proven possible to trunk and unmute audio on 9600 systems in the 800mhz band
without affiliation on both Astro and Astro25 platforms. It is not, as of now, possible to do this with OBT 9600 systems...though it may be possible at some point in the future.
Also, due to flash memory limitations on Astro Sabers, (1 meg being the max), an Astro Saber that's
9600 baud capable is then ONLY 9600 baud capable. It can't be used for any 4800 or 3600 baud
legacy systems. It's either/or. 9600 or something else. Not both in one radio.
1 meg Astros flashed for 9600 can still trunk Type II. You loose some personalities and trunking features like private call.
The simplest way to make the radio "safe" to the system is to drop the TX data deviation to zero. Also force encryption to always on, without an encryption key...or module. The system won't know that
your radio exists.
Elroy
So, is there more ways to safely monitor 9600 baud P25 systems or is this the best way?
thanks,
Alex
The tips Elroy lists above will not help monitor a 9600 system. These things can help with a Type II 3600 system, but it is not complete, there are a few more things that need to be done to be bullet-proof.
There's no way around actually parking on a trunked channel and having it unmute without affiliating.
Already discussed this with wayne but for others who are interested; there is a "back door" method to program any radio that uses Astro25 CPS that "tricks" the radio into doing exactly that: behave as though you have directly selected a P25 9600 trunking personality even though you have not...ie, sit on a 9600 control channel, continuously trunking a talkgroup,
without scanning away from that control channel/talkgroup but still unmute with no affiliation.