MPA vs LPE-200

[ve3nsv]

I own an MPA and I am looking to possibly upgrade to an LPE-200.

Anybody owned both and have an opinion relating to receive sensitivity, selectivity and audio quality and loudness?

[ElroyJetson]

In every way except for size, weight, and convenience, a healthy M-PA is FAR superior to a trashy little LPE.

LPE stands for "Little Piece of Excrement" in my book. I have no love for them.

EXCEPT for the new frequencies of the national mutual aid conventional channels, after rebanding, an M-PA is reband compatible, and so is the M-PD, to be really honest about it. In use on an EDACS
systems, an M-PA or M-PD can still be used after rebanding is complete. That's a dirty little secret
that a lot of people don't want to admit because it could result in fewer sales of new radios for a while.
Tbey perpetuate the myth that the old radios have to be retired as part of the rebanding process, and
it's just not true EXCEPT on the new conventional mutual aid channels.

A lot of M-PAs have failed due to old age. But LPEs have a shorter design service life than any M-PA
ever did. I'd take a 10 year old M-PA over a 2 year old LPE any day.

In bench tests, as you asked, the M-PA will win in every category.

Yes, I've owned every radio I mentioned here, and also Jaguars, 7100s,5100s, etc. and of all of them,
the best audio quality still is from the old M-PDs. The 7100s tend to have very good rx sensitivity
(I've seen some really incredibly sensitive 7100s, beating -130 dBM at 12 dB SINAD)
but at the expense of selectivity. M-PAs are both sensitive AND selective. LPEs are average in
sensitivity and OK in selectivity.

Based on my own tests on my own test bench, that is.


Elroy

[mitaux8030]

While I've not bench-tested a M-PA, I've had them side by side in a real world test and both seemed roughly equal in sensitivity. Mind you the LPE I have has been fully checked and tweaked to confirm it is working at specification. The M-PA as far as I know hadn't had any attention since it left the factory.

Testing a healthy M-RK against a healthy LPE showed the LPE was a decent 5dB more sensitive, but less selective, and the LPE suffered slightly more receiver blocking too. Somehow, the audio filtering of the LPE sounds good under moderately weak signal conditions, but definitely not as copyable as the M-RK is at <-115dBm. I suspect the same will be true of a M-PA vs LPE.