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Procedure for Entering Service Mode to Check Radio Information (Model #, Serial #, Flashcode #, Firmware #) XTS. Display Feature: Turn on radio and let it initialize. Press button above Push-To-Talk button 5 (five) times within 20 seconds after initialization. This will enter the service mode and scroll through the. Simply enter the 15 digits to check the IMEI number of your Motorola device. This Online Motorola IMEI check will work with both Motorola and Android devices. You can verify the status of your Motorola cell phone with our IMEI Check service. It will allow you to obtain more details on the model number, serial number, warranty and manufacture date.
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Up one level Back to Home | Motorola Land Mobile Radio Model Number Information with a 'Rosetta Stone' table of suffixes Assembled from information provided by a number of folks. Compiled by Mike Morris WA6ILQ |
Contributions and additional listings for the table at the end of this page are both requested and welcome!
Over the years I've worked on a wide number of radios and also had access to many more. Until recently Motorola model numbers were in a standard predictable format that contains information on the radio's frequency band, power level and options of the radio... but recently a good 30-year old system was totally revamped... comments on the new system are further down in this writeup... here's the old system:
![Checker Checker](/uploads/1/2/9/2/129206904/193271828.jpg)
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Country Code: In the beginning all manufacturing was done in the USA. After offshore factories were established all of the non-USA-built radios had a leading one or two-letter code added (as a prefix) that identified a radio's manufacturing location. Later on the code of 'AA' was added to the USA-built units. I know for sure that a 'C' indicates Canada (i.e. CT54JJA), and I have seen 'AC' on a few radios and I think it also means Canada, but I am not sure. Here's the ones that I have seen:
I once worked for Mother M in Canada so am familiar (still) with some of the numbering back then.If anybody has more details or even the full country code list I'd like to post it here.
Particularly the older 'C' and 'M' prefixes indicated Canadian-made models or kits from the Toronto factory.
'C' indicated that it was something identical to the same thing made by M in USA while 'M' indicated that it was very similar but had some sort of difference to it (redesigned slightly to meet different Canadian spec requirements, for example) so a 'CTLN1234A' is identical to a 'TLN1234A' but a 'MTLN1234' would be almost but not quite a carbon copy, for whatever reason.
The transition from 1- to 2- letter country prefixes happened in the mid-to-late 1980's.
Then the 2-letter prefixes took over and there is a very long list of them (that I do not have) covering possible manufacturing locations all over the world. I think that the AC and MB prefixes probably have similar meanings to the older 'C' and 'M' prefixes, but can't recall precisely. They do however, both indicate Canadian-source.
Another very rare single-letter prefix is 'S', used in Canada, to indicate a 'Special'. These were usually very low production volume for customer special system requirements. Products with 'S' prefix would only be found in Canada for Canadian customers. The Special could be anything from a simple mod to a ground-up unique design.
Packaging: The first character of the main model number, a 'T' in our example, describes how the radio is packaged:
- B = Base station. The radio chassis mounts in a rack cabinet that sits on the floor (i.e. a 6' or 7' rack cabinet).
- C = 'Compa' station - a marketing name for a 'Compact' base station. This series originally came in a 30 inch tall rack cabinet in the days when most base stations were in 6 foot cabinets but over the years the cabinets grew to 36 inches, 41 inches, 46 inches, 48 inches, then to 60 inches. Nowadays the 'Compa' name is meaningless... I've seen cabinets as tall as 7 feet with 'C' series model number tags. Over the years the dividing line between the C-series and B-series stations has really blurred.
- D = Dash mount - Official definition: 'All controls are internal to the radio housing' (but if you think about it, that could apply to handhelds as well). Later definition: 'A communication device that is stationary in a vehicle and run off its power source'.
- H = Hand held radio. Note that in Moto's set of definitions a handheld is not a 'Portable' (see 'P' below).
- J = Weatherproof (outdoor) cabinet base station - generally 46-60 inches tall
- L = Table-top base station or repeater (Moto's marketing name for a tabletop base was 'Consolette', 'Consolette Base', 'Consolette Station' or 'Super Consolette' depending on the vintage and which book you were reading). So, as an example, a L53MHB is a late Motrac vintage tabletop base station, a C53MHB is the same radio in a base station (short cabinet), a B43MHB is a base station (tall cabinet), and a J53MHB is a B53MHB or C53MHB in an outdoor cabinet - at least that's how it's supposed to work.
So many of the small tabletop repeaters ended up mounted on the walls of utility closets in shopping malls, colleges and universities, and other similar low-duty-cycle applications that Moto started making small repeaters (like the R100 and GR300, 400 and 500) in wall-mount cabinets and use the 'L' prefix on some of them. - M = originally Motorcycle. In the early days of motorcycle radios they were modified 'P' series or 'D' series, and mixed in with those prefix letters. However tube-type radios and small lead-acid batteries on motorcycles don't mix, and they never sold well. Also the radios themselves were adaptations of mobile designs and were not really easy to use (if you ever get a chance to look at a 'SoloCyle' book, you will understand what I am saying...). When Moto got serious about making radios truly intended for motorcycles (i.e. when the sales volume made it worth the design groups attention) they assigned them the prefix 'M'.
Nowadays it's appearing on mobiles - like the GM300 (they should have been D series radios). - N = No cabinet. This is rarely seen, but shows up in two situations: first, when you see a multi-radio cabinet that was initially ordered with some number of units, then had additional ones added. The additional ones will have an 'N' prefix. I first saw it on a Spectra TAC voting receiver cabinet that had been initially ordered with two receiver chassis (which had a 'C' prefix, as did the cabinet model tag), then had two more added (which had an 'N' prefix).
