Odd New commercial dual band portable radio?

[gewecke]

Is anyone familiar with a new commercial grade dual band portable radio which covers 136-174mhz. and 420-470mhz.? Strangely enough,it IS keyboard programmable AND fcc type accepted!
The only other info I have on it is the fcc registration info. Q9DBA
The name of the radio is DBA and no model number anywhere on the radio!
Supposedly there's only about 500 of these in circulation.
N9ZAS.

[fineshot1]

Do you have a link? I can not seem to find it via google.

[gewecke]

Yeah,I couldn't either. It's one of those deals where some make of dual band ham talkie had the flash rewritten in for additional features and some were deleted. I'm told that the 500 or so units that were produced are being sent back to the source. DBA are the guy's initials behind this project.
I've heard one on the air and it sounded good from a local dealer,but the features don't apply to the public safety needs required for fire services. You can't give a user programmable radio to police or fire dept. because it's simply too complicated for most of them.
N9ZAS

[fineshot1]

Originally Posted by gewecke

You can't give a user programmable radio to police or fire dept. because it's simply too complicated for most of them.
N9ZAS

Yes - right on the mark, and the DBA sounds interesting.

[jim202]

Being more to the point, a radio with what is called "FRONT PANEL PROGRAMMABLE" is not allowed
by the FCC except to a very few agencies. Most of them are federal users. So if this animal manged
to slip out to the general user, I would expect that a recall would be in order.

If this radio your talking about is for ham use only, then the radio would be software restricted by
the firmware in the radio. It would not be allowed to be operated in the TX mode outside the ham
frequencies. There are a number of ham band only radios that can operate in multiple bands on
the market right now.

I think we are both saying the same thing here, but just using different words. I would like to
know more about the radio in question though. Mainly which company is it from.

Jim

Originally Posted by gewecke

Yeah,I couldn't either. It's one of those deals where some make of dual band ham talkie had the flash rewritten in for additional features and some were deleted. I'm told that the 500 or so units that were produced are being sent back to the source. DBA are the guy's initials behind this project.
I've heard one on the air and it sounded good from a local dealer,but the features don't apply to the public safety needs required for fire services. You can't give a user programmable radio to police or fire dept. because it's simply too complicated for most of them.
N9ZAS

[DaveNF2G]

I smell forfeiture.

Sounds like someone modified a ham rig (or a few hundred ham rigs) to transmit out of band and started selling them without FCC certification.

[timjude]

There are others that were feild programmable such as relm and bendix king and they were type accepted,Some kenwoods are also this way..The fact that its dual band would not matter and i would say it's possible that it does exist..I am a former 911 dispatcher and we has a standard communications dual bander commercial radio and you could re-program it by powering it up while holding in a combination of buttons..

[zz0468]

Originally Posted by timjude

TI am a former 911 dispatcher and we has a standard communications dual bander commercial radio and you could re-program it by powering it up while holding in a combination of buttons..

There are lots of keyboard programmable radios out there. The point, however, is that FCC approval requires that mode not be available to "end users". A sequence of keystrokes to put the radio in a service mode does not constitute the definition of "keyboard programmable" in the context of what the end users can do, and what the FCC would allow. Presumably, that sequence is supposed to kept out of their hands.

Another common method is the internal jumper. We all know of radios where one can add a jumper and suddenly the radio is programmable from the panel, or will operate out of band.

It's little different than the stock radio supplied with software and a RIB so the end user can just reprogram it when necessary. I don't think that's what the FCC had in mind, either, but it happens.

[gewecke]

Originally Posted by jim202

Being more to the point, a radio with what is called "FRONT PANEL PROGRAMMABLE" is not allowed
by the FCC except to a very few agencies. Most of them are federal users. So if this animal manged
to slip out to the general user, I would expect that a recall would be in order.

If this radio your talking about is for ham use only, then the radio would be software restricted by
the firmware in the radio. It would not be allowed to be operated in the TX mode outside the ham
frequencies. There are a number of ham band only radios that can operate in multiple bands on
the market right now.

I think we are both saying the same thing here, but just using different words. I would like to
know more about the radio in question though. Mainly which company is it from.

Jim

I tried to find out where this radio originated from,and DBA are the name and initials of the person marketing it are all I could find. As you pointed out it should not have been given fcc type acceptance,so there's mystery #1. Another is This radio was not given the add/skip feature or a channel select knob but a vfo instead! Whoever intended this thing to be a public safety radio dropped the ball!
This thing is a oddity to say the least so it's probably a good thing they're going back to the manufacturer...whoever that is?
N9ZAS

[rescuecomm]

DBA = Doing Business As? The whole thing is rather odd. The only front panel programmable radios I have heard of are for SAR helos and aircraft.

Bob

[MPSCS]

Originally Posted by DaveNF2G

I smell forfeiture.

