Motorola Spectra Radio's

[2492]

Hello All,
I'm thinking of buying 2 Motorola Spectra radio's, one VHF, one UHF. I'm wanting to program them for Amateur Radio use (2Meter: 144Mhz-148Mhz & 70CM: 420Mhz-450Mhz ) using CPS. I know very little about these radio's and very little about Amateur Radio, Although I will be taking a Tech Class in about 2 weeks. I know there are many "HAM Band" radio's out there but I want to keep it all Motorola as I have a Motorola Astro Spectra for FD/EMS use already.
I'm Needing to know if A.) these radio's can RX/TX on these bands B.) CPS can be used to program these radio's. Any information would be greatly appreciated. These are the model numbers to the radio's:

Motorola Spectra VHF - D43KMA7JA5BK
Motorola Spectra UHF - D44KMA7JA5BK

 

[davidzimmerman]

if i remember you need to program in DOS a slow program

 

[xplorer417]

yes they only do dos rss program the best ones would be CDMs radios or something that will do cps

 

[KF5YDR]

The Spectras are great for ham use, but as has been mentioned, you'll need RSS to program them (which you can't get legally for a lot of older radios, can't sell legally, and can't talk about the ways to get illegally on this forum), which MUST run in DOS on a slow (less than 100 MHz) computer.

There are plenty of folks on eBay who will program these radios for a small fee or your local two-way shop might be able to program them for you.

P25.ca has a lot of good info on programming these radios.

 

[bearcat780]

If you can, splurge for the astro spectra series, as they are easily programmable by a windows-based CPS. I have a UHF Astro Spectra which works wonders on 70cm.

 

[davidzimmerman]

i still have the programing cable for a spectra i should sell it on ebay its a Motorola cable don't think i'll be wanting anymore spectra's

 

[KF5YDR]

Heck, you can probably sell it here and not have to give eBay a cut.

 

[jim202]

The Spectras are great for ham use, but as has been mentioned, you'll need RSS to program them (which you can't get legally for a lot of older radios, can't sell legally, and can't talk about the ways to get illegally on this forum), which MUST run in DOS on a slow (less than 100 MHz) computer.

I use a computer that runs at 800 MHz clock speed all the time to program Spectra radios. One secret is to shut off the cache in the computer. You might have to use on of several small programs that are easily found on the Internet. I have used "cacheoff.com" with good results.

Yes you need to run in a pure DOS operating system. I have a 3 1/2 inch floppy with the DOS 6.22 on it. Boot from the floppy drive in the computer. Have my hard disk formatted in FAT32 so the DOS software can read the hard drive. Also have Windows XP on the hard drive so I can move files from one computer to another easily. Just remember that all the DOS file names can not be longer than 8 characters.

 

[KF5YDR]

I use a computer that runs at 800 MHz clock speed all the time to program Spectra radios.

Good to know! I use a 1.4 GHz Toughbook to program my HT1000s, but I wasn't sure if an older radio like the Spectra would be pickier.

 

[davidzimmerman]

cable

Heck, you can probably sell it here and not have to give eBay a cut.

i would if i was able to sell it here and not sure what its worth

 

[n5ims]

Don't forget to replace the leaky caps even if your radio(s) don't show any damage. The caps will leak (or most likely have already leaked) and unless replaced will cause damage to the boards. There are folks that will do the job for you if you wish. Recapping the Spectra

Age is all it takes for the caps to start leaking. It doesn't matter if the radio is new in the box or very used, the caps need to be replaced. The only reason for not replacing them is that the job has already been done.