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Station Index Page
Compiled by Robert Meister WA1MIK (SK)
and Michael Morris WA6ILQ.
Currently Maintained by Michael Morris WA6ILQ. 		   

Mike has very little hands-on experience with this equipment so please ask on the repeater-builder mailing list!

Generic photo of a rack mount high power Motorola Quantar station


Here are some of the major differences between the Quantar and the Quantro:

Quantars generally show a Model T5365A on the manufacturing plate, along with the serial number. There is NO way to find out if it is VHF, UHF1, UHF2, UHF3, UHF4, 700, 800 or 900 MHz from the manufacturing plate.

You can tell if a receiver module (it's in the right side of the card cage) is VHF, UHF, or 800/900 by looking at the front. You will see either five holes or no holes. If there are no holes it's 700, 800 or 900 MHz. If all five holes have adjustment screws visible then it's VHF (but you won't know if it's 132-150 MHz or 150-174 MHz). If only the three middle holes have visible screws it's UHF, but again, you won't know which range (403-433 MHz, 440-470 MHz, 470-490 MHz or 490-520 MHz).

You have to pull the individual modules and copy all of the (3 or 4 letters plus 4 or 5 numbers) part numbers off of the back of the modules, and then look them up to find out what you have.

As of December 31, 2020 the Quantar product line is no longer supported by Motorola.

The known Quantar ranges are as follows:
VHF Range 1: 132-154 MHz.

VHF Range 2: 146-174 MHz.   Some specification sheets say 150-174 MHz.

UHF Range 1: 380-433 MHz.

UHF Range 2: 438-470 MHz.

UHF Range 3: 470-512 MHz.

A different manual says R0=380-433 MHz, R1=403-433 MHz, R2=438-470 MHz, R3=470-494 MHz and R4=494-520 MHz.

Usually the exciter VCOs will lock a couple of MHz above and below. The spec sheet says that the receivers are 4 MHz wide on VHF and 6 MHz wide on UHF.

The Quantar / Quantro RSS / CPS is RVN5002. Early versions would not work on 64 bit windows. The later CPS locked you into narrowband unless you had an entitlement key (and as far as I know those are no longer available). Version 14.12.00 is the one that you want to look for. Anything later forced the unit into narrowband. The final version was R14.13.00. If anyone has additional information I'll add it here. You program the Quantar through the 9-pin female connector on the front panel. The programming cable is a null-modem connection and has a nine-pin male (Quantar end) to nine-pin female (computer end). Motorola's part number is 30-80369E31 or E32 but you can make one yourself: 

Quantar                     Computer
9 pin male                  9 pin female
                       
  2 -------------------------- 3
  3 -------------------------- 2
  5 -------------------------- 5
  7 -------------------------- 8
  8 -------------------------- 7
In most cases the pins 2, 3 and 5 connection is all that you need.  Both ends have no connection on pins 4, 6, and 9.
If you prefer USB cables then go to https://BlueMax49ers.com. That's Mark Dunkle KJ6ZWL. Tell him that repeater-builder.com sent you. No, he's not paying for this pointer.
Look for his "Motorola Quantar Radio FTDI Cable NM-9M". They are available in 6 foot, 10 foot, 15 foot and 25 foot lengths.

The Quantar power supply modules come in 3 generic vesions: AC mains powered with and without "Battery Revert" (also referered to as "Emergency Reverting"), and DC powered. The low power stations use 12-14 volts, the high power stations (100, 110 and 125 watts) use 24-28 volts. The DC supplies include low power units for 12/24 volts, 48/60 volts, and high power units for either 24 volts or 48/60 volts.

