Batboard

I'm not really an idiot-- but I know almost nothing about handheld UHF radios. I've spent an hour looking for a forum and/or FAQ that I could simply search rather than bother folks and go through the annoyance of registering on a forum that I know full well I won't become an active member of.

All that failed and this seemed like the most logical place to ask my question. With all that said, please keep in my that I have tried my level best to find the most appropriate place to ask my question and that I'll appreciate any advice I can get from you folks.

My good friend has a pair of Motorola GP300 radios. I would imagine these are 5 watt UHF radios just by looking around on the 'net. I can tell you that they are 2-channel only. They are built like a tank and handle use/abuse well.

He's a bondsman/recovery agent by trade and he uses them on stakeouts and fugitive recovery. As you might imagine, it's important that they work. For a number of years, they have worked well. Now, he's at the point where he needs more than the two he has, and he would like to see some improvements in two key areas if he's going to an entirely new radio. He'd like to see better signal penetration, such as when he's communicating with a partner in a car in the area, and he finds himself inside a house basement. The other thing that would be helpful is if the new radio were physically smaller.

We both agreed that it might make sense to buy new radios that can communicate with these GP300s, rather than something completely different rendering these GP300s useless.

The first place he contacted for new radios to replace his GP300s suggested the CP200 at $400 each, so he called the one friend he knew would love to piss away a day on the 'net to try and learn everything he could before a purchase. Of course, that guy is me.

The question is simple--if you were in his business knowing what you know about handheld radios, would you try and find a new currently produced radio that could still communicate with the GP300? Or is the GP300 technology that should best be left behind? He doesn't need a bunch of channels. He needs one channel that works.

Comments and questions and any/all advice would be helpful. I'll tell you up front that once this thread has run it's course, I won't be bothering you folks with more ignorant questions.

And I certainly appreciate any help you can offer, even if it's simply dropping me a link to a better place to ask the same question.

Well first off you can get new cp200's for way less that $400 each. The cp-200 radios are decent radios. And they are smaller than a cp200. And they seem to take a decent amount of abuse. Nothing like a gp300 or a ht1000 will take but they decent radios.

The GP300s are somewhat old, but there are still quite a few of them in use these days. As long as they serve his purpose, there's no sense in replacing them.

As far as "signal penetration" goes, you can't change the laws of physics. Even if he went out and bought top-tier XTS5000 public safety radios, you'd discover that they're still 4 watts out on UHF, and won't work appreciably better than the GP300 (assuming the GP300 is in good repair).

As far as talking to cars in the area, his best bet is likely to go to a real mobile radio in the vehicle, with a proper external antenna. This will provide a fair amount of improvement.

Before purchasing anything, you need to look into his licensing to ensure that it will a. permit additional portable units and b. permit mobile/higher-power units. You also need to know what area he's licensed to cover... if he's operating without a license or outside the license boundaries, he's doing to in violation of federal law.

For replacement radios, don't limit yourself to just Motorola. CP200s are OK at best, but you can do better for less money by considering a vendor like Kenwood.

CP200s are OK at best, but you can do better for less money by considering a vendor like Kenwood.

Exactly.

A radio to consider for his situation is the DTR series. They are digital radios which offer 1-watt at 900MHz, which gives excellent penetration into & through structures when using them in relatively close range (within a KM), which sounds like mostly what he does. In fact my experience with them shows them to be better suited to his use than 4-watt UHF radios. They are not compatible with the GP300 at all, but do not require licensing, and are quite inexpensive. Most dealers would have a kit for demo purposes which they should be quite willing to let your friend try out to see if they will fit the bill for him. Since he only needs a single channel, the less-featured DTR550 would be fine.

Whatever portable he decides to go with, the suggestion above of an external vehicle antenna is a good one, which can be easily setup for most portable radios with the use of a small adaptor on the radio, the DTR being no exception. Good luck in your search.

Todd

no matter which way you end up going, get the antennae outside the vehicle and up as high as possible and get the correct antennae for the uhf range you are using. you will notice more than 100% improvement with external antennaes plugged into those gp300's as they are.