Many folks drop me email asking me how to use the RSS software for their GTX-900. I've tried to outline the procedure for programming one with conventional channels below with screen captures where possible. This may not work on your version of RSS and is by no means meant to be a definitive HowTo. However, I have been successful in programming a number of mobile and handheld GTX-900's this way.

First off make sure that you have a machine running DOS. Not a Windows DOS box but an honest to God DOS machine of fairly low speed. I use an old 386 and Caldera DOS. This machine also serves as my EPROM/Pic programming machine. Clever bastards reading this will have spotted that I'm running the GTX in an X-Window. I'm using XDOSEmu on my Linux box so that I can do the screen grabs.

For the purposes of this HowTo I have assumed that the reader owns a RIB and the relevant cables/power supply to hook up the RIB to the radio and that the radio is also powered up and connected to a dummy load. You must also have a hacked copy of the GTX.MDF file. Also, the RSS software has been correctly configured using the F9 Setup options.

Navigate to the directory you have installed your GTX RSS software and run the RSS software by typing GTX at the prompt.

Press the "any" key to get the below opening menu

The first thing we want to do is read our radio's current config. We'll need this because we have no config with which to work. Press F3 to get to the get/save menu.

Making sure our radio is connected properly press F2. A new screen will appear and a worm will make its way across the screen as the radio gets read. Finally you will be returned to the above screen when the codeplug has been read into the software. We want to make sure that we have a copy of the codeplug saved for future reference so hit F7 to save it to disk.

Again, when this operation is complete you'll be returned to the get/save menu. Press F10 to return to the main menu and then F4 start editing the channels etc.

First thing we need to do is to delete any trunking personalities the radio has. These are useless to us. You'll be able to delete all but one of the personalities. Press F9 to start deleting the Trunking and adding the Conventional channels.

In this example our codeplug has 2 Trunked and one Conventional Mode already programmed. We want to delete one of the Trunks and the Conventional Mode then add the new Conventional channels. Before you start down this particular road make sure you have a list of the frequencies and tones etc that you want to program into your radio. You can have a maximum of 10 channels.

Pressing F3 will take you to the delete screen. Press the up/down arrow buttons until you locate the Mode you want to delete and then press F8. Repeat this until all the deletions are complete.

Having deleted all the Modes you don't want it's now time to add the Modes you do want. Press F2 to add the Modes you want. The process is exactly the reverse of what you did when deleting Modes. Just be sure that you select Conventional every time.

And so on until you have the correct amount of Modes installed. Remember that you will have to have at least one Trunked Mode in the radio.

Finally we can enter in our frequencies! Press F10 to exit from the above menu and then press F4 to bring you to the below screen. Use F3 and F4 to navigate between the different channels filling in the info as you go. If you don't know what a function is just disable it. The talk-around function is basically simplex or repeater. When disabled it is in repeater mode. Set the Time Out Timer to 0 to disable it. Hear Clear may or may not be used in your area (probably not).

When you've edited all your channel information hit F10 a few times until you arrive at the opening menu.

Hit F3 to go to the get/save menu.

Before we save the codeplug to disk we are going to write the codeplug to the radio. This way if we have created a bad plug we still have our original plug saved so that we can restore it to the radio. Again, make sure that all the cables and power are connected to the radio/RIB and then press F8 twice. The below screen will appear with a worm progressing across the screen. When done you will be returned to the Get/Save menu.

When back at the get/save menu wait for your radio to finish rebooting and try it. Using the up down buttons on the left of its display you should be able to cycle through the Modes you installed. Making sure you have a dummy load attached, replace the RIB cable with a microphone and key up. You should see the relevant frequency appear on a frequency counter and the Red PTT light should come on.

Thats it!! If all is well then all is well. Press F7 to save the modified codeplug to disk. Install the radio in your car and have fun on 33CMs!!