Motorola Sabers

[Shotgunner1992]

Does anyone here have experience with them? I just bought a old Saber II for fun. (Came with everything I needed for like $45)

Info I'm looking for:
-Programming, who can do it for me at a decent cost or someway I can do it myself. OR if there is anyone here willing to do it for cheap/free.
-What can I operate on without a licence.

Unit Specs:
From what I can decipher from the Factor ID I have:
H43SAJ7139CN
Basically.....
VHF
146-162mhz
1-6 Watts
48 Channels (non-secure)

Honestly if anyone can tell me anything about this thing, or what I could use it for, that'd be great. It's currently programmed to all Weather Radio (NOAA) Frequencies and only one zone....no scan programmed...so its basically a fancy weather radio in it's current state.

[gary in ohio]

Programming is going to be your issue. You cant legally get the programming software. Its no longer sold and was never sold to end users.
You might be able to find an older motorola shop that would program it. Figure $1-$2 channel.. while the freq range is 146-162 you will not be able to cover that entire range. to ham and wx is not going to be possible.

The only legal place you can use it without a license is on 2 of the MURS channels. (NOT ALL 5).

It could be used on the ham bands maybe if you can get it down low enough. If the radio is setup for high end of the band its not worth it
to correct.

Personally while a nice radio in its day, its dated and even at $45 is wasnt worth the money.

Recommendations, Sell it on ebay for what you can get for it.

[will_545]

They are good radios but like any thing moto you have to have there software to program it. I think that sabers are out of date on motos licensing so you can actually buy the software to program them. I know a friend of mine got the radio and the software off eBay about a year ago.

[Shotgunner1992]

They are good radios but like any thing moto you have to have there software to program it. I think that sabers are out of date on motos licensing so you can actually buy the software to program them. I know a friend of mine got the radio and the software off eBay about a year ago.

Care to put me in contact with said friend?

[crypto]

Motorola is such assholes about their abandoned programming software and their precious expensive RIB and cable, I swore off their radios long ago.

They wont sell the software unless you're a radio shop, the RSS software is such an ancient piece of shit that you need a 386/486 DOS machine to run it. (It doesnt like to run in a winxp/7/8 dosbox)

Seriously, its a proprietary clusterfuck, I steer clear of them and won't give them any money.

[Radio guy]

In its day the Saber series was probably the best and highest MTBF hand held radio made and I still have a couple of them around here. Lots of people have software and I hope you connect with someone that can help you. I don't like Motorola's attitude on software and hope to see it all on Russian sites free for the taking someday. Every other radio mft will give you the programming software to support their radios but the big M has to be anal and charge more for it than a radio is worth and try to sue if you give or trade it away. And the thing I hated most about Motorola is when you return a radio for repair they would program it with newer software so yours doesn't work any more and you had to buy new software again to program you own radio. Bastards......

There is also what's known as +/- 10Mhz programming software that was factory supplied for LAPD to extend the range of the radios and it works on VHF versions to get into the ham band. I've also seen hacked versions of the software that do basically the same thing. Anyone used to be able to buy the programming software and all you had to do is sign up for a simple account then make the purchase.
Radio Guy

[Shotgunner1992]

Thanks for the info radio guy!