Re: QUANTAR VHF Audio Interface...

#195056

I'll try to check a copy of the manual here at the HQ in Austin tomorrow....my manual is back at my office in Beaumont.

Chris WB5ITT

CET III

Texas Department of Public Safety?

On Mon, Oct 24, 2022, 8:25 PM Burt K6OQK <biwa@...> wrote:

All,

Thank you for your replies.? However, I need wideband analog input, not the typical/normal 250-3000 Hz audio.? The wideband audio is from darn near DC to 5+ kHz.

I was hoping the "Aux TX Audio"? on pin 5 of the 50 pin connector would be it, but it appears to only be 250-3000 Hz, or less.

Unfortunately I only have the service manual in pdf form.? Trying to find what I'm looking for in that is giving me a krik in my neck and my peepers are becoming crossed.?

If you look at the exciter schematic you will see pin-78 of P/O P-102 .? It's called, "VCO AUDIO" and goes into the 6 kHz splatter filter circuitry and then directly to the "Varactor modulator," CR3250.? I may have to break down and access this by modifying the back plane board.? Being lazy, I was hoping for something simple.

Burt, K6OQK

Re: QUANTAR VHF Audio Interface...

#195055

Fwiw. I have used Mark dannons cables for numerous projects and have several in service since 2013 no issues.? ?

N3ssl?

Re: QUANTAR VHF Audio Interface...

#195054

All,

Thank you for your replies.? However, I need wideband analog input, not the typical/normal 250-3000 Hz audio.? The wideband audio is from darn near DC to 5+ kHz.

I was hoping the "Aux TX Audio"? on pin 5 of the 50 pin connector would be it, but it appears to only be 250-3000 Hz, or less.

Unfortunately I only have the service manual in pdf form.? Trying to find what I'm looking for in that is giving me a krik in my neck and my peepers are becoming crossed.?

If you look at the exciter schematic you will see pin-78 of P/O P-102 .? It's called, "VCO AUDIO" and goes into the 6 kHz splatter filter circuitry and then directly to the "Varactor modulator," CR3250.? I may have to break down and access this by modifying the back plane board.? Being lazy, I was hoping for something simple.

Burt, K6OQK

Re: R1225 can’t be read

#195053

I had that problem in the past with virtual. ?Found an old win 7 32 bit laptop and it worked

kt7az

Re: R1225 can’t be read

#195052

Thanks, all, for the feedback.

I could have been more clear, but beyond the weird interface with just an RJ-45 on the front, I do have a remote head (actually two) to try with ribbon cables. Neither helps the situation, though.

I have noticed that, with the USB-to-serial adapter plugged into the powered-up radio, I get some flashing on both the TX and RX LEDs on the cable, whereas trying it without the radio on gives me just a few blinks of the TX light. It makes me think that there is some communication taking place with the radio, just not properly.

I am using CPS Version 4.0 on 32-bit XP, but it is running in VirtualBox on a 64-bit Windows 10 machine. Let me see if my old native-XP Toughbook powers up at all. I had hoped the R1225 was new enough to not be upset by a fast computer, but maybe something between that or running in a VM is the problem.

Show quoted text

On Mon, Oct 24, 2022 at 7:02 PM Ranger Radio <motorolaradio7000@...> wrote:

I too am on using Ver 4.0 Rss?

Next is to pin out the connector you have to ensure the pins talk with the read/write lines on the chassis connector - major reservations here on this being an issue -

Many of the R1225 I maintain today are with an XP machine and 4.0 with a native serial (no USB excuses) and the rib loves talking every time

There are extra R1225 heads around if one is needed to troubleshoot

Jason

On Mon, Oct 24, 2022, 18:43 Steve <petnrdx@...> wrote:
I have had trouble with R1225's in the past, just like you describe.
Are you using the Version 4 software?
If an earlier version, then it won't like XP.
If you can find someone with WIN 98 on an old slow machine and a REAL Motorola rib and cable, that is
a last resort to try with the earlier versions.
I have had very poor luck with the USB to serial adapters.
Gave up on them years ago.

Re: R1225 can’t be read

#195051

I too am on using Ver 4.0 Rss?

Next is to pin out the connector you have to ensure the pins talk with the read/write lines on the chassis connector - major reservations here on this being an issue -

Many of the R1225 I maintain today are with an XP machine and 4.0 with a native serial (no USB excuses) and the rib loves talking every time

There are extra R1225 heads around if one is needed to troubleshoot

Jason

Show quoted text

On Mon, Oct 24, 2022, 18:43 Steve <petnrdx@...> wrote:

I have had trouble with R1225's in the past, just like you describe.
Are you using the Version 4 software?
If an earlier version, then it won't like XP.
If you can find someone with WIN 98 on an old slow machine and a REAL Motorola rib and cable, that is
a last resort to try with the earlier versions.
I have had very poor luck with the USB to serial adapters.
Gave up on them years ago.

