New Lowband radio needed. Which one?

[Doghouse2]

Hi. I'm specing the radios for a new ambulance and I'm looking for help deciding which radios to go with. The one I'm stuck on is the lowband radio. It is strongly preferred to be 100+ watts and needs to be compatible with the Pyramid SVR-200U. Any suggestions? Thanks.

[HLA]

are you licensed to use 100 watts? are you looking for new or used? one piece or remote head? how many channels does it need to do?

[nmfire10]

Kenwood TK-690

[tvsjr]

Kenwood TK-690

+1.

[n7maq]

1 more vote for the TK690 Kenwood. If you don't need 110 watts, look at the Kenwood TK6110 (if you do that drop me a PM, I have a NIB TK6110 that I would sell).


Jim

[Doghouse2]

Thanks for the responses. Yes, licensed for 100 for sure. One, and possibly two remote heads. I was pushing the kenwood or the vertex, however my deupty is an extremely loyal batwing guy. Every radio product we have is moto. The uhf and vhf-high are going to be moto products and he wanted to match. I was looking at the pm-1200, but I'm not sure if it works with the pyramid.

[Doghouse2]

Oh, I forgot the number of channels question. Minimum three, I'd say. Thanks.

[radioinstl]

Motorola PM1200 29-36 or 36-50 120 watts 250 channels

[Batwings21]

The SVR200 should work fine with the PM1500. There site shows a 7505-10-1045 smart cable for that radio. I have not used one on a pm, but on a xtl1500 it works great, should be the same.

[kt2728]

kenwood has the best low band radio on the market right now. the pm 1200 is nothing more than a vertex radio in motorola clothing. if you are hell bent on a moto product look at the cdm series they seem to be decent radios even though they are only 60 watts.


to bad they discontinued the maratrac, that is one of the best

of course this is just my $0.02 worth


kt

[Doghouse2]

Yeah the maratrac was/is a good radio. We still have several of them in service. If he is hell bent on 100 watts and a moto product, would we be wise to recycle the syntorx9000 as opposed to "settle" for the pm1200? Also, I didn't see a lowband option for the pm1500, am I missing something? Thanks again.

[Batwings21]

No, you're not missing anything, I was. My eyes saw pm1200 and my brain said pm1500, sorry. Disregard previous info.

[escomm]

Other than having less channel capacity and less power and the same crappy 8 character display, what makes the TK690 a better radio?

[nmfire10]

Well, you can run it over with a bus or nail it head on with a 2.5" smooth bore (or both at once) and it will win. The display is huge. The buttons are easy to read. You can run dual head and dual chassis. The audio quality I think is far superior.

[HLA]

sounds like your best deal is going to be a used x9000? you can probablly get one for under $200

[com501]

I would NOT sub an old X9000 into a new vehicle. You are asking for trouble in two areas.

The X9000 is far from being supported at Motorola, it requires a DOS laptop, and although a good radio, it is OLD.

The plant where they made these is long gone, and the support, outside of a few radio shops that are savvy enough to recognize the radio, is non-existent.

Stick with something new. The TK-690 is a great radio, you can order it with the full featured control head with 14 character display. Like everyone else says, dual head, dual radio, all kinds of wells and bhistles....

[com501]

PS -

The TK-690 is available with up to 254 channels, 14 character display, 13 watt audio, and the multi-PL capability makes my Motos look childish in comparison to the ease involved in switching PLs.

And it has PLENTY of buttons on the control head, almost as many as an X9000...

[Doghouse2]

So I ended up with a tk-690. But it is the wrong bandsplit. Anyone know if it is possible to change from high bandsplit to the low bandsplit? I have a donor for the low, just wondering if it is as easy as changing a board or two. Thanks.

[Pj]

Well, if you bought it new with the ambulance, then your radio shop should be able to take care of it (and would have known from the outset).

With that in mind, I am figuring that you bought a used one somewhere. They are available in three bandsplits...and changing them is (from what I am told) more complicated then Motorola's. Your best bet would be to trade with someone.

[KitN1MCC]

the dept were i work just got the pm1200 installed in all the trucks i like it alot, we used to BE on uhf but went down to LB with the rest of the company