Spectra radio was designed by my colleagues in Fort Worth TX. I was an RF engineer at Motorola Land Mobile Products division from 1981to about 1990. I was assigned to another project when Spectra was developed, so didn't work on it directly. But those were really smart RF engineers and it is a high quality product. Vehicle mounted Public safety radio development moved to Ft Lauderdale FL in 1990, and Ft Worth engineering transitioned to Motorola's Cellular Infrastructure group. I did radio design for Cellular infrastructure until Nokia bought Motorola's Infrastructure business in 2011. (30 years with Motorola)
Randomly watching your videos when they pop up on my recommendations, this takes me back. Spent nearly 14 years working in radio repair, Moto was our #1. We did Kenwood and others too though. Been in hundreds if not thousands of Spectras. I'd order caps 1000 at a time... Majority of the time all I would need to replace is the electrolytics. Sometimes the two yellow tants and two 2.2k resistors. If you are really unlucky... You will have RX issues and/or RX audio issues, and/or display issues. I have never had a Spectra I couldnt repair (besides the one that got crushed by a tank). Most the time the steering line on RF board would be the issue, and if memory serves right... it was due to an 82k resistor getting open from corrosion. The high power unit and Astro units had a bit more variety in required caps. The yellow tants Moto used I rarely seen go bad... But when they do, it was ALWAYS a short, and magic smoke. Motorola also had lots of issues with the .1 caps, throughout the years, on various models. Flux shorts were common too. THe Spectra line of radios were pretty damn bullet proof. Caps and solder touchups (800Mhz PA decks were notorious for dry joints) resolved most issues. The VFD screens were a weak point though, going dim over time.
The Spectra was really state of the art in the early 90's, a real cats meow. When I got my HAM license in 2008, I got a set of these. The 2 meter rig I had bought actually was previously the property of the LA County FD, they had bought it in 94.
Juraj Pekar Silicone, hot glue is for kids arts and crafts projects, not holding things together in an environment like the inside of a hot car. They aint going anywhere
shango066 Ok, my mistake, I forgot to mention that I am using a polyamide hot glue (sold as a hot glue for PCB assembly and potting), heat resistant up to 135°C, softening point 160°C. Of course the regular cheap stuff is absolutely useless.
Your control head board was replaced sometime in 1998 or 1999, from the date codes on the ICs, whereas your radio was made in early 1992 per the S/N, most likely why the caps in the head were still good, and your display is so bright. The Spectras were top radios in their heyday but they could be the biggest bitch on the bench. Spent many hours working on them in the late 90s during my radio tech days.
mrflashport Good eye and makes sense. I know they are touchy, I got a few of the UHF ones and tried to mode one to lock down to 440 and several of the ICs exploded. Im going to go get a silver pen and try that method. Its all about having some kind of fun i guess
shango066 The best UHF analog Spectras were the motorcycle radios, which were limited in RF output to 15 watts, but came in the highly desirable 438-470MHz bandsplit from the factory. Had one in service until a couple of years ago., it also had a pre-amp board. Replaced those with XTL2500/5000s. With XTLs being discontinued prices are dropping quickly. Much more advanced radio, Windows based CPS, and harder (though not impossible) to hose up. OTOH, they are basically disposable radios like everything else today.
Very cool, SMD is quite easy I am sure you have figured that out by now, I used to be afraid till I began buying cheap kits and learning that way. Thanks for the great video and 73s, KE0JBL
Hey Shango how did the spectra work out DXing? Not sure if u can reply yet or not. I deleted my stupid G+ account too. Thanks a million for the videos. You are still the rockstar tech! Steven
I am not sure who made the original caps, but it seems most electronics from the early 90s that used SMD caps are failing in the same manner. I have a Sony Discman from the late 80s I think, one of the first portable CD players. FULL of SMD caps, and all leaking....
you can run the spectra software in a "windows95" VM running on win7 64bit laptop and VMWarePlayer. so you dont have to have that old thing... just make sure you map your com ports in vmplayer to the com ports on your host PC. I have done this successfully for my GR1225 repeater using a usb to serial adapter and i just make sure my usb port is mapped to the same com port, and slow the com port down in device manager to 2400 or 9600. You can find the win95 VM online. message me if you want more details.
