Motorola Remote Speaker Microphone Cords - Annoying Problems

[losangelescop]

Ok people, just a little curious here, so if anyone could help me out, it would be greatly appreciated....anyway....

When I wear a speaker mic, I like to wear it so that the cord comes across my back and to the opposite shoulder to the side where my radio is clipped to my belt, then down and clip it just under my chin, or on the second or third button down. With my Waris portables (using RSM HMN9053E), if I do this, after a period of time walking or just a short distance running, i find that the mic has tried to pull back over my shoulder, but because it is clipped to my shirt, it just kind of drags up and wrinkles my shirt, and sort of comes near my throat, and rests on my neck, sort of choking me, not to the point where it is a bad thing, just irritating.

This happens with my new mics and the 10 year old ones where the cords have been stretched out. This happens to all my friends too, but when I watch COPS, I see some with Waris speaker mics wearing it the same as me, and after a foot chase its not riding up on their shirt. Same thing when I'm watching and they have Jedi, Saber or Otto mics. Usually with the RSM's I wear a tight fitting formal shirt like the cops do and it STILL happens, even worse when I am wearing a casual shirt, tucked in or not.

I suppose my question is: Do all Moto mics do this, or Just the Waris ones, and also what series radio has good speaker mics that wont do this as much? - Just another quick thought, do PSM's do this as much, and are there Public Safety antenna mic's for the 450-520 UHF band? Lastly, when I run with the RSM, within about 5 seconds it unclips itself, and smashes into my hand or leg and causes BAD pain..... I SWEAR after the back of the lapel slammed onto the back of my hand one day, I had the giant M imprinted on my hand for a couple weeks!!! , yet on COPS, the Waris line only seems to come un-clipped after the foot chase when there is a huge struggle on the ground Once again, which radio mics dont have this annoying problem as much as Waris line?

NOTE: Even when I wear it another way (i.e. not wrapped around my back) or clip it to one of my shoulder straps, it still drags down more than what i see on COPS, and I find myself re-adjusting it every 5 seconds, also wearing it on my shoulder strap and running causes it to come un-clipped and as expected, damages me....IS there any way to wear these damn things so they dont drag on your shirt or un-clip and injure you? seems the belt clips on Waris radios do the same thing of coming off when you run, and a Moto radio on your leg is MUCH more painful than a Moto mic.....Its getting to the point where im getting sick of Motorola's Waris crap, both with the clips, mics and technical faults, that I want to change series...too bad that Waris is just about the only series Moto has left in Australia, aside from XTS which is waaayyyy outta my price range! There was a time where i used Jedi's and I got TWICE the conventional range outta them than what I did on the Waris!

Whats a good reliable, cheap series with good speaker mics to do 4-16 Channels on UHF 470-480 MHz?

Thanks to all who bothered to read and help, PS sorry for the long post....and the bitching (then again who HASN'T complained about the Waris line?)

[d119]

Don't forget that these cops are also wearing bulletproof vests.

When I was on the street and I wore a uniform/vest combo, I always clipped the mic to the back of the vest (closest to my chest) and to the outside of the shirt, so it kinda "held everything together".

I found that gave it a tighter grip, and it didn't move around so much.

[NodrogCop]

I was having a similar problem when we switched to Ht1250's and their mic's here. Always being a GE guy, I tried switching to an Otto Mic - the ones on my MRK's never gave me problems. Viola - problems solved. The Otto's don't do it for some reason.

your mileage may vary.

Gordon

[losangelescop]

thanks guys...so do the waris mics in general drag on the shirt and come unclipped more than say the saber or jedi mics or are they mostly all the same?

[radio-link]

While this may not be helpful for this issue, I think Waris are just not good radios for public safety and such. They do fine for industrial usage, but public safety and very heavy usage cries for Saber or Jedi or XTS series.