The second place you see it is when a radio was designed for mounting in an open-frame equipment rack (as opposed to a cabinet rack). I first saw this on an MSR2000 that was ordered specifically for mounting in an existing open frame Dracon rack. - P = Portable or Packset. Up to very recently a 'portable' was not a handheld. The P-series units are essentially handheld guts packaged into a lunchbox style case with big dry cell (as many as 22 'D' cells) or rechargeable battery packs, mobile-length antennas and sometimes a handset - very popular with railroads and construction crews (pipeline, electric utility linemen, etc). These radios are usually in the 2w to 3w range depending on the frequency band, and some models have internal power amplifier options with as much as 10 watts out - I've had a low band packset on my bench and with a fully charged nicad it was showing 9.9w on 52.525 MHz... and while the radio had been range-changed from the 42-50 MHz split the PA deck had not, so I suspect that on the original 47 MHz frequency it would have done over 10w. In many cases the antennas are the limiting factor (no ground plane) - a friend took a 2w 2m packset and put an antenna with a real ground plane on it and tripled the performance. By the way, a low band mobile or portable antenna is narrow - handhelds and portable antennas generally cover 1/2 MHz, if that much, mobiles (with a better ground plane) can work maybe 1 MHz. Packsets make dandy public service 'base' stations. For years I had a PT200 on the local 2 Meter ARES repeater and with a fresh set of 10 'D' size Duracell flashlight cells it would run for about a month on 7x24 receive (the HT200 receiver was a unique 1960s design whose squelched idle current was less than 10ma - nothing in the last 30 years has matched it). Add an ice chest, a card table, a folding chair with a foam pad, a golf umbrella on an 8' mast with a wheel rim base and a copper pipe J-pole above it and you have a nice marathon race medical station or other public service control point. The guys that bring a pickup truck with their setup in the bed, complete with dual golf umbrellas and a LazyBoy recliner are really 'roughing it' (grin).
- Q = These were products that started out as special purpose but became regular products. See the comments below in the section on 'SP' radios.
- R = Railroad radio - locomotive specific mounting and multi-voltage power (usually +12vDC for vehicles and either 36 or 64v/72vDC - some later railroad radios dropped the 36v option and were jumperable for either +12vDC or 64/72vDC). The dual and triple voltage models were basically a repackaged mobile 12v radio with a T-supply designed to lower the voltage. Later ones have no jumpers - the power cord is wired specifically for one voltage or the other.
- T = Trunk mount - the radio mounts in the trunk or under the seat and uses a control cable, a control head, a speaker and either a palm microphone or a handset. The later term became 'Remote Mount', but stuck with the 'T' letter.
- U = Universal mount - has tapped holes in the front of a trunk-mount radio to allow mounting a control head on the front of the radio - i.e. can be configured to either front (dash board mount) or trunk mount. On some models the only difference between a 'T' series and 'U' series radio was two tapped holes (usually a 6-32 thread, later ones could be metric).
- W = mobile telephone version of a Trunk-mount made for Western Electric to be used on telephone company channels or mobile telephone channels (mostly tube mobile vintage).
- X = special products / special production (an 'SP' radio)- see comments below on 'SP' radios.
- Y = early (1950's) designation for repeater - see 'Y' suffix below.
- Z = special production ?? - I've only seen a couple of radios whose model number started with a 'Z', and they were both 1980s vintage. They were undercover-surveilance variants on the current production public safety handheld, but were very thin, had a very flat plain front (no speaker grille, no display, no keypad) and were usable only with a external speaker-microphone. One was an ex-Diplomatic Protective Service radio (picture the Presidential Protective Detail of the U. S. Secret Service, but assigned to guard visiting foreign diplomats). My conjecture is that a 'Z' radio is an 'X' prefix or 'SP' suffix handheld...
Power: The next character (the first digit - 5 in our JJA example above) is the power level. Mobile radios come in power levels ranging from zero (either a receive-only unit or very low power - under 4 watts) to 110 watts (330w if it's a base, 500w if it's an SP base), and the numbers and power ranges also vary with the band and if they are handhelds, mobiles or base stations. See the tables after the next section for more information.
Frequency: The next character (the second digit - 4 in our example) is the frequency band:
- 1 = 25 to 50 MHz, 25 to 54 MHz or 25-59 MHz depending on which book you read - and any individual radio is built for one of several sub-bands or ranges (frequently called 'splits') - usually 30-36, 36-42 and 42-50 MHz however there are other radios like the Mitrek that do it in two splits, and the Syntor X or X9000 that can do 28-54 MHz in one. Low band transmitters are more efficient than high band or UHF ones, so you will find 60w low band radios in product lines (like MaxTracs) that top out at 30 or 40 watts on high band or UHF.
- 2 = 66 to 88 MHz - Some countries in Europe use 66-88 MHz as a commercial land mobile band (some books say 66-88, others say 67-88, others say 60-99).
In the USA the 60-66 MHz range is television channel 3, the 66-72 MHz range is TV channel 4, the 72-76 MHz frequencies are used as 'Operational Fixed / Repeater' frequencies (essentially commercial point-to-point links), 76-82 MHz is TV channel 5, 82-88 MHz is TV channel 6, and 88-108 MHz is commercial FM broadcast. In over 30 years in Southern California two-way radio I have seen only one non-base-station radio in the 72-76 MHz range, and that was a 6-frequency HT-220 or MT-500 handheld (I forget which) that was used for testing the 75 MHz inter-mountaintop point-to-point links on a wide-area low band, high band and UHF commercial paging system (over 80 simulcast transmtters on 14 mountaintops in an area 200 miles by 150 miles). The radio was on five or six simplex channels including 75.42 and 75.44 MHz. As the story goes the tech had ordered it from Moto, and it took 5 to 6 months to get as it had been built to order in Europe and had to be shipped to the USA. - 3 = 136-174 MHz or 132-174 MHz depending on the product line - usually in several splits (some books say 3=100-399 MHz). Frequently split 1 is 132-151, split 2 is 150-162, and split 3 is 160-172 (or 158-172). Some product lines do it in 2 splits. The HT1000 handheld does it in one.
