[Motorola] Surplus Syntor X's on eBay

[KBØNLY]

I would like to know where your finding X9000 drawers that cheap on eBay, I search daily on there and most of them have been reach the $100+ range in price.  The last one I put a bid on ending up ending at $182, more than twice my budget to buy a used drawer.

Anyway, I'm looking for a VHF range 2 VCO, preferably a T73 to reach the repeaters from out here in the boonies, along with the control head and cable, mic and speaker.  If you know of any cheap ones I would love to hear it.  I got a RIB and software from working with other used Motorola gear, just no X9000 that I can afford.

73,

Scott, KB0NLY
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Geoff Fors 
  To: motorola at mailman.qth.net 
  Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2004 9:40 PM
  Subject: [Motorola] Surplus Syntor X's on eBay 


  Speaking of Syntor X 9000's and Syntor X's, there are many government
  surplus VHF high band versions showing up on eBay, invariably without any
  accessories.

  The majority of these seem to have been used by the FBI, U.S. Marshals, and
  other federal law enforcement agencies, originally with a hand-held control
  head and assorted DES/DVP encryption options, none of which have survived
  with the radios.

  In case anyone is interested, here's what I have found so far - - most of
  these radios have been "de-milled" by misguided technicians, who have
  removed both of the eproms on the personality board, i.e. U501 and U502
  under the aluminum shield can.  U501 is a 27128 uv-erased eprom which
  contains the radio's firmware, while U502 is a 2816 or 2864 eeprom which
  contains the channel programming and other end-user program material.  It's
  easy enough to replace U502 with a blank 2816 or 2864, but U501 contains
  factory permanent data and at last inquiry cost almost $ 50 from Motorola,
  about twice what the X9000 radio drawers are selling for on eBay.  One
  solution seems to be to use a prom programmer to create a copy of U501 from
  a working radio.  Other ideas are solicited !  In any case, it's worth
  bearing this in mind when considering "as-is" or "not tested"  X9000 radio
  drawers from sellers who clearly have no experience with this type of
  equipment.

  As far as Syntor X radios, there are a number of T43 series VHF high band
  drawers on eBay which usually sell in the $ 5.00 range, which are surplus
  from the City of San Diego and usually still marked as such.  It turns out
  that these, in addition to missing the eeprom code plug modules, were
  originally configured for use with hand-held control heads and are missing
  several interface IC's necessary to use them with any conventional control
  heads.  There are also a half dozen jumpers which have to be added or
  changed to do this.  The simplest solution is to cannibalize the necessary
  IC's from a scrap conventional Syntor X chassis.  These radios work fine
  once the jumpers are changed, the hand-held control head board removed,  and
  the missing IC's added.

  If you have found other anomalies with surplus Syntor X and X9000 radios, I
  encourage you to share your experiences here so the rest of us can benefit !

  Geoff Fors
  WB6NVH

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