Astro Portables Astro Portables General Information Most of this information is for the Astro Saber, but since the XTS3000 and its family are programmed by the same RSS, a lot of the information will be relevant for it too. All these radios use a standard SMA connector for the antenna. The radio end is a male. Be sure that you use a high quality adapter if you are going to convert from the SMA to something else. There are some cheap adapters that have a recessed center pin on the female side. This causes problems since the center pin on the radio may not make contact and you will be transmitting into an open (bad).
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The radio uses a third generation keyloader, there is a retro kit to upgrade the DES-XL key loader, and the data in and out pins are different. Only keyloaders with a model suffix DX or later will properly keyload an Astro, while BX & CX (as well as DX) models will work fine with a regular Saber. For keyloading, you use the same cable as a regular Saber, TKN8506, and the pinout is available. The part number for the HHCH for the XTS3000 Vehicular Adapter (XTVA) may be PLN7737A (unconfirmed). Here you can find the model breakdown chart. Note that it is the same as the one for the mobiles, except for the available power levels and the 'H' at the beginning of the model number to denote portable. A listing of the flash upgrade options can be found.
You may also want to look at the. Castlevania fan remake. Take a look at the for the Astro Saber. The programming cable for the XTS3000 and XTS3500 is the same as the other Jedi radios, RKN4035A, and its pinout can be found.
Motorola Astro Saber Programming Software
You may also want to take a look at the RKN4046A. This cable is for the Astro Saber and Saber Si. This cable is made up of the following parts: Reference Part Number Description 1 0984538E03 Receptacle, 25 Pos 2 1580349B36 Housing, Connector 3 Cable, 5 Conductor 4 0180754R26 Plug Assembly 5 4210217R24 Strap, Tie 6 3880373L24 Protective Cap 7 0410058B12 Washer, Nylon 8 0960113A07 Connector and Cable C1 2184008H06 Capacitor, 33 nF R1 0611009C59 Resistor, 2.7 kohm R2 0611009C73 Resistor, 10 kohm By the way, if you thing you can make yourself a cheap cable by just ordering part number 0960113A07, well, forget it. The current list price for that item is $166US. Astro Saber and LAPD There seems to be a number of people interested in the Astro Sabers that the LAPD uses. This section will try and answer many of those related questions.
First, the radio that the LAPD is using is the H04SDH9PW7AN. You are probably better off not trying to get Motorola to flash your Astro Saber 'just like LAPD's'. Motorola considers FlashCodes 840101-8F0000-4 and now 500-7 to be RESTRICTED. If you send in a radio to the depot for service with one of these flash codes, they will only send it back with H35 and you have to buy any upgrades you want for the radio. If you do try to get that flashed into your radio, Motorola security may get involved and start asking questions. Although it IS legal to ask about it, Motorola may not do it and may get nosey. There is not much they can really do, since you are only inquiring about it.
Remember though, that if you are fishing for FlashCode info while talking to Motorola, and you give three codes in a row with invalid data (including the last checksum byte), you will probably find yourself transferred to someone in Security to speak with. By the way, the options contained in FlashCode 840101-8F0000-4 are: Emergency Receive H869 Multikey Operation H39 Selective Radio Inhibit H35 Conventional Operation H29 Software Encryption Q351 MODAT Q352 Soft Id Q353 OTACR (Over The Air Channel Reassignment) Q354 OTACS (Over The Air Channel Steering) The options in the new FlashCode 500-7 are: H14 Digital ID Display Q806 ASTRO Digital CAI (IMBE) Operation H869 Multikey Operation H35 Conventional Operation Q352 Soft ID Q353 OTACR (Over The Air Channel Reassignment) Q354 OTACS (Over The Air Channel Steering) Now you know. If you want to have your radio working close to a LAPD model, have your radio flashed with something similar, by dropping one of these options (one of the lesser important, like H869, since you'd not likely get your hands on keys anyways). If you want to just be able to monitor the LAPD, you need a FlashCode of at least 100 1 (guessing at the checksum). This gives you options Q806 and H35.
Those are the minimums. If you have any conventional Astro with a first digit FlashCode that is odd, then you should have option Q806 and be able to monitor the LAPD. The rest of the FlashCode shouldn't really matter all that much. Modat can in fact be used with both IMBE and VSELP radios. It's Software Encryption that can't (isn't supposed to) be in an IMBE radio. There is no such thing as 'Astro encryption' as such.
The encryption types that can be used in an Astro system are the same types used in standard systems. DES, DES-XL, etc. However, if your radio is CAI compliant, you can set the 'RX Unmute Rule' to 'Digital Carrier Squelch' and that will decode ALL Apco-25 compliant digital signals!
(Excluding encrypted ones, of course!) Converting Astro's to the 'LAPD' Setup An Astro Saber can be made to operate just like the LAPD codeplug (old version) does. Here are some things that you need to watch out for: OTACS/OTACR You need to program in the RSS one astro channel (you can delete it later).
In that channel screen, go into Astro options (F6) then (F7). Disable both the OTACS and OTACR options. Under that you will see a table. Make sure that the CCS Pos 1 is set to Zone 1 and Channel 1, and set CCS 2 to Zone 1 Channel 2 all the way to position 16, or the channel selector WILL NOT work properly. +-+ ¦MOTOROLA Radio Service Software ¦Use UP/DOWN Arrows to Select Choice.
¦ ¦ASTRO PORTABLE Model: H04SDH9PW7AN ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦.CONV:PERS:OPTIONS:OPTIONS:OTACR ¦ ¦ ¦-¦ ¦ OTACR/S ¦ ¦ - ¦ ¦ Change- OTACR Feature.Enabled OTACS Feature.Enabled 1 1 107 9 1 113.