[Motorola] Syntor X9000 EPROM info

[Geoff Fors]

Just to add to Scott's comments-

You will find the EPROM and eprom chips under the aluminum box cover on the
personality board.  Be careful removing and putting the box back because it
is really soft metal and the little pins will bend out of position instantly
at the slightest touch.

There is a "firmware" chip, which is a UV-erasable EPROM.  This determines
the channel capacity and some other things. Then there is the "customer
information" chip, an EEPROM, which is what your programmer puts your
channels and PL tones into when you use the computer and "RIB" box.  The
standard original configuration was 32 channels maximum and (if I remember
correctly) the firmware chip will allow you to later go up to 64 channels if
you replace the 2816 EPROM with a 2864 type.  You can tell if you have a 32
channel radio mainly by noticing that the EEPROM socket will not have all
the pins in use (the 2816 is shorter than the 64.)

Then there's the software, and the control head issues, as Scott mentioned.
Most or all of this information is on the X9000 pages at the Batlabs and
Mike Blenderman's websites, although it is a lot of information to digest.

Where I live, I was hard pressed to think of even 32 channels I wanted on
either my low band or VHF ham band radios, and 64 channels would be more
than I would ever need.  As far as commercial use of the VHF and UHF
versions, these radios are on borrowed time because all services above 150
MHz have or will soon be going to narrow band format, and the X9000's will
be just a doorstop at that time.  Which is why there are so many of them on
the surplus market.

Geoff
WB6NVH