To bad that on the international markets almost only Waris is left, and soem TETRA stuff :(

I had similar problems with the Waris RSM HMN9053E when using a Waris while skiing or riding my bike, while my Jedi/XTS RSM NTN6191C is much easier to wear. They have the same length of cord when not stretched out, but due to the larger diameter of the Jedi RSM coils it gives not so much force when being stretched, so maybe this makes the difference.

We will see how the RSM performs when I take a course in ski jumping this year :)

[txshooter]

Public saftey mics are available with a straight cord which would solve your problem. The cord would not be trying to coil up.

I can say that I always wore mine with the cord off to my left side with the mic clipped to the fron of my shirt a button or so down. Yes, occasionally the cord gets in the way, but does not pull on the shirt nearly as much.

I would agree the Jedi and Saber lines are much better suited for public saftey applications.

[USSZulu2]

Here is another question kind of related to this thread...

I have a Public Safety mic for my HT1550. My question is do they make coiled cords for them? The one I have has the stright cord and it is entirely to long. I seriously can have the radio on my belt, the mic cord wraped up my back, over my shoulder, and almost all the way down back to the radio. I find it quite annoying personally but I like the idea of having the antenna of the radio accually having some better LOS. Any information would be appriciated! Thank you!

-Bob

[losangelescop]

Here is another question kind of related to this thread...

I have a Public Safety mic for my HT1550. My question is do they make coiled cords for them? The one I have has the stright cord and it is entirely to long. I seriously can have the radio on my belt, the mic cord wraped up my back, over my shoulder, and almost all the way down back to the radio. I find it quite annoying personally but I like the idea of having the antenna of the radio accually having some better LOS. Any information would be appriciated! Thank you!

-Bob

Bob,

A coiled cord for a PSM is not manufactured, I think because it has something to do with the fact that the cable coming out of the mic has co-ax cable going through it for the antenna (unlike RSM's) as well as wires for TX/RX, and for the co-ax to function properly and not get small tears in it from being coiled up, the cable needs to be straight..and that if you had a coiled cord on there it would eventually damage the co-ax, which in turn would damage the antenna, PSM and finally/eventually the radio.

I have heard about the PSM's having waaayyyy too long cords, I am not 100% sure, but I do believe that you can get replacement cords in varying lengths from Motorola, So you might want to look into that....alternatively, you could cut the cord short to your desired length and then re-attach the plug onto the now shortened cord, but this may damage the mic/radio when it is in use (not sure, just guessing it would do damage, most likely it wouldn't however), and to do it safely you would probably need an electrician.

As I have mentioned a few times, I am not sure about anything I have said because I dont have anything to do with Motorola PSM's at the moment, so any corrections from fellow Labbers who have a knowledge on the issue are welcome to correct the info I gave.

- Nic.

[USSZulu2]

Nic,

Yeah that is what I figured. But I figured I would ask just incase the cords did exist. I will have to check with Mot. about getting a shorter cord. Thank you for the quick reply!

-Bob

[losangelescop]

Nic,

Yeah that is what I figured. But I figured I would ask just incase the cords did exist. I will have to check with Mot. about getting a shorter cord. Thank you for the quick reply!

-Bob

Bob,

Glad I could help....funny isnt it? - They make the RSM coiled cords too short and the PSM straight cords too long! Motorola should try and find the balance!

As a side note, I do believe that coiled cord PSM's were manufactured many many years ago, but they stopped manufacture once they realised what the coiled cord did. I have never seen a coiled cord PSM anywhere, not even on eBay, where 25 year old radio junk comes up often. But I have heard they they once existed ages ago (probably in the dinosaur age...haha) Either way, Finding one or making one wouldn't be a wise choice - it would cost more money in the long run. So yeah, look into the shorter cords, or post a topic asking for peoples knowledge on how to safely and easily shorten the current cord...

Shame, it would be nice to have coiled cords on PSM's, I have never really been a big fan of the straight cord.

Just as another question to all, do PSM's REALLY give better range (and how much better) over RSM's, and are there PSM's for VHF bands, or UHF 450-512/527 ? I have only ever seen them for UHF 403-470

- Nic

[RadioSouth]

PSM's are marketed for 900, 800, and all UHF splits. I do know of a few that have used them on VHF Jedi's as well with good results.

