FPP UHF Motorola Portable Transceiver

Jim1348 · Post by **Jim1348** » Tue Dec 14, 2010 5:23 pm

I may be interested in buying a used Front Panel Programmable Motorola portable transceiver. It will just be for analog, conventional UHF, and only needs to cover from 440 to 470 mHz. I am aware of the looming narrow-banding (12.5 kHz) date of January 1, 2013 and want to make sure whatever I get will be compliant. What are my choices?

I have looked at the list found here http://www.motorola.com/web/Business/_D ... ocaleId=33

I didn't think any JT1000s were complaint, but that lists indicated that some are.

I had sort of ruled out XTS5000s because they are still kind of spendy.

I don't see the HT1550 listed.

Post by **escomm** » Tue Dec 14, 2010 6:13 pm

FPP radios:

JT1000
HT1550
HT1550XLS
XTS2500
XTS5000
APX7000

This will pretty much cover it.

All listed radios are capable of narrow/wide band operations except the JT.

Jim1348 · Post by **Jim1348** » Tue Dec 14, 2010 6:30 pm

Thank you for the reply. So none of the JT1000s are complaint then, or is there a version that is compliant?

chrismoll12 · Post by **chrismoll12** » Tue Dec 14, 2010 6:44 pm

Some JT1000's will do narrowband it is dependent on the firmware version

RadioSouth · Post by **RadioSouth** » Tue Dec 14, 2010 7:20 pm

I see discrepancies in the Motorola document on the Jedi's. All HT1000's are capable of 12.5 but you need a 'D' for newly allocated splinter channels. They mention a BN suffix JT1000, don't believe they evolved past 'AN'. Anyway, JT1000's are capable of 12.5 and my R02.00 will do splinter channels.

Post by **kilocharlietwo** » Wed Dec 15, 2010 5:49 pm

Indeed, my R03.00 JT1000 allows for "narrow/mid/wide" spacing selection from the front panel. My HT1550xls also does this, but you must have the 'red' battery attached to make the selection.

MotoFAN · Post by **MotoFAN** » Sat Dec 18, 2010 2:29 am

escomm wrote:FPP radios:

JT1000
HT1550
HT1550XLS
XTS2500
XTS5000
APX7000

But XTS4000?

Post by **escomm** » Sat Dec 18, 2010 9:29 am

MotoFAN wrote:
escomm wrote:FPP radios:

JT1000
HT1550
HT1550XLS
XTS2500
XTS5000
APX7000
But XTS4000?

That's an XTS5000 in a Nextel case...

Jim1348 · Post by **Jim1348** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 11:57 am

[quote="escomm"]FPP radios:

JT1000
HT1550
HT1550XLS
XTS2500
XTS5000
APX7000

This will pretty much cover it.

All listed radios are capable of narrow/wide band operations except the JT.[/quote]

I am now interested in a Front Panel Programmable UHF Portable Transceiver capable of analog [b]AND[/b] P25, I would prefer Motorola, but I will consider others as well, What are my current choices?

bezking · Post by **bezking** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 12:08 pm

The XTS5000/2500 and APX

Jim1348 · Post by **Jim1348** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 1:24 pm

Wow, that really narrowed that list down in short order. It sort of "separated the men from the boys" if you will. Does anybody else here happen to know what non-Motorola choices are out there?

Thank you for the reply.

mikegilbert · Post by **mikegilbert** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 4:09 pm

Bendix King radios
EFJohnson 5100 series
Thales/Racal 25
Kenwood TK240/340 (little jumper on the back of the radio. Super easy.
Kenwood TK250/350 w/hardware mod
Kenwood TK270/370
Kenwood TK280/380 w/hardware mod
Kenwood TK2180/3180 w/hardware mod
Kenwood TK5210/5310

Jim1348 · Post by **Jim1348** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 4:33 pm

Wow, that is a nice list. Thank you very much. I suppose the next thing I ought to look at is price and what the frequency range is. I seem to recall some radios would do the whole thing from 406 to 512 mHz, but others would barely dip down into the 70 cm band to cover those 440 mHz repeaters near me. (Year, I know, I DO want it all!

firemedic · Post by **firemedic** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 5:00 pm

The EF Johnson 5100's with FPP won't allow FPP outside of the government or ham bands. Or I just haven't figure it out yet which I doubt.

mikegilbert · Post by **mikegilbert** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 5:41 pm

Jim1348 wrote:Wow, that is a nice list. Thank you very much. I suppose the next thing I ought to look at is price and what the frequency range is. I seem to recall some radios would do the whole thing from 406 to 512 mHz, but others would barely dip down into the 70 cm band to cover those 440 mHz repeaters near me. (Year, I know, I DO want it all!

