Batboard

Hi

I've got an ex government UHF saber on the way, with ERR 0 81. I'm assuming this is because when the radio was "demilitarised", they just programmed some random codeplug into it, and unplugged it half way through.

What is the chance of the radio's tuning data still being intact, if they used F6 "Use Radio Values" when they wrote to it? On Jedis, I understand this data lives within the first two blocks of the radio's codeplug.

I'm hoping that I might be able to generate a new RPF in the RSS, and when I dump it in, use the tuning data still present in the radio. If sensible tuning data can be recovered, it'd save me a 400km drive to the nearest place where I can get access to a service monitor.

Am I on crack, or would this be feasible?

Cheers

Yes I would believe you could do that with a fair chance of
recovering the radio. Just make sure that the model number
and bandsplit for the code plug you create from scratch is
exactly what the radio really is. I would give it a shot.
Those sabers are pretty robust when it comes to doing
this type of thing to it. Phrawg

The Saber arrived today.

When I tried reading it, RSS came up with an error while reading the CORE along the lines of the EEPROM checksum is invalid, and that it's only a warning at this stage. It then continued on to read the internal and external COPE codeplugs, fixed the checksum, and allowed me to program an (almost) fully functional South Australian Police codeplug back into the radio.

The only problem is the 16-position knob on Australian Sabers only has two positions, one position labelled "LOCAL", like on a Syntrx, because it acts as a talkaround switch. This talkaround function no longer works after writing to it with American RSS 7 - I assume it relied on special RSS.

Anyway, it's running beautifully now with my frequencies, and a DES-XL module.

Here's a picture of the top of the radio:



EDIT: Made the image smaller

Mathew:

I'm not familiar with Australian version of the Saber, but if they are anything like a normal version, you can simply pop off the knob, remove the insert and change the detent so you have 'normal' 16 position usage again, but you may wish to swap control tops with a 16 position escutcheon.

Your corrupt codeplug should be easy to reload, just make sure you have no '??' in ANY of the data fields, such as phone revert.

Those pesky '??' will ruin your day.

Good luck!

mr.syntrx wrote: http://i10.tinypic.com/440efqh.jpg

Wow, that's wacky! Looks like every other used Saber I've seen otherwise (i.e. the obliterated escutcheon, case that looks like a dog got ahold of it, etc.)

They got any more for sale? I seem to recall you mentioning on HS that they were 440-470 radios.

The first two I found were 440-470, but this one is the 458 split. The cops down there used to be on 64 channels between 467 and 469 MHz, with inputs 10MHz below.

The sellers generally have no idea what they're selling, so it's probably going to be pot luck in what split you get.

The radio has a nice "wacker's dream" housing though!

Revisiting these whacko radios...

I have another batch of three of 'em. I read one with Saber RSS 7 - it gets through reading the radio, but RSS comes up with "Prompt Number 38", before crapping itself and crashing with a memory allocation error.

When I write a fresh codeplug to the radio, it reads tuning data for 198 channels. WTF, over?

Somehow, after about eight beers and a night of messing around, I managed to get the original codeplug out of the first radio I got (which I then overwrote on the PC's hard disk.)

Any suggestions as to how I could possibly get the original codeplug out of this radio?


EDIT: I'm convinced this radio has more channels in it than would be expected.

After reading the radio, it comes up with "Initializing channel information" in the status area at the top right, before bombing out with a memory allocation error. Too many channels, resulting in a stack overflow - RSS's buffer allows for 120, and when it unpacks the codeplug, it sees 198, and bombs out.

OK, I tracked down the you beaut special AVN6009 "AUSSP" RSS.

When programmed with this RSS, the radio behaves as follows:

* Channel only operation with channel names is enforced
* Position 1 of the knob does talkaround
* Channels are selected by directly entering the number on the keypad - no more CHANNEL menu
* No more DTMF phone operation
* No MPL
* RSS allows the entry of no more than 99 channels

I did manage to read the SA Police data out of the radio this time, without RSS crashing. Unfortunately, it was very corrupt. I fixed all the bad fields I could see, and tried writing it back to the crappiest of the radios, but I ended up bricking it. When I turn it on, random LCD segments flash, and that's it.