The AC mains power supply modules that include the Battery Revert feature include a built-in low voltage disconnect which triggers when the battery voltage drops to 10.75 volts (one manual says 10.5 volts) or 21 volts on the high power stations. This disconnect protects the battery from fatal over-discharge. The Battery Revert power supplies can be connected to an external battery, or the Battery Revert feature can be ignored. The Battery Revert power supplies should not be considered as the primary battery charger, they are more of a trickle charger. For sites with frequent AC Mains power interuptions Motorola recommends a battery charging system based on a switched mode charger made by Argus Technologies in Britsh Columbia, Canada. (we are looking for which Argus it was)
The MTR page at this web site has some Argus information that might be useful.

If your Quantar has a Battery Revert power supply and you want to use that feature then you need a Battery Revert cable kit (TRN5155A) to connect the Quantar to the battery. If that cable is not present on the back of the chassis in connector location 25 (opens in a new browser tab). As of mid-2025 the TRN5155A cable was still available from Motorola Parts for about $120 or you can easily build it!) The Battery Revert cable has an 8-pin (2 sided, 4 pins per side) card edge connector that bolts into location 25. The cable has a large ferrite bead next to the card edge connector (anyone have an idea of where to find them?). The 8-gauge (AWG) cable is about 9 feet long and the cable kit comes with a fuse holder to be placed in line with the positive lead. The high power Quantar uses a 60 amp 300 volt fuse (I don't know what the low power fuse is). The fuse holder is not shown in the photos here:
Photo 1       Photo 2       Photo 3       Photo 4       Photo 5. (all open in new browser tabs)
You may find that connector location 25 is open or may be capped with a metal plate (a good idea to keep the mice out). If the plate is there you will want to save the screws, they are 3.5mm metric and not every hardware store has them. And that leads me into the next paragraph...

(all of the links in this paragraph are off-site pointers, all open in new browser tabs)
The DC input connector that mounts in location 25 is an AMP/TE 530521-3 four position (8 contact) connector body.   The contacts are AMP/TE 5-530519-2.   Both Digikey and Mouser stock the pieces: Digikey's page for the connector body and the pins.  Mouser pointers: body and pins. I could not find the plastic key (or tab) at either Digikey or Mouser but you could easily make one, perhaps by cutting a piece out of an old credit card or some other piece of plastic.
The screws that fasten the connector into the back of the Quantar chassis are 3.5mm x 12mm. Well, 3.5mm is NOT stocked at any hardware store near me (they have 3mm and 4mm) or at Home Depot or Lowes. But they had them on Amazon.... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KY8H26C. Yes, it's 10 pieces and they are Torx but it's the correct length and size... and at $8 it was cheaper than ordering a smaller quantity at a higher price from an internet hardware supplier and I already had the Torx driver in the set from when I first got started in Maxtracs.

The TKN8786A Battery Temperature Sensor Cable plugs into the 3-pin conector at connector location 24 (adjacent to the Battery Revert connector). Unfortunately as of late 2025 that Sensor Cable is no longer available from Motorola Parts. That cable is a small diameter grey cable that terminates in a length of black heat-shrink. Inside / under that heat shrink is a thermistor. The idea is that you would place the thermistor in direct contact with the battery so that it measures the battery temperature, and that information would let the battery charger board inside the power supply module adjust the charging current and voltage. An acquantance said that he's seen the thermistor duct-taped to the negative post of a battery instead of to the plastic case of the battery... the idea is that the post is the same termperature as the plates of the battery.
Any additional details that would help someone replicate the TRN5155A or TKN8786A cables would be welcome....

Motorola says this about the X30 option "Battery Charger and Emergency Reverting":

Provides an adjustable, regulated power supply to trickle charge a battery, and automatically reverts to battery operation upon loss of primary power. This option is not recommended in situations of frequent AC power interruptions, due to the limited recharge capability of the Quantar / Quantro power supply.

External storage batteries attach to the station through connector location 25 on the backplane. Includes a low voltage disconnect feature, which disconnects at 10.5 Volts for 12 Volt batteries, and 21 Volts for 24 Volt batteries. Requires only 12 Volt batteries for 20 and 25 watt models and only 24V batteries for 100, 110 and 125 watt models.

