Been quite silent again this week. Mostly because there's not much to report. I did order in and receive another radio to replace the one I toasted. I haven't done anything to it other than charge it up.
The reason I'm in a holding pattern is because I discovered Motorola Radius GM300 radios for sale on Ebay. I'm still looking for something that I can use for a dedicated APRS radio, and for something that's more of a tank (read indestructible) when it comes to constant usage. I still definitely want to do the repeater setup using the HT's but I'm also very intrigued by the idea of taking these business radios that are built for everyday constant usage and building repeater setups with them. I'm betting that there would less issues with the blanking describe early on in my blog. And while the radios I bought (I bought 4 of them. 2 VHF and 2 UHF) are all different versions and have 8 or 16 channels, I'm only expecting to use one channel on each of them anyway. If you keep an eye open and bid judiciously, you can ususally pick on up for $35 to $40 plus shipping. A word of warning though, you need to become familiar with the Radius model numbering system. Most sellers will put the model number in the auction details. Various parts of the number describe the band, the radio's output power, and the band split. There are plent of places on the net to find that information. Be sure to verify that the radio will suit your needs before you bid.
The catch is that I have to be able to program them. The original Motorola programming software is DOS based. And in 2014, running DOS programs is next to impossible. One possibility is and XP version of software that I found. That should run under Windows 7. The other possibility is to run the original software using something called DOSBOX. DOSBOX is a DOS emulator that runs in Windows either in a window or full screen. It has the ability to redirect calls to COM1 and COM2 to specific COM ports on the host operating system. I'm betting that it should be good enough to satisfy the Motorola RSS software.
The other issue is that I technically need something called a 'RIB'. I think it stands for "Radio Interface Box". That provides the interface between the radio being programmed and the computer. One end connects to the serial port on the computer, and the other is a cable that's designed to connect to the radio you're working on. One RIB box can connect to many different radios by swapping out the interface cable. However, as you might suspect, I don't have one. And to compound things, most modern computers don't have serial ports anymore. So in true DIY fashion, I'll build one.
I found an article by a volunteer firefighter here: http://mikepuchol.com/2007/06/25/building-a-usb-programmer-for-motorola-radios/comment-page-1/#comment-4772 Which details creating an interface from a USB to Serial converter. I'm going to approach it from a different angle. A company by the name of SparkFun makes a product they call a Breakout Board. This board has an FT232RL chip and a mini USB connector. This is already a USB to Serial TTL converter, so no additional chips or modifications are required to be able to use it! Here's the link: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/718.
My thought is that by using the schematic he published for the interface cable portion of the project with this breakout board, I should be in business.
I just need a couple things to get going, which I can pick up here in town, and of course it's snowing! Driving in the snow doesn't bother me in the least. It's all the other drivers that don't seem to have appropriate winter driving skills that bother me. So I'll hang back for a while and see what the weather does.
73
Steve
KDØWSW
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