Minitor 2 UHF

Gocart878 · Post by **Gocart878** » Sat Jul 31, 2004 12:12 pm

Hello, Recently my Fire Dispatch in Buffalo NY, converted from low band 46-26 to UHF 425-4000. We are Completely Converted over now, and the less important people in the department particularly the Junior Firefighters are using some piece of junk radios called Us-Alert Nova, which fall apart just by touching them, anyways some other departments over across town had their minitor 2 radios converted to UHF 425.4000 and Motorola even made about 300 special radios on this frequency and they work great, however every radio shop i talk with tells me its impossible to make a minitor 2 into UHF 425.4000. Has anyone ever done anything like this, or can they tell me how to do this, i am not a radio Hacker/programmer so i wouldnt know, but i want some evidence to show a local radio shop AKA Motorola Authorized Service Center,that this can be done. Also, would it be costly to have this done to a radio, i am anxious to find out, because the department wont by the less important people Minitor 4 radios, and we like the 2's.

KC8NIY · Post by **KC8NIY** » Sat Jul 31, 2004 5:14 pm

There is no way to convert your existing equipment by re-crystalling or something similar. The only way to do this is to swap out the RF board from a Minitor 2 UHF into your existing low band's. So yes, you can do it, if you can find some surplus UHF boards somewhere. You will probably be better off just trying to find some UHF Minitor 2's.

Gocart878 · Post by **Gocart878** » Sat Jul 31, 2004 5:27 pm

i realize this, but how do you program it to a lower out of band frequency once you have a uhf board?

KC8NIY · Post by **KC8NIY** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 1:00 pm

You can't "program" Minitor 1's or 2's. They are crystal controlled, unlike the Minitor 3 and 4.

Motorola never mass produced a Minitor in the 425MHz range, which is why the MSS is telling you it can't be done.

The only way to do it is to get a UHF board, get a crystal for your freq (if you can find one, again they were never mass produced), and put it on a service monitor to tune the board to your freq. 450-470MHz was the standard board for Minitor 2's. With that said, if you get a standard UHF board and can get a crystal for your freq, it still might not be very sensitive on your freq due to it's out-of-band nature (even after re-tuning)

Jay · Post by **Jay** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 4:55 pm

Am I the only person to notice that your frequency happens to be in the low end of the 70 cm amateur radio allocation?

Jay

K8TEK · Post by **K8TEK** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 5:35 pm

Jay wrote:Am I the only person to notice that your frequency happens to be in the low end of the 70 cm amateur radio allocation?

Unless he mis-typed, you are correct Jay!

KC8NIY · Post by **KC8NIY** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 6:03 pm

FCC 97.303

(f) In the 70 cm band:

(1) No amateur station shall transmit from north of Line A in the 420-430 MHz segment.
(2) The 420-430 MHz segment is allocated to the amateur service in the United States on a secondary basis, and is allocated in the fixed and mobile (except aeronautical mobile) services in the International Table of allocations on a primary basis. No amateur station transmitting in this band shall cause harmful interference to, nor is protected from interference due to the operation of, stations authorized by other nations in the fixed and mobile (except aeronautical mobile) services.

...... 420-430MHz is allocated to Public Safety in LOTS of places. His freq seems pretty legit.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 6:06 pm

Jay wrote:Am I the only person to notice that your frequency happens to be in the low end of the 70 cm amateur radio allocation?

Jay

He also stated that he's in Buffalo, NY. Because of the whole Line A crap, several Public Safety agencies are coordinated in the 420s instead of the 450s due to their proximity to the Canadian Border. You'll also see it in Michigan on occasion. Nearly EVERY frequency application that is submitted in this region has to get approval from Canada before a frequency is added or changed. Certain GMRS frequencies also can not be used in this area; additionally, we have more strict limits on GMRS repeater outputs.

I can vouch for this freq, because I live only 70 miles from Buffalo.

http://www.fcc.gov/oet/info/maps/canline/canline.html

K8TEK · Post by **K8TEK** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 6:13 pm

AAH, I see four listed on that frequency in Amherst, NY

Jay · Post by **Jay** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 6:13 pm

OK, that makes sense based on his location. Interesting.

Jay

K8TEK · Post by **K8TEK** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 6:19 pm

Our county uses 154.77MHz and has no license to use it... Not listed on either of our licenses... KNEP953 or KNEN601

KC8NIY · Post by **KC8NIY** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 6:46 pm

154.77 licensed to you via Town of Rimer, OH.

....Just Kidding

Looks like someone probably let the license expire years ago. It's more common than one might think. Then again, some small departments just never bother to get licensed at all (i.e. VFD's using the "county" freq)

K8TEK · Post by **K8TEK** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 8:16 pm

Acutally, it is our countys "jail" channel. The jail is less then 2 years old... Must just be an oversight. However; I hope for there sake the FCC doesn't find out.

Gocart878 · Post by **Gocart878** » Mon Aug 02, 2004 4:32 am

thats exactly it!, we are in Amherst NY, Under Amherst Fire Control, Now, anybody know anyone who can get a minitor 2 on this frwquency, we dont want the minitor 4s so were trying so hard to get the 2's on this frequency and so far its been challenging, as you can see motorola never mass produced these radios in the 420mhz range so were trying to findf a radio genious to get these radios in that range.

Gocart878 · Post by **Gocart878** » Fri Aug 06, 2004 5:14 am

well, after researching various radio repair shops on the internet, i found a shop thats about 40 miles from me that can indeed convert a minitor 2 to UHF 425mhz. The only Drawback, it will take 4-5 weeks to get a crystal made and shipped. It will only cost me 52.95 for the programming labor included and including the crystal. now thats what i call a deal. After i get my radio programmed and see that it works well, i will reccomend him to this site

KC8NIY · Post by **KC8NIY** » Fri Aug 06, 2004 5:56 am

Glad to hear you found a solution! And that's not a bad price for the parts and labor involved.