Note: Output power may be reduced up to 3dB in the battery revert mode to conserve battery life. Full rated RF power is only available for terminal voltages of 13.5 to 15V (12 VDC: X30 option) and 27 to 30V (24 VDC: X30 option) at the station DC input connector.

The test microphone jack on the front of the Quantar is a 6-pin(!) RJ-11 / RJ-12 / RJ-14 style socket, NOT an 8-pin RJ-45 style. The Quantar documentation calls for a TMN6164A (or B) handset or an HMN1001A (or B) microphone – that is a regular mobile microphone except with a 6-pin plug on the radio end of the curly-cord. The HMN1001A microphone was originally used on both the Mostar and Traxar (a trunking Mostar) mobiles, and later on both the HT-90 and HT-440 Converta-Coms (mobile handheld chargers), and both the MSF and Quantar stations. These days the HMN1001 microphone is not very common, however it is worth acquiring one as a test microphone for your Quantar toolkit. You can modify a super-common and cheap HMN1056 series microphone that was used with the Maxtrac / Radius / GM300 mobiles (it has an 8-pin RJ45-style cord) and swap the cord to a 6-pin cord. The part number for the 6-pin cord is 30-80146D02 (thanks to Andy NC4AB for that number) and was about $55 in the 2005 price list.
If you can't locate a 3080146D02 microphone cord (opens in a new browser tab) there are 6-pin microphone curly cords made for Kenwood mobiles (like the TK880) that might be adaptable.
We would still like to find the HMN1001A (or B) info sheet that Motorola packed with the microphone and scan it to PDF so we can make the full info available here.

The Quantar has an small internal speaker driven by a low power audio amplifier. Honestly, an external speaker sounds much better. The Volume Up and Volume Down buttons on the front of the control module provide 16 levels of volume on both the internal and external speakers. The 4-pin modular test SPKR jack on the front of the the Quantar control module is NOT a common RJ-11 / RJ-12 / RJ-14 style connector. Instead it is an RJ-9 / RJ-10 / RJ-22 (they are all the same 4-pin connector body) and is most commonly found as the narrow modular connector used for wired telephone handsets (and you can find them and the crimping tool on Amazon).

The audio that is fed to the SPKR jack is more like a line level output, and will drive a small earpiece but generally you will need an amplified speaker. Motorola specified an HSN1000A (or B) external amplified speaker and a 0185180U01 speaker cable. (opens in a new browser tab)   The set of speaker and cable is also used on the MTR2000 / MTR3000 product lines. As I write this the "Motorola 0185180U01" cable can still be found new for under US$30 dollars. The HSN1000 amplified speaker specified by Moto is nothing special, it was used on several mobile handheld chargers and has a 6-pin Molex connector on it and runs on 12 volts DC.

Rather than buying a RJ-9 / RJ-10 / RJ-22 connector and a crimper the easiest way to find a mating cable is to recycle a wired telephone handset cable (it has the correct connector (on both ends), 4 conductors, and the color code varied with the manufacturer). A common personal computer amplified speaker will work just fine, look for one that uses +12 to +14 volts (some do and you can tap the power pins on the SPKR jack for those speakers, others are powered by a 5 volt wall wart, some are powered from a USB jack - also 5 volts... You cna find +5v on pin 8 of J17, ground is adjacent on pin 7). You can determine the pinout of the SPKR connector with an ohmmeter, connect one lead to chassis ground, use the other to probe the pins on the SPKR jack (with the Quantar unplugged!)... The end pin that is grounded is pin 1, pin 2 is 14 volts DC to power the amplified speaker, pin 3 is audio ground, pin 4 is the line audio output (max about 1.4-1.5vpp).

