Batboard

I probably spend more time than is reasonable watching radio auctions. Not only do I look for good deals, but I also like to just 'keep the pulse' of what things are going for. And I've been noticing something strange.

Why are MTS2000s consistently going for way less than HT1000s? I haven't yet had the pleasure of working with either, and I know people love their HT1000s, but I've always seen the MTS2000 as a HT1000 "plus one," in the form of extra channels and a top LCD, but my understanding is that they're otherwise quite similar.

I can pick an MTS2000 up for about $100, whereas HT1000s are often going for well over that amount. Does this just make no sense, or is there something I'm not taking into account? Are the MTS2000s less durable? Do they burn through batteries faster? Do people just have a soft spot for HT1000s? Inquiring minds must know.

my guess is that mts's are a gamble on it's firmware and flash to where ht1000's are very strait forward. and it'll cost you twice as much to get the mts flashed to the options of the basic ht1000, it just has more channels.

HLA wrote:my guess is that mts's are a gamble on it's firmware and flash to where ht1000's are very strait forward. and it'll cost you twice as much to get the mts flashed to the options of the basic ht1000, it just has more channels.

Ah ha! So the price difference isn't as 'dumb' as I thought.

Does 'Frankenflashing' exist on the MTS-series? (Toolproofing notwithstanding...)

Like was stated, the HT just does a lot of stuff out of the box.

QCII, GE-star. etc....

Plus there is no display to break on a HT

not to mention there are tons of MTS2000's (most of which have uselessly bare flashcodes) from government surplus flooding the market...further diminishing the value with an abundance of supply. UHF MTS2000's with "naked" flashes are plentiful on Ebay...many of them are later version and are worth more for parts than whole (newer series chassis, front covers, RF boards, etc).

What does a "bare" MTS2000 do? MDC PTT-ID? Scanning?

And I'm still confused; is it possible to 'Frankenflash' an MTS like you can do with ASTROs?

Unless you have an MTS2000 that is pre-toolproofing (can't remember the firmware version, but pretty much all the ones around now are too new) you will kill the radio if you try to "upgrade" it outside of the official channels.

Bare-bones flashes on MTS2000s do not do any type of signaling (unless PL and DPL count). No MDC1200, QCII, etc... If you don't need that stuff, then they are a great deal because they do way more than HT1000s. Scan, zones, more switch/button options, etc...

Even given the above explanations, I still don't get why people want so stinkin' much for their HT1000s. I saw more than one at Dayton priced well over $200. I saw at least one top display MTS2000 for $100.

myself i'd look for a mt2000 160ch, they do out of the box what the ht1000 does.

DPL wrote:Unless you have an MTS2000 that is pre-toolproofing (can't remember the firmware version, but pretty much all the ones around now are too new) you will kill the radio if you try to "upgrade" it outside of the official channels.

Wow, I just looked. It's much older than I thought. (Isn't there some talk about 'downgrading' firmware, or putting in firmware from a European equivalent that doesn't have toolproofing?)

No MDC1200

What about simple PTT-ID encode? (My GP300 does that!)

HLA wrote:myself i'd look for a mt2000 160ch, they do out of the box what the ht1000 does.

Those are practically a different model radio in my eyes... Half of the goal was to 'downgrade' from my (analog-firmware) ASTRO Saber to something cheaper, since it's overkill for what I do. The 160 channel models go for nearly what I paid for my ASTRO Saber.

Really, though, all I need is scanning and 48 channels, which is apparently 'stock' on MTS2Ks. MDC Decode/display would be nice, but I've come across a few for sale that do that for not much more.

HLA wrote:my guess is that mts's are a gamble on it's firmware and flash to where ht1000's are very strait forward. and it'll cost you twice as much to get the mts flashed to the options of the basic ht1000, it just has more channels.

Even an MTS2000 with SmartZone OmniLink, MDC1200, voting scan etc still goes for less than a HT1000 for some reason.

fogster wrote:What about simple PTT-ID encode? (My GP300 does that!)

Heh... you would think so. I've had experience with at least four or five different MTS2000s of various vintages, all with basic flashes (either conventional only or Smartnet/zone) and none of them even encode MDC1200.

Kind of sad; like you said, even GP300s do that.

but they have to make money somehow!!!! Wheres the fun in putting all those niceities in a unit, and then not being able to charge for flash upgrades?

It's funny as this thread is right along the same line of a query I had. My question was why are 2 channel HT1000's selling for almost as much as the 16 channel versions? I put this to one of my buddies who is a Moto tech. His answer was that a lot of customers want radios for themselves or, more importantly for their employees that are simple and, idiot proof stated bluntly. Less channels/features means the average user who tends to not know much about radios save for the fact you can communicate with them can get themselves into trouble by using the wrong switch,button, or, knob. In some cases, in addition to limiting, or, eliminating what the extra buttons and, switches will do, he has even had to go so far as programming the identical frequency into both channels of the radio so the curious knob diddlers could still use their radio in spite of their efforts. I would not be surprised if some of this philosophy is involved with answering your question of the HT1000 VS the MTS2000.

Stage 2 wrote:My question was why are 2 channel HT1000's selling for almost as much as the 16 channel versions?

Part of it might be that a 2 channel HT1000 will do 16 channels with very little effort. See Batlabs for details. I'm using one on 440 MHz.

Jeff

W6JK wrote:

Stage 2 wrote:My question was why are 2 channel HT1000's selling for almost as much as the 16 channel versions?

Part of it might be that a 2 channel HT1000 will do 16 channels with very little effort. See Batlabs for details. I'm using one on 440 MHz.

Jeff

Yes, your reason could be a small part,but, not many people would purchase a 2 channel for that reason when you could simply go and purchase a 16 channel for about the same price negating the need to do any mods. Also, at least on Ebay, for every 2 channel unit that comes along there seems to be about a half dozen 16 channel units availible.