Category: The Hot Air Machine..

We’re trying to diversify a little bit on MBARS here, Digital radio is just one tiny part of the whole electronics and hobby radio thing we’re all addicted to here, so we’re just mixing it up a little bit, as there’s not really enough happening in the DMR or digital voice part of the hobby to inspire me to pen many articles, the hobby is far bigger than just digital, We’re interested in a wider array of hobby radio and electronics.

I have added more areas, with more specific titles to reflect our other interests, and hopefully you’ll not be not forced to scroll and click around endlessly just to browse this (little) site of ours, with all the areas up the top instead, MBARS is only a 2 man effort, and i do most of the waffling and Quack does all of the Admin. If there are any menus or areas you think we should have, tell us !

So much content is on Facebook nowadays, so it’s a little hard not to be drawn into the Quagmire that is Zuckerberg-world (Giggidy) so please don’t expect a huge quantity of material on here, but we do like the idea of quality, and that is instead, what we will strive for, and that is also why joining is pretty much a slightly more tedious ‘send us an email’ type instead of the more usual email-loop – like you get on most other sites, though that may very well change, but it does keep out most of the spam, so there is method in our madness.

I’m no writer, or journalist, but when i have time (or the inclination) i do enjoy writing, especially on MBARS, but I found the digital radio bias rather restrictive, as i’m mostly a HF SSB Guy really, so I have added up some more categories up on the menu where hopefully you can jump to a particulat type of thing, instead of scrolling around, i found navigating the site a chore myself, so i need to make navigation easier and more straightforward.

Stick with us, and i hope we all can develop MBARS a little more, and take away some of the focus from DMR and cater to the far wider interests that we have, yet we still will stay mostly in the Hobby radio domain…

-Hax-

Well, i’m in my third week in this new flat, and ever since i moved in, there has been this loud, irritating CHIRP echoing down the stairway, from up at the extreme top of the house, it’s from an old smoke alarm, and it’s been driving me nuts since i moved in, and it’s so loud, it’s easily heard inside the bottom floor flat..
just like it’s supposed to be.

However, the battery was in need of replacement, but as a ‘proper’ smoke detection system was fitted afterwards, no-one bothered to remove this temporary detector. I’m not even sure how long it had been beeping away, but it was irritating beyond belief, every 30 seconds or so, all day, all night, i think the other residents had grown immune to it, but i hadn’t. and i didn’t want to either. I have good hearing.

Maybe it was a side-effect of the gas-leaks i had suffered earlier in the week 🙂 or maybe it was just a pique of (correctly directed) rage, but last week I’d had enough, and i was feeling quite poorly and so i decided that it was time to bring doom to this errant audio torture device, it was either ‘it’  or me.
There could only be one winner.

Problem was, the damn thing was about 15ft or 20 ft out of reach, and naturally, I had no ladders.. so what to do ? well i remembered i had a 18ft CB aeriel i never got ’round to using, so this was unpacked and fitted with various implements, but with several cable ties and gaffa tape, eventually ended up brandishing a blunt kitchen butter knife, and the plan was, of course, to direct much hatred towards this infernal device and save and restore the sanity of myself and the others in the building. First i needed to know if it really was a battery powered unit or wired.. the fire alarm inspection Guy said it was battery operated, (and that it wasn’t his job to ‘fix it – Thanks Hitler) anyway, as i am aweare of sods law, i remembered that it’s always wise to check for yourself before proceeding.

For a few minutes i turned into a caveman and ended up just poking (alright, hitting)  the thing with the long metal pole i had fashioned, but it was far too clumsy an exersize, but  it felt good though. A new approach was needed, and i asked my friend upstairs that if he heard a commotion just out of his doorway, to not worry as i was only attempting moderate violence, and i was glad when he appeared to assist, as there we were, both laughing at my feeble attempts to lever the door off..  my eyesight is poor also, so i needed help.  It must have seemed like a promising venture somehow, as a cell phone with a zoom was pressed into service, which helped a little, but we needed more, then your mate steps up – with a pair of binoculars. Excellent.

I manged to flip the cover of the evil smoke detector thing open, and great news, the binoculars revealed to my mate Vinni  (who was now on binocular duty) that the device was indeed battery powered, so i figured it was safe to proceed as 240v was nowhere to be seen.  I was even more impresed as he read the inspection date sticker out on the alarm and also spotted the pp3 battery clip. nice job.   The damn thing would, of course, not lever off the ceiling, and i didn’t want to scrape the decoration or i would end up using the same metal pole for distance-plastering then distance-painting, and i didn’t fancy that, as the knife on the pole was bent over at 90 degrees, to make a ‘prizing things off the wall’  hook thingy, anyway.. i got the taste for blood by now.. i felt revenge was in the air.. not gas.