I wonder if the VHF "Business Band" still exists, saw a couple of those Dot frequencies in the radio programmer. I remove SMD caps the same way. You can solder on surface mounts with a regular iron, just takes patience. Its possible that Motorola software might work with a USB RS-232 adapter and DOSBox. Better back up those programmer files though, that hard drive didn't sound too healthy!
+NJRoadfan VHF-Hi band is still widely used by railroads and most businesses have gone digital so these old radios are useless because they are analog and wideband. Same goes for UHF 450 band. My policy on these old radios is when they come in they get destroyed and recycled so they DO NOT wind up at a ham radio sale.
@@gregorymalchuk272 Railroads and government agencies do not want them recirculated so we drill them and send them off. It sucks because they are fine radios but that is part of the deal
@@gregorymalchuk272 Because some have encryption boards and frequencies not printed publicly, also the serial numbers remain in their database for quite a while. Also Motorola does not support them anymore, parts are becoming scarce and they are wide-band.. They have their reasons.
No, radio encryption rekey... We rekey our radios at the beginning of every month. But I forgot how to do it on the Motorola astro spectra in vehicle radio.....(over the air rekey)
Hi. I'm from France. Sorry for my english. Does someone know the way to reset a RADIUS GM1200 (MR304 a) motorola? I want to reset the internal programming and put the basic program. Thank you all.
you wondered why the tantalum caps were not used in the radio at the factory , my guess is COST. They were trying to keep the cost down. When this radio was king of the hill, tantalum caps were a little pricey. Also most makers have a "service life" for the product and, they figured by the time the caps failed it would be time to replace the radio anyway. It is a good radio and after watching your video I may just try one my self. The software is the big problem. 73 de KD4HCT
It's been years since I last did one of these (probably done over 100 of them...) but as I recall, I too used the word spoodje (sp?)... If you really want some fun, do the preamp mod...
These were called "'fish caps" due to that nasty smell, I've changed hundreds in camcorders and various other modules for big screen TV's, DVD players...The biggest pain in the ass is when that acid eats away the connecting ring of one of those top to bottom through hole traces.
Hello, I'm a ham radio op and I have Motorola Spectra UHF mobile radio. Can I use this radio in ham radio band (430-440Mhz) Is it possible? Could you help to me about this please?
Shango is shy of SMD rework? Unbelievable. I've watched your videos mate, you could do it blind drunk with a plumber's iron, you just haven't tried yet!
+James skippinhopper exactly, you get ripped off on ebay or at a ham sale buying this old junk, you cannot use it legally and you wont get what you paid for it in scrap..
+ElfNet Gaming You can use them on ham frequencies legally since narrowbanding did not affect hams. However you cannot use them on the business band anymore.
Well I'm not a ham, I am a commercial operator so they are worthless to me outside of scrap metal. I kept the 110watt systems 9000 versions I had in my SUV. I have them under my bench and I can listen to the railroads on them which is always cool. Its a shame the FCC forced rebanding like they did though, I really liked these radios. Now I have the Motorola DM2000 stuff in there.. its fancy but I miss my VFD glowing spectras
ElfNet Gaming I am trying to find a RIB for my systems 9000, I have a dos computer but I have no idea what to look for that is compatible. Any suggestions? I want to program it for use on 2 meter
Certain radio frequencies within the band plan are still wide band. As for emergency transmissions, not too effective. You can kinda stay legal by decreasing the deviation from 5 KHz to 2.5 KHz but it will be radio wide so certain bands ie amature you audio will be way too low. Also one will need to turn up the volume to receive audio from a narrow band radio. You must also consider in a densely populated area where there are now transmitters running in the narrow splits between the old frequencies, you will receive splatter from these frequencies since the front end of your receiver section is set to receive a wider window. Motorola in the earlier days offered narrow band crystal filters for the Maxtrac/Radius line of radios but they soon dropped the kit. Guess it hit into their wallet by not being able to sell new radio gear or the FCC said it was not an approved modification. I have converted several GE MASTR II repeaters to narrow band by changing out the preselector crystals and capacitors with a kit that was once offered on line by a company in California but I no longer have that info. Also had to modify the repeater controller with different pots to control the deviation levels better. Went from the one turn trimmer to either a ten or twenty turn trimmer. The single turn tended to jump too much when it came to setting deviation levels.