- 4 = 403-512 MHz - usually in several splits or ranges (some books say 4=400-599 MHz). For example, split 1 could be 403-433 MHz, split 2 could be 433-450 MHz, split 3 could be 450-470 MHz, split 4 could be 470-482 MHz, and split 5 could be 482-512 MHz (or even 520 MHz), however it's product line specific. The Spectra mobiles do it in 4 splits and do not offer the 43x-440 split at all. The range determining components are prevalent all through the receiver front end and local oscillator/multiplier, the exciter, intermediate power amplifier, driver and final. Some radio designs are such that the IPA and following stages are 403-470 MHz, but usually it's not worth trying to range-change a transmitter, occasionally it's worth changing the receiver.
- 5 = 806-866 MHz and some very early 900 MHz gear was coded as a band 5, including Motracs, MICORs and MSFs. Some books say 5=600-896 MHz, some older books say 600-999 MHz.
- 6 = 174-225 MHz. Some books say 175-395 MHz, but there's a conflict with band 8.
- 7 = 900 MHz band - Very early in the 900 MHz product line Moto switched to a '7' to indicate 900 MHz exclusively leaving '5' for 800 MHz exclusively. Some books say 896-999 MHz. Generally an 800 MHz radio will NOT work on amateur 900 MHz, but there are exceptions.
- 8 = 220-328 or 360-410 depending on which book you read. Yes, Moto does make 220 MHz radios. The AZM08MHF6AA2A is a 220-240 MHz, 64 channel, 25 watt Radius mobile made by Moto Australia for the Asian market (specifically the Philippines), and they also make a GP300 handheld for 216-223 MHz as well (AZP03YPC20C5AA), but the RSS for either is pure unobtanium. The person who assigned the '8' in the model number could have made it a '3' (100-399 MHz) or a '6' (175-395 MHz) but he or she didn't read enough books.
- 9 = The book says that a 9 in this position indicates a crossband radio - where the receiver is in one frequency range and the transmitter is in another. However I have seen factory crossband radios with a low band transmitter and a high band receiver where the band designator in the model number tag was the transmitting band, and to determine which band the receiver was on you had to look at the front end part number, and then look up that part in the manual.
- Then you have screwups where the new numbering scheme conflicts with the old scheme. For example, the HT1250LS+ handheld (labeled as an AAH25MDF and AAH25MDH series) offers 16 channels from 217-222 MHz with either 1w or 5w. In the new scheme the first letter of the suffix ('M' in this case) is the band indicator. 'M' indicates 180-235 MHz. See the 'Jedi' information on the Moto index page.
And unfortunately, knowing that you have a, for example, D34xxx mobile only tells you that you have a low power UHF mobile radio, and not if it is a 406-420 MHz, 438-460 MHz 450-470 MHz, 470-494 MHz, 490-512 MHz, or (dream on) a 440-450 european commercial unit. High band radios could be anywhere in the 132-160 MHz or 150-172 MHz ranges. To determine the range, or 'split', you generally have to do one of three things:
- Put a dummy load onto it, turn it on, and hold it near a frequency counter while you key it and see where it is transmitting. Most of the time that doesn't work. In the high band example if you saw a frequency around 155 MHz it could be either of the two splits mentioned above. And some high band model series came in three splits. On the other hand, if you saw 139.something it's probably a low split radio.
- Pop the cover off and look for a part number on a couple of the frequency determining components (i.e. front end casting, RF board(s), PA deck, etc) and then look that up in an appropriate book. However most of us don't have acccess to the appropriate book. So we post a question on a relevant yahoogroup.
- If the radio is synthesized and you have the software you can hook it up to the computer and look at the radio's parameters or look at the frequencies programmed into it (i.e. ask the radio what it thinks it is). But I've seen some eBay radios with 150-170 MHz frequencies programmed into a 132-150 radio... and there are evil eBay sellers who realize that 136-150 MHz radios are of interest only to hams and CAP personnel and force commercial range (150-170) codeplugs into the radio so that when asked, they lie.
Low band radios are usually built for one of four frequency ranges: 25-30, 30-36, 36-42 and 42-50 MHz, but it's really dependent on the model series - for example the low band Mitrek radios came in two ranges, not four... the low range was 29.7 to 39 MHz and the high range was 39-50 MHz. The Syntor-X and Syntor-X9000 family of radios did 25-50 in one range. High band is frequently 136-150, 146-162, and 160-172, but there are differences across product lines... The high band MICOR ran 4 ranges, 132-142, 142-150.8, 150.8-162 and 162-174 MHz. The high band Mitrek ran two ranges: 136-146 and 146-174. In model series that include mid-range radios (66-88 MHz) sometimes they are in one range, others series (especially those sold outside the USA) it's two ranges: 67 to 77 MHz and 77-88 MHz but again there are product line differences, and since the USA mid-band is 74-78 MHz the ranges are frequently structured as 67-78 and 78-88. Some handhelds have multiple splits, others have only one. The breakpoint between splits all depends on the model series and the country of manufacture and the country of sale, and that's usually in the manual.