Re: R1225 can’t be read

#195050

I have had trouble with R1225's in the past, just like you describe.
Are you using the Version 4 software?
If an earlier version, then it won't like XP.
If you can find someone with WIN 98 on an old slow machine and a REAL Motorola rib and cable, that is
a last resort to try with the earlier versions.
I have had very poor luck with the USB to serial adapters.
Gave up on them years ago.

Re: Repeater Horror Stories

#195049

On Sun, Oct 23, 2022 at 12:52 PM, w0rw wrote:

Wow that was scary.
What country did that last 'episode 24' happen in?
Paul w0rw

I don't know how many countries "24" was available in.? I don't recall which episode it was either.? The series ran much longer
than it should have.? They jumped the shark when they blew up a nuclear bomb in LA.? Like "Homeland" jumped the shark
when they blew up their own headquarters and went way off the rails into foolish wishful thinking.? The main characters should
have been "managed" at a care facility.

Re: R1225 can’t be read

#195048

As a last thought, how do you reboot after installation of the r1225 software so that it works???

Re: R1225 can’t be read

#195047

If you don't get a good "com-test" fix that first.? Either the software can't find the serial port or it isn't
connected or the cable is wrong or whatever.? Too bad you don't have a r1225 front panel.?

I am using a real serial port and RIB box. I am highly suspicious of usb cables off ebay or who knows where.?
A lot of rip-offs and wild claims out there.? There are a lot of homebrew options out there that may work in
certain setups but not reliably between different models. The RIB is highly versitile and I have used it successfully
on numerous other brands besides M.

I have been programming r1225 with XP - don't recall what version software.? You likely should use the latest
that will do 16kF3 as there were Win9x versions that don't work in xp.?? Maxtrac was DOS only.? I would like to hear
from anyone who actually has programmed a Maxtrac in any of the Windows experiments out there, but even the
snippets in the text files leading people to think Windows could be used must have been wishful thinking.?
Models after that suffered many software issues advancing to XP.

Re: Repeater Horror Stories

#195046

My horror story...

I operate an "open system" GMRS repeater at a very good site in Joliet.? Antenna height is 500 ft. AGL. (FWIW, I also have a 900 MHz Amateur repeater co-located at this site.)? I listened to the frequency for a couple of MONTHS before deciding to put the station on the air - I wanted to ensure I wasn't going to interfere, because there are no coordinating bodies for GMRS.? I eventually installed my repeater - at that time, a 50W Micor Community Repeater (CR).? All was well.

The station was up about 2 years when - all of a sudden, in 2017 - another repeater appeared on the pair.? (See YouTube link below for a sample of the issue.) From what we could determine, the new machine had a large area of coverage (like mine) and was using both the freq pair (462.550) and PL (114.8) that I was. Nearly every time someone brought up my repeater, they also brought up the other one, rendering my repeater nearly useless.

So, I changed PL... but the problem didn't go away.? It followed me through 4 PL changes. (If you remember, the Micor CR had a PL card capable of holding up to 4 PL reeds. The station was capable of up to 16 PLs, but I only had one card.)? Well, I started buying reeds to try to find one that wouldn't interfere. We later determined the other station had a combination of 18 PLs *and* 8 DPLs activated in its controller.? I also tried to determine who owned the other machine, so we could come to some sort of amicable arrangement.? No joy... Nobody responded to any calls on either repeater regarding identity of the repeater owner.

The ID being transmitted by the other repeater was invalid - it was not in the FCC database.? Also, nobody ever seemed to use THAT machine on a regular basis.? Based on triangulation, we determined it was somewhere in downtown Chicago - possibly atop the Aon Building - but couldn't / didn't pursue it further.? After about 8 months, it went off the air as mysteriously as it first appeared. And it hasn't been heard of since. Speculation was, someone walked into a radio penthouse somewhere, saw the repeater was inoperable, and decided to reactivate it... and after learning about the interference, simply deactivated it as well.? It remains a mystery to this day as to where it was, and who put it up / took it down.

Mark - N9WYS / WQIV271?

