Ya'll All Will Likely Think That I'm NUTS!!!

[satx78247]

Alamo City friends,

I really NEED an old 286/386/486 desktop computer that WORKS PROPERLY. - I've "acquired" a 1980s vintage commercial 2-way radio by Midland that cannot be programmed without a SLOW computer that has at least one serial port and that runs DOS.
(One of my "volunteer activities" since retirement from the Army is assisting with tornado & hurricane recovery.)

The information from Midland, Inc. that I have indicates that "a PC faster than a 486 MIGHT work" but that it MAY be "too fast" for the old internal technology of the radio. - Besides that the "programming software" is equally primitive, though the radio itself is nearly INDESTRUCTIBLE.
(I know of a Midland 70-3800B that survived a multi-vehicle fatality TA & being in the bottom of a lake for over 2 years & after being "washed out & dried" still worked FINE.)

I'd bet that one of our members has a working but otherwise "worthless" old PC in the attic/basement/garage.
If you do, please email me with your reasonable price & I'll come get it.

yours, satx
email: texasnative46@gmail.com

 

[Leper]

You should be able to find an emulator to slow down the data transfer. It's the same thing you use to run old Atari games on a modern PC. Your best bet will probably be an old laptop. Dos is still accessible through the CMD function.

 

[satx78247]

Leper,

A "ham friend" of mine "who is supposed to know about these things" says that that won't work 100% for Midland radios, though it usually does for GE & Motorola radios. - Programming 320 channels TWICE (once for transmit & once for receive) is NOT something that I want to do more than once.

Also most "reasonably modern" computers don't have serial ports.

THANKS for the advice.

yours, satx

 

[SIG_Fiend]

I'm double checking with my dad, as I think I might actually have a couple old 486's at their house. If so, you're welcome to it. I should hear back by tomorrow.

I do actually have an OLD laptop. It's either a 286 or 386, but definitely not a 486. It has Windows 3.1 on it. It's a sub 100mhz CPU IIRC (I think 33mhz). If you want, you're welcome to that one too. Got that one from someone like 15 years ago and don't think I ever used it even once.

 

[Davetex]

You should be able to find an emulator to slow down the data transfer. It's the same thing you use to run old Atari games on a modern PC. Your best bet will probably be an old laptop. Dos is still accessible through the CMD function.

Exactly! You should be able to use Tera Term. Adjust the baud rate down and presto.

Tera Term - Free download and software reviews - CNET Download.com

 

[satx78247]

Davetex; Leper,

Out of curiosity, have either of you ever programmed a Midland commercial transceiver???

IF this was a Motorola or a GE transceiver (which I have messed about with) I would assume, absent knowledge to the contrary, that emulation or "foreign software" would work.

Also, Midland uses proprietary programmers, cables and other auxiliary items whose terminations are "ODD" & I'd sooner not have to buy any more "stuff" & try to make it fit.

Nonetheless, thanks for your input.

yours, satx

 

[satx78247]

Sig_Fiend,

THANK YOU. - IF you don't need them, I'll use one to program my two radios & IF you don't want them back, I'll let everyone who bought a Type 70 for STORMWATCH to use the computers for their rigs too.
(About a dozen of us bought the available pallet of radios from a western state Highway Patrol agency.)

Here's HOPING that the old laptop is a 286, as that is the era equipment that a Type 7-3000 transceiver was actually designed to be programmed using.

yours, satx

 

[DarkwingDuck]

I'd bet that one of our members has a working but otherwise "worthless" old PC in the attic/basement/garage.

Unfortunately my 1992-era 386SX fell victim to space reduction in 2006.

I really NEED an old 286/386/486 desktop computer that WORKS PROPERLY. - I've "acquired" a 1980s vintage commercial 2-way radio by Midland that cannot be programmed without a SLOW computer that has at least one serial port and that runs DOS. (One of my "volunteer activities" since retirement from the Army is assisting with tornado & hurricane recovery.)

The information from Midland, Inc. that I have indicates that "a PC faster than a 486 MIGHT work" but that it MAY be "too fast" for the old internal technology of the radio. - Besides that the "programming software" is equally primitive, though the radio itself is nearly INDESTRUCTIBLE. (I know of a Midland 70-3800B that survived a multi-vehicle fatality TA & being in the bottom of a lake for over 2 years & after being "washed out & dried" still worked FINE.)

Here's HOPING that the old laptop is a 286, as that is the era equipment that a Type 7-3000 transceiver was actually designed to be programmed using.

Should Sig_Fiend's laptop be too fast for your needs, take a look at http://www.hpaa.com/moslo/moslo.asp. The author specifically mentions radio service software as one of the target uses for his software, including the ability to disable the FIFO feature of modern serial ports thus improving the performance of the UART with older utilities. You may be able to use his software to effectively turn a 386/486 laptop into a 286 for radio programming purposes.

DWD

 

[Leper]

Davetex; Leper,

Out of curiosity, have either of you ever programmed a Midland commercial transceiver???

IF this was a Motorola or a GE transceiver (which I have messed about with) I would assume, absent knowledge to the contrary, that emulation or "foreign software" would work.

Also, Midland uses proprietary programmers, cables and other auxiliary items whose terminations are "ODD" & I'd sooner not have to buy any more "stuff" & try to make it fit.

Nonetheless, thanks for your input.

yours, satx

The FIL had to do something similar, but it wasn't on a midland radio. It was a few years ago and I just remember some of the hoops he had to jump through. I had an old Windows 95 laptop it it was made to work. I asked him about the process last night and he has no memory of it, so my help with this has come to an end.

 

[satx78247]

Leper,

I appreciate your (and everyone else's) attempts to help anyway.

yours, satx

 

[ROGER4314]

A friend of mine was repairing those for a while and had a bunch of the CPU's. He tried to sell them but there's no market. I'll check with him if you wish.

OH, since we dug out some of the old bones, I have a laptop that runs a Z8088 processor on DOS and no hard drive. It runs twin 3 1/2" floppy drives! At that time, HD's cost almost two grand and had the whopping capacity of ONE MB! It dates from about 1981.

Before that one, I had a TRS 80 on DOS with 16 K of memory and serial tape (cassette) storage. We've come a LONG way, baby!

Flash

 

[Sparsky]

Hey, I might've found something that might work. Old Toshiba laptop with Windows 3.11 and a serial port on the back. It's what I used to use for programming old phone systems. Let me know if your interested still.

 

[Ole Cowboy]

check out the good will and other similar shops, you can find some really old DOS stuff for next to nothing...

 

[robertc1024]

satx - You get this fixed yet? We've got a 286 running DOS at work you could use.

 

[London]

Viva la legacy computers!

 

[robertc1024]

Viva la legacy computers!

I've got some horrible contraption in my workshop running puppy Linux. It surfs with the best of them though.