The most commonly seen mobile and station combinations of power and band are:
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The above numbers are product-line dependent, here are a few examples:
Radio | Power out (watts) | |||||||||
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0x | 1x | 2x | 3x | 4x | 5x | 6x | 7x | 8x | 9x | |
900 MHz Spectra or MaxTrac mobile | 4 | 15 | 30 | |||||||
VHF, UHF or 800 MHz MaxTrac mobile | 2 | 10-25 | 30-50 | 60 (1) | ||||||
VHF or UHF M120 or GM300 mobile | 1-10 | 10-25 | 25-45 | |||||||
UHF BBY station | 20 | 60 | 100 | 250 | ||||||
VHF Motrac mobile | 20 | 30 | 60 | 90 | ||||||
VHF Motrac station | 20 | 30 | 60 | 90 | 250 | |||||
UHF Motrac mobile | 20 | 40 | 60 | |||||||
UHF Motrac station | 20 | 40 | 60 | 90 | 250 | |||||
UHF Mitrek mobile | 10 | 30 | 50 | 75 | 100 | 100 | ||||
VHF Syntor mobile | 40 | 75 | 110 | |||||||
VHF MICOR station | 60 | 100/110 | ||||||||
VHF MICOR mobile | 25 | 45 | 60 | 90 | 100 | 110 | ||||
Low Band Mocom 10 mobile | 1.5 | 5 | 25 | |||||||
HF SSB Micom mobile | 50 | 125 | 125 | |||||||
900 MHz MSF5000 GFB station | 75 | 150 | ||||||||
VHF or UHF MSF5000 CXB station | 75 | 110 | 250 | 350 (2) |
(1) Low band only
(2) VHF only
Handhelds used the same format number, but naturally are an order of magnitude lower in power.
Radio | Power out (watts) | ||
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2x | 3x | 4x | |
High band HT600 or MT1000 handheld | 2 | 5w (VHF) 4w (UHF) | |
Low band MT1000 handheld | 6 | ||
UHF HT600 or MT1000 handheld | 2 | 4 | |
High band Saber handheld | 1 or 2.5 | 2.5 or 6 | |
UHF Saber handheld | 1 or 2 | 2 or 5 |
And then there are the times where the hardware contradicts the manuals... For example, in the Mitrek line none of the manuals mention a T7x model - they jump from 6x to 8x as if a 7x never existed. Yet I personally have seen multiple Mitrek mobile radios with a mix of T74 and T84 model labels at multiple hamfests, with manufacturing dates scattered all across the Mitrek sales life, and the chassis numbers matched a T84 in the manual's model chart. Strange. Or the GP300 VHF 16 Channel handheld with a P93YPC20C2AA model number. P=portable, not handheld (should be an H) but a power level of 9 ???? (that's a new format number, see below)
Model Series or Model Suffix: The next three characters are a product line specific letter string - and a table of the known suffixes is listed below.
Then there is a '-' dash or hyphen separator, followed by the option codes. Or there may not be a dash/hyphen. Most USA-made radios have it, many that are made by Moto Australia and Moto Israel do not.
Options: The option codes vary with the product line - for example a Motrac mobile whose model number ending with -2160 is different than a MICOR mobile ending with -2160 and is different again than a Maxar ending in -2160, and a Saber that ends in -2160 is very, very different... To fully understand the option numbers on a specific radio you really need the model chart from the manual for that radio series, and note that the option codes are different between station and mobiles, even within the same line. With that said, there are some basic similarities - in almost every radio the first digit is the squelch type and the most common ones are listed here - but remember that there are some product-line-specific variations. For example, a few model series used the '5' code to indicate the 'Automute' option, which was a form of single-tone squelch that used several different tone frequencies.
- 3 = PL (tone) squelch
- 4 = PL (tone) squelch plus the 'Extender' option.
- 5 = Trunking (most common) or AutoMute (rarely). Some books say 'Connect Tone'.
- 6 = DPL (Digital Private Line)
- 7 = Some books say 'Coded Squelch', some say 'Programmable' - usually means that a radio can do both PL and DPL and in any combination.
- 8 = Digital Private Line plus the 'extender' option
- 9 = CSQ, PL, Select 5 (this is more common in Europe than in the USA)
The rest of the digits are very specific to the product line and include bandwidth codes (30 kHz / 15 kHz / 12.5 kHz), multifrequency codes and other option codes.
One example is here - for the MICOR line. Note that even within the MICOR line there are interesting quirks: the second digit of the mobile number suffix is the number of frequencies, whereas the same information is delivered in the third digit of the base and repeater station suffix.
One example is here - for the MICOR line. Note that even within the MICOR line there are interesting quirks: the second digit of the mobile number suffix is the number of frequencies, whereas the same information is delivered in the third digit of the base and repeater station suffix.
With that said, the most common base station / repeater usage (mobiles can be different) for the second digit of the option code is:
- 0 = Wideband (15 kHz dev)
- 1 = Narrowband (5 kHz)
- 2 = Half narrow band (2.5 kHz)
- 3 = 20 kHz channel spacing
- 4 = Narrow band with extender (most commonly seen on low band radios, and occasionally on highband radios).
- 9 = 12 / 20 / 25 kHz channel spacing
One example of the 'You have to look in the book' situation is the 800 / 900 MHz MSF series of stations. They were designed and built in the era when Moto used the digit '5' to indicate both 800 MHz and 900 MHz (later they switched to 5=800 MHz and 7=900 MHz). They used the second digit of the suffix to indicate which frequency range and bandwidth the radio was built for... for example, (where 'n' indicated a digit) a Cn5MSF-n1nn is 800 MHz / wideband, and a Cn5MSF-n2nn is 900 MHz / narrowband.And more recent product lines have relocated the bandwidth specifier, if it is even there (for example, the MaxTrac does not have the bandwidth info in the model number, the Radius and GM300 do). And the high band and UHF Spectra is wideband only, the Astro Spectra is narrow-capable.
