XPR6550 "Q" split vs "T" split for ham use?

[N4KVE]

Yesterday, I got a 403-470 XPR6550 for ham use here in S. Florida. It works great, & is able to hear one of the repeaters from 65 miles away in digital mode. So today, a friend says he has available 5 6550's already set up on the same system, for substantially less $. However, when he reads me the model #, it's a "T" split, 450-512 mhz. It's been hacked to worked below 450 mhz. Remember the Maxtrac trick to use the shift button, & upper set of numbers to enter ham UHF freq's. While that worked, the Maxtrac would have poor rx sens in the ham band, but work fine above 450. So I put the guy I bought my radio from, in touch with my friend, as he'd rather have the correct bandsplit. But my friend wants to know how much rx sens he would lose by using a 450-512 radio on 442 mhz. The repeater in question is only a few miles away, but he's concerned with simplex use between 2 HT's, & how much range he would lose with the "T" radio trying to rx @ 442 mhz. GARY N4KVE

[JRayfield]

What's been hacked? The firmware? The Codeplug? If either one of those has been hacked (modified), then what happens when you want to update the radio with new firmware (which you will want/need to do, at some point in time)?

John Rayfield, Jr. CETma
W0PM

[N4KVE]

Maybe "hacked" was the wrong term. Possibly what the seller should have told my friend was the CPS was hex edited to allow ham freq's to be entered into the radio. English is his second language. Either way, will the radio not work as well as a true 403-470 radio in the ham band? GARY N4KVE

[N4KVE]

Sorry to bump this thread so quickly, but my friend [KD4ELF] needs to decide by the end of the day [Thursday] whether to buy the 450-512 split radio for $300, or get a 403-470 radio [like I got] for the going rate. Again, this radio will be used mostly on ham freq's. GARY N44KVE

[DPL]

My understanding is that the "T" radios will work in analog mode, but probably won't work in digital mode. I can't say this 100% for sure, but my friend purchased a couple of "T" XPR4550 mobiles, and while they worked fine in analog mode, they would not speak TRBO in the ham band.

[N4KVE]

Well he bought the radio, as it was cheaper than the correct split version. It seems to work just fine, but it has it's own special way to program.. He can not read the radio when he wants to program it. He needs to go to the CPS, & go to the archive file for that radio, make changes, & then write to the radio, & then save the changes to the archive file. But hey, the radio & Impress charger were $300. GARY N4KVE

[d119]

The "T" split units work just fine for amateur use - I've programmed several of them, and they have no issues in either analog or digital mode. And this was with several different radios. Perhaps early units didn't handle the digital side properly?

The caveat is as Gary stated, you have to use a saved codeplug archive, modify it, and write it to the radio unless you want to play with RAM editing every time you launch CPS.