• 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.

motorola spectra

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buddrousa

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Is that why you still have to take the general class radiotelephone test to work in radio shops as a repair tech? Motorola will not sell you the software but they will send you to jail for having a stolen copy of their software and it is people like you that get on 800 systems with stolen keys and cause communication problems and risk lives of hard working public safety officers. And people do not know why digital encryption is being used more and more. I am not for the use of digital encryption but would support it for public safety officer and system safety. I have had scanners for the last 38 years and believe the citizens have the right to listen but not interfere and if you are on the system you should added by the system administrator.
 
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mancow

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I tend to doubt the US Attorney's Office in any district will pursue an indictment against someone for obtaining a 1Mb copy of a 1997 DOS application that is meant to support a radio that is no longer made, soon no longer legal to use commercially (narrow banding) and runs on an OS (DOS) that has been dead for around two decades now. As for civil liabilities what are the damages? Is Moto going to find it financially viable to pursue that?

Yes, you are absolutely correct that nobody should be affiliating with a system they don't belong on etc....

But, my only point in ruffling people up a bit is the concept of perspective. This entire forum is based on the interception of things that if one were to take each and every jurisdiction's laws at absolute face value could be argued as unlawful. Then there are the other threads on here devoted to things such as DSD which completely copy the functionality of products by DVSI (IMBE, AMBE). Then we could move on to the open discussion of the reverse engineering of GRE's firmware. That has recently been discussed and even this forum's owner has chimed in with support and HE HAS A FINANCIAL INTEREST in his relationship with GRE but he's not freaking out because he is an intelligent individual with the ability to put it all in perspective. It's not like someone here is taking the DSD thread and cranking out Gumstix type little Linux boards to shove in radios while flipping the bird to DVSI, just as the guy asking to program his Spectra is not vacuuming up all the work for starving MRSS employees all over the place.

My amazement is the fact that the magical word Moto or RSS gets uttered and some are ready to wage holy war in the name of mother M. I don't want to see that same level of outrage for every other topic I mentioned but why is it that big M gets this fanatical following? I saw this happen for years over at Batlabs to the point that it completely stifled all productive discussion because there was no reasonable discretion. It was a totally freak out response which drove away new people and good portion of the old timers. I just don't want to see that happen here with something as innocent as the discussion of where within the massive universe of the web a guy can find a crappy copy of some spectra RSS.
 
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jim202

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Unless you blow away the MLM board, it is near impossible to brick a Spectra. Maybe you just don't know how to program them down to the bit bang level.

Jim



After you come up with all the other equipment. I suggest you go with the cheap Chinese ribless cable from ebay.. They have bricked quite a few spectras.
 

buddrousa

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You are not allowed to repair your xbox 360 ps3 ps2 ect. I went to school got my licenese went to work in the 2way industry until my present life long dream opened up to me things are controlled for a reason I support now those reasons have a direct relationship on my life and job. to modify a 2way radio or repair one you should one know what you are doing 2 be licenesed to do so and 3 know why or what you are doing will give you the outcome you desire. If you tune or program a radio you should always look at it with a service monitor for spurs and make sure it is on frequency and the devation is not to high as to not interfere with other channels. I never program a radio without fully testing my work with service equipment that cost more than most cars people drive it is called being responsible. I think the world has changed very much in the last 35 years but know when you buy something you buy the right to use it as designed by the manufactor and not modify it or operate it in a manner in which it was not made for. Motorola is the one that will come after a software user not local police and yes they are still willing to come after copied software just ask ebay sellers. Bill Gates changed the world with the idea of paying to use not to the own software. But this is enough just my point on this matter.
 