The next two digits are 'Model Variation' codes, and are very, very model specific and is even different between handhelds, stations and mobiles - you will have to look them up in the book. However, the most common MOBILE usage in the NON-SYNTHESIZED era is listed below - but if you look at the MICOR example above, even it does not match the list below... these two digits are the most fluid in the entire Moto model number - YOU HAVE TO LOOK IN THE BOOK:
- 00 = Single frequency
- 10 = Two frequency transmit, single frequency receieve
- 30 = Two frequency transmit, two frequency receieve
- 90 = Four frequency transmit, four frequency receieve
Revision/Version: The last portion of the model number can be none, one, two or three letters. In most radios the first letter (sometimes the only letter) is the production line version or revision indicator. Some of the Motorola product lines started with no letter, and the first production change resulted in the A-version. Other product lines started with the A version and the first change bumped it to the B version. In other words a 'C' revision radio could have been manufactured under the the second or third engineering change order, depending on the radio series - again, you have to look in the book.
Accessory Package: If there is a second letter it frequently identifies the 'Accessory Package' that was shipped with the radio. On mobiles it is almost always a '(blank)' an 'N' a 'K', or an 'H' but not always. In the amateur radio world the original accessory package identifier is of almost zero interest - but it's worth knowing what they are in case there is a question.
N or (no letter) | A fleet spare, or an in-warranty replacement. No accessories at all, not even a users manual, just a 'naked' radio in a plastic bag in a padded shipping box and a packing slip. An 'N' handheld didn't even come with an antenna or a battery. |
K | The radio was shipped with the 'standard' complete accessory and installation kit. If it was a mobile the kit included a a mounting tray, a control head and a control cable (if trunk mount) or mounting bracket (if front mount), an antenna, a palm microphone and hangup clip and an installation kit of miscelaneous bolts, nuts, screws, tie-wraps, etc. Unless the radio had an internal speaker (like the MaxTrac) the kit also included a mobile speaker (and those that did have an internal speaker could be ordered with external speakers). |
H | A mobile radio was shipped with the full 'K' kit listed above except a handset and hangup cup instead of the palm microphone and hangup clip. The handset accessory pack (the 'H-pack') is very common on older railroad radios, and to a lesser extent, transit busses and mountain cable cars. |
M | This code in the salesman's order book tersely says 'Microphone Included', and this code is usually not listed in the model chart in the radio manual. It was invented in the 1960s for public safety agencies that wanted to hide a bunch of extra microphones in a fleet order of new mobile radios. Since microphones (especially microphone cords) are the most frequent fleet failure item, and a simple broken microphone cord can keep a police car, a fire truck or an ambulance out of service, the ability to order the fleet spares as 'M' extras rather than 'N' or '(no letter)' extras provided that many additional spare microphones for the radio shop's shelf stock and service vehicle stock. In other words, a 'M' was simply a bare radio (an 'N' code) plus a palm microphone in its cardboard box. Unless the fleet order specified it, the microphone didn't even come with a hangup clip. |
A second letter on a base or repeater station is different enough that you HAVE to look in the book. For example, on an MSR2000 station, a typical model number could be C73GSB-3145BT. From the above explanation you can see that it breaks down as:
C=Compa Station
7 110 watts
3 VHF
GSB intermittent-duty transmitter (see the table below)
3 PL tone squelch
1 Narrowband
4 Supplied with two TX and two RX frequencies
5 (not in the above, as it's too fluid, but the book for an MSR says a 5 means it has the 'DC Remote control' option)
B Later model
T additional modifying identifier - in this case a Repeater
C=Compa Station
7 110 watts
3 VHF
GSB intermittent-duty transmitter (see the table below)
3 PL tone squelch
1 Narrowband
4 Supplied with two TX and two RX frequencies
5 (not in the above, as it's too fluid, but the book for an MSR says a 5 means it has the 'DC Remote control' option)
B Later model
T additional modifying identifier - in this case a Repeater
The second suffix letter on this particular model series is VERY important. Simply, a C73GSB-3145BT and a C73GSB-3145B are very different... If that last letter is missing or blank, the MSR2000 is a simple Base Station (not a repeater). If the suffix was BT, as opposed to B, then the unit is a repeater, which has some significant hardware differences. For one, the duplex exciter used in repeaters differs from the simplex exciter in that there are rows of filters to keep RF out of the receiver. The station also has some additional shielding that exists only in repeaters. So this is another example of 'when you decode the suffix you really need the book'.
Some radios have a third letter in the suffix and I have no idea what it means...
On a normal production radio that's it. On anything else, there's a '-' separator, followed by...
Special Products / Special Purpose / Special Production: (the meaning of 'SP' varied depending on which book you read or whom you talked to...) The number following the SP- was a simple incremental number, there was no significance to it other than an SP-2 (or -02) was designed later than SP-1 (or -01)... and there were lots of them - I have had an '-SP72' MICOR mobile on my bench, and I've seen the writeup on a '-SP99' Syntor and on a 'SP-151' MICOR.
