-
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.
Sears Roadtalker
- Thread starter Dovebar1
- Start date
- Status
Dawn
Member
First off, I assume that you're going also to want to convert to FM afterwards since you're in the states.
Secondly, you need to find out if the radio is working in binary mode or BCD
pin 24 is low in Binary and high in BCD
Third, this can get real messy if it uses two crystals besides the reference in Binary mode. Different binary counts depending on the output of the vco/mixer.
Try to find a sams on the unit. If you can't, JC Pennys and Radio Shack sold a similar model. I really don't know what you're trying to do, but IMHO it's not going to be worth it considering the price of custom crystal(s) from any source nowadays for an AM set only worth a couple of bucks and nobody using AM above 29mc unless you have a local group going.
Secondly, you need to find out if the radio is working in binary mode or BCD
pin 24 is low in Binary and high in BCD
Third, this can get real messy if it uses two crystals besides the reference in Binary mode. Different binary counts depending on the output of the vco/mixer.
Try to find a sams on the unit. If you can't, JC Pennys and Radio Shack sold a similar model. I really don't know what you're trying to do, but IMHO it's not going to be worth it considering the price of custom crystal(s) from any source nowadays for an AM set only worth a couple of bucks and nobody using AM above 29mc unless you have a local group going.
10FM
Nice radio..and good luck with your project... Personally I would have gone for a Cybernet radio with the 02A PLL which is what I did.. They are well documented and a FM conversion is dead simple.. But why not be different ! have you googled the PLL ? you should find something that will help.
Nice radio..and good luck with your project... Personally I would have gone for a Cybernet radio with the 02A PLL which is what I did.. They are well documented and a FM conversion is dead simple.. But why not be different ! have you googled the PLL ? you should find something that will help.
Dawn
Member
I don't have any schematics for this radio or the JCP version, but it should be the same board in the RS TRC-468 according to a cross reference I have.
I looked through my notes and found that I was asked to do a 10M conversion on a RS early Navaho 40 channel base. I found the sams and from my scribblings and frequency relationships and programing. This unit was a 2 crystal plus reference, Binary unit. To modifiy it, this model used a 11.596 crystal tripled for the vco/mixer for the /n input to the PLL. That would have been raised to 12.406mc for 10M. I never did the conversion b/c the guy didn't want to spend the money on the crystal. Problem with these units was the /n was different on different models as was the tripler crystal.
They also made a cheaper 2 crystal version that took a tripled a 5.12mc output from the chip that's fixed and the chip is put in a 6 bit BCD ROM mode with a fixed count of 91-135. This made for a very cheap radio. Unfortnately you're also stuck b/c of the fixed 5.12mc output. The only way you can push these models up is to cut that tripler output away from the chip and build a little crystal oscillator and use a crystal cut for it. You can't change the reference as it's also part of the IF conversion injection. You're also stuck with tx mixer 10.695 mc crystal to offset the vco output. IIRC, once in BCD ROM mode you're pretty limited to a fixed /n range. I'd bet a quarter that this radio is a BCD as the price point of the trc-468 was a bottom end radio that didn't even have a meter on it from pictures that I pulled up on google.
If you really want to hack this if it turns out to be BCD, it would even be possible to force the chip into binary mode and bypass the ROM restriction, but you would need a binary switch or even a 8 bit dip switch, maybe design something around a micro, but you'd also have to do some changes with the crystal(s) and add a crystal oscillator circuit. Lots of work for little gain and then have to do a FM conversion.
My two cents worth unless someone has a better idea.
I looked through my notes and found that I was asked to do a 10M conversion on a RS early Navaho 40 channel base. I found the sams and from my scribblings and frequency relationships and programing. This unit was a 2 crystal plus reference, Binary unit. To modifiy it, this model used a 11.596 crystal tripled for the vco/mixer for the /n input to the PLL. That would have been raised to 12.406mc for 10M. I never did the conversion b/c the guy didn't want to spend the money on the crystal. Problem with these units was the /n was different on different models as was the tripler crystal.
They also made a cheaper 2 crystal version that took a tripled a 5.12mc output from the chip that's fixed and the chip is put in a 6 bit BCD ROM mode with a fixed count of 91-135. This made for a very cheap radio. Unfortnately you're also stuck b/c of the fixed 5.12mc output. The only way you can push these models up is to cut that tripler output away from the chip and build a little crystal oscillator and use a crystal cut for it. You can't change the reference as it's also part of the IF conversion injection. You're also stuck with tx mixer 10.695 mc crystal to offset the vco output. IIRC, once in BCD ROM mode you're pretty limited to a fixed /n range. I'd bet a quarter that this radio is a BCD as the price point of the trc-468 was a bottom end radio that didn't even have a meter on it from pictures that I pulled up on google.
If you really want to hack this if it turns out to be BCD, it would even be possible to force the chip into binary mode and bypass the ROM restriction, but you would need a binary switch or even a 8 bit dip switch, maybe design something around a micro, but you'd also have to do some changes with the crystal(s) and add a crystal oscillator circuit. Lots of work for little gain and then have to do a FM conversion.
My two cents worth unless someone has a better idea.
I found this on the 861.. just look down the page a bit. http://www.cbtricks.com/pub/secret_cb/vol_18/graphics/secret_cb_vol_18_pg45.pdf
Dawn
Member
I took a look at that and I'm not so sure about what he's saying in that paragraph Orbie. Maybe in Binary mode where you can get a count up to 256 theoretically. Once the PLL is in BCD mode, n count and frequency relationships are pretty much fixed by the internal rom. Adding and oscillator with a crystal that takes the n of 91-135 and places it in a range the op wants to cover would be about the only way to go I can figure if it's BCD. We're going to have to wait for him to determine if it's BCD or Binary. Bear in mind that not that much was known about the 861 at the time and perhaps the preliminary information this guy was bringing up still hadn't made a distinction of the bcd/rom restrictions vs the binary.
- Status
Similar threads
BCD436HP/BCD536HP:
UBCD436-PT not being recognized by computer
