Newbie Observations: My Experience Thus Far

[PeterGV]

I'm a new user of Moto portables. My interests are mainly in PS monitoring and ham repeater use.

As I was getting started, I found a lot of confusing, scattered and sometimes even conflicting information. I thought I'd share my experiences with others.

Let me start by saying that I have no experience using (or plans to sue) these radios on Trunked Radio Systems (TRS). So, my observations are related to conventional channels only.

My Observations Thus Far:

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1) The radios are really awesome for monitoring conventional police and fire channels. The sensitivity and especially the selectivity are far better than any scanner I've used. The P25 decoding is particularly good. Where I live (Southern NH) there are numerous "mixed" P25/analog channels, some of which also combined transmissions MDT data on the same channel. I've never heard a scanner that can properly handing combined MDT/P25/Analog channels. My Astro Saber and XTS-3K handle them perfectly.

2) To program the radios you need a copy of RSS or CPS. RSS is no longer available from Motorola. CPS *is* readily available (see below).

There are numerous versions of CPS. The version of CPS that you will need is based on the radio type(s) you need to program, and they are not upwardly compatible For example, the Astro Saber and XTS-3000 use the same version of CPS, which is order number RVN4182V (the "V" is the current revision number of this version of the software). If you have an XTS-5000 that you want to program, you need a different version of CPS, and that version can't program XTS-3000s. Fun, huh?

There are lots of scary postings all over the internet about how hard (or how impossible) it is to buy CPS from Motorola. These postings are one of my main motivations for posting here. Perhaps they've changed their policy recently, but I had no problem at all buying CPS. I was able to buy a copy from Motorola Online (MOL) and have it in my hands in about a week. See below for how to signup for a MOL account.

3) Signing Up for a Motorola Online account. For me, this was a pretty simple process: I signed up for an account on Motorola Online (MOL) at https://businessonline.motorola.com -- If you do this, you'll need to indicate on the application why you want an account ("to purchase parts, accessories, and software") and whether you're an end-user or business. I said I was an end-user, which I am.

Even though the application process says they'll phone you to complete the setup process, I received an email the morning after I applied with a few additional questions to complete the setup process. The questions included a physical address (for shipping and software licensing) and whether I'd want to purchase software (which I did).

I replied to the email and the next day I received email that my MOL account was setup.

4) Agreeing to the Motorola Software License. Once my MOL account was established, I logged in and went to the "Software Support" section under "Resource Center" -- In that section, there was a license to read and agree. Despite what I read in numerous forums, the license is no more unreasonable or "scary" than the license for any high-end application software (have you ever read the license for something like AutoCad?). The license says that the software is Motorol's property, you can only use the software at your location, or on a laptop you own, and that you can't sell, rent, or let somebody borrow it from you. No big deal as far as I was concerned.

After submitting the license on line (no signatures or faxing requied), after about a day I received email notice that my license had been accepted.

5) Ordering CPS was simple. I want to "Search Catalog" entered "RVN4182V" -- when it came up, I entered the quantity and clicked "add to cart." Oh yeah: At the time of this writing (December 2007) the software cost $276 (plus shipping). I requested 2nd day delivery. I had CPS in my hands 3 days later.

6) To program the radios, you'll need a Radio Interface Box (RIB) and a radio cable (or a so-called "ribless cable"). I bought my RIB and cable from Polaris Industries at http://www.polarisradio.com/ -- I bought a PA-3 (a little rechargeable RIB that's smaller than a deck of cards). Yes, their stuff is expensive. Note that there are made in China RIBs and cables for sale on EBAY that cost less than 20% of what the Polaris parts cost. Since this was my first experience with Motorola radio programming, I wanted something with a warranty and somebody that I could call if I had any questions or problems, so I went with Polaris. The folks are Polaris were incredibly nice and went out of their way to get me my order quickly.