My pleasure, Jim. I'm sure Jim (N7MAQ) will chime in as he's well-versed in Kenwood radios. He can tell you which need a hardware or software modification.

The TK290/390 will also do FPP.

radioinstl · Post by **radioinstl** » Thu Aug 11, 2011 5:53 pm

mikegilbert wrote:Bendix King radios
EFJohnson 5100 series
Thales/Racal 25
Kenwood TK240/340 (little jumper on the back of the radio. Super easy.
Kenwood TK250/350 w/hardware mod
Kenwood TK270/370
Kenwood TK280/380 w/hardware mod
Kenwood TK2180/3180 w/hardware mod
Kenwood TK5210/5310

Thales Liberty

mr.syntrx · Post by **mr.syntrx** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 1:46 pm

XTS 2500s in particular can be had cheap at the moment. The guys in Hong Kong have driven down the prices of even legitimate radios with their 123ABC1234 examples on that auction site.

com501 · Post by **com501** » Sun Sep 18, 2011 8:54 pm

Jim1348 wrote:I may be interested in buying a used Front Panel Programmable Motorola portable transceiver. It will just be for analog, conventional UHF, and only needs to cover from 440 to 470 mHz. I am aware of the looming narrow-banding (12.5 kHz) date of January 1, 2013 and want to make sure whatever I get will be compliant. What are my choices?

I have looked at the list found here http://www.motorola.com/web/Business/_D ... ocaleId=33

I didn't think any JT1000s were complaint, but that lists indicated that some are.

I had sort of ruled out XTS5000s because they are still kind of spendy.

I don't see the HT1550 listed.

MotoTrbo will also do FPP with a Generic Option Board and the correct software.

K8TEK · Post by **K8TEK** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 3:01 pm

mr.syntrx wrote:XTS 2500s in particular can be had cheap at the moment. The guys in Hong Kong have driven down the prices of even legitimate radios with their 123ABC1234 examples on that auction site.

Those "legitimate" radios are not legitimate at all. The serial numbers are randomly generated BS. Panter88's radios were never serialized by Motorola. The serial number was changed from 123ABC1234 to something that looks legitimate.

Why would someone remove the serial number tag from the back of a radio? They wouldn't unless it was stolen or it was never issued one.

Post by **escomm** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 3:40 pm

K8TEK wrote:
mr.syntrx wrote:XTS 2500s in particular can be had cheap at the moment. The guys in Hong Kong have driven down the prices of even legitimate radios with their 123ABC1234 examples on that auction site.
Those "legitimate" radios are not legitimate at all. The serial numbers are randomly generated BS. Panter88's radios were never serialized by Motorola. The serial number was changed from 123ABC1234 to something that looks legitimate.

Why would someone remove the serial number tag from the back of a radio? They wouldn't unless it was stolen or it was never issued one.

Of course if the chassis never had a serial tag to begin with then there's nothing to remove

com501 · Post by **com501** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 9:05 pm

I replace bent frames all the time. Got a decent way to remove the tags from original bent frame and stick it to the new frame where it will stay? I don't.

There are many reasons why a legit radio might not have a serial number tag (or any other tag for that matter), like my nice XT3000s I re-cased with new frames and housings so they would look nice.

mr.syntrx · Post by **mr.syntrx** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 12:50 am

K8TEK wrote:
mr.syntrx wrote:XTS 2500s in particular can be had cheap at the moment. The guys in Hong Kong have driven down the prices of even legitimate radios with their 123ABC1234 examples on that auction site.
Those "legitimate" radios are not legitimate at all. The serial numbers are randomly generated BS. Panter88's radios were never serialized by Motorola. The serial number was changed from 123ABC1234 to something that looks legitimate.

Why would someone remove the serial number tag from the back of a radio? They wouldn't unless it was stolen or it was never issued one.

I didn't say those radios were legitimate, I said the presence of these cheap radios in the market has driven the prices of legitimate radios down.