mancow

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We are rapidly heading into a world where everything is based in technology. Your phone used to be a plastic box with a few wires in it. A young kid could fix it. Now it's a microcomputer that do what the NSA could't dream of a few decades ago. A vehicle now processes more data when you drive to the street than the lunar landers likely did. Everyone happily accepts that fact because of the extreme return in functionality and convenience. The problem is who will learn how anything works as this trend continues if any innocent curious attempt to learn the complexities and systems involved in these items is met with a horror story? Whats going to happen if every attempt to do so is rendered illegal because of some outrageous software EULA? That's the real dumbing down of society that is going on. Back in the day a kid could dink around with his dads old radio and zap some tubes or pop some transistors and eventually get that real spark of interest that might propel him or her into a career like yours. What are they going to do now? A knowledge of software and microcontrollers is mandatory if you are going to do any real fun stuff beyond installing a discrimintor tap or something. Maybe one of these newbies will start messing around bit banging his ancient spectra and really gain that desire to pursue it on to something meaningful? But, if we all run everyone off with outrageous claims of black helos and shifty corporate trial lawyers what kind of motivation is that?

As for a direct relationship on your job, well it's relationship with mine too. However, I don't fear the local PD repeater will get blocked because some dude got his old spectra fired up and accidentally typed in the wrong freq or something. It's not realistic. Even the MRSS shops I've been to use Batlabs as a resource at times (hate to say that but it's true). A good portion of the talent that used to be there were hobbyists that tore into things and figured out what's good and what's not and where the bugs were hiding.

Take a look at the cell phone forums sometime. That industry dwarfs the two way industry and there are forums there with members in the tens of thousands that are doing wild stuff every day but the sky is not falling on them.
 
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zz0468

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Is that why you still have to take the general class radiotelephone test to work in radio shops as a repair tech?

Not LMR. Go back and actually read the link you posted earlier.

Motorola will not sell you the software but they will send you to jail for having a stolen copy of their software...

Are there any documented cases of prosecution of pirated NLA software for obsolete products? I haven't heard of any.
 

zz0468

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The Spectra back in the day was a fine radio..

And it still is. They make excellent ham rigs. And even after rebanding, the 800 radios make excellent single channel radios for test purposes, etc.
 

jhooten

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It is funny that if you do a search for motorola intellectual property legal action you get over 47,000,000 hits. Most of them about Motorola being sued for infringing on other companies IP.
 

jhooten

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giguchan

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I've seen that cheap stuff...
I dont't know if i would trust ANY of MY Moto gear with the likes of that stuff.. I dont think that i would buy expensive radio gear and then program it with SUB standard equipment.. like buying a high performance car that requires premium but filling it up with regular. dont seem right. if you spend the money for the Software, the radio... go the extra mile seems like the proper thing to do..

I have a buudy who does the same thing with chinese made automotive diagnostic equipment. all you need is for the stuff not to decode something or miss a bit of unformation abd you have bricked your radio.. or for that matter in the automotive sector do something to the car....

just my input... Carry on.
 

zz0468

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I've seen that cheap stuff...
I dont't know if i would trust ANY of MY Moto gear with the likes of that stuff.. I dont think that i would buy expensive radio gear and then program it with SUB standard equipment..

The quality of the Chinese made RIBs is as good or better than the original Motorola RIB. I suspect that the reported problems of 'bricking' radios has more to do with technician incompetence than a problem with the RIB. In most cases, a faulty RIB would simply refuse to allow interface between the computer and the radio.

I also have to take exception to the comment about "expensive" radios. Since this thread is specifically about Spectras, I have to point out that Spectras are cheap. I rarely pay more than about $20 apiece for them on eBay, and frequently get them in lots of 5 or more for under $100.
 

mancow

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I agree that the RIB is of surprising quality. I've had some issues with cables though, mainly the XTS ones. They don't put enough solder on the pins and they start to fall out. I've never seen a ribless Spectra cable though. That's interesting.
 

giguchan

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ZZ,
I was just saying that whatever kind of Moto I have, i would not trust it with a NON motorola labeled progamming device. I am talking about any kind of gear spectras or any type of moto gear. I realize that the subject was indeed about Spectras.
 
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