xts3000 vs xts2500 opinions/imput wanted

[Radiogeek97]

Fellas

Currently i have a uhf xts3000 MIII that i am happy with however I am thinking of selling that radio off along with some other gear I have and purchasing an xts2500 mIII. I was looking to get somthing a tiny bit smaller and newer with. Are there any huge differences between the radios obviously both will to conventional and conv P-25 but other than that are there many hardware/engineering improvements between the two radios? I could sell off the 3000 and get the 2500I for even money. The 2500I has host dsp 12 and it has one of the "pre-production" 123abc1234 serial#'s. I know that the 3000 can be hacked somewhat and the 2500 cant. but all i need is a basic analog/digital portable. I wouldnt be adverse to an xts5000 but I cant seem to find any model 3's in the 450-520 split. What do you members think.


take care
john

[Tom in D.C.]

Remember that you can get FPP on a 2500 but you can't
have it on a 3000, if FPP is one your needs/wants.

[n1oty]

I have a couple of xts3000's (R split) and a xts2500 (S split). I hacked the software for the xts2500 in order to take it down into the 440 ham band. My xts2500 is also a 123ABC1234 radio. All three radio's have been upgraded to the latest Host/DSP versions. The xts2500 has a 8 meg board, not a 4 meg.

Personally, I prefer the xts2500 for a number of reasons, but there are some differences that take some getting used to. I definitely like the smaller, lighter radio. Even with a high capacity nntn7335a Li-On battery, it is much more compact than the xts3000's. Subjectively, the audio seems better on the 2500 (both analog and digital), which I have attributed to better DSP.

The key physical difference between the 2500 and the 3000 is that the ABC switch is now a concentric switch and the old two position concentric switch is gone. This has not been a problem for me. There is a major change on the software programming side too. The transmit/receive frequency entry has been moved to a different point in the software. It is no longer in the "personality" menu. Man, that drove me nuts for a while, but then I came to realize that this could be advantageous. I can actually reuse a "personality" with other frequencies.

If I had to get rid of all my UHF radio's except for one, the xts2500 would stay.

John
N1OTY

[N4DES]

Another item with the XTS2500 is no more RIB box configuration to program it with a PC. The single cable (USB or Serial) is a nice change and I too recently sold my last XTS3000 and use nothing but the XTS2500 series.

Mark

[Radiogeek97]

thanks for the replys so far!
I actually have experienced some of the issues with the 2500 software it drove me NUTS as well. I programmed one for a freind and did not care for some things; for example when you enter the PL"S before you could (if you were entering 4Z for example) go to that feild and hit 4 multiple times and select 4z Now you have to hit 4 then you must use the mouse to move foeward and actually pic 4z from the drop down.
To me the audio sounded the same but the size makes a difference, Personally I love the old A-B-C switch but i can get used to where it is now. FPP would be nice to have tom but where this is one of the 123abc radios can it still be added after? I would also be curious how hard or easy it was to bring the 2500 down into the 440 band


thanks for the comments

[n1oty]

Bringing an S split 2500 down into the ham band is a piece of cake, if you can hex edit the band limits in the software. I simply searched for every instance of 450 MHZ and lowered it.

John
N1OTY

[MattSR]

Only downside AFAIK is that it seems crypto is impossible to obtain on the 2nd hand market for the 2500.

[n3obl]

will become avail with time.. Got 2 of them off panter. 450-520's one had to have the firmware updated. other one already at 12.

Frank

[mike m]

Do the newer firmware 2500's have RF HI/Low power selectable on a per channel/personality basis or do you still have to make up separate HI power and Low power channels ?

I have a old FW code-plug and I see that there is no option for HI power and Low power on the same channel.

[Mfire39]

Firmware R12.00.00 won't let you do HI/LOW on the fly through the menu.... Maybe R13.00.00 will include that, you never know...


-Marc