Articles and Brochures:

Ordering a Quantar Station   Compiled by Robert W. Meister WA1MIK
A list of the major categories one would need to specify if ordering a new station. Now you can understand why model numbers are so hard to come by and could be nearly meaningless.
General Quantar Info from Motorolas Electronic Catalog   175 kB PDF file
Equipment, options, descriptions, and prices. From September 2003.
VHF Quantar Station Specifications brochure   266 kB PDF file dated 2004
UHF Quantar Station Specifications brochure   98 kB PDF file dated 2002
VHF-UHF-800 MHz Quantar Station Specifications brochure   2 MB PDF file dated 2004
800 / 900 MHz Quantar Data Base Station Specifications brochure   84 kB PDF file dated 2004
Quantar and Astro-TAC Receivers Specifications brochure   110 kB PDF file
Quantar Field Replaceable Units   Compiled by Robert W. Meister WA1MIK
Lists of the various FRU part numbers which should tell you what your station is equipped with.
An Overview and Beginner's Guide to Interfacing the Quantar station   Reworked by Robert W. Meister WA1MIK
Images show the major assemblies and all rear panel connectors. Describes the most common interfacing signals.
Identifying a Quantar Station   Submitted by Martin A Flynn W2RWJ
Useful information and selection suggestions, plus lists of module numbers.
Quantar Enhanced Wildcard Features Without Leaving In The Enhanced Board   Submitted by Josh Heide K6ZRX
This programming feature was discovered purely by accident, but it opens up possibilities.
Quantar VHF Range 2 to Range 1 Amateur Band Modification   Submitted by Rob Lee K7TGU
Rob refered to this as "One quick approach, a Rough Draft" but it's complete.
Mike's Miscellaneous Motorola Minutia page   Compiled by Mike Morris WA6ILQ
Additional Quantar tidbits and helpful parts information.
If you want to bring out all 50 pins of the J17 backplane connector (the 50-pin Amphenol 101 series connector) you might want to look at the Winford RJ-21 module. It has a female Amphenol connector and two 25 screw terminal strips. A standard 25-pair telephone cable with a male connector on each end connects it to the J17 connector.
One person reported "I was able to convert/tune an R2 range receiver down to 144 MHz. Looks like the receiver has two VCOs, one for each of the ranges, high and low. When I tried to program it below 145.6 MHz the Rx1 indicator flashed red. I figured the VCO was out of lock. There are two coils in one shielded section of the receiver PC Board which I found to be the VCO coils. I'm not sure yet which one is which, but I tuned each one turn clockwise then the Rx1 indicator went green. I was able to tune the R2 preselector with no problem down to 144 MHz. There was no issue with the high range exciter and PA using it for the low range down to 144."
The Transmitter audio input impedance is unusually low, about 500 ohms. Some external audio sources (like some amateur radio repeater controllers) do not have sufficient audio level. This can be cured with an external amplifier, or modifying the external device for a higher level.
The Motorola 9175300H02 (opens in a new browser tab) VHF 144-160 MHz 100 watt Duplexer option for the Quantar or GTR Repeater WILL NOT work in a 600 KHz receiver‑to‑transmitter situation. This is a $1400‑$1500 dollar option that is effectively a chinese knockoff (made by Fingu) of a Celwave / RFS PD5042 family duplexer and has a minimum channel spacing of 1.5 MHz.   Go read this page for the full story on Fingu. (off-site pointer, opens in a new browser tab)
Likewise the Motorola 0185417U02 (opens in a new browser tab) VHF 144-160 MHz 100 watt VHF band-pass duplexer option X182AB for the Quantar, MTR2000 and MTR3000 repeaters also WILL NOT work in a 600 KHz receiver‑to‑transmitter situation. That unit is a relabeled chinese clone ("FINGU 29650003" (opens in a new browser tab) of a 6-cavity RFS/Celwave PD5042-1-50 unit that has a 1.5 MHz minimum transmitter to receiver separation. Any Telewave, Phelps Dodge, RFS or Cellwave duplexer is preferred over any Fingu.
When the fan in your Quantar power supply module fails it can be replaced by the ADDA AD0912HB-A73GL-LF. This is a 92mm x 92mm X 20mm fan with the tachometer leads. They are stocked by Mouser as part number 664-D0912HBA73GLLF.
Repeater-builder received an email... 
To: (repeater-builder staff)
Subject: Quantar P.A. reflectometer issue... (something for the Quantar page)

