Throwing it Back to the 80s - Radius M216

[mmckenna]

Yeah, I'm happy with it. They've taken a beating and done well for our limited 2 meter use on the trails.

Nice thing was I got a few of the 10 watt models for free, and 10 watts is about all I want on an antenna mounted on the roll bar above my head.

 

[petnrdx]

D44LRA7PA5CK Is a Radius Needs RADMBL. Will NOT read with MAXTRAC unless someone already changed it with LAB. It is NORMAL for RADMBL to not work properly in a DOS window or any newer faster computer. RADMBL is the most difficult of that
series to get to work properly. Usually a "divide by" error. RIBless should work fine, I think your problem is the usual RADMBL problem. I just always use LAB and change all the RADIUS models I get over to being Maxtrac's. I have fought with the problem you
are having even up to last week (since they came out) so decades. I use MOSLO to get my current PENTUIM 75 with DOS 6.22, so you might try MOSLO. The 99 channel MAXTRAC software acts the same way. Either that or get a nice 386SX-16 as that is the platform
RADMBL was made for. I have worked on probably a thousand of those.

 

[03msc]

I just always use LAB and change all the RADIUS models I get over to being Maxtrac's.

If I can't get RADMBL to work after a little while I may try this if I can find the instructions to do it.

 

[petnrdx]

There are really good descriptions on how to do that on the Repeater-Builder site or BATLABS.
If you have 16 pin logic boards (not the 5 pin Masked Logic) you can blank the logic board, put in Maxtrac 5.34 (or 5.36) firmware
and have all the possible features.
Getting RADMBL to run, and to read and write the radio is a bunch of fooling around.
I am pretty sure the max number of channels for a RADIUS is 16 with version 21 firmware.
If the radio you have was a low tier model, you might only get 6 or 8 channels.
The RADIUS was the lower tier radio compared to the MAXTRAC.
The "radius GM300" is actually a slightly newer and different radio.

 

[03msc]

There are really good descriptions on how to do that on the Repeater-Builder site or BATLABS.
If you have 16 pin logic boards (not the 5 pin Masked Logic) you can blank the logic board, put in Maxtrac 5.34 (or 5.36) firmware
and have all the possible features.
Getting RADMBL to run, and to read and write the radio is a bunch of fooling around.
I am pretty sure the max number of channels for a RADIUS is 16 with version 21 firmware.
If the radio you have was a low tier model, you might only get 6 or 8 channels.
The RADIUS was the lower tier radio compared to the MAXTRAC.
The "radius GM300" is actually a slightly newer and different radio.

The label on the original box shows 16ch so I’m assuming that’s accurate. Everything else matches between box and radio.

I think I can probably program it with RADMBL using the old Toughbook that I have, I just have to get the software on a floppy disc.

 

[gary123]

radmbl will run in win95 by selecting run in DOS mode.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

radmbl will run in win95 by selecting run in DOS mode.

It'll run on Windows 98 as well (same method). For those unaware, Windows 95 and 98 run on top of MS-DOS 7.1 which was never truly released as a standalone OS. 6.22 was the newest version Microsoft released but taking a 9x boot floppy (i.e a MS-DOS 7.1 boot floppy) and formatting, initializing, etc the hard drive allows for FAT32 support (i.e. large disks) and if it runs in Win 9x's DOS Mode it'll run on 7.1. I use 7.1 on Core 2 machines as my service PCs. One dual boots Windows 7 32 bit and MS-DOS 7.1, the other boots Windows LTSC 2019 32 bit(as it is a CF-19 Toughbook and it needs as much security support as possible) and I have a USB stick that boots MS-DOS 7.1 that I plug in when I want to mess with it. I've not had to mess with a DOS radio in the field though in...six or seven years (working on a friend's GMRS setup).

 

[AM909]

There are really good descriptions on how to do that on the Repeater-Builder site or BATLABS....

That'd be Motorola MaxTrac / Radius / GM300 Index Page , a great resource.

 

[03msc]

Alrighty, finally got a way to copy the RSS to a floppy so I could get it on my Toughbook CF-25 and it read the radio using just the serial to mic jack cable. Working good so far!

 

[mmckenna]

Did you try typing in the frequency while holding the shift key - trick?

 

[03msc]

Did you try typing in the frequency while holding the shift key - trick?

Yeah. I edited my post. I forgot that you have to enter each digit and when I first tried it (leaving the last 2 zeros as zeros) it wouldn't take it. Entering them all holding shift and it worked.

 

[03msc]

And she’s programmed! Thanks for everyone’s input.

 

[03msc]

I've seen LAB referenced in a reply or two in this thread and also elsewhere in my searches on the web. What is LAB and what does it do? Is that more for flashing firmware updates or hacking or whatever?

 

[petnrdx]

The LAB version was just like the regular version, except you could BLANK an existing logic board and then it could be re initialized with possibly more features. Like more channels, and SIGNALLING (MDC1200).
The LAB version would allow you to enter frequencies slightly out of band for each radio model.
The "MAKE A BLANK BOARD" option was the most useful.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

I've seen LAB referenced in a reply or two in this thread and also elsewhere in my searches on the web. What is LAB and what does it do? Is that more for flashing firmware updates or hacking or whatever?

Basically it was what Depot used to be called but not as functional as depot. It was commonly used to blank and initialize boards but could be used across the entire line.

 

[captaincab]

Used maxtracs for years on 800mhz in the cab business in Philadelphia great radios every now and then they would drift off frequency and you could hear the dispatcher but they couldn’t hear me a quick trip to our radio guy to either fix it or pick up a spare and use it till mine was fixed in a day or two and we would be set. Only issue I had was the cheap crappy looking black microphones I always brought the heavy duty palm mics and swapped them out.

 

[tropiradio]

The M216 definitively requires Radius RSS (RADMBL) for programming, which really requires to be ideally be ran under pure DOS and a Slooooow computer with a real RS232 port. Same goes for Maxtrac. This M216 early radio model came out as an extension of the initial M100 Radius mobile with 16ch, and way before the more modern GM series. I think with the in/famous TK program that radio could even be upgraded to 32 channels, if I am remembering correctly.

 

[03msc]

The M216 definitively requires Radius RSS (RADMBL) for programming, which really requires to be ideally be ran under pure DOS and a Slooooow computer with a real RS232 port. Same goes for Maxtrac. This M216 early radio model came out as an extension of the initial M100 Radius mobile with 16ch, and way before the more modern GM series. I think with the in/famous TK program that radio could even be upgraded to 32 channels, if I am remembering correctly.

Yes, sounds right. You summed up what everyone else has said here pretty much. Your memory has not failed you! But I was finally able to get it programmed (post 32, above) and all is well.