XTL5000 Analog RX sensitivity vs MCS2000

[g8tzl2004]

Has anybody compared the analog RX sensitivity of a VHF or UHF XTL5000 against an MCS2000? Which receives very weak signals best?

With the XTL5000 there is a pre-amp option (W12) which is dependant on the flashcode version - so you need to know whether your XTL5000 has the preamp switched on. All XTL5000's have the preamp built in but some flashcodes don't have the "W12" preamp enabled.

Does an XTL5000 with NO preamp enabled RX as well as an MCS2000?

[Jim202]

Has anybody compared the RX sensitivity of a VHF or UHF XTL5000 against an MCS2000? Which receives very weak signals best?

With the XTL5000 there is a pre-amp option (W12) which is dependant on the flashcode version - so you need to know whether your XTL5000 has the preamp switched on. All XTL5000's have the preamp built in but some flashcodes don't have the "W12" preamp enabled.

Does an XTL5000 with NO preamp enabled RX as well as an MCS2000?

There is always the squelch setting. The default value is rather high. There is a box to check that allows you to program a button on the 05 head and use the frequency knob to set the channel squelch for the channel your set on. Forget where the box is. Motorola software geeks put it in a strange place you would never look there for it.

Then there is always the ability to set the default squelch setting much lower than where it is set as default from the factory. Had to do this with my radio and several at the office. They just didn't hear signals that were low. After setting my channels to a default of 3, the radio receiver does much better.

Jim

[g8tzl2004]

I set the squelch on all my Motorola radios to level 1 or equivalent. Sometimes the default "level 1" still misses very weak signals so I go into service mode and set "level 1" even lower..basically at the level which a signal is just copyable.