[losangelescop]

ok, thanks!

Just as another thought, are PSM's only classified as what bands they are used for by the antenna, say I had one that was marketed as a UHF 403-470, if i took the 470 antenna off, and put on a VHF 136-174 antenna, would it now be classified as a VHF PSM, or would it screw up the mic and the radio, because of some electrical circitry in the PSM, and the PSM being only configured for UHF 470 MHz operation?.....

Thanks for all the help so far everyone.

[Jason]

No, they arent "band rated" per say, but are only marketed for use with UHF and 800/900 bands. You can interchange them no problem, with the correct antenna.

There isnt sufficient ground plane for VHF operation with most lines, and is not recommended by /\/\ for the most part.

JEDI line alot of folks have used at VHF with no problem, but some have, depending on the versions of the radios and mics.

Saber I've seen work ok. Same with Systems and Astro.

XTS is another story. VHF is horrible, and is not reccommended in
/\/\ documentation.

Waris radios SUCK with those horrible POS PSM's that came out around the time the radio was released "the claw" as some call it. Not sure if there has been any improvement in that relm.

[losangelescop]

Waris radios SUCK with those horrible POS PSM's that came out around the time the radio was released "the claw" as some call it. Not sure if there has been any improvement in that relm.

Yeah, I know what you mean....The Waris PSM's have been givin me hell (as you would probably know). Infact the entire Waris line has! I want to change so bad, but there are very few Jedi's here in Australia and practically no available sabers. Basically my option is to go with a new Australian radio that just came out, the Icom IC-41s (mentioned in another one of my threads), or go with Waris again and get some brand new ones, because thats pretty much the only series left here in Australia, aside from XTS which I can't afford. I would import some Moto from the USA, like some used Sabers or HT1000's, but theres the whole fact that they wouldn't be approved for Australia and shipping and programming costs from America to Australia are a fortune. (USD $50-$80 to ship just ONE radio via USPS, let alone using UPS, or programming costs!!!!)

So far the new Icom is looking really good with many features I need: A lithium ion battery and a rapid charger right from the box, and all of the 48 Australian CB Frequencies right out of the box, for $400 AUD each, compared to the issues with getting GOOD Motorola radios (for about 3-5 TIMES the price of the similar model Icom)...but at the same time, I still consider Motorola to be #1, and don't wanna change to another brand and drop the Big M....then theres still the issues with finding out if new radios and certain speaker mics can cause extremely annoying problems like the Waris ones.....

Living in Australia is a pain in the A**!!!!

-Nic.

[mr.syntrx]

$80 for shipping? No way.

It costs about $30 to get an ASTRO Saber here via Global Express Mail, which is USPS's top of the line, guaranteed delivery date, trackable etc service.

There are tons of MTS2000s, MTX838s etc here - they show up on eBay every week.

SA Police Sabers are around if you know where to look. I have four at the moment, all equipped with DES-XL.

[losangelescop]

$80 for shipping? No way.

It costs about $30 to get an ASTRO Saber here via Global Express Mail, which is USPS's top of the line, guaranteed delivery date, trackable etc service.

There are tons of MTS2000s, MTX838s etc here - they show up on eBay every week.

SA Police Sabers are around if you know where to look. I have four at the moment, all equipped with DES-X

Maybe I have been just looking in the wrong places then? The shipping prices I got were quoted off eBay, so obviously somebody was trying to rip me off. As for the MTS and MTX models, I used to own one, and it was great! the only gripes I had were that the PTT button was harder to keep pressed down than other models, the power/volume knob would rotate to "On" very easily when I was running, and they were very big and heavy....maybe they were just quirks with the radio because I got it off of a friend? I have seen the sabers on eBay but rarely and other than that I don't know where to look for them....did they used to be manufactured and sold in Australia too or were they imported, and how hard is it to find the programming software around here? I am very interested in the MTX838 and Saber models to replace my Waris series with.....