There are ones that are much worse then Jamicon, but yes, still not a good brand, they were what a lot of the King Kong cheapie electronics from the 1970s used, along with some rather questionable build quality. Even so they are still better then the Chicom mystery brands like Xunda, and Capxon.
Spectra radio was designed by my colleagues in Fort Worth TX. I was an RF engineer at Motorola Land Mobile Products division from 1981to about 1990. I was assigned to another project when Spectra was developed, so didn't work on it directly. But those were really smart RF engineers and it is a high quality product. Vehicle mounted Public safety radio development moved to Ft Lauderdale FL in 1990, and Ft Worth engineering transitioned to Motorola's Cellular Infrastructure group. I did radio design for Cellular infrastructure until Nokia bought Motorola's Infrastructure business in 2011. (30 years with Motorola)
Randomly watching your videos when they pop up on my recommendations, this takes me back. Spent nearly 14 years working in radio repair, Moto was our #1. We did Kenwood and others too though. Been in hundreds if not thousands of Spectras. I'd order caps 1000 at a time... Majority of the time all I would need to replace is the electrolytics. Sometimes the two yellow tants and two 2.2k resistors. If you are really unlucky... You will have RX issues and/or RX audio issues, and/or display issues. I have never had a Spectra I couldnt repair (besides the one that got crushed by a tank). Most the time the steering line on RF board would be the issue, and if memory serves right... it was due to an 82k resistor getting open from corrosion. The high power unit and Astro units had a bit more variety in required caps.
The yellow tants Moto used I rarely seen go bad... But when they do, it was ALWAYS a short, and magic smoke. Motorola also had lots of issues with the .1 caps, throughout the years, on various models. Flux shorts were common too.
THe Spectra line of radios were pretty damn bullet proof. Caps and solder touchups (800Mhz PA decks were notorious for dry joints) resolved most issues. The VFD screens were a weak point though, going dim over time.
The Spectra was really state of the art in the early 90's, a real cats meow. When I got my HAM license in 2008, I got a set of these. The 2 meter rig I had bought actually was previously the property of the LA County FD, they had bought it in 94.
Thank you so much. Your info enabled me to find two errors while programming my own radios. Keep up the good work.
Quick tip - you can glue those caps with a hot glue if you worry about the vibration, works perfectly for me (car radio, lots of vibration).
Juraj Pekar Silicone, hot glue is for kids arts and crafts projects, not holding things together in an environment like the inside of a hot car. They aint going anywhere
shango066 Ok, my mistake, I forgot to mention that I am using a polyamide hot glue (sold as a hot glue for PCB assembly and potting), heat resistant up to 135°C, softening point 160°C. Of course the regular cheap stuff is absolutely useless.
Your control head board was replaced sometime in 1998 or 1999, from the date codes on the ICs, whereas your radio was made in early 1992 per the S/N, most likely why the caps in the head were still good, and your display is so bright. The Spectras were top radios in their heyday but they could be the biggest bitch on the bench. Spent many hours working on them in the late 90s during my radio tech days.
mrflashport Good eye and makes sense. I know they are touchy, I got a few of the UHF ones and tried to mode one to lock down to 440 and several of the ICs exploded. Im going to go get a silver pen and try that method. Its all about having some kind of fun i guess
shango066
The best UHF analog Spectras were the motorcycle radios, which were limited in RF output to 15 watts, but came in the highly desirable 438-470MHz bandsplit from the factory. Had one in service until a couple of years ago., it also had a pre-amp board. Replaced those with XTL2500/5000s. With XTLs being discontinued prices are dropping quickly. Much more advanced radio, Windows based CPS, and harder (though not impossible) to hose up. OTOH, they are basically disposable radios like everything else today.