Sounds like someone modified a ham rig (or a few hundred ham rigs) to transmit out of band and started selling them without FCC certification.

Possibly the "DBA" stands for Dual Band Amateur?

[gewecke]

A guy named Andy Holzberg marketed this thing in the USA. AKA; DB-Andy is what it say's on the front panel of the radio. It's actually the same exact radio as a "Quansheng"
Here's a site which markets it. I played around with one today which is brand new...strange radio,but nice sounding.
409Shopwww.409shop.com 409 �講機 專門店 KG-UVD1 VX-8R VX-3R VX-7R VX-170 KG-699E KG-669 KG-689 PX-777 PX-888 FT-897 FT-857 VX-177 VXA-300 KG-679 VEV-3288S V-1000 TG-UV FT-817ND FT-60R FT-897 FT-857 VX-7R VX-7RB VX-6R VX-3R FT-1802M FT-8800R VX

N9ZAS

[code3cowboy]

Many portable and mobile radios are face programmable.
Contrators

In the late 90s Vertex started with a Dual Band HT. Vertex Standard FTH-2070 Dual Band Portable Two-Way Radio Info

It kinda sucked but it worked.

[gewecke]

Originally Posted by code3cowboy

Many portable and mobile radios are face programmable.
Contrators

In the late 90s Vertex started with a Dual Band HT. Vertex Standard FTH-2070 Dual Band Portable Two-Way Radio Info

It kinda sucked but it worked.

The FTH 2070 was a true dual band type accepted public safety radio. There are still some around. But keep in mind,that's the difference between a legitimate commercial radio and a chinese import "knockoff" designed to LOOK like a popular radio sold here in the USA. Most of the imports have strange features,sometimes not usable or legal in our country.
Example? The "DB-Andy" Actually is a dual band ham rig,but allows full commercial radio access via the keypad without ANY modification. Here's the strange stuff...88-108mhz.fm NOT wide fm as needed here.
Single inversion scrambler built in,silly little alarm function(not a man down alarm),and tone search!
Have you ever seen a professional commercial public safety radio with tone search??
Type aceptance? Yeah there's a sticker...but the fcc id is not verifiable. We tried this.
This radio retails for $585.00 in the US,but $ 113.00 over there.
N9ZAS

[WA4MJF]

Well, if it is a fairly recent radio and has a FCC type acceptance ID, then it is a fake. The FCC has not type accepted radios since late last century. Newer radios will have a FCC certification. The FCC has no authority over the Feds radio useage, that is the NTIA's purview.

[mikepdx]

Holzberg Communications
Totowa, NJ
(We don't need no stinkin' FCC acceptance)

Dual Band Radio - DB-ANDY

Spec Sheet .pdf

If you look carefully at the pic of the radio, near the [Func] button it shows model # GEC-UV800
Google that model number and it's available here and there.
It's "on sale" here for $499: http://www.emergencyresponderproduct...aprpovhft.html

Manufacturer:
Global Electronic Communication Group Co.,Ltd
Shenzhen, Red China
http://www.gecomm.com.cn/index.asp

On the manufacturer's website under Trunked Soluation in the DHTML menu,
hover your mouse over the first drop down entry - Public Security -
a little box pops up and says "a coded list of spies"
NOT JOKING.

Hmm....

[gewecke]

Originally Posted by mikepdx

Holzberg Communications
Totowa, NJ
(We don't need no stinkin' FCC acceptance)

Dual Band Radio - DB-ANDY

Spec Sheet .pdf

If you look carefully at the pic of the radio, near the [Func] button it shows model # GEC-UV800
Google that model number and it's available here and there.
It's "on sale" here for $499: Dual Band, Professional Portable VHF Two-Way Radio FM Transceiver

Manufacturer:
Global Electronic Communication Group Co.,Ltd
Red China
Global Electronic Communication Group Co.,Ltd

Yeah,they sell it for $499 and shop.com sells it overseas for $113 in US dollars,and then Andy Holzberg tries to peddle it here in the states for a whompin' $585.00 ! For what? A hacked ham rig with extra features that will get you in trouble,quite frankly.
N9ZAS

[DaveNF2G]

I'm sure we'll see a press release or announcement of NAL against a "New Jersey radio shop" some day soon. LOL.

[kjfswkr]

Originally Posted by code3cowboy

Many portable and mobile radios are face programmable.

In the late 90s Vertex started with a Dual Band HT. Vertex Standard FTH-2070 Dual Band Portable Two-Way Radio Info

It kinda sucked but it worked.

I bougth one of these radios when they first came out and that was the mid 1980's. Nice radio but limited.

Kevin

[fineshot1]

Originally Posted by DaveNF2G

I'm sure we'll see a press release or announcement of NAL against a "New Jersey radio shop" some day soon. LOL.

Dave - perhaps i missed something but can you elaborate on this?