Junking the CP200's

[Bat2way]

Made another trip to the UPS store shipping out another busted up CP200 to the Mexirola Depot. As usual, it had been dropped, landing on the antenna, causing no tx power out, breaking the internal connection of the circuit board to the antenna jack. No fixing that. Otherwise, it's the POS speaker-mic jack being intermittent. That's a guaranteed Depot fix at some point in time. With the cost of the Depot repairs now, customers have just been junking the Motorola's and replacing them with Kenwood and HYT units. Works for me.

[hooknladder]

I hear ya there. My dept has been loyal to Motorola since they started putting radios in firetrucks. With the depot fee about equal to the cost of a new Kenwood, we have been moving to the big K. We rarely have trouble with mobiles, so we'll stick to Motorola in that dept, but as far as portables, the Kenwoods are holding up good.

[Rayjk110]

Yeah, they're coslty allright, even in the department of Nextel.

I went in to a local Sprint/Nextel shop today to get a replacement plastic holster clip for my nextel... $20

[WV8VFD]

CP200s are just POSs anyway.

All of our department's P25 is EF Johnson and 800mhz TRS is Kenwood.

Mostly for the same reason.

[wavetar]

We've had nothing but good luck with the CP200 series...sold tons of them with very low return rates. Haven't had to return a single one for low output power yet, to my knowledge. Any decent shop should be able to replace the speaker/mic jacks for a 1/2 hours labour & cost of the part, around the $50 mark. If you're paying flat rate for that, you need to bring your radios elsewhere. For the record, I've had to replace plenty of Kenwood antenna connectors & speaker/mic jacks over the years, they break every bit as often.

Todd

[dirtrat]

Why would you send a CP-200 to the depot for these problems? Don't you have a local MSS? I've fixed many CP-200 with these problems much cheaper than a flat rate repair unless you are having warranty repairs done. Accessory jack problems are nothing new to Motorola radios; many of there models have them. The antenna jack being broken on these is either caused by you carrying the radio by the antenna or dropping it. The CP-200 has been a very good radio for the majority of our customers. I hope you are not in a big hurry to get that Kenwood radio back from repair from Kenwood because the Kenwood turnaround on repairs is not exactly fast! For the person using Ef Johnson P25 radios, we have a local customer that has those and XTL-5000's and his failure rates on the EF Johnsons are at least 6 times higher than the Motorolas.

Made another trip to the UPS store shipping out another busted up CP200 to the Mexirola Depot. As usual, it had been dropped, landing on the antenna, causing no tx power out, breaking the internal connection of the circuit board to the antenna jack. No fixing that. Otherwise, it's the POS speaker-mic jack being intermittent. That's a guaranteed Depot fix at some point in time. With the cost of the Depot repairs now, customers have just been junking the Motorola's and replacing them with Kenwood and HYT units. Works for me.

[WV8VFD]

We use EF Johnson 5100 portables, and have nothing but good luck, but I do prefer my ASII better than anything else.

Dont get me wrong, Im a moto guy and would rather see /\/\s in our vehicles, but I dont make that call. I just help keep them in working order.

Our EMS uses CP200s, and I was just adding humor. Radio wise they arn't bad, but I dont like the audio on them.

[Rayjk110]

I've had no problem with the CP200's as of yet. As Tyler mentioned, the audio leaves alot to be desired - to me it kinda sounds like an HT750 with old firmware (and this was on a recent CP, too).

One reason one of my companies went ahead and bought them was because they were a cheap, economical radio, that actually did MDC signalling - which was something that they needed.

[Terry_Glover]

Why would you send a CP-200 to the depot for these problems? Don't you have a local MSS? I've fixed many CP-200 with these problems much cheaper than a flat rate repair unless you are having warranty repairs done. Accessory jack problems are nothing new to Motorola radios; many of there models have them. The antenna jack being broken on these is either caused by you carrying the radio by the antenna or dropping it. The CP-200 has been a very good radio for the majority of our customers....

Thank you dirtrat!

The CP-200's are not a POS radio. They have their place in the scheme of things radio wise.

