Replacement for VRM850? (used w/ ML900)
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theradiochick
- New User
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2009 11:13 am
Replacement for VRM850? (used w/ ML900)
Hello all... new to this site, am looking to see if anyone has had any success in a replacement for the VRM850 used with the ML900. Motorola will stop manufacturing VRMs sometime this March. They have not announced a replacement to my knowledge. Anyone come across this, and found anything worthy of trial? I have noticed most of the posts on here refer back to voice subscribers.... hoping someone out here has some insight on the data side. Thanks!!
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spectragod
- Posts: 2029
- Joined: Sun Dec 30, 2001 4:00 pm
- What radios do you own?: FPP 6 meter XTL 5K's
Re: Replacement for VRM850? (used w/ ML900)
HPD 1000 should be a replacement, and upgrade..........
Kilgore: Smell that? You smell that?
Lance: What?
Kilgore: Napalm, son. Nothing in the world smells like that.
Kilgore: I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory. Someday this war's gonna end...
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Revelation 6:8
Lance: What?
Kilgore: Napalm, son. Nothing in the world smells like that.
Kilgore: I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory. Someday this war's gonna end...
____________
Revelation 6:8
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theradiochick
- New User
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2009 11:13 am
Re: Replacement for VRM850? (used w/ ML900)
Thank you for the reply. May I ask where you were able to find that info?? Thanks again....
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spectragod
- Posts: 2029
- Joined: Sun Dec 30, 2001 4:00 pm
- What radios do you own?: FPP 6 meter XTL 5K's
Re: Replacement for VRM850? (used w/ ML900)
Uhhhhhh, Motorola? I have about 100 or so in the shop, plan on trunk mounting...theradiochick wrote:Thank you for the reply. May I ask where you were able to find that info?? Thanks again....
Kilgore: Smell that? You smell that?
Lance: What?
Kilgore: Napalm, son. Nothing in the world smells like that.
Kilgore: I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory. Someday this war's gonna end...
____________
Revelation 6:8
Lance: What?
Kilgore: Napalm, son. Nothing in the world smells like that.
Kilgore: I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory. Someday this war's gonna end...
____________
Revelation 6:8
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theradiochick
- New User
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2009 11:13 am
Re: Replacement for VRM850? (used w/ ML900)
The reason why I asked "where you got that info from" is b/c I was trying to see if I could go that same route, that would lead me to another piece of Moto manufactured equipment that enables RD Lap IDs. The HPD1000s do not.
buuuuuut, Thanks!
buuuuuut, Thanks!
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theradiochick
- New User
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2009 11:13 am
Re: Replacement for VRM850? (used w/ ML900)
and, my apologies... i shouldve made myself more clear earlier...... =)
Re: Replacement for VRM850? (used w/ ML900)
Motorola has essentially abandoned all the RDLAP users [AKA Private DataTac].
IF they told you in time - you could do a 'last buy' on the VRM's, if not - sorry about that.
If you have MSF data stations with BSC's those are off support. You could have replaced those with DataTac Quantars but they stopped offering that model last year.
Also, most of the RNC models are off suppport. Some models that weren't even listed on the cancellation matrix last year now show as no longer supported. Some RNC models have a few months of support left.
Motorola has also failed to provide any sort of affordable migration path. Your only real choice is the HPD modems at around $3K per each.
New HPD base stations [well, actually HPD "sites"] will cost you $80K to $110K each. That's just for the hardware. Implemenataion costs per site can run as much as the hardware.
Then you need a master site to run it. For a time they offered the ARC4000 at about $150K plus another $140K or so for implementation, but now it looks like the only choice is a 7X master.
Figure one to 1.5 million there plus implementation - so - bottom line:
Suppose you have 200 users and five sites: 200 modems, 5 RF sites plus a master = about $3,600,000.00.
Don't forget to add in your site connectivity costs, SSA costs, and maintenance contract costs.
Guestimate those at $140,000.00 per year, thats 1.4M for ten years plus initial investment = 5M total.
So if [IF] it lasts 10 years you are looking at roughly $416.66 per month per user [modem] in life cycle costs plus your internal administrative overhead.
[FYI these prices are based on an internet search of contract documents between government agencies and Moto]
IF they told you in time - you could do a 'last buy' on the VRM's, if not - sorry about that.
If you have MSF data stations with BSC's those are off support. You could have replaced those with DataTac Quantars but they stopped offering that model last year.
Also, most of the RNC models are off suppport. Some models that weren't even listed on the cancellation matrix last year now show as no longer supported. Some RNC models have a few months of support left.
Motorola has also failed to provide any sort of affordable migration path. Your only real choice is the HPD modems at around $3K per each.
New HPD base stations [well, actually HPD "sites"] will cost you $80K to $110K each. That's just for the hardware. Implemenataion costs per site can run as much as the hardware.
Then you need a master site to run it. For a time they offered the ARC4000 at about $150K plus another $140K or so for implementation, but now it looks like the only choice is a 7X master.
Figure one to 1.5 million there plus implementation - so - bottom line:
Suppose you have 200 users and five sites: 200 modems, 5 RF sites plus a master = about $3,600,000.00.
Don't forget to add in your site connectivity costs, SSA costs, and maintenance contract costs.
Guestimate those at $140,000.00 per year, thats 1.4M for ten years plus initial investment = 5M total.
So if [IF] it lasts 10 years you are looking at roughly $416.66 per month per user [modem] in life cycle costs plus your internal administrative overhead.
[FYI these prices are based on an internet search of contract documents between government agencies and Moto]
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Batwings21
- Posts: 930
- Joined: Fri Jun 23, 2006 11:21 am
Re: Replacement for VRM850? (used w/ ML900)
I would recomend buying as many used vrm 650 and 850's as you can for expansion, or scrap your system and migrate to a non rdlap solution, ie dataradio, cellular aircards or MDS mercury data modems. I know most towns near chicago are slowly ditching a lot of there vrm's. The towns that are keeping them are stocking up on used ones. For cheap at the moment.