Batboard

Looking for information
I notice many Motorola 800 MHz radios on Ebay and there selling cheap. Is the 800 MHz a failing radio service?
Also if anybody could explain what trunked radios or systems are; I would appreciate it. .

1. In theory, public safety allocations on 800 MHz will be shifted to 700 MHz some day. In my judgment, that will not happen very fast, and certainly it hasn't happened yet, so that isn't the reason why there has been an uptick in after-market 800 radios on the market (assuming there has been).

2. Conventional two-way radios listen to a discrete frequency for activity on that frequency (and, if so programmed, for activity with the proper PL or DPL code). Trunked radios listen to a control channel until they detect a command addressed to them to shift to a given voice channel; the voice channel assigned to a particular logical channel can be different each time that channel is invoked.

My guess is that a lot of cellular services are winning over the traditional 800 meg trunked service customers. Even more so now, since you can talk coast to coast just by pressing the PTT button on a throw-away type radio.

Nand.

And then there's the departments that are jumping on the Astro wagon and ditching their old equipment.

Also, don't forget that Nextel is still buying up 800 SMR's around the country whenever possible.

There are a few reasons why you may find 800 mhz radios on auction floors. Some of the reasons given here are quite accurate. Many of the private SMR radio systems were bought out by Nextel. This freed up a lot of radios for other purposes.

The only really viable 800 mhz systems left today are in public safety. Normally public safety uses trunked radios and most often Smart Zone radios are preferred.

There is a potential trap here to watch for. Not only are there Smart Zone radios, there are also Smart Net, and several older technologies out there. If you were to buy a Smart net radio via an auction and you were in a Smart Zone system it is extremely difficult to convert from one type to the other. if you can manage it you will only do so by paying Motorola a hefty fee of $440 for the conversion software and keys.

Buyer beware, you really must know exactly what you want, and you must take great care to be sure you get what you think you are buying. These radios all phyisically look alike so the only way to really know is by reading the radio with the software and checking the actual flash codes in the radio.

I should also warn you that you want to shy away from any radio that has been hacked. I have seen this a few times and once a radio is hacked it will not respond to nor be programmed by the factory service software.

Good luck,

Pgittins

i have noticed a considerable drop in price on jedi series radios on 800 mhz like the mts2000 ever since the xts series of radios were introduced.

Those cheap 800MHz radios you see are mostly Type 1 trunking (Fleet and SubFleet). It was Motorols first mass produced trunking system and while it was good for its time it has since been replaced by type 2 trunking (TalkGroup). This has caused the market to be flooded by older Type 1 radios for next to nothing.

RFNebraska

Too bad there isn't another ham band that these 800 MHz radios can be used on, exactly as-is, without having to modify them to run on the existing 902-927 MHz ham band. Then you'd see the prices go up as people discover a new use for them.

Bob M.

They always make pretty bookends.

...and so do the modern 800 digital radios.