An attempt to prise the pp3 clip off the distant smoke alarms’ tired battery was attempted many times, but failed miserably, as at about 15ft away, and with another human having the visual feedback… it was unlikely to succeed anytime soon. It would be easier trying to type with knitting needles while blindfolded.. so an executive decision was made to just hook the red & blue wires and use violence. This eventually worked. It felt good.

A hushed calm descended through the house, which was slightly un-nerving at first as our brains all tried to figure out what had happened to this noise, and how to re-insert the missing holes of reality that they had been blocking out every 30 seconds.
It almost seemed wrong.. like something was lost almost..

The silence..  i noticed other things that i had not heard before, things which previously my brain was ignoring too, like it was trying not to listen. I thought if only i could block out the rest of the audio pollution quite as easily. Almost since moved in here I had to have the AC fan running 24/7 here,  and i always shut the doors ’round the place too, in an attempt to attenuate the beeping noise. Maybe as a musician i’m a little more sensitive to sound.

So glad we that got sorted though, I find it quite easy in this kind of weather to have the mains powered fan running constantly as when i was being subjected to the 2 weeks of beeping, it acted like a kind of real world ‘noise gate’  – as with the interior doors closed, there was no beeping heard at all, and now, it cools the room down to comfortable levels.. and it’s cool, peaceful, and leaves me free to plan on getting some aeriels up here .. oh, and the other stuff you plan to do when you’re a geek in a new place..

–Hax–
All work, text and images © GB7MB

We offer a couple of codeplugs on MBARS here, as a sort of get-you-started thing, for anyone who gets a radio and it’s got one of those a poor or non-local codeplugs in.

All of our codeplugs are checked for programming errors, but time constraints do not allow for us to check every single bit of info in these codeplugs, thats why we ask you to check them once you open them.

When uploading codeplugs, we ask you to not just submit just a bare codeplug file, but to include some info about it, such as the CPS version used, and the author and a brief summary of the features you have programmed in, mainly to help other people looking for codeplugs, distinguish between one and another..  as just seeing codeplug1.cpg   and codeplug2.cpg  isn’t too much help is it !

Here’s a couple of things to ponder.
New code (software) is not automatically always better than the old software, previous versions will have had many users submitting feedback and has had errors or issues found and corrected. This is even true of CPS and Firmware too, Major CPS versions generally contain much new code, with smaller incremental releases being minor updates and fixes as you would expect. New code is just that, it could bring new features, but could also bring new errors, which you may or may not find.

Also if you’re a Radio Amateur, don’t feel the need to automatically upgrade to the newest CPS – or firmware. It’s not a Microsoft OS we’re talking about here, or an antivirus program. The fact is, that as Radio Amateurs, most of us still don’t use many of the more interesting features in the sets already, so we’re not too likely to notice many of the updated features and bugs that commercial customers would anyway – the prime focus for Motorola. Motorola software is well enough written nowadays that the difference for Amateurs between using old versions of CPS 10 or even earlier might not be too apparent, apart from the fact that Murphy’s Law applies and any secondhand MotoTRBO set you may buy has likely been programmed by a later CPS version than the one you have… typically !

Many of us Amateurs who are *forced* into using the latest CPS, do so because there is someone elses codeplug we want to play with, or we want to to help someone else out, or swap them with friends.

For example, if you have CPS 10.8 or 10.9 or 11 or whatever, and your mate has the CPS 10.5 – then he can’t open your codeplugs, he needs the same or later CPS as you, but you can open his older ones. Opening an older codeplug is ok in new CPS, but when you save them in the newer CPS you wont be able to open them in any version older, – they’ve been upgraded. You can go forwards, but you can’t go back !

Same goes for Firmware updates.
Also, the DM3600 and DP3600 series will be getting no new firmware updates – they are not supported models anymore, although to look at Ebay and see prices of old used DM3600’s going for the same or more than a new DM4600 it makes me shake my head, but I digress..  I’ve had bad firmware (on MotoTrbo) and its not funny.

I don’t know the final firmware versions for the DP/DM 3xxx series sets.  You may be on an older firmware, and there *may* be an update you missed, but i personally  wouldn’t advise it unless there’s a firmware bug you need fixing or a new feature you really must have.  Upgrading these things are all fine when it works, just be aware of the possible pitfalls, if it all goes tits-up, you’ll be making frantic phone calls to friends, loved ones, elderly relatives and Motorola dealers – and pricing up a Moto dealer or a clever friend to fix it, or worse, you’ll be sat admiring  your new paperweight.

-Hax-

All work, text and images © GB7MB