7) Actually USING CPS is surprisingly complicated. After you hook-up your radio to the RIB, plug the RIB into your computer, and run CPS, the first thing you should do is download the current programming info from your radio (which is called the "codeplug") and save it. That way, if you screw something up, you'll be able to get back to where you started.

Fortunately, CPS has a bunch of tutorial information in it. Most of the options are very well explained. It just took me some time to understand the various options that are available and which work best for a particular channel. Just about everything, from the role of the buttons on the radio to how the squelch is interpreted for each channel, is programmable. But that's supposed to be part of the fun, isn't it??

I had CPS before I had my RIB, so to "practice" I downloaded a codeplug for a radio model that's identical to mine from the "codeplugsupersite" (google for the URL) so I could start to get familiar with the various options.

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So, that's my experience coming in "new" to this world. I hope it'll help someone in the future who is as new as I was...

PeterGV
K1PGV

[dxon2m]

I agree with you on the software license. If you have read the Microsoft or other software license agreements, it is really no different from them. The thing is no one will sit down and read the whole thing though after they see how small the scroll bar tab is.

[Rayjk110]

That's actually not a bad "tutorial" or primer for getting into Motorola stuff from the start.

[mikegilbert]

That's actually not a bad "tutorial" or primer for getting into Motorola stuff from the start.

My sentiments exactly- great post indeed.

[hamptonbeach]

I'm also in So. NH and I agree completely that the XTS series makes a great receiver here. Although I've used both 3k and 5k's, I'm currently sporting an XTS1500 due to smaller size. I've tried RS and Uniden scanners and they had too many features than what is needed here since 90% of everything is VHF-hi
I had the same experience buying the CPS. I simply asked for it in the same manner (I posted a thread on that a while back.)
The software agreement isn't any more or less intimidating than any major software agreement (ie: Microsoft, Adobe, Macromedia)
I went to Polaris too to get my RIB

[pks]

I'm from Australia and am having problems applying for a MOL account.
I get the following error everytime I click submit:

Problem Processing Request
A problem occurred while processing your request. This problem may only be
temporary. Please try again later.

And their email address doesn't seem to work either. Any ideas?

[motorola_otaku]

I'm from Australia and am having problems applying for a MOL account.
I get the following error everytime I click submit:

Problem Processing Request
A problem occurred while processing your request. This problem may only be
temporary. Please try again later.

And their email address doesn't seem to work either. Any ideas?

May seem like a stupid question, but what internet browser are you using. MOL barfs sometimes if you're using something other than Internet Explorer (like Firefox, or at least that's been my experience.)

[pks]

Actually, I think because I select my country as Australia that caused the error.

[CAPTLPOL]

I signed up for an account. Full pop MSRP is all I qualify for.

I guess I need to wait another day before they accept my license for software, which is really the only reason I signed up anyway.

[CAPTLPOL]

Any reason why some of the software seems to be populated in the software field while others need to be searched for?

[dxon2m]

Any reason why some of the software seems to be populated in the software field while others need to be searched for?

Not too sure what your question is but if you purchased the software, it will show up under Resource Center -> Software -> Two-Way. Anything that you didn't purchase will be under the catalog.

[CAPTLPOL]

I was speaking of searching for the software in the catalog. Lets say I can pull up a JT1000 in the browse and then click on software and there is the RSS/CPS for it. Now if lets say I am looking for Astro Saber software I do not see a software tab and I have to do a search using search terms to find the part. I was just wondering why I see software tabs for certain items and not others.

[motorola_otaku]

I was speaking of searching for the software in the catalog. Lets say I can pull up a JT1000 in the browse and then click on software and there is the RSS/CPS for it. Now if lets say I am looking for Astro Saber software I do not see a software tab and I have to do a search using search terms to find the part. I was just wondering why I see software tabs for certain items and not others.

It's just MOL being persnickety. I've been software-authorized for years, and I can't pull up any software for purchase on the website.. I have to phone-in software orders.

[CAPTLPOL]

Thanks for that wasn't sure if it was a restriction or operator error or what.