why i like motorola radios so much

[nh7cy]

heres a little xts horror story that im sure nobody on the board would care to replicate. anyway, its really short but here goes..

the other night i got home from work, and happened to notice that my xts's battery was getting pretty low, so i removed the battery that was on it and threw it in my bag, and switched it out with one of my ruggedized batts. so upon getting out of my truck, i absent mindedly placed my radio on the roof and forgot about it, threw my bag over my shoulder and walked into the house, leaving the radio sitting where i left it.

luckily it never got stolen.

keep in mind san francisco is a very cold and foggy place so through the night the radio accumilated much moisture and went through some freezing weather as well.

the next morning i was getting ready to leave as usual, and had gotten into my truck with my xts battery fully charged, and thinking that i had left it in the glove compartment.

10 minutes later im driving down one of the local streets at a pretty good pace when i hear something sliding accross my roof. upon hearing it i happened to glance in my mirror when i saw a black object flying off the roof of the truck, smashing into the pavement and bouncing off into the opposite lane.

so of course when i realized that it was my radio i slammed on the brakes, pulled to the side of the road and went running after it, though not before two cars going the opposite direction went flying past and ran it over, sending it flying back accross the street and crashing into the nearby sidewalk, where it finally rolled to a stop.


now why did i begin this topic as "why i like motorola radios so much"

well because when i picked up the radio off the street, it didnt have ANY scratches on it at all, save for the audio adapter which got torn to shreds, and it turned right on without any problems.



last i remember, this happened to somebodys kenwood and its currently flat as a pancake.

[PETNRDX]

Over the many years of using Motorola stuff, I too have had that same experience.
Mostly with MX360's at work.
Seen 'em driven right over...
Still worked, often tore the battery up, but new battery, and back in service.
My most recent horror story, about 160 ft up a tower, dropped my MT1000 tower radio. Banged its way most the way down on cross braces.
Then dropped in the clear about the last 40 ft.
Hit right on the heliflex antenna.
Ruined the antenna, bent off at 90 degrees, but only minor dings on the housing, and still radio works just fine.

[radio230]

I have a similar story. I am on the local volunteer fire department and one night me and 2 other guys were at the engine house when a call goes out. Well, we did not know it at the time but one of the other guys had left his ht-1000 on the front bumper of the truck. Well, we geared up and took off to the call, on the way we heard a thump, but did not think much about it. we got to the call and the guy, corey, relized had did not have his portable. He then remebered he thought he had set it down on the bumper, of course it was not there anymore. We quickly finished up no the call, false fire alarm, and started back to the engine house. ON the way we stopped in the area we had heard the thump, being a 4 lane state highway, and sure enough we found his radio... on the opposite side of the road. It was still on and working. It had a few scratches, but other thatn that the only thing wrong was the volume knob. Not the volume control itself, just the plastic knob!

That is why despite some of the companies short comings, I still think they make a reliable, durable product.

[mr.syntrx]

You won't get the same performance from any Waris series portable.

I tend to baby my radios. I have a bunch of ex police Sabers - the fact they still work after being in the hands of cops for 15+ years says plenty

[ai4ui]

We had a HT440 (when they were new) get stolen from one of our stations. About two years later, the public works department drained a retention pond, found our radio & brought it to us. I put a charged battery on it & it worked fine. Took it to the shop for a check out but they couldn't find anything wrong with it.

The battery was able to be charged & worked as well.

Two years sitting in the water is pretty impressive.

RG

[RKG]

There has never been a question that Motorola makes, and has always made, some pretty rugged products. The problem with the "modern" Motorola is entirely different: they tend to market unfinished products (a la Microsoft), and they have a vicious policy of orphaning products long before their useful life has been consumed (and often even before the development of the product and its firmware has fully matured). Add to that a customer service policy that resembles that of the KGB, and now you understand why so many folks long for an alternative supplier.