I've been a Land Mobile electronic technician for over 40 years, and have used your site for info many times.
I'm presently employed as a county radio tech, and we are waiting on Motorola to switch us to a new system.
So in the meantime they hired me to help maintain their present 800 MHz SmartZone trunking system that is 
still using 800 MHz Quantars. They have had a huge issue with the Quantar power amps going bad.
What I've discovered is the reflectometer circuit on the low pass filter/coupler hybrid board in the 800 MHz P.A has 
printed resistors on the ceramic substrate that start changing value with increasing resistance, that causes the station to 
compensate until it burns up the P.A. or pops a transistor.
The printed resistors dont look burnt, they just change value by aging I guess.
My solution is to cut the circuit trace behind the RF choke on both forward and reflected sides, and solder in a 
300 ohm chip resistor to fix the reflectometer. 
I could not find schematics on that board, so I assume Motorola kept them as proprietary.....
I've seen this and fixed it in three different 800 MHz PA modules: CTF1091B, CLF1849A and TLF1930C.
The Quantars that a ham will see are almost always VHF or UHF.   I don't know if the design of the VHF and UHF 
P.A. modules has the same problem. 
Thanks for the website my friend!...
W9CR's Quantar Wiki page contains even more Quantar tidbits and helpful parts information.

Manuals:

As this section is being written (2011) the Quantar and Quantro are current Motorola products and most of the later manuals are still available for purchase. The prices listed below should be taken only as a rough guideline. Motorola adjusts prices quarterly, and offers one set of prices to their dealers / service shops, another on their order desk, and a third to self-maintaining fleet customers (i.e. police departments, fire departments, etc).

As of the time of this writing (April 2011) the available Quantar manuals are:         (if others appear please send the page maintainer a PDF, he will post the information here)
6881088E90-G Quantar / Quantro Service Manual -   This is the service manual for Quantar, Quantro, DSS-III, ASTRO-TAC Comparator, ASTRO-TAC receiver. It includes schematics, part location details, and parts lists, for every module EXCEPT the power supplies. The -G version of this manual (current as of this writing) is over five inches thick.
6881095E10 Quantar User Guide
6871012P36 Quantar Instruction Manual on CD-ROM
6881127E40 Quantar Repeater / SAM Manual
Plus there are various separate Functional manuals for each of the above product lines. If anyone has relevant part numbers, with or without prices, please let us know.

PDF versions of any currently available manual won't be posted here at Repeater-Builder. The older manuals that are Cancelled or No Longer Available (NLA) are a different story.
If anyone discovers that a manual has been Cancelled / switched to NLA status and has a PDF please forward the PDF to us for posting.