![Motorola serial number check Motorola serial number check](/uploads/1/2/9/2/129206904/448606960.jpg)
An 'SP' radio could be ANY variation of a standard radio - anything from a special color of paint, or a key other than a standard 2135 or 2553 to a weird IF frequency on up to a custom redesign. If the salesman needed a variation of a radio to make a large sale then engineering got to turn that salesman's dream radio (or the customer's Request For Quote document) into shippable hardware. To understand anything but the most obvious SP radio you really need the manual that was shipped with it (which may be an addendum to the regular manual, or a completely different manual specific to that -SP radio), and SP manuals were very limited printing (usually only one press run at the time of production). And some early SP addendums were Mimeo or Ditto printed (and by now the vegetable-based purple dye in the Ditto fluid has faded to blank paper). On some SP manauals there was a copy per shipped radio, on others there was only the number of copies specified in the purchase order.
The 'SP-(some number)' designation was normally used on a less-than-a-production-run-order... if the quantity was large enough to require a entire factory production run of strange radios they frequently were labeled with an 'X' in place of the mounting descriptor. The oldest special that I am aware of is a mid to late 1950s X41GGV-3, it was a 6 or 12 volt (jumperable), 12 watts out trunk-mount radio that had two receivers - a low band receiver, a high band receiver, and a low band transmitter (used with a low band-to-high band crossband repeater with the high band mobile receiver for dispatch and the low band mobile receiver for car-to-car simplex, and the channel switch selected which receiver as well as the which channel in the two-channel receivers). A later field modification (which may have been developed by the agency technical group) provided the first simultaneous dual receive mobile...
The first SP that I actually had my hands on was a dual receiver mobile radio originally used by the Los Angeles Police Department - it was an X43HHT Motrac - you may have seen one in passing on the old 'Adam-12' TV show. They were a regular Motrac design but with two separate receive chassis in a longer-than-normal case, and the position of the channel switch selected not only which receiver frequency you were listening to but also which receiver chassis was active (or both). Some had a 5-position or 6-position channel switch that turned on one frequency in each front end for simultaneous receive.
Moto also made SP dual transmit radios - the low band radios of the tube era could only cover about 250 kHz from the lowest frequency to the highest, and high band radios could only do 600-800 kHz or so (which is where the 600 kHz offfset in 2m came from). High band commercial and public safety repeaters usually have anywhere from 1.5 to 5 MHz of spacing, so a tube-type mobile that could talk both repeat and talkaround (simplex) needed two separate transmitters to do it. For example, the infamous X71LHT '5-and-9' Motrac built for the California Highway Patrol was made from two separate Motrac mobile radios mounted side by side in the patrol car trunk and cabled together thereby providing 5 receive and 9 transmit channels (four repeat pairs plus talkaround (simplex on the repeater output) plus the statewide simplex (called 'blue channel') on one antenna, plus both PL and tone burst, all controlled by one custom (SP) control head. One transmitter chassis was on the repeater inputs, the other had the repeater outputs plus blue channel transmit. The dual receivers allowed simultaneous monitoring of blue channel and the local dispatch channel.
An earlier special was a tube-vintage X53GKT mobile built for the State of California Division of Water Resources in the 1960s which was in a 20 inch wide (normal was 15 inch) case containing two seperate high band transmitter chassis tuned about 2.5 MHz apart (one 3-freq, the other 2-freq) and a 2 freq receiver. Believe it or not Yellow Cab used a similar radio in the field supervisors cars in southern California. For years my own UHF mobile radio was an ex-Arizona DPS (highway patrol) 90w UHF 12-freq wide-spaced MICOR - an SP radio in the stretch case (sometimes called the doghouse case - it was used on a large number of MICOR mobile specials) that had the abilty to hold 12 PL encode and 12 PL decode tones (and the circuit boards were etched for 20 tones on each side and you could install the additional parts - yes, you could have 40 PL reeds in that radio back when list price was $80 to $90 per reed). Another special I've seen was the California Highway Patrol low band MICOR - the X71RTA - a dual receiver unit in a streched case with both a multi-tone PL deck and 7 tones of tone burst. Later on they added a GE (gasp!) high band MASTR Exec-based mobile extender to it (GE was the low bidder on that upgrade project). A few months ago I saw a SP high band MICOR with dual 4-freq front ends and dual PL decoders - in a double height case. And somewhere in my collection I have a photo of an SP HT-220 handheld with a special extra-deep front panel that had a touch tone pad from a Western Electric 'Trimline' telephone mounted in it... the first Moto production touchtone handheld.
Then there were the Q-products... they were outside the normal model number system and were designated with Q and a four or five digit number. These were originally special purpose designs that became regular production products that anyone could buy. One example is the QRN8764 - a channel scan module for a MSR2000 control shelf. Yes, you could have a scanning base station. Somewhere in the file cabinet I have a Q-manual for a Motrac control head with a regular Mother Bell 12-button touchtone pad in the face - the commercials copied the amateur autopatches and needed a Motrac/Motran/Mocom-70/Mitrek/MICOR compatible control head with a touchtone pad, so they took the Ma Bell/Western Electric 'Princess' series backlit touchtone pad and built a mobile control head around it - and it was Motos first use of concentric volume and squelch controls.
Another Q-product was the MICOR Emergency Medical Systems Duplex / Repeater UHF Mobile Radio - a dual receiver full duplex mobile repeater designed for ambulances. This was not the first factory mobile UHF repeater, but it was the first made in large numbers and with an internal duplexer. Quite a few have been gutted of the front / rear control head switching and the cardiac telemetry boards and the now empty space used for a small repeater controller - i.e. made into very nice 25w emergency communications van repeaters and / or portable special event repeaters.