Re: Repeater Horror Stories

#195045

开云体育

In the early 1990s in Fairfax County, VA we had informal hidden transmitter hunts on 2 meter FM monthly that were lots of fun.? On one memorable hunt the fox was my friend KC3SV, Ed, now a silent key.? He was hiding in a wooded field across the road from 1000 Colonial Farm Road in Fairfax, VA.? The CIA found him in record time, and they were not amused.

73,

Tad Danley, K3TD

On 10/23/2022 12:39 PM, jb via groups.io wrote:

Show quoted text

I can't tell many of my stories as they may have had widespread coverage.? In the days when
gas was cheaper, T-hunting was more popular and large groups would participate, we found?
it important to learn the topography of your area and how signals reflect and propagate.?

On one hunt I had the opportunity to ride along with someone much more dedicated to the
hunt, who had built a rotating beam on the top of his car that spun around at approx 2 sec to
one revolution rate, and had fed a system of rheostats and signal strength to x and y inputs to
a scope so that it showed a 360 degree representation of the direct and reflected signal strengths.

He had become so adept with this setup, that he would always be able to be the first or at least
one of the first to locate the transmitter.? In fact he could drive to a high spot and from there, simply
drive to the transmitter location and do some final sniffing on foot.?

The scary part of this, often police and security guards and sometimes others would take an interest
in these suspicious activities and T-hunters were actually detained for questioning, sometimes at
gun point.

Once upon a time, I was sent to a certain site to service a repeater but I hadn't been there in a while
and forgot which room in the building.? I inadvertently opened the door to the next room and since it
didn't match the picture I remembered, I just shut the door and locked it and went to the right room.?
In less than 10 minutes a big fat helicopter approached the site and what looked like a fully equipped
swat team rappelled from several ropes to see who had blown the silent alarm.? Fortunately I was in
uniform and the vehicle was marked, so they asked for ID rather than shooting me on sight.?
Years later, there was an episode of 24, where the bad guys went to a site and shot some equipment
and waited for a service van to approach, instantly shot the service team dead with head shots and
stole the van and uniforms, and successfully breached the command center.? Fortunately that never
happened (to me) in real life, but there were many suspicious circumstances over the years to help
me maintain a high level of paranoia.

Re: Repeater Horror Stories

#195044

Many many years ago worked for a MSS, and we were receiving a pulsing up and down the entire UHF band a growl. It was wiping out all of our Community repeaters and even some PS equipment. So we went searching for it leading us to a Military Installation. We attempted to gain entry by showing that the interference was being generated on base. We were turned around and later were told to forget about any further looking for it. Even the FCC and mother M from Chicago got involved and told us to forget it. About 2 months later it disappeared, never knew why.

This may go as the horror for someone else:
Many years ago we had issues with another repeater operator who put up a machine and put a taxi service on it. Apparently this was there method of clearing a channel for their use after the taxi service chased everyone off. It was located on a tall building downtown, our machine was maybe a mile or so away on another tall building. One of my techs (former military RF engineer) came up with a very interesting solution to clear this service off the channel. We found a 5hz chrystal and put it in a Micor TCXO then proceeded to tape that TCXO hidden within a few feet of the offending repeater. After about one week that repeater went silent and never came back.
It is very difficult to chase a signal that only appears when you are transmitting. The TXCO was swamping the front end of the repeater with a DFQ basically taking it off the air.

Now to as why I left 2-way radio:
Nexthell was very big in the mid 90's they were killing it with their service. I had at the time a 5 channel trunk system with 30 mile coverage and had about 300 units on the system. Back then you could charge each radio individually their time use, this was ok for mobiles, but the base always had overages. N came in and said we dont' do that and so I lost a few customers. I then went one for one with N and charged a flat fee of all units. N came back and said we will give you the radio's for free, so then I just let the system die a slow death. I was very happy to hear when they got bought out and shut the system down. Now with cell phones, it really doesn't matter there isn't any a real 2-way services left.

Re: R1225 can’t be read

#195043

This may be a case of this generation of radios (late 90's 2000?) will only be read with a TRUE serial cable with RIB box and a true DOS computer of no more than 25 mhz without a coprocessor. (I had issues with Saber radios wanting true cable and a really slow processor)

You did not mention which version of software you are using, also since you cannot connect to the radios I am going with your setup is either too fast or using a wrong type of cables. If there is and I don't remember if there is a DOS version of software I would start with that. There are alot of early programmable M radios that do not like vitural anything they want true serial and slow processor, which why I keep and old 286 machine around, and picked up a dozen 486 25mhz? motherboards to keep these antiques going.
I would also try to read using a control head first then if successful move over to the modified no head.