Go run your Corolla over a big rock and you pay out the arse to have it repaired. Does that make a Corolla a POS? NOT!

Don't use a Corolla for a job that requires a Land Cruiser!

[escomm]

Yeah, I was just about to say, what does Ford do when people complain Rangers can't tow 30,000 lbs?

[KX5MOT]

I actually like the CP200's, i have a VHF that i use around the house or when i'm outside and i've never had any problems with it. Now they do use UHF CP200's here in the jail where i work, and they have all sorts of problems but thats mainly because they abuse the crap out of them and do not take care of them at all, the batteries are all taped up and don't last more than a few hours, makes me sick sometimes to see radios not taken care of like that.

[Terry_Glover]

...Now they do use UHF CP200's here in the jail where i work, and they have all sorts of problems but thats mainly because they abuse the crap out of them and do not take care of them at all, the batteries are all taped up and don't last more than a few hours, makes me sick sometimes to see radios not taken care of like that....

Makes me sick too... they were just never intended for that type of duty.

[Stage 2]

Just my 2 cents. My buddy, who is a Moto Tech, actually bought a CP200 brand new. Between the audio that could stand to be better, and, the battery that seemed to be running out all too often, he has had enough. Recently, he upgraded to an HT1000. No comparison whatsoever.

[dirtrat]

You are right because they are totally different types of radios and you can't compare them! You are basically comparing a Jedi series radio to a commercial series radio. Different type of radio for different types of uses. Make sure you compare apples to apples if you want a fair comparison. A CP-200 was never meant to be used for any type of public safety like the jedi's and it is reflected in the cost of the radios. We sell CP-200's to Schools and many LITE DUTY customers and they work great. They were never intended for public safety or construction workers. BTW you can buy a LION battery for these if you need the extra capacity. You really do get what you pay for and I am also a MSS tech that works on these on a daily basis.

Just my 2 cents. My buddy, who is a Moto Tech, actually bought a CP200 brand new. Between the audio that could stand to be better, and, the battery that seemed to be running out all too often, he has had enough. Recently, he upgraded to an HT1000. No comparison whatsoever.

[wkr518]

I think I heard somewheres that the CP200 is Motorolas best selling portable radio ever.Our company sold tons of them on State Contract to schools,non public safety government agencies and some EMS agencies.Our return rate on them for repair is actually quite low compared to P1225 portables and GP300s.
If they did come back for repair,more likely than not it was for the 2 prong accessory ports.Sames goes for the CP150 and PR400 portables since they are same style connectors.
The CP200 has been a good radio for us,much better than the BPR40 with its battery latch breakages and volume knob post bending/sinking into housing.
As for the Mexirola Depot,last week I sent out a UHF 4 channel CP200 for warranty repair,I get back a VHF 16 channel model with same serial number.
But that is another story.Never had so many problems at Depot before they moved it south of the border.CDM1250 sent out coming back as 1550.Stored Voice pagers coming back as NSV with same serials.
Unless someone requests BPR40 by name I sell them into the HYT 610/620 or 600 for near same price.Have had really good luck with those radios so far.
Have not had any audio quality complaints on the CP200 yet.
Wayne

[Stage 2]

You're right Dirtrat, with regards to outright comparison of a CP200 versus a Jedi Series. I should have clarified that I wasn't staging such a lopsided contest as that was not my intention. That would be like putting the New England Patriots up against a local high school football team. Like my buddy I mentioned, I'm spoiled by the performance of my HT1000's and, a CP200 would be too severe a letdown. To be more accurate, it seems that big M went a little too far with the "light duty" concept with this radio. No, they're not a terrible radio as the company I work for recently purchased 24 of the identical but lower powered CP150's ,but, they don't sound a heck of a lot better/different than some of the FRS bubblepack radios that I've noticed that many small businesses are beginning to use as opposed to Motorolas they would normally get. Even with the NIMH batteries that came with the CP150's the company has, these radios have voracious appetites despite moderate duty cycles. Big M certainly has covered the quality spectrum from top to bottom!