[phrawg]

Simply put, The product aint bad, (save the newest junk)
but the "we are GOD of radio" attitude doesn't cut it.
Maybe some of the other brands aren't quite as physically hard,
but they can blow /\/\ out of the water on technology. Phrawg

[tvsjr]

There has never been a question that Motorola makes, and has always made, some pretty rugged products. The problem with the "modern" Motorola is entirely different: they tend to market unfinished products (a la Microsoft), and they have a vicious policy of orphaning products long before their useful life has been consumed (and often even before the development of the product and its firmware has fully matured). Add to that a customer service policy that resembles that of the KGB, and now you understand why so many folks long for an alternative supplier.

Exactly. We had a Kenwood TK-2180K found in the remains of a 250000sqft. commercial structure fire, belonging to another department. It had been there for three days (tones dropped Saturday morning, tapped out Monday evening, radio found shortly thereafter) underneath piles of wet, nasty rubble, and had been driven over by multiple forklifts, multiple times. Other than a few cosmetic defects, the radio was no worse for wear after an appropriate drying-out disassembly and washdown.

In the old days, Moto had the best tech and the best reliability. They can't claim that any more. Tack on the cost and the attitude, and, well... you have *lots* of departments jumping ship to Kenwood and other vendors.

Don't get me wrong - I love my 5000s. But, for a scene, I'd trust my 2180s as far as I would my 5Ks.

[kf4sqb]

As I have said before, old-school Motorola is the s#!t. I've left my HT600 on top of my vehicle when leaving a fire scene before, and had another member of the department hand it back to me at the station later. It was found laying in the middle of the dirt road the call was on. I don't know if it got ran over or not, but it did take a fall from the top of the cargo area of a Jeep Cherokee. Beat the dirt off, and it works fine to this day.

My brother carries an HT1000. It has been submerged on a few occasions, a couple of which were deliberate (he persists in dunking it in a swimming pool on occasion to 'clean the dirt off', despite me telling him it's not a good idea). He also left it laying on the bumper of the fire engine (2002 E-One pumper, so it's not light ) when he pulled out of the station going to a call, and it did get ran over. As with my HT600, he just beat the dirt off, and it still works fine to this day.

However, I'll have to echo Mr. Syntrx:

You won't get the same performance from any Waris series portable.

[PETNRDX]

Good points all.
But I will add, you guys are correct about the current attitude of Motorola.
I really think the older stuff was really first rate, overbuilt, Public Safety quality.
But, I would have to agree the newer stuff is just not up to their legacy.
And the attitude and as said "KGB" tactics are killing their business.

[MTS2000des]

they don't make them like they used to. Back in the summer of 2000,I was doing major work on my house (new roof, painting, etc). I had a cache of UHF HT600's I acquired from a government auction. They were my "toss around" radios, I paid a whole 86 dollars for 10 radios and a multicharger. Anyway, I was using one outside painting the side of my house. Apparently I forgot about it...for 6 months. It remained laying in the dirt next to my wall, until one day I was having issues with my landline phone and went out to the demarc to do some testing. I saw the black antenna sticking up out of the leaves. I pulled the radio out of the dirt and mud. After spending half a year in the hot Georgia summer, countless exposure to pouring down rain and being submerged in mud, the only casualty was the battery! I took the radio cleaned off the gunk, slid a fresh pack on, and turned the knob...BEEP, the radio powered up. I pressed the PTT and the sound of our repeater coming back strong came through the speaker. I gave my ham call out, and got a reply. No problems...still have that radio today, it still works. It was made in 1990. 17 years old now...I doubt you'll ever see that caliber of product from ANYONE.

[Dorpmuller]

Good points all.
But I will add, you guys are correct about the current attitude of Motorola.
I really think the older stuff was really first rate, overbuilt, Public Safety quality.
But, I would have to agree the newer stuff is just not up to their legacy.
And the attitude and as said "KGB" tactics are killing their business.

I agree completely... IMO the last Radio for Real Men was the Saber series. The new stuff is pretty fugly.

Rich

[n7maq]

Have you opened the unit yet? The ABS cases are great for surviving just what you described. Sometimes the electronics and other internals do not fair as well.

I have to work on the old iDEN R370’s we don’t see them very often any more, but we use to see 50 to 100 R370’s a month. They would get ran over all of the time by all sorts of things. Some times you could not tell anything had happened from the outside, but when you open it up every RF shield would be smashed. Other times they looked like new on the inside.

