Motorola UHF Handheld!!!

[Adamwest]

Hi all

Which one of motorola uhf radios are really good? I do not use alot of UHF radios. They can be new or old, I have a HT600 uhf but it is really limited on the band split.

Thanks

Adam

[w7com]

What is your application? What do you find limiting about the band split?

[k4wtf]

I'm partial to Sabers and Systems Sabers personally.

--
John

[RapidCharger]

Yeah, ht600's go out of band pretty easily compared to some of the others. PRetty bland radio in the bells & whistles department but the rock solid lobster-like construction makes up for it.

[RKG]

This question is sort of wide open, so the response has to be sort of general:

The Genesis radios (e.g., MT1000) are, as someone said, rock solid, if you can accept limited bandsplits, a 16 channel max, and a lack of some modern features. The MT1000 will do split tones (i.e., different input and output tones) but not split formats (i.e., PL in and DPL out, or vice versa). And the radio drops tone on the priority channel during scan.

There are Sabers and Systems Sabers. Sabers are nearly as rugged as MT1000s, and some have a few more bells and whistles, but also come in odd bandsplits and can be cranky to program and tune. Systems Sabers are entirely different creatures; though intended for VHF and UHF trunking (primarily for the U.S. government) they are superb radios for conventional use.

For my money, one of the best platforms ever produced by Motorola is the HT1000. It is limited to 16 channels, but is quite rugged, covers the entire UHF and Subpart L bands, does most every collateral signalling you'd have a need for, and, in C or D models, does narrowbanding. My HT1000 spent two hours getting drenched during an EOD incident a couple of months ago without a hitch (either during the incident or since). The HT1000 is still a current model, though about to be taken off the list.

The MT2000 and MTS2000 are physically the same as the HT1000, but do more channels (48 in three zones of 16 for the top display model and 160 in 10 zones of 16 for the front display models). The MTS2000 is flashable, but the MT2000 does all you need for a conventional radio out of the box. If narrowbanding is important, make sure it is a C or D model.

The XTS series is the replacement for various Jedi radios, including the MT2000 and MTS2000. They are too new for me to have much of an opinion.

[Adamwest]

Sorry for the open question there. The HT-1000 C/D sounds like the way to go all I need is 4 to 5 channels. Just going to use it to monitor a local repeat and if you know anything about trains. I am going to use it to monitor the Train link II LCU front end on the engine and the end of train (EOT) that is on the rear of the train.
It monitors break pressure for the entire train.

Adam

[w7com]

I thought they called the thing on the end a FRED, Flashing Rear End Device.

[RapidCharger]

Well if you only plan to monitor....

I hear radio shack has some scanners still.

Lot cheaper than an HT1000 revision C or D, those are in hot demand and definately will be for some time.

[Cowthief]

Hello.

EOT on UHF?
All the ones I have seen are on VHF.
The next question, why monitor it with a talkie? you really can not tell what brake pressure is just by listening, just that it is doing something.

[w7com]

The national (US) frequency for them is 457.9375MHz.

http://zippy.cso.uiuc.edu/~roma/rr-freqs/

Also some UHF allocations for Rail:

452.925/457.925
452.950/457.900
452.9125/457.9125
452.9375/457.9375

http://www.trainweb.com/cgi-bin/top/tw_ ... o/freq.htm

For that use I'd suggest something like a MT1000 if you want scan. You can get one for about $100 and all your HT600 stuff will work with it. Otherwise I don't see why your HT600 doesn't do the job. It will work the ham repeaters and those 450 freqs just fine.