Batboard

Hello. Lots of Saber "R's" have been popping up on Ebay. They take different batteries etc. Is it possible to undo the 2 bottom screws, yank on the antenna, & put back in a non "R" case? Same with Astro series? Thanks. GARY N4KVE

Yep. Guts are 100% identical.

Yep you can. It's hard to come by a Astro Saber case though, it might be cheaper if you buy a cheap AS1 and just swap the case.

N4KVE wrote:Is it possible to undo the 2 bottom screws, yank on the antenna, & put back in a non "R" case? Same with Astro series? GARY N4KVE

Your question has been answered but DON"T "yank on the antenna" to remove the case. This type of procedure can crack the control top plastic resulting in a loose antenna and causing lots of noise in the Tx & Rx. A better way is to loosen the screws, place a common screwdriver in the large slot between the case and the control top (located on the back side of the radio) and twist. Replacing the control top requires a COMPLETE teardown of the radio, about 1.5 hrs of labor to replace a piece of plastic.

DJP126 wrote:

N4KVE wrote:Is it possible to undo the 2 bottom screws, yank on the antenna, & put back in a non "R" case? Same with Astro series? GARY N4KVE

Your question has been answered but DON"T "yank on the antenna" to remove the case. This type of procedure can crack the control top plastic resulting in a loose antenna and causing lots of noise in the Tx & Rx. A better way is to loosen the screws, place a common screwdriver in the large slot between the case and the control top (located on the back side of the radio) and twist. Replacing the control top requires a COMPLETE teardown of the radio, about 1.5 hrs of labor to replace a piece of plastic.

The service manual actually tells you to pull (not yank) on the antenna after you loosen the two screws on the bottom. It does not say to use a screw driver to pry the radio apart. To me, using a screw drive would mar up the plastic.

That is correct. BY the book ! loosen the retaining nuts on the bottom
with the correct spanner driver and gently pull on the antenna to
extract the chassis. All the while assuring that none of the side
switch press pads are being depressed. Actually what I do is after
loosening both screws I use that same tool to push a bit on the captive
nuts while griping the case firmly (and pressing no buttons) and that
usually breaks loose the grip of the top o-ring. Then the antenna
as a pull handle works well with little force. Phrawg

Your method may be "by the book", but after having to replace hundreds of control tops because of noise (mostly noticed in UHF models) I will not pull on the antenna. I did make an error when I said "twist". That should be "gently push the control top away from the housing".

Phrawg makes an excellent point with his warning about being sure that the side buttons are not pushed in.

how hard is it to get a SaberR battery and use the radio as is?

RR Spectra wrote:how hard is it to get a SaberR battery and use the radio as is?

Not hard at all, just a little expensive