General Information

For flash upgrading these radios, you will need this cable. It plugs into the flashport jack on the radio. That jack should be on the chassis for a dash mount radio, or on the drawer unit on trunk mount radios. It should be under a flexible rubber dust cover.

Note that you will of course also need the SmartRib and the proper flash code for the RSS.

Out of Band Information

If you are using Depot Version B03.04.00 you should be able to change the bandsplits by hex editing the Runtime.odb file.

Search for the bottom/top of the bandsplit you are trying to change (on the ASCII side) and change it. There should be something like seven different places you need to change.

The later versions of Astro RSS are a combined portable and mobile software package. As a result, there are two files of interest Astrop.odb for portables, and Astrom.odb for mobiles.

Both these files are write-protected, and that protection must be removed before editing them. Windows Explorer does this very easily. Just open WE and highlight the file and right click, mouse to properties, left click on properties, and then deselect the read only attribute, and save the change by clicking 'apply' and then click 'ok".

Remember, after hacking the files, you should go back and reselect the 'read only' attribute by the same method. I don't know if it makes any difference to the program, but just to be safe, do it.

So now you have two unprotected .ODB files. Use a hex editor to get into them, and from the text side of the document, search out the ORIGINAL band limit of interest to you (eg. to pick the lower end of UHF 450-520 split use "450.0000"), and having confirmed that it's there, do a global search and replace of that band limit with your intended limit, example take it down to 430.0000. You do a global search because that way you make all adjustments you need at once, transmit, receive, and every other place the software looks.

Save the files, put them back where they belong in the programs, and reapply their write protected status, then run the software normally and enter your new out of band frequencies that will be accepted and programmed. If it's a reasonable change, the radio will take it and it will work. Some people have had success taking a 450-520 radio down to 430.0000 (haven't tried any lower than that) and have taken it as high as 535.0000. Your milage may vary.

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