Very cool, SMD is quite easy I am sure you have figured that out by now, I used to be afraid till I began buying cheap kits and learning that way. Thanks for the great video and 73s, KE0JBL
tantalum caps were expensive in the '90s.
There's no siren on this? I thought these had sirens on them.
No any radio works as siren i think
@@luismontijo7373 No they do have sirens. Look up Motorla Spectra Radio And Siren
Very steady hand.
Some people use weak vinegar to remove the problem residue of the old electrolyte.
Spectra Forever!
that is a real good way to pull the trace off the board if you're not careful
Hey Shango how did the spectra work out DXing? Not sure if u can reply yet or not. I deleted my stupid G+ account too. Thanks a million for the videos. You are still the rockstar tech! Steven
Great video! Thanks!!!
I have a system 9000 spectra with the trunk mount transceiver, what RIB is compatible with radio? I am having trouble determining what RIB to order
Where can I buy a programming cable for these old units
Great video 👌
I am not sure who made the original caps, but it seems most electronics from the early 90s that used SMD caps are failing in the same manner. I have a Sony Discman from the late 80s I think, one of the first portable CD players. FULL of SMD caps, and all leaking....
you can run the spectra software in a "windows95" VM running on win7 64bit laptop and VMWarePlayer. so you dont have to have that old thing... just make sure you map your com ports in vmplayer to the com ports on your host PC. I have done this successfully for my GR1225 repeater using a usb to serial adapter and i just make sure my usb port is mapped to the same com port, and slow the com port down in device manager to 2400 or 9600. You can find the win95 VM online. message me if you want more details.
Hi, can you help me with the cps rss programming software ? I tried to download from radioscanner but not is avaiable
Hi, what value of Balancing Transformer shall I use to connect my amplified (HSN1000BR) Motorola External Speaker to my Motorola Spectra?
I wonder if the VHF "Business Band" still exists, saw a couple of those Dot frequencies in the radio programmer. I remove SMD caps the same way. You can solder on surface mounts with a regular iron, just takes patience.
Its possible that Motorola software might work with a USB RS-232 adapter and DOSBox. Better back up those programmer files though, that hard drive didn't sound too healthy!
+NJRoadfan VHF-Hi band is still widely used by railroads and most businesses have gone digital so these old radios are useless because they are analog and wideband. Same goes for UHF 450 band.
My policy on these old radios is when they come in they get destroyed and recycled so they DO NOT wind up at a ham radio sale.
@@Elfnetdesigns
Why don't you want them ending up in a ham radio sale?
@@gregorymalchuk272 Railroads and government agencies do not want them recirculated so we drill them and send them off. It sucks because they are fine radios but that is part of the deal
@@Elfnetdesigns
Yeah, but why don't they want them resold?
@@gregorymalchuk272 Because some have encryption boards and frequencies not printed publicly, also the serial numbers remain in their database for quite a while. Also Motorola does not support them anymore, parts are becoming scarce and they are wide-band.. They have their reasons.
Actually hot glue is used frequently in electronics
In cheap Chinese stuff. Not in automotive or mil spec stuff
shango066 what about high temp hot glue?
yes electronics glue is great
I also use a old laptop of the same vintage to program pic microcontrollers as my main PC has no parallel port.
What kind of projects do you use PIC microcontrollers for?
like how you spin radio on concrete!
Great way to tear up a radio!
its not concrete look at the texture...maybe its time for a new pair of lenses for your glasses
Hilarious!
Ancient Roman radio.
I got out of the tv electronic repair business when surface mount micro chips were introduced due to my poor vision
Could you give advice about how to rekey the Motorola spectra
rekey? the lock on the high power one? you can buy the key on ebay for a few dollars
No, radio encryption rekey... We rekey our radios at the beginning of every month. But I forgot how to do it on the Motorola astro spectra in vehicle radio.....(over the air rekey)
@@KF...you department sys op should be able to do the OTAR software reflash via the terminal in Dispatch.
