Motorola MTS2000/MCS200

[Sandman8105]

I am new here and I appreciate your patience. I have always enjoyed using and getting into working on radios (especially these old school mts/mcs) even though they are analog. I still find use for the vhf/uhf radios (below 520 mhz). Question: how hard is it (on the 800 mhz) to find and replace the boards to convert them to vhf or the above listed uhf? You can reach me at baca_sandman8105@yahoo.com or on Facebook at Jeff 'Sandman' Simpson, as I don't get much of a chance to monitor this forum. I appreciate ya'lls help and input.

 

[Echo4Thirty]

The MCS radios are uniboard (much like most if not all Motorolas), so once you pull the 800 MHz board out, you are left with a control head and a frame and nothing else.

The MTS has an RF board, but you would have to tear apart another band radio, swap the boards and use tools not able to be discussed to convert it. It would also need a FULL alignment.

In both cases, cheaper and less hassle to get the band you need rather than convert one.

 

[Sandman8105]

Are there TWO boards in that model (power and rx/tx)?

 

[Echo4Thirty]

No. The MCS2000 mobile is ONE board (excluding the control head). From VCO to PA, all together. The MTS portable has one RF board including the PA.

 

[Sandman8105]

The MTS was my question on this. I am just wondering if it has one solid board or a two piece board. Watching videos on this, it appears to be two separate boards. I am trying to get a grasp on that and learn some things about them.

 

[Echo4Thirty]

One board is the controller and the other (the smaller of the two) is the RF board. Everything frequency sensitive is on the RF board.

 

[Sandman8105]

Echo4Thirty, can you give me more details on your reply? Again, I am a newbie.

 

[Sandman8105]

That being the case, to do a swap like this, I ASSUME that the smaller board (at the bottom) is more important or, do BOTH need to be swapped to make this happen?

 

[Echo4Thirty]

If you open the MTS up, there are only two circuit boards. One is the controller which contains the firmware, audio circuitry, voltage regulation, CPU etc. There is a second board which contains the VCO (Oscillator) as well as all of the components on both RX and TX to amplify the RF to send to the antenna connector.

Can you take this board out and replace it with a different band? Yes. Is it easy or worth it? Not really. The controller has to know which band it has and have that bands info and tuning parameters loaded. The only way to do this is to use software that was internal to Motorola and not allowed to be discussed on this forum. The radio would all need to be completely realigned top to bottom with a service monitor. For a radio that can be found on eBay very inexpensively in whatever band you want, none of this is cost effective or worth the time. I cant tell you the last time I actually had an MTS2000 come across my bench except for our rental fleet.

 

[Echo4Thirty]

That being the case, to do a swap like this, I ASSUME that the smaller board (at the bottom) is more important or, do BOTH need to be swapped to make this happen?

IIRC the smaller board is the RF board, but swapping hardware is the least of your concerns. You cant just put a different band in and have the radio know what to do with it. The controller will still think its the original band and will use that data and tuning parameters. Even if you managed to hack CPS to take the frequencies, it will not work and the radio will generate fail codes.

 

[Sandman8105]

Ok. I appreciate that. I have one that is 800 and am/was looking to swap to either VHF (for personal use), or UHF (403-520) that I can use at the drag strip during racing operations (still as a personal radio).

 

[Echo4Thirty]

Its not worth converting it. Dump it and buy the band you need. The chances of making two bricks during this process are very high. The MTS2000 had an anti-tamper in its firmware as well to prevent folks from messing with them.

 

[N4KVE]

IIRC the smaller board is the RF board, but swapping hardware is the least of your concerns. You cant just put a different band in and have the radio know what to do with it. The controller will still think its the original band and will use that data and tuning parameters. Even if you managed to hack CPS to take the frequencies, it will not work and the radio will generate fail codes.

Negative. In today’s world of cheap Jedi radios, it’s not worth it. But years ago, when they were $600 used radios, I was swapping boards to keep radios working. By using RSS, one could read the soft pot settings, & I saved them all according to serial numbers. So if boards were swapped, the original settings were programmed back in. And the anti tamper FW was 5.42, & above. 5.41, & below was trouble free. But it’s not worth the time today.

 

[mmckenna]

Ok. I appreciate that. I have one that is 800 and am/was looking to swap to either VHF (for personal use), or UHF (403-520) that I can use at the drag strip during racing operations (still as a personal radio).

Other issue is that if you use them outside the ham bands, you technically have a type acceptance violation. I know, most people don't care, but if you want to do it right….
Taking the radio apart and changing out major parts (like the -entire- RF board) and changing it for a different band voids the type certification on the radio.

 

[ElroyJetson]

Just get the radio you want rather than try to frankenstein it. They're cheap enough.

 

[Sandman8105]

Ok. I appreciate the knowledge and insight. I have an opportunity at a board for $40 and didn't know whether to buy it for this or not. Thank ya'll for your help, patience, and understanding on this.

 

[ElroyJetson]

To be able to change the band on that board requires tools you can't have (not legally) that we don't talk about here and that have a very steep and punishing learning curve. Most likely you'd end up with a brick. Whether by actual irretrievable software glitch or toolproofing error.

Life is too short to go through that pain and suffering today. Not when VHF examples can be found for 40 bucks or so.

 

[Sandman8105]

Not sure what you mean by TOOLS to completely swap boards from one band width to another.

 

[Sandman8105]

Is the power board and rx/tx board seperate or, are they one complete board?

 

[mbnv992]

Man - just get a proper banded MTS radio. It’s totally not worth swapping boards out. If this was 2003, I’d say sure to save money do it. But it sounds like you’d have no idea how to do it anyway even if you did have all the parts.

But now - there’s one VHF MTS on eBay for $80. Get that and call it a day. It even comes with a battery and charger. The UHF models for some reason are getting much harder to find. However - should also be under $100 for one.

That’s my opinion. Just get an MTS on the band you want instead of swamping parts around.

Good luck.