jim202
Member
The Syntor X9000 is a fine radio for 6 and 10 meter FM use. Depending on the age of the radio, they may be set up for either 16 or 32 channels (modes). By changing out the EEPROM in the radio, you can extend the channels to up to 255 channels with some limitations.
I am going to tell you to go look at this web site and do some serious reading. It is probably the best site to obtain information on these radios. Go here and download all the information you need. It also contains information on the control heads and some cable information.
Motorola SYNTOR, SYNTOR X, SYNTOR X 9000, SYNTOR X 9000E and SPECTRA Mobile Radio Information
The radios also came in 2 versions for the scan firmware. The common one is for 64 channels. Then there was an option for 128 channels. i have not been blessed with any of the 128 channel firmware PROMS. So all my efforts have been with the 64 channel scan radios.
Now here is where it gets to be a problem. In the many radios I have played with, all of them gave me problems in the scan programming. It also depends on just which version of the software your dealing with. My solution was to make a spread sheet in Excel for the channel programming. I also set up my radio and control heads to use what I call zones. This way I could set up the channels and keep track which channels would be scanned by each of the channels. Each channel had it's own channel scan list until you used up the channel scan limit. It's not the total of the channels in each of the scan lists, but the total channel positions being used for scanning.
What I did on programming the scan lists was to use the original programming software and program the radio with all the same frequency information in the normal commercial band for all the channels you need. Then went in and set the channels in what positions I wanted for each of the scan lists. Reason being is the ham software will not let you set up fixed scan lists. You can use operator selectable scan list, but as soon as the 12 volts is removed from the radio, it will loose the operator set scan list you created. So I always used the fixed scan list.
I have gone to the effort to make my own programming cables. I took some siren cables and used the double male / female connector and made my programming cable out of it. i did use a different cable that was much smaller than the original fat siren cable. You could also make your own internal connections and just leave the cable inside the radio. But keep in mind that you need to keep the connector on the end of the cable from bouncing around and causing damage.
You can use a number of different versions of the control head on these radios. But I always stuck with what most people call the 9000 heads or an A9 head. You can still find people calling them W9 heads. Once in a while you will find one of these heads that may have come from a trunking radio. When you try to program them, you will probably get a serial bus error. the solution is to fire up a Spectra radio package that uses one of these A9 or W9 heads. Astro Spectra heads will not work. Read the Spectra radio with your computer. Shut the radio off. Swap in your bad head. Fire the radio back up and then tell the computer to write back to the radio without changing anything. if the head doesn't have any electrical problems, you should now have a working head. Pull it off the Spectra setup and go back to the Syntor X9000. Now you should be able to program the radio head without a hitch.
Remember from reading the site I sent you to that there are 2 separate software programs for the Syntor X9000 radios. One for the radio and one for the control head. This is where your channel spread sheet comes in handy to keep track of what you need to put into each of the channel positions.
While I am on the subject of programming again, there is one I gotcha that might bite you. That is the computer cache. So my solution is to use a small program that I start before starting the Motorola software. It's called "cacheoff.com" and should be available with a simple search on the Internet. If your computer is one of those that is finicky, just start that small program before doing anything else.
I am going to tell you to go look at this web site and do some serious reading. It is probably the best site to obtain information on these radios. Go here and download all the information you need. It also contains information on the control heads and some cable information.
Motorola SYNTOR, SYNTOR X, SYNTOR X 9000, SYNTOR X 9000E and SPECTRA Mobile Radio Information
The radios also came in 2 versions for the scan firmware. The common one is for 64 channels. Then there was an option for 128 channels. i have not been blessed with any of the 128 channel firmware PROMS. So all my efforts have been with the 64 channel scan radios.
Now here is where it gets to be a problem. In the many radios I have played with, all of them gave me problems in the scan programming. It also depends on just which version of the software your dealing with. My solution was to make a spread sheet in Excel for the channel programming. I also set up my radio and control heads to use what I call zones. This way I could set up the channels and keep track which channels would be scanned by each of the channels. Each channel had it's own channel scan list until you used up the channel scan limit. It's not the total of the channels in each of the scan lists, but the total channel positions being used for scanning.
What I did on programming the scan lists was to use the original programming software and program the radio with all the same frequency information in the normal commercial band for all the channels you need. Then went in and set the channels in what positions I wanted for each of the scan lists. Reason being is the ham software will not let you set up fixed scan lists. You can use operator selectable scan list, but as soon as the 12 volts is removed from the radio, it will loose the operator set scan list you created. So I always used the fixed scan list.
I have gone to the effort to make my own programming cables. I took some siren cables and used the double male / female connector and made my programming cable out of it. i did use a different cable that was much smaller than the original fat siren cable. You could also make your own internal connections and just leave the cable inside the radio. But keep in mind that you need to keep the connector on the end of the cable from bouncing around and causing damage.
You can use a number of different versions of the control head on these radios. But I always stuck with what most people call the 9000 heads or an A9 head. You can still find people calling them W9 heads. Once in a while you will find one of these heads that may have come from a trunking radio. When you try to program them, you will probably get a serial bus error. the solution is to fire up a Spectra radio package that uses one of these A9 or W9 heads. Astro Spectra heads will not work. Read the Spectra radio with your computer. Shut the radio off. Swap in your bad head. Fire the radio back up and then tell the computer to write back to the radio without changing anything. if the head doesn't have any electrical problems, you should now have a working head. Pull it off the Spectra setup and go back to the Syntor X9000. Now you should be able to program the radio head without a hitch.
Remember from reading the site I sent you to that there are 2 separate software programs for the Syntor X9000 radios. One for the radio and one for the control head. This is where your channel spread sheet comes in handy to keep track of what you need to put into each of the channel positions.
While I am on the subject of programming again, there is one I gotcha that might bite you. That is the computer cache. So my solution is to use a small program that I start before starting the Motorola software. It's called "cacheoff.com" and should be available with a simple search on the Internet. If your computer is one of those that is finicky, just start that small program before doing anything else.
