Batboard

Does anyone have any new information on this radio? I do understand after speaking with a contact of mine that it will be available in UHF with a choice of R1, R2 or R3.
Also- do any of you know of any agencies that have any units in hand and operational in the field??
Thanks for any info anyone can provide!

k5rpd wrote:UHF with a choice of R1, R2 or R3.

I'm sure that it will be avaliable in UHF, but I don't think I'd expect to see it until after the VHF/700/800 is released.

I also doubt that Motorola would take a step back and go back to 3-4 different UHF ranges. They probably will stick with 380-470 and 450-520.

-Alex

The scuttlebutt, coming from the hams here in the Plantation facility, is that the V/7/8 will be released Q3 2009 and a U variant sometime in mid to late 2010. While I have touched a working V model but have no idea if any of these have been given out in the field yet.

Marshall

a few, FEW... very select customers have field units on VHF/700-800

they are engraved on the front as beta test units.


the one i handled is a very slick radio... display is great... GPS works great.

antenna length ... sucks.



doug

I immagine the antenna has to be simular to the VHF wideband/800 dipole to cover both those bands

batdude wrote: antenna length ... sucks.

doug

But on the positive side, some users will NOT be using the VHF feature- ergo they will use the standard 700/800 whip we know and love...

batdude wrote:a few, FEW... very select customers have field units on VHF/700-800

they are engraved on the front as beta test units.


the one i handled is a very slick radio... display is great... GPS works great.

antenna length ... sucks.



doug

Not all of the units are engraved as test units. PG County, MD has about 10 units getting ready to start testing their new TDMA Phase II system in a couple of months. None of them are marked at all, save for a PGC property tag on them.

Moto had 700/800/UHF R1 units on display at APCO Sydney (Australia) last week. Radios were working on UHF R1 freqs just fine talking to other XTS radios. Antennas were marked 7-800 GPS and looked like the APX VHF antenna. A nice bit of kit working on both P25 Phase 1 (FDMA) and II (TDMA). Excellent audio and really loud. A sound proof booth was on hand to allow audio testing. Also the internal option slot will support an upcoming Bluetooth module allowing the use of wireless audio accessories. Actual sized cardboard cutout units were part of the give aways on a typically excellent Motorola stand.

No engraving and no comment on UHF/VHF units. The previous 700/800/VHF unit I've seen certainly looked a little more like a prototype with an 'evaluation unit' sticker inside where covered up by the battery.

By the way don't forget the equally tasty APX 7500 XTL style 700/800/VHF units.

Please, don't call the Motorola system "Phase II" - it is NOT APCO-25 Phase II. The Motorola X2-TDMA system is NOT compatible with the TIA/EIA APCO-25 Phase II proposals.

Yes, it is confusing. Yes, it sucks that APCO isn't running with the Motorola system/Motorola isn't running with the APCO standard, but that is how it is.

If we DON'T nip this in the bud, I can see a few years hence when APCO really DOES release the Phase II system specs and vendors start shipping it the questions:

"But I have a Motorola Phase II [sic] radio, why won't it work with this system?"

We have enough confusion between Smartnet, ASTRO-25, full-on APCO-25, MotoTRBO, D-STAR, and all the other systems - can we PLEASE prevent yet more confusion?

I'm bringing one gross of asprin to Wowbagger at Dayton this year..

I can assure you that my use of Phase II terminology was deliberate.

Astro Spectra wrote:I can assure you that my use of Phase II terminology was deliberate.

It may have been deliberate, but I believe it was in error: last I'd heard the APCO-25 Phase II spec was NOT finished, indeed it wasn't ever remotely complete enough for a system to be based upon it. Indeed, Aeroflex has been approached about what our road-map for support for APCO-25 Phase II is, and we've said "We can certainly support it, when it is defined enough to implement."

I suppose in the test equipment business the sales guys and bean-counters let the engineers get the product completely designed and debugged before they start selling but in the 2-way business the sales scoundrels at Moto are all about logging the business - so they're out there pushing their pre-standard TDMA products and will assure the customer that a simple flash will bring them up-to-date when the standard is finalized.

You see this in many tech industries with many standards. Witness 802.11...

Of course, Motorola, regardless of them shedding weight, is still a sizeable gorilla in the market, and I'm sure they wish their implementation to become the standard, not the other way around.

I'm sorry my point seems to have been missed - the news was that APX will support FDMA Phase 1 and TDMA X2 and TDMA Phase II. All three supported in one box same as with some of the new infrastructure. Yes the standard isn't finished and yes you'll have to a) flash radio and b) pay Moto for it. But the point of my post was that Moto were stating in public that the APX radio would do the lot.

I thought this scooped IWCE. While it was news to me, perhaps it wasn’t and is old hat already?

