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Radius P110

Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2015 9:03 am
by mdnitedrftr
Hi guys,

I recently got my hands on my familys old ski radios, and I want to use them again. Not necessarily as an everyday thing, more in an emergency situation.

I brought this up on another forum and some people mentioned something about them having to be reprogrammed, and they're not legal to use on narrow band, and a bunch of technical jargon that I don't really understand.

What I dont get is, the radios communicate between each other right now, why would they need to be reprogrammed? And why would using them be illegal? I'm sorry if I sound like an idiot, I'm quite new in the world of radios.

I know there are newer, and better radios out there, but these were free, and built like tanks.

Re: Radius P110

Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2015 6:18 pm
by d119
The FCC made changes to the RF spectrum back in 2013 mandating that MOST (but not all) radio services cut their "spectral presence" in half. This is known as narrowbanding.

Unfortunately, unless it was specifically manufactured as a narrowband unit (and 99% were NOT), the Radius P110 is a wideband only radio. There were a lot of costs to a lot of agencies, companies, people, etc. who owned radios such as yourself that are not "narrowband compliant". They had to buy new radios.

If they are UHF units, you could obtain a GMRS license and use them legally in the GMRS spectrum, but outside of that or amateur radio, they are likely no longer legal to use in the United States because of this FCC mandate.

P110's weren't really built like tanks. Take a look at an HT600 - that's a tank :)

Re: Radius P110

Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2015 2:33 am
by MTS2000des
mdnitedrftr wrote:And why would using them be illegal? I'm sorry if I sound like an idiot, I'm quite new in the world of radios.
Because in the USA, Canada and most parts of the world, radio spectrum is licensed. Using them on frequencies you aren't licensed for may cause another licensed user interference, and even if not, unlicensed operation potentially subjects you to fines and or forfeiture of equipment. Will you get in trouble? Maybe, maybe not.

As D119 stated, their pretty useless now because they won't support narrowbanding which as of Jan 2013 is required in the USA for commercial (part 90) use. He mentioned GMRS, this is a great idea if you are desiring to use them for personal (family) use provided they are UHF and cover the 438-470MHz split (not all P110s do).

Re: Radius P110

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 2:54 pm
by Satelite
Hello:
Just a clarification:
True most P110 portables were most likely wide band but some were 12.5 kHz narrow band from factory and if they were narrow band from the factory then they with a proper license could legaly be used in todays rulings.
Youd need to look at the model number of the unit which normaly was a sticker under the battery and with battery removed you could if its still legible read the model number.
You didn't specify what band VHF or UHF but heres an example of a :
P110 2 ch UHF 25 kHz wide band = Model number is P44QLC20A2AA which is a 4 watt and 2 watt is P24etc.
P110 2 ch UHF 12.5 kHz narrow band = Model number - P44QLC00A2AA which is a 4 watt and 2 watt is P24etc.
A VHF p110 will start with P93 with bal of numbers and letters being the same.
Now A2 is 2 ch version where a E2 is a 4ch version so those can change and there was a 6ch version but im not recalling now the designation for it.
But in you model number if you look at the 7th and 8th numbers it will be either a 20 for 25 kHz wide band or a 00 for 12.5 kHz narrow band model.
As stated above a 25 wide band could still be used legaly today in the GMRS band and don't qoate me but I believe two of the MURS freqs in the 154 meg area were left at 25 kHz wide band as well but ill let someone confirm that one here as im thinkin im correct but id check first before standing by that info.
Just for others info - I do have several GP300 and P110 factory 12.5 complete narrow band bds that you could swap out with a 25khz wide band bd in either the P110 or GP300 portables as both models used the same bd .
I have mostly UHF 438 to 470 UHF splits but recall having a few VHF High splits too.
Satelite

Re: Radius P110

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 12:59 am
by tsunami_australia
The way I've heard it was only the EU market got narrow banded radius gear. We have much the same issue here in Australia as well. Mot of our older non metro licenses are still wide but all new licenses unless specifically requested and extra is paid are all narrow band. As only narrow band licenses are granted to NFP the licenses I have access to require 12.5 gear which is unfortunate since I have M120/GM300 gear to be setup as repeaters. Thus making a waste of that gear unfortunately.

As for the HT600 etc, I still have a working MT1000 here which is a great piece of work. It's been literally swimming (brother was using it walking the creek when he found an unknown deep hole over 8ft deep and that was 15+ years ago). The only thing that killed it was the wires frayed and shorted on the output of the power pack. If I find another charger later I may reinstate it for the kids since it has been indestructible thus far.

