[Motorola] MX 360

Tue, 17 Sep 2002 05:53:48 -0500

I forgot to respond to your request about bringing them down 
to the ham bands. 

I have only used the synthesized radios, but most of the 
components are the same in both the synthesized and 
nonsynthesized radios. 

As has been noted, whether they go to the 2 meter 
ham band depends upon which band split you have. 

I am working from memory here.  If there is some 
specific information you need, I can look it up for you. 

There are three ranges.  The lowest is from 132 to 150.8.
The second range is from 150.8 to 162.  The third range 
is from 162 to 173.  

Radios in the low range will easily go to the ham band. 
Radios in the mid range will usually go to the ham bands. 
Radios in the high range will sometime go to the ham bands. 

When I cannot get the high split down, I change out the 
driver and VCO for one in the low or mid split and the 
radio works just fine.  I recall this is U104 and U103.  I 
only work with the PX "lunchbox" style of this radio. 
I have seven of these that I have acquired and they 
are great radios.  Two of these radios were military 
and were right in the proper range.  The others were 
secret service radios that were in the high split 
and generally required exchanging the 2 modules 
mentioned earlier to get them to work reliably through 
the entire ham band. 

The receiver will generally go no matter what the 
split.  I have changed out the preselector for the 
correct split or mid split in my PX radios just because 
I have them. Everything is modular and easily changed.  

I have purchased extra crystal versions of these 
radios in the low to mid split to use as part radios to 
get the PX radios working.  U103 and U104 are 
the same in both radios.  I wouldn't mind a couple 
more for spares.  I have purchased the synthesized version of 
these radios in the right split range for as little as $5.00 in 
the Dayton Flea Market about 3 years ago.  They 
are a little more scarce these days, but still available.  

 I wouldn't really consider using the regular MX although I 
have two in the mid-split that are in such beautiful condition  
that I have never considered stripping them of parts.  
.  
They are just too bulky for a walkie talkie, but the 
PX is just perfect for a battery operated portable 
station.  Still the walkie talkies are extremely rugged.  

I know the code plugs are still available because I 
have purchased them within the very recent past. 
The synthesized radios can be programmed up to 
48 channels iIF you have the proper switches.  The 
radio and code plug can work with up to 4 zones of 
12 channels each.  It is not impossible to modify, 
but the switches are a little expensive from Motorola. 

Again, the programming requires a special programmer
as I mentioned earlier. 

It has already been described that the synthesized 
have the model number with a -S stamped in red 
right below the antenna.  

The crystal version of these radios are very expensive 
to put crystals, at least from International.  I don't 
know about some of the other crystal manufacturers.  

The radios can be split up to 8 mhz or more on 
channels, so they easily split the ham bands.  I have 
some that will split from the ham band and receive 
in the 150 band up to about 154, but it requires 
careful tuning and the radios still fall off in sensitivity 
quite a bit.  

I hope this is helpful and probably more than you want 
to know. 

Micheal Salem N5MS

On Sun, 15 Sep 2002 19:00:00 -0800 "Thomas Elmore" <[email protected]>
writes:
>       I have recently acquired a pair of VHF MX 360 handhelds and was
> wondering how difficult they would be to tune down to 2 meters. Also 
> where
> might I find a schematic for these as well.
> 
> Thank You
> Thomas Elmore
> Anchorage, Alaska
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Motorola mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/motorola
> 

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