Quantar Satellite Receiver Instruction Manual 68P81087E25-O
Quantar RSS Instruction Manual 6881085E35-AG (for unknown version of RVN5002 Programming Software)   20 MB PDF file.
Dated 12-30-2006.
Quantar RSS Instruction Manual 6881085E35-AN Rev 14.10.00 of RVN5002 Programming Software   18.9 MB PDF file.
Dated 06-30-2011.
Quantar RSS Instruction Manual 6881085E35-AT Rev 14.13.00 of RVN5002 Programming Software   18.9 MB PDF file.
This is the manual for the last version and is dated 03-31-2015.
Quantar Digital-Capable Station Instruction manual, p/n 68P81095E05-B, scan courtesy of Eric Lemmon WB6FLY (SK).
This manual includes station installation, module configuration and removal, and all interfacing information for the Conventional, SECURENET, ASTRO, 6809 Trunking, and IntelliRepeater systems on VHF (25 and 125 watt), UHF (25, 100, and 110 watt), 800 MHz (20 and 100 watt) and 900 MHz (100 watt). When it was available in paper form it was over two inches thick.
The last entry is the complete manual.
Part 1, Front Matter   836 kB PDF file.
Part 2, Description   1.14 MB PDF file.
Part 3 Installation   2.8 MB PDF file.
Part 4 Operation and Maintenance   2.7 MB PDF file.
Part 5 Receiver Modules   3.1 MB PDF file.
Part 6 Transmitter Modules   3.16 MB PDF file.
Part 7 Station Control Modules   7.1 MB PDF file.
Part 8 Wireline Interface Modules   2.98 MB PDF file.
Part 9 Station Backplane Board   1.1 MB PDF file.
Part 10 Power Supply Modules   7.8 MB PDF file.
Part 11 Antenna Relay and Circulators   1.95 MB PDF file.
Part 12 Duplexers   3.06 MB PDF file.
One of the options from Motorola for the VHF, UHF and 800/900 MHz Quantar units is an in-cabinet duplexer. Each section includes a description, an adjustments procedure, performance specifications, rack mounting informaiton, and a field tuning procedure. See the files below for the option number to use when ordering a duplexer.

VHF: (Click here for the VHF section only - 762 kB PDF file.)
The unit that Motorola originally supplied was a relabeled RFS or Celwave model PD5042-1-50. The ones that were shipped later on were chinese clones by Fingu. Both were factory tuned to frequency before shipping. The performance of this six-cavity pass-notch duplexer can be better than 100 dB isolation between transmitter and receiver however this duplexer will NOT work at 600 KHz spacing (offset). See the notes above on the optional 9175300H02 and 0185417U02 duplexers.
UHF: (Click here for the UHF section only - 735 kB PDF file.)
Similar to VHF... Originally a RFS or Celwave PD526-4-2. The ones that were shipped later on were chinese clones by Fingu . Both were factory tuned to frequency before shipping. The performance of this six-cavity pass-notch duplexer usually exceeds 100 dB isolation between transmitter and receiver at spacings as small as 3 MHz. See the notes above on the optional 9175300H02 and 0185417U02 duplexers.
800/900 MHz: (Click here for the 800/900 MHz section only - 374 kB PDF file.)
Part 13 Modem, Peripheral Tray and Ultra High Stability Oscillator (UHSO)   1.28 MB PDF file.
Part 14 Station Configuration   4.11 MB PDF file.
Part 15 Station Interfacing   1.6 MB PDF file.
All of the above 15 sections as a single file (none of the SMRs below are included)   22 MB PDF file.
Quantar Instruction Manual Revision SMR6815 dated August 2005   65 kB PDF file.
Don't bother printing this one - it's just a text change ("from '95% relative humidity' to '95% relative humidity, non-condensing') plus a European Union legality notice.
Quantar Instruction Manual Revision SMR6868 dated January 2007   167 kB PDF file.
This SMR describes a VHF Power Amplifier Module change - models TLD3101G and TLD3102G have been replaced by CLD1298A and CLD1299A, respectively. It also instructs you to toss the removed pages on the old modules. I wouldn't - you never know when you will stumble across an older module and wish you had the info...
Quantar Instruction Manual Revision SMR6901 dated Febuary 2008 3.14 MB PDF file.
This SMR added information on the new station control modules (CLN8426A, CLN8447A, CLN8426A and CLN8447A). It is 45 pages long and replaces major sections of the manual index and several other pages.
Quantar Instruction Manual Revision SMR6915 dated April 2008   102 kB PDF file.
This one-page SMR describes a one-word correction to SMR6901.
All of the above 15 sections plus the four SMRs as a single PDF file.   25 MB PDF file.
The entire original 68P81095E05-B Instruction manual; no SMRs   4.5 MB PDF file.
Quantar PDR 3500 Portable Repeater Basic Service Manual 6881093C75-O   780 kB PDF file.

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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.