Lscott

Is it you just get a communication error or some other message? A few unlucky people get stuck with a used radio that is password locked. One thing to check if it's a communication issue is the quality of the programming cable and the port on the radio it plugs into. Sometimes the cable port contacts are dirty or the cable isn't fully inserted into the socket. On the issue with programming cables, the USB to serial type you commonly see people use, could have a counterfeit Prolific chip. The official Prolific chip drivers can detect those and simply refuse to work. A lot of people have gotten burned on cheap cables due to the counterfeit Prolific chips used in them. The best cables use the FTDI chip.

I see the point. Thanks for the reminder. Ended up typing first and thinking later, not a good combination.

I should add the recovery procedure completely wipes the radio leaving it with the factory empty code plug. There is no chance the old code plug can be read out of the radio when the procedure is completed, it isn't there any more.

All the procedure allows is to reprogram the radio. The feature is built into the CPS, it’s not a secret, and it is clearly called “recover”. What it doesn’t do is allow one to read the existing code plug out of the radio. That’s an important point if one gets a radio programed for a trunking system. You don’t want rogue radios on the system. If one had the code plug they would have the info necessary to program other radios. The password function is not there to prevent theft of the radio or it’s use. If you wanted to prevent a stolen radio from being used “on the programed frequencies or trunked system” that’s why there is the “stun” feature.

Yup, Kenwood has the tuner feature in many of their CPS packages. I'll agree you can really mess up a radio if you're not careful. I got the package because it was used by another guy when he was breaking the password protection on the Moto radios. You save the current tuner values in the radio to a disk file, then "recover" the radio by loading the firmware and code plug through the Mototrbo CPS. Then to be sure you reload the radio's tuner values. You should then be able to read an empty code plug out of the radio without getting the password prompt anymore.

Yup. in the case of the TK-5320 the other guy had a much higher bid limit set. I'm sure he thought he was going to get a really good deal. I could see where it appeared he made more that one bid, but the amount displayed didn't change. I figured he had adjusted his max bid up a bit. I also look at the number of items a bidder has purchased. When you see 100's to 1000 plus purchases you know the bidder is likely looking for that cheap deal where all they want is to flip it later for more money. You very rarely see them bidding up an item. It's the low purchase number bidders you have to watch out for, those are the people that run the bid amounts way up. Buying stuff on eBay has a lot to do with the psychology of the other bidders, and sometimes the sellers. A few times I've sent a message to a seller asking if they will take about 2/3 of their "buy it now" price even it they don't offer a "best offer" option. You would be surprised how many sellers consider it and a number took my offer! Squeezing every last cent out of a buyer isn't their goal.They just wanted to sell the item and be done with it. If you don't ask you won't know.

Sure, you can set a max bid then walk away. However the bidding never really seems to start until just minutes before the auction closes. A few times I was the only bidder. Still can't figure out why that happened. There was nothing wrong with the radio. I guess at the time nobody wanted it.

I'll have to look some more but so far I can't find the level settings. I think the help file comments likely applies to some other models, but the help file doesn't mention anything along that line. I don't see any settings in the Mototrbo app either for different squelch levels, just the two funky named settings I mentioned. You're right about the Moto software. Even with the Kenwood stuff I have I won't consider purchasing a used radio until I have the programming software in-hand, installed and functioning. The main reason why I'm picking up some of the XPR6550's is the prices aren't crazy and I found finally found a full version of Mototrbo V16 build 828, with the 25KHz entitlement hack and code plug password bypass mod's. I also found the Mototrbo Tuner app, V16 build 238 as well. There is a V16.1 but so far I can't find it on-line yet.

I suspect that any of those tiny mobile radios are based off a cheap HT design. When you're paying only $100 more or less for one you're not going to get a high performance radio. Better receivers require a more complex design, and thus more money. You're lucky if you get what you paid for and sometimes not even that. On the D578 they do seem to have a crystal filter in the IF chain. From the write up there is a spot to add in a second crystal. No idea how much that "may" improve performance. I guess is if somebody wants to do the mod on their radio and get it tested we'll know for sure. This site has some info and mod's for the radio. About 3/4 of the way down there are some photos of the IF section and a few comments about the crystal filters. http://members.optuszoo.com.au/jason.reilly1/578mods.htm

I'm going to experiment with the few XPR's I have and see how I like them. The one thing I have noticed is the squelch settings. You only have a choice of "Normal" or "Tight". The help file in some places says there is also a level you can set, more like the other radios I have, but on the 6550's I don't see it anywhere in the menus. Looks like I'm stuck with the two funky settings. It does work but I have no idea how the two work. I'm just wondering if it's somehow self adjusting. I like the battery pack monitoring. That's a cool feature to have. I plugged all the packs in to a radio and got the first service date and current capacity limits. Used that and put a label on each pack so I know which one is which. I have two at 100%, one at 70% and the last one is 40%. That last one gives me the flashing yellow light for low service life on the charger. What I would like to know is the actual mAh rating of the pack. Some I can't read the label and that info isn't stored in the pack either from what I can see.