Yet another Q-product was the Q2935A... Moto engineering took the standard 900 MHz MSF-5000 CLB-series repeater and rewrote the microcode in the control shelf optimizing it for paging applicaitons, then added a 300 watt power amplifier. 900 MHz transmitters make better space heaters then transmitters, and 300 watt transmitters even more so.
Back to suffixes...
In the tube and early post-tube era the three letters individually specified the receiver series, the transmitter series, and the type of power supply. This made sense when the radio was built from three separate chassis bolted into a frame... you could have a (for example) 'G' series receiver strip, a 'K' series transmitter strip and the power supply strip could be either a 'D' dynamotor (high power) or 'V' vibrator (low power) strip... for example a T53GAD, or a T43GGV... just mix and match the strips. Later on the high voltage was provided by a 'T' transistorized power supply (T53GKT), or in the case of the MSN series Motran (the first 12-volt-only all-solid-state mobile design), 'N' no power supply. Yes, the U43MSN radio had an empty chassis in the middle of the radio where the transistorized supply was in the MHT Motrac design (usually a mobile with a xxN model number was an all-twelve-volt design). The first solid-state 12-channel mobile telephone was a 4-freq MSN with the extra sixteen channel elements (8 each for the receiver and transmitter) stashed in the empty power supply area. When it became necessary to identify repeaters and mobile relay stations separately in the product line a 'Y' was used in the power supply identifier position - in most cases an xxY unit was an xxB plus a COR, a repeat audio panel and shield kits for the receiver and the exciter, or in some cases the receiver only. When it became necessary to specify an intermittent duty or continuous duty base station - like a dispatch base versus a paging base - the trailing letter 'B' was used for the intermittent duty and the 'X' was used to signify a continuous duty base ('Y' was already in use for repeaters, which at the time were inherently continuous duty). Some of the handhelds and packsets used dry cells (a 'C' was used for that, for example in the H03ANC pager or the P33DEC packset), nicads ('N') in models like a H24FFN, or a transistorized inverter ('T') off of nicads (an early subminiature tube (aka 'pencil tube') based packset was a P33AAT). The trailing letter 'B' was used for base stations (i.e. primary power of 120v or 240vAC), for example, a D43GGB or an L44BBB. Note that a H23FFN was a nicad powered handheld, and a T43MSN was a 12vdc powered Motran mobile - there was some potential for confusion when the meaning of a letter in one position (the 'N' above) was dependent on the leading letter. And at some point a trailing 'A' was introduced to identify a 12vDC powered mobile - I have seen, for example, early Mocom-70 mobiles with a BBN suffix and later identical radios with a BBA suffix...
In the tube and early post-tube era the three letters individually specified the receiver series, the transmitter series, and the type of power supply. This made sense when the radio was built from three separate chassis bolted into a frame... you could have a (for example) 'G' series receiver strip, a 'K' series transmitter strip and the power supply strip could be either a 'D' dynamotor (high power) or 'V' vibrator (low power) strip... for example a T53GAD, or a T43GGV... just mix and match the strips. Later on the high voltage was provided by a 'T' transistorized power supply (T53GKT), or in the case of the MSN series Motran (the first 12-volt-only all-solid-state mobile design), 'N' no power supply. Yes, the U43MSN radio had an empty chassis in the middle of the radio where the transistorized supply was in the MHT Motrac design (usually a mobile with a xxN model number was an all-twelve-volt design). The first solid-state 12-channel mobile telephone was a 4-freq MSN with the extra sixteen channel elements (8 each for the receiver and transmitter) stashed in the empty power supply area. When it became necessary to identify repeaters and mobile relay stations separately in the product line a 'Y' was used in the power supply identifier position - in most cases an xxY unit was an xxB plus a COR, a repeat audio panel and shield kits for the receiver and the exciter, or in some cases the receiver only. When it became necessary to specify an intermittent duty or continuous duty base station - like a dispatch base versus a paging base - the trailing letter 'B' was used for the intermittent duty and the 'X' was used to signify a continuous duty base ('Y' was already in use for repeaters, which at the time were inherently continuous duty). Some of the handhelds and packsets used dry cells (a 'C' was used for that, for example in the H03ANC pager or the P33DEC packset), nicads ('N') in models like a H24FFN, or a transistorized inverter ('T') off of nicads (an early subminiature tube (aka 'pencil tube') based packset was a P33AAT). The trailing letter 'B' was used for base stations (i.e. primary power of 120v or 240vAC), for example, a D43GGB or an L44BBB. Note that a H23FFN was a nicad powered handheld, and a T43MSN was a 12vdc powered Motran mobile - there was some potential for confusion when the meaning of a letter in one position (the 'N' above) was dependent on the leading letter. And at some point a trailing 'A' was introduced to identify a 12vDC powered mobile - I have seen, for example, early Mocom-70 mobiles with a BBN suffix and later identical radios with a BBA suffix...
Currently the last letter assignment seems to be:
- D = 120 / 220 V AC (set with jumpers during manufacture, and changeable during installation if necessary)
- E = multivoltage DC - for example railroad radios are frequently switchable between 12 and 64/72vDC or sometimes 12v, 36v, 64/72vDC. In many cases it's done with different power cables having multipin connectors with specific wiring of pins selecting the operational voltage. This way there are no user-configurable-jumpers or switches to get in the wrong position and thereby cause smoke signals.
