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Hex editing the Saber RSS to allow out of band programming By Scott Lichtsinn KBØNLY

This article will NOT be extended to include UHF radios, as the low split (403-433MHz) is useless to USA amateurs, the 440-470 needs no modification, and both the 458-490 and 482-512MHz radios will not even come close to the ham band.

The RSS can easily be hex-edited to allow out-of-band programming, rather than editing each channel individually. For example, on the 146-162 and 148-174 splits I moved the bottom end to 144. However, if you read a radio that is programmed with 146-162 it will default to such. You have to create a new codeplug from scratch by selecting the newly available 144-162 or 144-174 split, then filling it with the frequency, tone, etc, information. Once the radio has been loaded with the new codeplug (i.e. programmed with the new split) it will continue to be read as such, so you only have to do this once.

However, before programming the new codeplug to the radio, read and save a copy of the original codeplug (the one with the original commercial frequencies) in the radio for safe keeping in case anything goes wrong.

Important:
When you write your newly created 144MHz codeplug to the radio select F6 to use the radio's tuning values when it prompts you.

Caution:
If you select F2 and use the RPF values, you will overwrite the tuning and alignment information saved in the radio and it will need a full realignment to bring it back into spec.

The actual editing is simple to do. Open up the SABER.EXE file in your favorite hex editor and find the band split values. I use Hex Workshop from Breakpoint Software and I recommend it: http://www.bpsoft.com. The easiest way to find the existing values is to just search for them as a hex value. In Hex Workshop, click on Tools then select Base Converter. Select 'unsigned long' as the Data Type. If you put the frequency in the right hand (Decimal) box, the left hand box will display the Hex value. You need to enter all the trailing zeros.

144000000 = 00449508

146000000 = 80C8B308

148000000 = 004DD208

Run Hex Workshop and open the SABER.EXE file, click Edit then Find, select Hex Values for Type, then put in the hex value for 146 MHz and check the Find all Instances box, click ok. It will search the entire file and list all instances of the hex value you searched for in the bottom right Find Results box. Click any of the values to be shown their location. The value will be highlighted in yellow; use your mouse and click to place the cursor before the first number of the highlighted string and then type in the replacement value, it will just overwrite the current value.

There will be two instances of 146 MHz, and one instance of 148 MHz that need to be replaced with the value for 144 MHz. Once this is done, save the file and when it asks if you want to create a backup I suggest you do so. It will place a file named SABER.BAK in the directory you have the RSS installed to. This backup file will allow you to go back to the original if ever needed just by deleted the modified SABER.EXE and renaming the backup file by changing the .BAK extension to .EXE.

The next time you create a codeplug from scratch, the new band splits will be available!

Contact Information:

The author can be contacted at: kb0nly [ at ] mchsi [ dot ] com.

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Article text copyright © 2005 by Scott D. Lichtsinn KBØNLY

The information presented in and on these conversion pages is © Copyrighted 1995 - 2003 by Kevin Custer W3KKC and multiple originating authors.