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Why You'd Want To Use LAB Software By Author Unknown

The following question popped up on a well-known web site. While this topic is primarily aimed at the MaxTrac radios and RSS packages, there are other product lines that suffer the same situation. LAB software does not exist for all models, and for those that did have it, there may not be a copy floating around "out there".

>Why is it that LAB software has to be used to blank
>the board but regular RSS has to be used to reprogram
>it? Or is that even true? I have looked at several
>authoritative web sites and can't seem to find a good
>answer. Can one of you please tell me why that is?
>Maybe it's time for a good "once-and-for-all" answer.

Here are some of the answers that were posted after the question.

• Regular RSS does not have the "make blank board" selection in the service menu. So, you have to use LAB to blank. I use LAB to blank then re-initialize the radio to the features I want. After initialization and tuning, I then use normal RSS for channel programming.
  
  
• Only the LAB program can blank the radio. The main reason (that I'm aware of) it's recommended to use regular RSS to initialize is because the LAB version floating around is much older than the latest regular RSS. As such, there could very well be later models of radios in the regular RSS which don't exist in the LAB ".mdf" file, so you wouldn't be able to initialize it as those desired models.
  
  
• The LAB program is less restrictive when it comes to the radio's frequency limits. The "SHIFT-NUM" trick doesn't work in all versions of regular or LAB software, which is why LAB gives you a bigger window for frequency data entry. You can still hex-edit the MDF file to expand this window, but it's rarely necessary to do so. LAB will allow you to choose options or configurations that make no sense and actually conflict with the radio's normal operation. In other words, the safety rules have been removed. It is assumed that you know what you're doing when you use this program. Regular RSS is updated with newer model information a lot more frequently than LAB is, so with the latest version of regular RSS, you have a much better chance of finding a matching model number for your radio. Some 900 MHz MaxTracs in particular were not present in the LAB program. Of course, all the radios that use RSS have been discontinued and no revisions to RSS will be forthcoming. They've shifted to CPS instead and I'm not aware of any LAB software for that package. So, use LAB to blank a radio's logic board, but do everything else (model number choices, initialization, alignment, calibration, mode programming, accessory connector) with regular RSS to insure you have a functioning radio when you're finished.

Here's a summary of some of the reasons why you'd want to use LAB software and why you'd want to use regular RSS.

Benefits of LAB software	Benefits of Regular RSS software
Lets you blank a board. Best reason.	You can't do this with regular RSS.
Less restrictive on frequency ranges.	More restrictive on frequency ranges.
Not much error checking.	A lot of error checking.
Easy to end up with a bad configuration.	Harder to end up doing something wrong.
Older and can be slower.	More recent and usually faster.
Might not run on faster computers.	Latest version is CPU speed-independent.
Probably doesn't support SHIFT-NUM.	Latest version supports SHIFT-NUM.
Probably missing some newer models.	Will have more model numbers.
Was never intended for the public.	You could legally purchase this package.

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This web page first posted 30-Apr-2010

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