On the Kenwood radios if the radios are driven rain, and the get wet when under warranty they will repair, or replaced the radio. That is if the unit was not submerged, they will inspect them first.

Jim

[kf4sqb]

I was using one outside painting the side of my house.

I never would've thought that a Genisis series would work well for applying paint . (Sorry, but I just couldn't resist !)

[KE7DZZ]

Over the many years of using Motorola stuff, I too have had that same experience.
Mostly with MX360's at work.
Seen 'em driven right over...
Still worked, often tore the battery up, but new battery, and back in service.
My most recent horror story, about 160 ft up a tower, dropped my MT1000 tower radio. Banged its way most the way down on cross braces.
Then dropped in the clear about the last 40 ft.
Hit right on the heliflex antenna.
Ruined the antenna, bent off at 90 degrees, but only minor dings on the housing, and still radio works just fine.

I have to tell you that the above quoted is the one responsible for my addiction to Moto gear. I bought my first Moto HT600E ( MT1000) from him.
This may be a bit tame but this is how it started. I am at his house as he extolling the virtues of the Genesis series radios, he disassembles one to show me the gasket-ed, tightly compacted innards, then re-assembles the radio, installs the antenna, and CHUCKS IT DOWN THE HALLWAY! I had been a ham for almost a year at the time and had only seen standard ham gear up to that point, so when he did that I about crapped my pants wondering what sort of lunatic this guy is. Long story short is I am now a Moto freak with over a dozen Batwing radios and have gotten to know PETNRDX a bit better and I still think he is a lunatic as well as good friend and the most knowledgeable op I know.

[bellersley]

I had a Jedi style radio (HT1000 I believe it was) take a dive some 300 feet onto pavement. The battery flew off (into a nearby lake I might add), but the radio was fine! The case was cracked a bit, but aside from that it worked great. I don't think my GP380 could survive that without needing some major surgery.

[nh7cy]

I have to tell you that the above quoted is the one responsible for my addiction to Moto gear. I bought my first Moto HT600E ( MT1000) from him.
This may be a bit tame but this is how it started. I am at his house as he extolling the virtues of the Genesis series radios, he disassembles one to show me the gasket-ed, tightly compacted innards, then re-assembles the radio, installs the antenna, and CHUCKS IT DOWN THE HALLWAY! I had been a ham for almost a year at the time and had only seen standard ham gear up to that point, so when he did that I about crapped my pants wondering what sort of lunatic this guy is. Long story short is I am now a Moto freak with over a dozen Batwing radios and have gotten to know PETNRDX a bit better and I still think he is a lunatic as well as good friend and the most knowledgeable op I know.

thats how i got my friend sold on moto radios!

i was in one of the back parking lots at the local community college after class showing a friend of mine one of my mts radios. she wasnt absolutely convinced that they were as durable as i said they were so i took it and threw it just about as far as i could accross the parking lot (keep in mind its a dirt parking lot with lots of rocks). we then went, picked up the radio, dusted it off a bit and turned it on. the thing powered up with its little beep and went right back to working just like it did since the day i bought it.

she's been hooked on motorola stuff ever since.

[W3MOT]

heres a little xts horror story that im sure nobody on the board would care to replicate. anyway, its really short but here goes..

the other night i got home from work, and happened to notice that my xts's battery was getting pretty low, so i removed the battery that was on it and threw it in my bag, and switched it out with one of my ruggedized batts. so upon getting out of my truck, i absent mindedly placed my radio on the roof and forgot about it, threw my bag over my shoulder and walked into the house, leaving the radio sitting where i left it.

luckily it never got stolen.

keep in mind san francisco is a very cold and foggy place so through the night the radio accumilated much moisture and went through some freezing weather as well.

the next morning i was getting ready to leave as usual, and had gotten into my truck with my xts battery fully charged, and thinking that i had left it in the glove compartment.