Hi. I'm from France. Sorry for my english. Does someone know the way to reset a RADIUS GM1200 (MR304 a) motorola? I want to reset the internal programming and put the basic program. Thank you all.
you wondered why the tantalum caps were not used in the radio at the factory , my guess is COST. They were trying to keep the cost down. When this radio was king of the hill, tantalum caps were a little pricey. Also most makers have a "service life" for the product and, they figured by the time the caps failed it would be time to replace the radio anyway. It is a good radio and after watching your video I may just try one my self. The software is the big problem. 73 de KD4HCT
It's been years since I last did one of these (probably done over 100 of them...) but as I recall, I too used the word spoodje (sp?)... If you really want some fun, do the preamp mod...
Does anyone know why my spectra says remote on the screen when powered on?
Must be a a local guy in the SFV. 73 KK6TLN
These were called "'fish caps" due to that nasty smell, I've changed hundreds in camcorders and various other modules for big screen TV's, DVD players...The biggest pain in the ass is when that acid eats away the connecting ring of one of those top to bottom through hole traces.
PLZ I NEED THE ASTRO t99dx-132w rvn4100 DOS software download
Hello,
I'm a ham radio op and I have Motorola Spectra UHF mobile radio.
Can I use this radio in ham radio band (430-440Mhz) Is it possible?
Could you help to me about this please?
YES, YOU CAN. SQ5KIE ephemetherson
Shango is shy of SMD rework? Unbelievable. I've watched your videos mate, you could do it blind drunk with a plumber's iron, you just haven't tried yet!
push slightly in and twist.
necesito el software del Spectra por favor
I need Spectra software please
MODELO DA7KM+067W
I hope the chip is in that radio for programming otherwise u have a Motorola brick
I didn’t know those smd caps pee
I BELIVE THIS MOTOROLA IS FROM 137 MHz to 174 MHz. HERE WE SEE 147-174 MHz. SQ5KIE ephemetherson
they are not narrowbandable, obsolete
+James skippinhopper exactly, you get ripped off on ebay or at a ham sale buying this old junk, you cannot use it legally and you wont get what you paid for it in scrap..
+ElfNet Gaming You can use them on ham frequencies legally since narrowbanding did not affect hams. However you cannot use them on the business band anymore.
Well I'm not a ham, I am a commercial operator so they are worthless to me outside of scrap metal. I kept the 110watt systems 9000 versions I had in my SUV. I have them under my bench and I can listen to the railroads on them which is always cool. Its a shame the FCC forced rebanding like they did though, I really liked these radios. Now I have the Motorola DM2000 stuff in there.. its fancy but I miss my VFD glowing spectras
ElfNet Gaming I am trying to find a RIB for my systems 9000, I have a dos computer but I have no idea what to look for that is compatible. Any suggestions? I want to program it for use on 2 meter
Certain radio frequencies within the band plan are still wide band. As for emergency transmissions, not too effective. You can kinda stay legal by decreasing the deviation from 5 KHz to 2.5 KHz but it will be radio wide so certain bands ie amature you audio will be way too low. Also one will need to turn up the volume to receive audio from a narrow band radio. You must also consider in a densely populated area where there are now transmitters running in the narrow splits between the old frequencies, you will receive splatter from these frequencies since the front end of your receiver section is set to receive a wider window. Motorola in the earlier days offered narrow band crystal filters for the Maxtrac/Radius line of radios but they soon dropped the kit. Guess it hit into their wallet by not being able to sell new radio gear or the FCC said it was not an approved modification. I have converted several GE MASTR II repeaters to narrow band by changing out the preselector crystals and capacitors with a kit that was once offered on line by a company in California but I no longer have that info. Also had to modify the repeater controller with different pots to control the deviation levels better. Went from the one turn trimmer to either a ten or twenty turn trimmer. The single turn tended to jump too much when it came to setting deviation levels.
My eyesight is too weak to service smd devices. Almost as bad as tvradiophinonut
jamicon are horrible caps
I got nichicon for the next one
yea agreed, jamicon are bloody awful
There are ones that are much worse then Jamicon, but yes, still not a good brand, they were what a lot of the King Kong cheapie electronics from the 1970s used, along with some rather questionable build quality. Even so they are still better then the Chicom mystery brands like Xunda, and Capxon.