Quote:
Originally Posted by flecom
went ahead and fixed that up for you
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That is entirely unnecessary, absolutely incorrect, highly unprofessional, and very immature of you.
I've had a lot of radios made by both Motorola and GE/Macom/whatver over the years, and while both companies have made some real errors, both have also made some real winners, too.
The only M/A-Com portables that have stood up to Motorola's portables were the ones in aluminum housings. M-PAs and M-PDs. They're tough enough. They perform well. But give me a Saber,
instead. Or an XTS. For mobile radios, you can't beat a Syntor X9000, or a Rangr or Delta. They're
top quality, all of them. I'm not as impressed with Spectras, or with Orions. They all have their issues.
If I have my choice of either a Motorola portable or a M/A-Com portable when either will do the job,
and I have total freedom of choice among any model available, I'll take an XTS5000 over absolutely
anything in the M/A-Com catalog. I have a perfect VHF 7100IP, full system model, with EVERY
possible option, and for amateur use I reach for my XTS5K model 1 because it's a better radio.
For mobile radios, my two favorites are an X9000 with A7 control head and a Rangr with S825 control
head, if the large control head size doesn't create an installation problem.
Portables? Motorola is better. (Top models suitable for public safety) Mobiles? It's about a draw,
but when I installed a radio in my car, I went with Motorola because the A7 control head fits perfectly
IN the dash of my car, right under the AM/FM radio. (DIN size head fits in the DIN sized slot.)
If the dash had more depth available to it, I could have installed an Orion in there. I still could, if I went
to a remote head configuration, but I didn't, since I don't have a VHF Orion.
My opinion of which radios are better has been formed by having used them for many years. When I started
playing with radios, HT220s were still in production, I think. It's been 30 years since I took my first little steps
into the big world of radio, and over and over through all those years I've seen Motorola leading with
the best radios of the time and GE trailing, a distant second, with radios that are good, sometimes
equal, sometimes maybe a little bit better, but usually rather clunky and well behind the times,
technologically speaking. It wasn't until the M-PD that I started to see an improvement in the pace of
GE's technology improvements.
Nobody has yet made the perfect portable radio. But the XTS5000 is FAR closer to that goal than the
7100IP is.
The best I can say for my own 7100s is that they're the survivors of a larger lot that I repaired
and that mostly failed again fairly shortly. Motos that I fix, STAY fixed. I'm not so impressed with the rate of repeat failures on the 7100s. I certainly am not impressed with their method of construction.
Water damage is more common than it should be. But the RF gasket on the frame is a delicate piece of
garbage that is easily damaged just by taking the radio apart. And then it will leak. The main gasket
is nearly as bad. And the screw seals are atrocious. Proper weatherproofing of a typical 7100 by
rights should involve a needle tip on a tube of silicone caulk and lots of patience. I am not impressed,
and do not permit my own 7100s to get rained on because I do not trust the seals at all.
Granted, Sabers have their broken frame issues. But it's typically caused by untrained "technicians"
who don't have the torque reading screwdriver and correct spanner bit and don't know the manuals'
torque specs and/or don't pay attention to them. If torqued TO SPEC, the frames don't break.
For outright ruggedness, so far very little has been any better than a mere HT600, if equipped with the
control flex retainer. I've seen them survive things I'd have never bet a portable radio could survive,
including several intentional full force throws into concrete walls. Most radios may survive that for one
or two shots, but ten? An M-PD won't survive that. Been there, tried it. The HT600 lasted longer
under the same abuse-until-dead torture test.
Motorola? Crap? I hardly think so.
Elroy
Harris
Linear Mode
