New to all of this, help please

JPreston01 · Post by **JPreston01** » Sat Nov 24, 2001 11:47 am

I am just getting into the Motorola radio programming etc. I have been looking in ebay and have seen a lot of good prices on MTS2000, MTX8000, and HT1000. I would like to program in Police, EMS frequencies to listen to and maybe also use the radio for communication as well. Is this possible? and which one is the best and most cost effective to use? Can anyone help me with these questions and maybe some good prices on the radios and equip that I need. I would really appreciate it. Thanks again from a newbie.

Joel

Post by **/\/\y 2 cents** » Sat Nov 24, 2001 9:43 pm

What band and type system does your City county or whoever you want to monitor use....then you can figure out what your requirements are. After that..you can choose as to what price scheme you would like to stay in, and what radio suits your budget and needs..if they are 800Mhz SmartNet, you could go low end with GTX(if type II)..mid range an MTX8000 or high end with an ASTRO Saber switched to analog or maybe even a Saber Si. If you want the Bentley of em' all, go with an XTS. Now, if they are UHF or VHF conventional you could use anything from an SP50 10 channel to an XTS3500R. So as you can see it all depends on what they are using. Only thing where you really have no choice as to how much you spend is if they are digital...then I can guarantee you you will have to spend at least a grand. It would really suck for you if they were digital in more than one band (for instance, if you live in NH the state system is VHF ASTRO and,and your city is 800 ASTRO) Then you are gonna really have to break a little bread. Who knows...go to a scanner site..find out what your county operates on, then let us know..I could help you out. As for the programming equipment...Generic RIB's are ok, as are cables as long as your radio equipment is under like $350.00 value, After that...Id play it safe with the nice stuff...you wouldn't take a $100,000 benz to be serviced at Pep Boys...Certain things require a little more precision and special tools. So if you do need ASTRO equipment...go with all factory Motorola stuff so if something happens to the radio while programming, it's their fault, (as long as you are using the right speed computer and power is good to the rib).

JPreston01 · Post by **JPreston01** » Sun Nov 25, 2001 9:50 am

Thanks for the help. I have been checking on what type of systems are here in south Florida. I have found that they use: Broward County Motorola Type II Smartnet,
Fort Lauderdale Motorola Type II, & Miami Motorola Type IIi in the 800 Mhz ranges, and the Highway Patrol using the digital stsyem. I would like to get a radio that could handel all of the systems other than the digital to start out with. Is the MTS a good one? I have found some good prices on ebay but I would like to find some good prices from someone reputable of course. Will the MTX work for these systems? and what do you think the equip. will go for? Thanks again for the help. I just found out tha Palm Beach County is going with the Motorola II Astro Smartzone. Does this mean big bucks?

[ This Message was edited by: JPreston01 on 2001-11-25 12:52 ]

[ This Message was edited by: JPreston01 on 2001-11-25 13:04 ]

[ This Message was edited by: JPreston01 on 2001-11-25 13:05 ]