APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

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N4KVE
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APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by N4KVE »

We are lucky to have quite a few 900 P25 ham repeaters here in SE Florida. For equipment we are using XTL mobiles, & XTS 2500 portables. No 902/927 FPP fix yet, but it's still being worked on. Some of the guys who have APX8000's want to be able to use the APX4000 portable on 902/927, but the rumor was the CPS can not be hex edited to work there. 2 days ago I was at a shop, & there was a 900 MHz APX4000 laying around, & ch 1 was 927.5 MHz simplex. So while the ham freq's can be entered into the radio, when transmitting, the red light on top of the radio blinks on, & off, like the VCO is unlocking. Did not try transmitting on 902 freq's. Whether the VCO can be adjusted or not, who knows. But for now, that's where the APX4000 is on 900 ham. GARY
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d119
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by d119 »

The modifications for APX radios to go out of band have to be performed in the firmware file, and then pushed out to the radio. It's a long, lengthy, dangerous process (or so I've heard, I've zero experience with it), and any time you update the firmware you overwrite what you've previously done.

I doubt the 4000 you saw was actually on the amateur bands, someone was playing with you. Sounds more like it was trying to affiliate to some system rather than transmitting on 927MHz. Did you hear it with another radio?

You can't just "enter the frequencies" in to the radio. I think you were played.
N4KVE
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by N4KVE »

No, but the next time I go back I will have another radio to test with. I'll also tx on 927.5 with my 2500 to see if the APX can receive it. GARY.
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d119
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by d119 »

Sounds good Gary, let us know what you find. Perhaps you can do some investigative work and find out what the deal is.

Just yesterday I received the XTL 2500 900MHz mobile I bought, it works great as well, really nice to have a 35W 900MHz P25 mobile. Considering getting another.

P25 works INCREDIBLY well on 900MHz - analog is completely useless IMHO, but P25 is KILLER! (as you know)
N4KVE
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by N4KVE »

Was it from Gozillatrade on E-bay? I just got one of his as a spare for under $300. Practically new, & only a few years old. GARY
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d119
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by d119 »

Apparently so... Though (s)he has changed their username to tictech8
N4KVE
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by N4KVE »

Ok. I brought mine to a shop on Tuesday, to get flashed for P25, as it came to me as analog only. That's where I saw the 900 APX4000. When I got the radio back, it was a 5000, so I could clone it to my other radio. GARY
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d119
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by d119 »

Must be quite the "shop"... These radios are apparently retired Los Angeles City Department of Water and Power mobiles. Mine came blank, but still had the 0008 system ID in the first trunked system. They have a very large SmartZone system on 900MHz, probably in the process of upgrading it to P25 Phase II as so many utilities seem to be these days.

The other interesting item was that it came with firmware R20.00.00A, whatever that is... Actually I seem to recall that being a legitimate release some time back, could be wrong. Regardless, I upgraded it to R20.50.09.
N4KVE
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by N4KVE »

Yup, full upgrade for mine too, including ADP. GARY.
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d119
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by d119 »

I may buy another one for a base station. I'm going to see if this is a direct replacement bracket-wise for the MCS 2000 model 1 that is in the car. I am using an old cellular phone glass mount antenna, seems to work well enough.
N4KVE
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by N4KVE »

I use the Laird/Antenex antenna on the trunk lid. Low profile. Works great. When the radio went on the Aeroflex 3920 [part of the upgrade], it passed every test. GARY.
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by Number 6 »

Sorry guys, no ham 900 on an APX4000.
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d119
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by d119 »

No out of band anything on ANY APX as far as I'm concerned.
N4KVE
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by N4KVE »

I'm going back to the shop this week to see if the radio receives on 927.7 from my 2500. The display did say 927.7 in FPP mode. GARY.
vince7003
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by vince7003 »

I have 2 Motorola XTS2500 M3 FPP 900 mhz will work just fine on 927/902 Ham with P25. I have ADP too. Love them. We have 3 900 mhz Repeates in Reno, the 2 XTS2500 i got where never issued new in the box Chevron
gas Refinery radios
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N4KVE
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by N4KVE »

My friend just got one of those NIB radios He had to have his flashed for P25, as they were analog only. Even though they were made in 2009, but unused radios, his failed the Aeroflex 3920 test, & had to be realigned. Tx power output was 2.15 watts, & the reference oscillator test was way off. Now, it's right on. He's happy.
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fineshot1
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by fineshot1 »

Many of those failures are to be ignored since each radio is going to present slight variations to
these canned tests that look for very rigid requirements to pass. You have to learn to read between
the lines of each individual radio test results.

Example - freq error may be slightly low in freq by .01 Mhz and that may be enough to make
it fail.
fineshot1
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N4KVE
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by N4KVE »

The Aeroflex used allows 10% tolerance before failure is shown. OTOH, my 2500 was putting out 3.1 watts, so the Aeroflex failed the tx setting, & turned it down to 2.5 watts. GARY
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d119
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by d119 »

So what was the outcome of the mystery APX4000?
N4KVE
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by N4KVE »

I haven't been back to the shop yet. Maybe next week. but 927.7 was definitely programmed into the rx, & 902.7 was definitely programmed into the tx. This I saw with my OWN 2 eyes. But like the 2500, I could not change the 927.7 freq with the keypad to another 927 freq. The 927 freq was entered with the CPS. When trying to tx, the top light would flash like the VCO was out of lock. When I go back, I will bring my 2500, & transmit on 927.7 to see if the APX will rx my transmission. And before you say this is impossible, this radio belongs to the same guy who wrote the program to enable FPP on the XPR6550. GARY
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escomm
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by escomm »

Sounds like the MTR2000 detailed service manual
k4vks
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by k4vks »

Gary, which shop to do you use? Good to know there's one down here.
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N4KVE
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by N4KVE »

k4vks wrote:Gary, which shop to do you use? Good to know there's one down here.
The same place CONRAD goes. GARY.
Number 6
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by Number 6 »

N4KVE wrote:I haven't been back to the shop yet. Maybe next week. but 927.7 was definitely programmed into the rx, & 902.7 was definitely programmed into the tx. This I saw with my OWN 2 eyes. But like the 2500, I could not change the 927.7 freq with the keypad to another 927 freq. The 927 freq was entered with the CPS. When trying to tx, the top light would flash like the VCO was out of lock. When I go back, I will bring my 2500, & transmit on 927.7 to see if the APX will rx my transmission. And before you say this is impossible, this radio belongs to the same guy who wrote the program to enable FPP on the XPR6550. GARY
Were you able to verify that his APX4000 can transmit and receive in the 902/927 ham band? Not speculation, but actual verification?
N4KVE
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by N4KVE »

No. I've only been back to the shop once, but the radio was not there. I swear, I did see the ham freq in the radio. I can only "speculate" its like the XPR7580e. You can program 900 ham freq's in it, but it will not transmit, while the 7580 works perfectly. The 7580e will transmit perfectly at 901.98750, but will not transmit at 902.000. Its like they specifically don't allow the newer radios to work in the ham band. I'll get by with my 2500. GARY.
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by G6VBJ »

Did this ever get resolved, I have a 900Mhz APX4000 that I would dearly love to get onto the 900 Ham Band.

Thanks

Peter
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N4KVE
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Re: APX4000 on 902/927 ham?

Post by N4KVE »

Nothing has changed since my February post. GARY.
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