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New Member/Need help obtaining used APX7000

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CCSD804

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Joined
Oct 11, 2014
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Location
Sequim, WA
Hi,
I'm a retired LEO living in WA working as an uncompensated Special Deputy on the Cold Case Homicide Team. My Dept switched to APX7000 Model 3.5 portables with a grant from Homeland Security. Unfortunately, the grant did not provide radios for the Special Deputies so if we want a radio we have to provide onwe ourselves which our radio tech will program but he can't service or repair them as he doesn't have the training. I'm hoping to get some pointers and advice in obtaining a used APX7000 as a new one is far outside the budget of my retired pension.
Thanks,
Al
 

RodStrong

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Joined
Nov 11, 2007
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1,170
Location
West
I just bought a several of those, and they averaged just under 6 grand each. Even used, I suspect they would come in way above what would be reasonable for your situation. Based on the info. you have given so far, buying a used APX with personal funds would not be an option (for me at least).

Can you tell us what kind of radio system you guys are operating on? Maybe someone here can recommend an alternative. Good luck.
 

CCSD804

Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
8
Location
Sequim, WA
Rod,
Thanks for your reply. My agency uses a conventional system at present but has plans to upgrade. The radios are also UHF1/VHF as they are programmed with the frequencies off all the other local agencies both in our county and surrounding counties for inter agency assistance. I don't know of any other dual band portable that is programmable for the same frequency ranges.
 

sfd119

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Messages
1,763
If they are conventional, you can still get an XTS for less than $1,000.
 

CCSD804

Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
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Location
Sequim, WA
Thanks for the reply but the XTS is only a single band. I need the dual band capacity of the APX7000 to have compatibility with the rest of our radios and to be able to take advantage of any future system upgrades.
 

sfd119

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Messages
1,763
Thanks for the reply but the XTS is only a single band. I need the dual band capacity of the APX7000 to have compatibility with the rest of our radios and to be able to take advantage of any future system upgrades.

Not really, your primary system is going to be one band thus negating the fact for two. Your limited, out of pocket budget, won't get you a dual band, digital Motorola for over $1500 used.
 

sfd119

Member
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Messages
1,763
Looking at the RR Database for your area, your county and the bordering county all use UHF for the Police stuff. Fire looks like VHF so you wouldn't really need dual band unless a cold case homicide team needs to talk to Fire/EMS?
 

CCSD804

Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
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Location
Sequim, WA
It's not so much Fire/EMS as other Agencies outside of the adjoining county as we do travel to jurisdictions that are on VHF and are programmed into our APX7000s so it would just be a matter of cloning my APX7000 from the Dept codeplug if I could find one. I've seen comments about the APX7000s you see on EBay without Tags or without matching tags. Are they all stolen or misappropriated ( being a LEO I certainly don't want to be involved with a questionable radio ) ?. If not, how do I tell ?. I did read that most if not all of them are ALT radios so may be unreliable.
 

sfd119

Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2009
Messages
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Well, anything on eBay is more than likely a DEV/ALT radio or stolen. ALT/DEV radios were meant to be destroyed but went missing. Those radios will also fail a lot quicker because the were developmental/testing type radios aka, not good for a public safety lifeline. Lately, eBay users have been making their own tags to make it seem more "legit".

Bottom line: You won't get a used, legit APX for under $1600ish. Buy the seller not the radio.

Just pursue a UHF XTS for your area and get a VHF XTS when you can afford it. Two XTSs will run you around $1000-$1200 for both.
 

RodStrong

Member
Joined
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Messages
1,170
Location
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My agency uses a conventional system at present but has plans to upgrade. The radios are also UHF1/VHF as they are programmed with the frequencies off all the other local agencies both in our county and surrounding counties for inter agency assistance. I don't know of any other dual band portable that is programmable for the same frequency ranges.

Hi again,

Sounds like you are leaning hard towards an APX, which is of course your decision. Again, based on my interpretation of your situation (retired, unpaid, having to use personal funds, etc.) I wouldn't do it man.

As others have said, due to the high prices involved and the complexity of the radios, buying a used APX is very risky. And something we haven't touched upon yet is that I assume you don't yet know what this future "upgrade" of your radio system will be. It could be to 700/800mhz, or, even if you could buy a used APX with the appropriate bands in it right now, you would not know what features to seek in the radio to match your future system. Buying something now and blindly stumbling into the right features on a used radio is not likely to happen. Even if the APX was fundamentally suitable to work on your future system, there's a strong chance you would someday have to flash the radio (more $$$).

Not trying to lean on you or impose, but I just wouldn't do it. If this was money coming out of my pocket, and you guys currently use analog conventional UHF and VHF, I would probably buy a couple of mobiles for my ride to cover both bands and one portable for UHF (the primary police radio). Or maybe a second VHF portable of the same type so batteries/accessores can be shared. I can't imagine as a retired part time investigator that you would ever have a need for both bands at the same time anyway. Use the UHF for your daily work and swap batteries and fire up the VHF if you go out of county and need it.

You can get a decent enough analog conventional portable or mobile (what I assume would fit your needs) for probably a couple hundred-ish bucks each and up. If you want to roll the dice and get digital capable radios, you can count on a thousand-ish each, but I wouldn't do that either. I'd buy the cheaper radios and replace/upgrade as needed, not blow a bunch of money up front hoping I made the right decision.

I'd much rather safely spend 400-500 bucks on a sure thing for now than gamble a couple thousand on something that may or may not work, and may need more money dumped into it in the future. Of course, that's just an opinion.

Again, good luck no matter what you choose to do.
 

CCSD804

Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
8
Location
Sequim, WA
Thanks all for your input. I have my own MT2000 that I've got programmed with our UHF frequencies and have been using for the last few years. I think I'll hold off on getting the APX7000 and continue to use my MT2000 unless and until we switch to a system that's not compatible.
 

firetaz834

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Joined
Dec 21, 2007
Messages
323
Location
Metro Area, MI
Another suggestion is that since you have a MT2000 in UHF, you could buy an inexpensive VHF radio and carry it for when you need it when working another jurisdiction. Just a suggestion.
 

CCSD804

Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
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Location
Sequim, WA
I saw that one. However with no tags and the sellers claim that after " he loaned it to a friend " it came back with an initialization error of 01/82. What a crock. The fix for a 01/82 is to reprogram the codeplug. If it was fine when loaned it it seems the only cause would be his friend having a problem when he attempted to program the radio. If so, why didn't his friend reprogram the codeplug or why wouldn't the seller make his " friend " fix the problem. Way too much money to take the risk that reprogramming the codeplug will fix the problem when the sellers story makes no sense.
 

SCPD

QRT
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Feb 24, 2001
Messages
0
Location
Virginia
I will vouch if you go credit card way or loan rick Thompson is a legit radio seller. I bought equipment off him before. Legit flashes and firmware updates. Rickthompson602t on ebay. Never had a problem with equipment.
 

sfd119

Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2009
Messages
1,763
I saw that one. However with no tags and the sellers claim that after " he loaned it to a friend " it came back with an initialization error of 01/82. What a crock. The fix for a 01/82 is to reprogram the codeplug. If it was fine when loaned it it seems the only cause would be his friend having a problem when he attempted to program the radio. If so, why didn't his friend reprogram the codeplug or why wouldn't the seller make his " friend " fix the problem. Way too much money to take the risk that reprogramming the codeplug will fix the problem when the sellers story makes no sense.

97% of the APXs out on eBay are junk. Buy the seller.
 
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