I was going to try something like that with a cheap Kenwood Protalk radio if I ever found one for sale. These radios have a predefined list of frequencies the user can select from. What can now happen with the code plug hacking is the manufacture can employ some level of encryption in the code plug itself. I've found where Kenwood has done this on several of their older analog and digital radios. It took a bit of work and some lucky guessing but it seems they use a simple method, they have a key byte stored in a fixed location in the code plug's header. This key byte is then "XOR'ed" with the rest of the contents. Once done all of the text strings for channel names etc. can be seen. I also found in at least one case where the radio's serial number seemed to be in it. The license key used to install the software was definitively in there for several models I checked. Just keep that in mind when sharing code plugs.

I would tend to agree with you. As it is with my growing pile of various used Kenwood battery packs I've spent weeks running capacity tests on them, I used a lab grade E-Load with a built in battery test mode, and putting a sticker on the back side showing date and measured capacity when I'm done. Having the charger do it is much better.

If you have the right CPU Linux has a virtual machine subsystem. I had several computers at one point all running Windows XP. I accessed them remotely using RDP on the Linux box and a Windows Terminal app on the computer I was using. At the moment I have Virtual Box running on my office machine, Win 7 Pro, with several VM's, Win 2K, Win XP, Win 7 Pro, depending on what I need. These are all accessible over the network. Sometimes I use these as a sandbox when trying out software from sources I have doubts about. I just save the main VM file as a backup, then run the VM. If it gets infected I just shut it down, erase the VM file and copy back my backup version I saved. I'm ready to go again in a few minutes. They also have a version for OSX and Linux hosts you might want to look at. https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Yup, that's how I snagged an almost new TK-5320 analog/P25 radio, used battery pack and charger base, no antenna. The current bid was around $70. I waited until 15 seconds before the auction closed to enter mine. I let eBay do the auto bidding with the max bid limit of $120. The other guy apparently had a max bid set for $108, I saw it after the action closed, and no time to increase it. I got lucky and walk away with it for $110.

Weekends are supposed to be where you kick back with a few cold Browns from the fridge and watch the game on TV. You're weekend doesn't sound like it's going to be much fun.

I don't know where you're located in Ohio but I'm planing on going to the Findlay Ohio Ham swap this Sunday. If you're going to be there we could meet up and say hi.

OK, I was bidding on an NX-300 and somebody beat me by a few bucks.

Did you just get it the other day on an eBay auction?

That's how they found a number of the 1/6 protesters. Their cell phones got pinged of the local cell towers. The Fed's got the info from the wireless carries.

Well FedEx showed up with the VHF XPR6550 radio a few minutes ago here at the office. Looks like it's in good condition. Now as long as it works...

Kenwood sort of does, at least multi-mode, with their NX-5000 series radios. They are still mono band however. Even at that they are really spendy. http://comms.kenwood.com/special/nx_5000/common/pdf/nx_5000_brochure_2016.pdf

That's possible. I did read where it's done by some radio shops to lock out the customer, in some case from the radios they own, to force them to come back for updates and changes to the code plug. That's just plain BS. I think in other cases the radio shop may have a trunked radio system they own and operate which they sell access to their customers as an extra cost service. They charge by the number of radios on the system. By password locking the radio they can reduce, or prevent, the customer from adding more radios to the system they are not paying for because they can't get into an existing radio to read it for the necessary info. That I can sort of understand.

For the moment I’m going to play around with the XPR6550’s. I need to get use to how the software works. I watched a video on how a guy recovered a password locked Motorola radio without the password or any kind of software/hardware hack required. Good info in case I ever have to do it. With Kenwood radios you’re sort of screwed without the Dealer/Engineering level CPS installed or a cracked version of the customer version. I had to do the later for a password locked used Kenwood NX-340U.

I saw that on one of the packs, no info. That's why I was curious about what was going on. You explained that well. Thanks.

Yes, I'm not surprised. That has to do with what is called "Path Loss", which is not exactly what you would think it means. When you TX the voltage component for the RF signal is independent of the frequency and is only a function of the power level. You see it expressed as volts/meter, the "E" component or field strength. However our radio's receiver also responds to that same component, but it has to come from the antenna. Since we must use resonate antennas the UHF one is about 1/3 the length, on 70cm, compared to the 2m band. With the UHF antenna being 1/3 the length the voltage induced is only 1/3 too. Power is the square of the voltage so the power is about 1/9! So if all other things being equal a UHF radio would need to generate 9 time the power of a VHF radio for the same signal strength. Looking at a typical 5 watt VHF HT you would need about 45 watts out of the UHF radio.