So here we are again. Same radio, different day. In our last adventure, we discovered that my newly acquired Motorola Spectra Railroad Model was stuck in a boot loop with the FAIL 01/90 error code, the general hardware fault code. Unfortunately, it was not going to be as simple as program and go with this radio.
As well as being a ham radio operator, I also am a huge rail buff. As such, I had long wanted to add a railroad radio to my collection. Unfortunately, the only ones to be found for sale were either old radios from the 80’s with limited feature sets, or newer Astro radios from the big M that were way more than I was willing to pay for a radio.
Fortunately I was able to stumble on a for-parts Motorola Spectra on ebay for a very, very decent price with shipping. The radio was advertised as untested, but pulled from a working environment. I jumped on the item and within a week it was at my door.
So began a not-so-fun journey into the mystical ways of railroad-grade equipment and poor documentation.