Astro25

Astro25 is the second generation of the Astro (Motorola's name for Digital Voice) radios.

This includes the following:

• Mobiles
  • PM1500 - M79 Head only, Conventional Only, VHF/UHF only, High Power only (110w)
  • XTL1500 - MX head only, Trunking VHF/UHF/7-800/900 Mid Power Only
  • XTL2500 - M5 or O3 Head, VHF/UHF/7-800/900 Mid Power and High Power
  • XTL5000 - W3-9, O3 or O5 Heads, VHF/UHF/7-800/900 Mid Power and High Power
• Portables
  • XTS1500
  • XTS2500
  • XTS3500
  • XTS5000
  • XTS4000 - Flip phone arrangement. There are only 5 known examples of this radio and they are resold on eBay ad infinitum.
  • MT1500

Control heads

Mobiles support the following control heads

• W3
• W4
• W5
• W7
• W9
• M79 - PM1500 only
• MX - XTL1500 Only
• M5 - XTL2500 Only
• O5 - XTL5000 Only
• O3 - XTL5000 and XTL2500 with export control head.

The W heads are the SB9600 based heads from the Astro Spectra. These will all work but need a special TIB. Note that the W3 head is the only head that will support controlling 2 radios.

Note the M5 and O5 are the same head, just a small hidden keypad button identifies it. Cutting it and flipping it is an easy way to change between them.

What's not known is if the control head type is something that business logic decided or if it's hard set in the firmware. Example: The default codeplugs you can generate in depot are only certain heads for certain radios, but this is just business logic diving it. It may be possible to change a XTL5000 codeplug to support an M79 or MX head, but it's unknown if the radio or CPS would support this.

TIB / CHIB / CHUC

The Transceiver Interconnect board and Control Head Interconnect Board are the boards that connect to the control head and radio brick in remote mount setups. These are different based on the control heads used. These are also called "remote interconnect board" in the service manual

TIBs

HLN6883A/B - Mid Power Brick - For W4, W5, W7, and W9 control heads
HLN6884A   - Mid Power Brick - For the Motorcycle W4, W5, and W7 control heads
HLN6885A/B - Mid Power Brick - For W3 control head only
HLN6915B   - Mid Power Brick - For W3 control head only (Unsure of the diff between this and HLN6885)
HLN6902C   - Hig Power Brick - For W4, W5, W7, and W9 control heads
HLN6901C   - Hig Power Brick - For W3 control head only

CHIB

HLN6912    - O5 CHIB

CPS/Depot notes

You cannot save a srecord codeplug with depot unless the following 3 files are in the directory you're saving to:

• external.config
• radio_pvt_data.config
• security.config

These files can be found in the "\Program Files (x86)\Motorola\ASTRO 25 Products\ASTRO 25 Mobile Depot\Codeplugs" directory.