Re: Radius P110

Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2017 8:28 pm
by Aardy54
Satelite wrote:Hello:
Just a clarification:
True most P110 portables were most likely wide band but some were 12.5 kHz narrow band from factory and if they were narrow band from the factory then they with a proper license could legaly be used in todays rulings.
Youd need to look at the model number of the unit which normaly was a sticker under the battery and with battery removed you could if its still legible read the model number.
You didn't specify what band VHF or UHF but heres an example of a :
P110 2 ch UHF 25 kHz wide band = Model number is P44QLC20A2AA which is a 4 watt and 2 watt is P24etc.
P110 2 ch UHF 12.5 kHz narrow band = Model number - P44QLC00A2AA which is a 4 watt and 2 watt is P24etc.
A VHF p110 will start with P93 with bal of numbers and letters being the same.
Now A2 is 2 ch version where a E2 is a 4ch version so those can change and there was a 6ch version but im not recalling now the designation for it.
But in you model number if you look at the 7th and 8th numbers it will be either a 20 for 25 kHz wide band or a 00 for 12.5 kHz narrow band model.
As stated above a 25 wide band could still be used legaly today in the GMRS band and don't qoate me but I believe two of the MURS freqs in the 154 meg area were left at 25 kHz wide band as well but ill let someone confirm that one here as im thinkin im correct but id check first before standing by that info.
Just for others info - I do have several GP300 and P110 factory 12.5 complete narrow band bds that you could swap out with a 25khz wide band bd in either the P110 or GP300 portables as both models used the same bd .
I have mostly UHF 438 to 470 UHF splits but recall having a few VHF High splits too.
Satelite
Just started messing with the group of p110 radios I got for my little 1/2 scale race team. Almost all of them are the P44QLC20A2AA which after reading your post means it's a 4watt UHF if I understand right. Only a couple of them will talk to eachother and guessing to get them all to talk to eachother they all need reprogrammed, but you were saying something about a wide band and narrow band and a license? Guess I'm not understanding this whole stuff and that I cant just take them to somebody and have them programmed to all talk to each other and then use them in the racecars at the track? This something you could explain better in the dumbed down version in an email maybe? aardy54@roadrunner.com
thank you in advance for any help.

Re: Radius P110

Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2017 4:55 pm
by Satelite
Hello:
Absolutely ill give you my hillbilly explanation.
To understand this wide band known as 25 kHz wide and the new now law narrow band 12.5 kHz wide ill explain it as this.
Lets just for now say the 25 kHz wide band is a signal transmitted at 25 inches wide in the air.
And lets say narrow band 12.5 kHz is transmitted at 12.5 inches wide only so half of a wide bander which allows two new freqs to be used that a 25khz wide band would cover both ruining the new badly needed channel the fcc was making so everybody had a freq available to use since a wide band took up too much space.
So wide band was ruled out and narrow band became law to make twice the channels available doubling the numbers of same giving more freqs available to use to keep channel interference much improved.
OK I SAIDE WIDW BAND WAS MADE ILLEGAL AFTER THE DATE BUT BUT
Not all freqs were involved 99 percent yes but not all of them.
There was 7 simplex GMRS freqs and 7 duplexed as in repeater use left at 25 kHz wide band so you could license for these yet today and they are legal .
GMRS is a family non business freq for use of citizens desiring high performance coms but not qaulified as business etc so a family use option.
Also two in the VHF 154 meg Murs freqs were left at 25 kHz wide band.
Yes you can also use 12.5 narrow band on these freqs too if you wanted to.
Satelite

Re: Radius P110

Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2017 2:44 pm
by RadioSouth
P110's are pretty cool, messed with them extensively in the 90's. Innards are identical to the GP300 they just put them in clunkier plastic to sell at a different price point with some different channel capacities. Can easily be recased into Gp300's to make them a bit smaller and if pre-1993 manuf. can be Hex edited into 16 ch. with scan. For some reason there were MANY channel capacities on this line of radios.
P110 Available in 2,4,6,8 and 16 ch. models (the 16's seem like they were made for only a few months before the radio model became NLA).
GP300 Available in 2,8, 16 channels and the oddball 10 channel radio which they called an 8+2 for 'some' reason.
Had all versions at one point other than the 16 ch. P110 but it was cataloged in the LA market spec sheets.