Hello all, 2WayHam here with a quick question to anyone who has any experience with a Maxon SMP-4004c, Maxon SP-2000, SP-130/SP-140, TP-4800/TP-4801, TM-4800. First off, I am not sure if I am posting this in the right place since I am new to these boards. Secondly, I apologize for not being more savvy with this technology because I am most definitely a novie. Sorry in advance! Pretty much I have been selling things on eBay to make a little extra money to pay for school. My father introduced me to a friend of his who used to work at many different concert venues and on famous show sets as an audio technician. Recently he ran into debt due to medical bills so he asked me to help clean out a storage unit he had which contained all of these radioes. Unfortunately, they seem to be a bit dated (It has programmability but with a floppy disk!:eek:) There are wires that can be connected into a computer I am assuming to program it but if I sell it, I figure it hard to believe that someone has a floppy drive on their computer. Given this fact, is there anyway to program it without the disk? Also, someone who is interested in the radios asked if the radios are narrowband compliant. On the binder that ame with it it says Wideband frequency operation (VHF:148-174 MHZ, UHF: 440-470 MHZ). Can these radios be used on a narrowband spectrum? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated in advance! Thanks for your time reading this long winded post!
The programming sofware for the SMP-4004C, SP-2000 and others in the SP-Series was DOS based, so you would need to run it in a DOS emulator on today’s PCs. The software is available online if you don’t have a floppy drive, but that’s only the start. You will have trouble connecting the programming cables to computers less than seven years old since serial ports were phased out in favor of USB. Unless the portable handheld radios are equipped with a keypad and a display to manually enter the frequencies you more will more than likely need a computer to program them.
As for narrowband compliance, if the radios are less than ten years old, chances are they can be programmed for narrowband operation. If they are older than that, they may be wideband only. There are manuals, spec sheets and other documents for some of these radios available online that will list their capabilities and limitations.
Here is a spec sheet on the SP-130/SP-140 to get you started.
Thanks for your post! It was definitely very helpful. The technology is very old and I would love to sell it but at this point I think hes going to have to hold onto these:(
This is the reason why as hams we do not throw anything away.
A older computer - 20 years old - will program those radios slow enough to do the job.
With a Motorola you also need a RIB - which unless you are a Motorola dealer - they get kind of touchy if you are not an authorized Motorola dealer - even though the software is obsolete.
Just because the Maxons aren’t any good for public service etc - is no reason to throw them away.
If a person can get them cheap or free, they make decent starter radios for hams as long as they can be tuned up or down to the ham radio frequencies and it is not uncommon to use one or two of them to build a repeater.
A 40 / 50 watt transceiver has plenty of drive for most brick amplifiers.
Programmed - they are probably worth $40 each to a new ham and unprogrammed about $20 each - if they still work.
2wayham,
I have worked with the Maxon SP-2000 (handheld) and the SM-4000 (mobiles) quite a bit. They were disgarded for newer technology at least 15 years ago. They are rugged radios, and I believe each came in one of three band segments of either VHF or UHF bands. They are good radios and batteries for the handhelds are still available. Now to the not so good news: They can be programmed by either a stand-alone programmer or an old DOS based computer with the proper cables and software. I still see both on the internet occasionally. Unfortunately, they aren't narrow-band compliant. I believe, however, that there are some cases where the narrow-band capability isn't required. For instance HAM and some MURS and perhaps GMRS. I'm not positive on the last two however. Under the right circumstances, they make great radios. e-mail me if you have any other questions. I just registered here to answer your question so I may not check the forum too often.