There's a Chicago suburban county sherriff's dept. that is going to be the beta test for APCO25 phase II gear within the next several months. I don't know if they actually have the portables yet -- more than likely, no.

I'm sure there will be a few lab rats...as PG County already has the 7000's to play with. I also heard that there is a place in Florida as well doing it, but the name escapes me.

But now that I am thinking about it...

PG County...just a stone's throw away from the Moto depot there...
The unnamed IL county...see above
The Florida agency...also see above

The radios are not straying far from existing Moto plants.

The unnamed county is.... DuPage

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... 0253.story

in ref to peter's words above... moto did the same thing with VSELP guys... they had a product ready to ship that did not meet the standard, but the hardware was ready... so they released what they had.

i dont see this being much different...



d

batdude wrote:in ref to peter's words above... moto did the same thing with VSELP guys... they had a product ready to ship that did not meet the standard, but the hardware was ready... so they released what they had.

i dont see this being much different...



d

Exactly....The question is, will M come out with a hardware upgrade (read, new vocon) for the XTS/XTL family once the standard is settled on?

ka8ypy wrote:Exactly....The question is, will M come out with a hardware upgrade (read, new vocon) for the XTS/XTL family once the standard is settled on?

I tend to feel they'll not do anything short of saying "time to upgrade", but I guess only time will tell...

akardam wrote:

ka8ypy wrote:Exactly....The question is, will M come out with a hardware upgrade (read, new vocon) for the XTS/XTL family once the standard is settled on?

I tend to feel they'll not do anything short of saying "time to upgrade", but I guess only time will tell...

Unfortunately, I think you are correrct, which really sucks for a bunch of volunteer companies that went out and bought 5Ks on the say so from a local MSS that guaranteed that they could be upgraded to the new system and work on EVERY talkgroup.

Our County will be migrating to VHF/700MHz ASTRO25 7.x in about 2 years. It will have G-Series site equipment, GPS, IV&D, HPD etc. We are planning to have 70+ sites and (approximately) 95% coverage. I get the same reaction from deputies and the like, that the APX7000 antenna is Huge! Well, unless M comes up with a smaller antenna form that is just as functional to support 7/8/V and GPS, we'll be stuck with it. I just wonder how flexible that thing is? How long will it survive in the field before its bent all to heck?
I have an other question if anybody knows: How many antenna ports are there on the back of the APX7500? I would think it would have one for 7/800 and a second for VHF. Of course, there is also GPS connectivity.

How many antenna ports are there on the back of the APX7500? I would think it would have one for 7/800 and a second for VHF. Of course, there is also GPS connectivity.

That is my understanding.

Unless you are going to go with Motorola features, don't count out Thales with their new stuff...that will do a little more in some areas than the APX

speaking of thales...

what's the deal with the Liberty?

i haven't heard much about it since apco LAST YEAR (2008)



doug

batdude wrote:speaking of thales...

what's the deal with the Liberty?

i haven't heard much about it since apco LAST YEAR (2008)

doug

Plenty of info about it at IWCE http://batboard.batlabs.com/viewtopic.p ... lit=thales

It seems like it's about the longest running product debut in history. Quote a price and sell the thing already!

batdude wrote:speaking of thales...

what's the deal with the Liberty?

i haven't heard much about it since apco LAST YEAR (2008)



doug

resqguy911 wrote:

batdude wrote:speaking of thales...

what's the deal with the Liberty?

i haven't heard much about it since apco LAST YEAR (2008)

doug

Plenty of info about it at IWCE http://batboard.batlabs.com/viewtopic.p ... lit=thales

Nothing new with the portable... they have a mobile now... judging from how it's gone with the portable it will probably begin shipping 2Q 2015

hello from suburban chicago....APX7000 tested on our soon? to be new countywide 700/800 system. So far using 700 for fire ops and ground testing. Some audio issues with patching the current VHF fire stuff through the APX . Building penetration testing so far proved good on the beta setup. Firefighters had issues with the ergonomics of the portable with gloves etc. More to come as select PDs use portables for next round of Beta tests. The portables being used are clearly beta units and works in progress.....

escomm wrote: Nothing new with the portable... they have a mobile now... judging from how it's gone with the portable it will probably begin shipping 2Q 2015

mancow wrote:It seems like it's about the longest running product debut in history. Quote a price and sell the thing already!

Ok, I'll spill. The Liberty portable is now fully operational on P25 trunking in multi bands, demonstrated in person at IWCE. The housing, buttons & knobs have had a few changes since inception. The single and gang chargers were unveiled, and sport nifty gauges for the charge %. The price has been quoted thru GSA, if you want one that bad.

If I may, the APX series were publicly announced at APCO2008, and I still can't order them. A beta unit does work well, but I can't deploy a fleet of betas! And I think the new Camaro has a longer running debut