- G = 12 V DC and 120 / 240 Volts AC
- H = ?? (I've only seen three of these and they were all 64 / 72v MICOR railroad radios)
- K = 120 / 240 Volts AC
- M = 120 / 220 / 240 Volts AC
Note also that many models within a specific product line are very similar - for example, the late model Motrac high power chassis radios - the 51/61/71 (low band), the 53/63/73 (high band) and 44/54/64 (UHF) LHT and MHT series radios were absolutely identical internally except for the stamped number on the model / serial tag and the position of some plate voltage select jumpers in the power supply chassis (smart hams that got hold of high power (i.e. U7x or T7x series) LHT and MHTs backed them off to 5x levels and made the final tube last a LOT longer... and at over $100 each in the late 1970s/early 1980s that was a lot of money). Likewise the Mitrek high power radios can have any one of eight different model number tags depending on if the output power control variable resistor is set to 60, 75, 90 or 100/110 watts and if you include the presence or absence of the receiver preamp. Frequently when the new contract negotiation teams listened to their radio techs they were able to save some big money (i.e. by ordering 'lower powered' radios that cost less - then the techs 'retuned' or 'adjusted' them as they were bench checked before being installed). Unfortuntely functional intelligence at the management level in many large corporations, organizations or government agencies is against established policy.
Also, some of the radios changed the FCC Type Acceptance number when changing power output. Quite a number of years ago, the FCC Part 90 licensed radios were rated by the DC power input to the final... later they switched to a more sensible method of measuring power output... early 800 MHz and 900 MHz transmitters were so ineficient that it didn't make sense for a 50 watt output low band radio that drew 60 watts of DC in to be placed in the same Type Acceptance category as a 10 watt output 900 MHz radio that also needed 60 watts in. And to this day a 900 MHz transmitter is still a better space heater than it is a transmitter.
When the radios became a single-board design, like in a pager, or the Mocom-70 or Mitrek mobile, the convention of using separate letters for the receiver, the transmitter and the power supply became unwieldy... at some point, I'm not sure when, the decision was made to use the first and second letters (the old receiver and transmitter identifier letters) together as a pair and used as a single Model Series descriptor (as an example, an EAC was an EA series Pagecom pager, the trailing C indicated a dry cell power source or the trailing 'N' in an EAN model number meant it was an EA Pagecom shipped with a nicad battery and a desktop charger), and later on it seems that all three letters of the suffix began to be treated as a unified whole - look at the KLF - an Astro Spectra mobile.
Then some bright marketing guy at Motorola screwed up a perfectly good numbering system that had over thirty years of history... he threw a monkey wrench into the mix... Look at these photos of some recent Motorola model tags:
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The new format 'Model number' is TOTALLY different - and the 'ID number' now has the relevant information plus they added additional letters and numbers into the ID field - look at the 7JA7 in the Spectra photo (the A7 positions seem to be the control group specifier and the trailing BK seems to be used the same as before). And the new numbering format does not seem to be documented ANYWHERE. This change has caused a lot of confusion in the used equipment market. So nowadays when I send an email to an eBay seller asking about a radio I say 'I need both the model number and the ID number if there is one'. Thanks, Motorola.
An ASTRO-Spectra-mobile-specific model chart is here and the 'Jedi' series handhelds are here (Moto FINALLY started putting the band split information into the model number !!!). If anybody has a full breakdown chart for the new numbering system I'd love to have a copy.
You will find that model-specific or product-line specific articles at this web site (like on the Spectra, or on the MaxTrac/Radius/GM300) have 'Rosetta Stone' model number tables in them.
So the above gives some background... but you came here to look up a radio's sufffix, not to read the story of how they came to be...
Note that the table below is laid out so that you can print it and carry it, or cut and paste it into your Palm Pilot or Pocket PC. Some older Palm Pilots have a finite length limit to a memo... don't know about the Pocket PC. On some PDAs you will have to split this list into separate Memo files... at least 3, probably more as it grows.
Abbreviations used in the table below:
Motorola Radio Serial Number Check Iphone
- SSB=Single Side Band
- T-Band: 470-512 MHz
- UHF=406-470 or 406-490 or 390-520 MHz depending on the vintage and which book you read (yes, there is some strange stuff between 390 and 406 MHz)
- w/ = with
This is a work in progress. Please send corrections and updates to Mike WA6ILQ at (callsign) at repeater-builder dot com
If you see conflicting information below that is because this list was built from multiple sources: my own file cabinets plus contributions from others, and if any of the sources conflicted I put in both / all. Over the years I have had access to a lot of radios, but not all of those listed below, so I don't know enough on those models to resolve the conflicts.
If you see conflicting information below that is because this list was built from multiple sources: my own file cabinets plus contributions from others, and if any of the sources conflicted I put in both / all. Over the years I have had access to a lot of radios, but not all of those listed below, so I don't know enough on those models to resolve the conflicts.
- - - - - - - - - - - - #- - - - - - - - - - - - Print this section for the next hamfest, cut here, fold and put it in your pocket - - - - - - - - - - - -
Additions and corrections are welcome! |
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Motorola Radio Serial Number Lookup
Thanks to Neil McKie WA6KLA, Jeff Kincaid W6JK, Craig Kielhofer N9NBO, Jim Barbour WD8CHL, Dennis Boyle KB9RRN, Don Best N6ALD, Tim Eldred, and Nick Beck for their contributions.
Again, this is a work in progress. Corrections, additions, attaboys, etc are welcome. Drop me an email!
Contact Information:
The author can be contacted at: his-callsign // at // repeater-builder // dot // com.
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Text, artistic layout and hand-coded HTML © Copyright 2004 and date of last update by Mike Morris WA6ILQ
This page originally posted on Monday 13-Nov-2004
This web page, this web site, the information presented in and on its pages and in these modifications and conversions is © Copyrighted 1995 and (date of last update) by Kevin Custer W3KKC and multiple originating authors. All Rights Reserved, including that of paper and web publication elsewhere.