PM1200 thoughts

[Pj]

Anyone have this in service? Pro's, con's, price points?

[escomm]

the product manager doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground. told me it won't go out of band because of the coils. finally got someone from vertex that said band limits are in the CPS and are hex editable

my $.02

[JAYMZ]

What's the pricing on these gems? </eye rolls>

[Mikey]

Cheaper to just buy a Vertex, cause thats all your getting is a Vertex Radio with the Big M Brand on it. This radio was designed and produced for Motorola by Yaesu.

[VSP5151]

I just put a PM1200 in my truck to test it. I initially thought it was made by Kenmore but I see from the post that it is made by Vertex. I had trouble programming it. Kept getting an error something like can't talk to radio. Had to reboot computer and use a port replicator and I was finally able to program it. I am using an IBM T42. I have no trouble talking to Astro Spectra, Astro 25 and Quantar but the PM1200 seemed strange. I do not like the power harness where they use 2 parallel wires for the extra current capability. That looks cheap and I had trouble keeping a coil together while cable tieing it. I do not like the way they put in fuse holders. You have to cut 4 wires, and resplice them to get the fuses under the hood and near the battery where they are susposed to go. I did not like the way the radio fastened into the base plate. In a tight location, you could not get one side of the screws into the radio. The audio sounds terrible. It just sounds like a cheap radio with a cheap speaker. The audio is badly distorted. The audio is very low. It is not loud enough for our big trucks. I will have to add an amplified speaker so it can be heard over the road noise. On the good side, It easily put out 100 watts. This is the first time I used the software but I didn't see how to make radio adjustments. I assume I need different software but I could be wrong. I am a big M fan. Most of my users have M radios but I am very disappointed in this one. Unless someone tells me that I am missing something in this radio, I will recommend that my customer not purchase any more of them. I was using a GM300 and it sounds much better than the PM1200. Anyone else have comments on these radios?

[Mikey]

An external speaker is a must, But yes these radio's were produced for Motorola by Vertex after Motorola bought them out. They were plaqued with tthe same problems that the Vertex VX6000 has, if you ever experience any strange control head functions look for ground loops through the microphone button when it is grounded, that was one of the common problems.

[KitN1MCC]

i work in the meter dept. we used to be on uhf . they took out our uhf and put these in to be on low band with the rest of the comapny

they are quirky and do strange things. a few have failed already. wish i had a maratrac and the audio on my cdm1250(i kept my old uhf radio seeing thats what the local pd are on)blows aways the audio

wish they just went with maratracs or cdm1250

[VSP5151]

We tested several radios a few years ago including Vertex. The Vertex furnished to us for testing did not work. We decided at that time if Vertex knew we were testing radios, they would have tested the one sent to us to make sure it was OK. At the time we decided to completely eliminate Vertex as a radio provider. Wish I would have realized these were made by Vertex before we bought 2 for testing. I completely agree with the comments on Maratrac being top of the line and even with the CDM1250 being super radios. They really appear to be better than the PM1200 at this point in my testing. Thanks for letting me know about this.

[Jim202]

Another fine decision by Motorola. They can't figure out how come they are loosing the market and sales are down.
Gee it doesn't take a 5th grader to tell them if you make a poor product, you get poor sales.

Repeat after me, "I am not smarter than a 5th grader".

Jim

We tested several radios a few years ago including Vertex. The Vertex furnished to us for testing did not work. We decided at that time if Vertex knew we were testing radios, they would have tested the one sent to us to make sure it was OK. At the time we decided to completely eliminate Vertex as a radio provider. Wish I would have realized these were made by Vertex before we bought 2 for testing. I completely agree with the comments on Maratrac being top of the line and even with the CDM1250 being super radios. They really appear to be better than the PM1200 at this point in my testing. Thanks for letting me know about this.