Was there a "pre-Astro" Saber SI 800MHz ?

[Leadenwah]

I thought I saw a Pre-Astro Saber SI which had the green keys, but did not have the Astro logo on the radio. This was an 800MHz analog only radio.

Did I imagine this? It seems rare if it existed. I'm thinking that it was something of a transitional model. I think I saw one for sale, but did not save the ad.

Anyone know of such a radio or might this just be another leaking capacitor in my brain ?

[N4KVE]

I had one of those a few years ago. It was a Jedi in a Saber case. Not used in many places but saw one on Ebay 2 weeks ago. He wanted $600 & got no bids. I once saw a UHF SI. This guy put a UHF Jedi rf board in the SI to make a UHF SI which Moto never built. They were anolog only, & the software was real flakey. Your brain is OK. LOL. GARY N4KVE

[Pj]

The Saber SI was current when the first Astro radios came out. The only thing common was the case. It was a "hold over" radio until the 800 Astro Saber was in production, similar how that Astro Spectra Plus was a hold over until the XTL5000's were released.

Programs with its own RSS. I think LA City FD was a large user of these.

[RTFireguy]

The Saber SI was current when the first Astro radios came out. The only thing common was the case. It was a "hold over" radio until the 800 Astro Saber was in production, similar how that Astro Spectra Plus was a hold over until the XTL5000's were released.

Programs with its own RSS. I think LA City FD was a large user of these.

LA City never used the SI, they had the STX 800 and then the XTS3000

[Leadenwah]

Well, at least I did not imagine that radio.

I now recall one up for auction late last year which went for a fairly high price. I thought of it as a collectors item, but with funky RSS and the other challenges, it might end up in a showcase which is not what I'd want.

Thanks for the info and restoring limited confidence in my brain.

Geo.

[Twisted_Pear]

I still have one that works. I don't mess with it at all as it makes for a nice souvenir.

My understanding is the radio is basically the hardware of an MTS2000 packed to fit in a Saber style case. The hacked LAB that was for it was built off of the MTSX software. I never got it to work but cared less to.

The only large user of them I know of is/was City of San Diego, CA. I think there was somewhere else on the East Coast that used them. As far as I know they were only made in an 800. I want to say there was a UHF one made for the Navy or some such but that's a vague memory from eBay.

They were introduced in around '90-'91. There were a huge amount of problems with them in the beginning.

[Leadenwah]

Yes, I know what you mean. Sometimes you have a nice example of a rare radio which is at times better to be seen than heard.

Before I knew what it was, there was one for sale on a popular auction site which nobody would touch for more than a few bucks then suddenly someone grabbed it up. He recognized what it was.

[MTS2000des]

I had an 800 years ago that had a bad flex and would power off if you tapped the control top. IIRC it could even be read by MTSX RSS. Why anyone would drop 600 bucks for one is beyond me, it's long NLA as is all support, and Motorola will probably refer you to Batlabs!

I have an original foldout brochure somewhere that read "Saber SI, get a grip on high performance" and it clearly showed three different model III radios on the front, one with a VHF, UHF and 800 antenna on each. The literature touted it as being a Smartnet radio with Flashport support, and designed for the future, but available today! It also stated the SI was Securenet capable, IIRC my SI did indeed have a connector on the controller board...any idea if the modules are the same as the Jedi modules?

No rebanding support according to Motorola...so they'll even be more useless soon in many places. I just paid less than 600 bucks for TWO mint Astros with P25, I guess it's the Ebay Idiot factor that people think these things are worth any more than any other 256K MTS2000 which cannot be rebanded. A sucker born every minute...

[/\/\y 2 cents]

They should have made the internals based on STX821 and the 821E. To this day I freaking love the audio, dials, everything still felt precision. I have a few 821E's and I think their great. Can an STX821 do SmartZone? how about AMSS? I think they do AMSS because I talked on a buddy's that was on an AMSS system.

[4n6inv]

I had one about 10 or so years ago, shortly after the MTSX came out. I got it at a hamfest from someone who didn't know what to do with it. The MTSX SW WOULD read and write to it, but it wouldn't activate all of the features in the radio. That was my first experience with Motorola ever asking me: "Hey; so, where did you get this radio?" I was calling about software for it, and he got really curious, really quick. I made up a good BS story for him, that accidentally went with the true history of the radio (so he said). I told him that my regional rep gave it to me to test and play with. He said that the SI was NEVER a production radio, except for certain customers to evaluate. He also said that there was NEVER a P/N for the RSS, so he couldn't sell me a copy of the RSS, but they were on a second beta version of the software and he sent it to me for free - OVERNIGHT! (No; I haven't been drinking or smoking crack!) It was based on the MTSX platform, but they never developed DES-XL FRED (which was what we were using) for that radio. For that reason; and the fact that I liked the larger, backlit keypad buttons; I sold it to who knows who and bought an MTS2000. It was a really cool looking radio, but just wasn't as functional as my MTS. If I could get $50.00 for one today; I'd still sell it. Aside from the novelty; it wasn't that great of a radio in my opinion. I think the MTSX, which has evolved into the XTS series', is probably the best breakthrough design for a handie in a really long time. Now; if they could only make it smaller, overall; and, dual or multiband... Oh; the drool...