10 minutes later im driving down one of the local streets at a pretty good pace when i hear something sliding accross my roof. upon hearing it i happened to glance in my mirror when i saw a black object flying off the roof of the truck, smashing into the pavement and bouncing off into the opposite lane.

so of course when i realized that it was my radio i slammed on the brakes, pulled to the side of the road and went running after it, though not before two cars going the opposite direction went flying past and ran it over, sending it flying back accross the street and crashing into the nearby sidewalk, where it finally rolled to a stop.


now why did i begin this topic as "why i like motorola radios so much"

well because when i picked up the radio off the street, it didnt have ANY scratches on it at all, save for the audio adapter which got torn to shreds, and it turned right on without any problems.



last i remember, this happened to somebodys kenwood and its currently flat as a pancake.

How about some pictures of it?

[RadioSouth]

i was in one of the back parking lots at the local community college after class showing a friend of mine one of my mts radios. she wasnt absolutely convinced that they were as durable as i said they were so i took it and threw it just about as far as i could accross the parking lot (keep in mind its a dirt parking lot with lots of rocks). we then went, picked up the radio, dusted it off a bit and turned it on. the thing powered up with its little beep and went right back to working just like it did since the day i bought it.

she's been hooked on motorola stuff ever since.

Let's sum this one up: Back parking lot, college, she. Yeah, testing a radio, that's it !

[n0top]

I just started useing Motorolas on 2 meters in2006, They are a Great radio and love useing them. I have a Spectra, Maxtrac and a
MT1000. I know these radios where well used before I got them
Best 73s John de N0TOP

[RadioSouth]

I very much agree with most of the above. They WERE an amazing company with amazing employees that made amazing products but were always a bit arrogant. Now it seems only the the arrogance is the part of the equation that flourished, the rest is on thin ice.

[KitN1MCC]

I have to Stick up for my Ht1550 it has taken some really nasty Bumbs


Still have mt1000 for the Dirty Dirty Work

[jistabout]

I once read a story somewhere on the 'net about a guy who had road-rage due to someone in the vehicle ahead of his who pi**ed him off while at an intersection. So in his anger, he reached down beside himself in the seat, grabbed the first heavy object he could find, rolled down his window, and threw it at the car ahead. It bounced off of the car's trunk lid, skeetered into the intersection, and got run over at least once.........

That flying object was a Motorola GP300........

And now, you know the rest of the story .

[giguchan]

Hello all,
I would like to know what is meant by "atitude" I have never felt that Moto is giving me "tude" at all. I have cdm's and ht1550's and use and program them often. I call them whenever i have a stupid question to ask them. they answer it. when i had trouble setting up my MOL online acct -again they walked me through that too. If i have a programming question to ask(which might come after not programming for a while) i call them and i'm on my way.... at least when i call them for a change i get a nice easy to understand american accent.I have a few countries under my belt and not a stranger to accents- but it is nice to hear one that you recognize without squinting through the phone.I am talking about Motorola, so if you want to come at me with other radio manufactures that is another conversation.
I also wanted to mention the quality.... since my first moto radio a maxtrac/SS3's i have not noticed and quality issues- now perhaps i'm not looking in the right places- are we talking about repaires? business practices? or other issues? i am eager to know what radios people are talking about when they say the quality is "not what it used to be"
I would put any old moto up against any of the new "typical" radios that people use for hamming anyday of the week...
Gig.

[w4rez]

Radios by Fisher-Price? No way!!!

If Fisher-Price made radios they'd be the most indestructible radios on the planet.

[giguchan]

hahahahha
Actually the toys from the old days were pretty robust !! I used to smack my "little brother" around with them all the time....
if i did that now he'd arrest me.

[w4rez]

hahahahha
Actually the toys from the old days were pretty robust !! I used to smack my "little brother" around with them all the time....
if i did that now he'd arrest me.

Right. I had one of those Fisher-Price "record players" that withstood years of my abuse. After my son was born, he inherited it and subsequently abused it and I'm almost certain that when I have grandkids one of them will inherit it and abuse it and it will keep right on ticking.

If you want to test something for durability, give it to a roomful of preschoolers. They can subject things to abuse that we could never even dream of.

[giguchan]

PRESCHOOLERS?
I'm one myself. I just in a grownup package.... i think i remember the record player too!
might be something to look for at an old time toy show.
brings back memories of a simpler and sometimes more meaningful life.