I've seen many high ranking officers in the department as well as plain clothes officers carrying these around for a while now. I'm assuming to replace the VX800 portables they were issuing officers since they are now discontinued. Anyone have any reviews on the VX824 portables?
NYPD now using Vertex VX824 portable
- Thread starter 4-crime
- Start date
- Status
Danny37
Member
I have the big brother vertex vx-929 UHF 450-490 radio it goes down to the 440 ham band with VHF receive board and vdme-200 board. It's best radio I've had since the ht1550 that I sold a while back.
I've had the radio since 2011, and still works great and I've dropped it so many times I can't even count. Although once it had a really bad fall, I guess it kicked it battery out of place cause it wouldn't turn on. All I had to do was take off the battery and put it back in and it worked fine. It's been through hurricane sandy.
My only complaint is that for some reason if the radio is on for a period of time (6-12 hours), the backlight doesn't work. An easy fix that always does it, is shutting the radio off and turning it back on. I have it set to "key on" so I every time I hit a key the backlight turns on. It's easier on the eyes for me.
I got the radio cheap around $120 on ebay auction that ended in the wee hours of the morning back in 2011. Invested in about $350 worth of accessories, VHF receive board, VDME-200 MDC board, Heavy duty speaker mic and leather swivel case. So for under $500 bucks I hooked this little bad boy up. Something I could never do with motorola. Although I do really miss my ht1550, xts3000 and my old astro saber (I needed to sell things off a while back for money). It does it job very well, I have the UHF for my EMS stuff, also can monitor GMRS, FRS and 440mhz ham. With the VHF receive board I can listen to transit, weather radio and marine freqs.
I love the 920/820 series, I'm actually looking into getting a P25 824/829 in the future and selling off my 929. But yea not now, I'm pinching pennies lol.
I've had the radio since 2011, and still works great and I've dropped it so many times I can't even count. Although once it had a really bad fall, I guess it kicked it battery out of place cause it wouldn't turn on. All I had to do was take off the battery and put it back in and it worked fine. It's been through hurricane sandy.
My only complaint is that for some reason if the radio is on for a period of time (6-12 hours), the backlight doesn't work. An easy fix that always does it, is shutting the radio off and turning it back on. I have it set to "key on" so I every time I hit a key the backlight turns on. It's easier on the eyes for me.
I got the radio cheap around $120 on ebay auction that ended in the wee hours of the morning back in 2011. Invested in about $350 worth of accessories, VHF receive board, VDME-200 MDC board, Heavy duty speaker mic and leather swivel case. So for under $500 bucks I hooked this little bad boy up. Something I could never do with motorola. Although I do really miss my ht1550, xts3000 and my old astro saber (I needed to sell things off a while back for money). It does it job very well, I have the UHF for my EMS stuff, also can monitor GMRS, FRS and 440mhz ham. With the VHF receive board I can listen to transit, weather radio and marine freqs.
I love the 920/820 series, I'm actually looking into getting a P25 824/829 in the future and selling off my 929. But yea not now, I'm pinching pennies lol.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2011
- Messages
- 1,401
I used to carry a vhf one before my county went 800 trunking. Had it for a few years. No complaints with mine. I know a couple guys that had issues with the speakers not working and a couple with boot loop problems. But all in all they were pretty tough well built radios I thought. I went from a 180 series to a 420 series to an 820 and l liked the 820 the best.
Danny37
Member
The vx-824 is a conventional analog radio. They have P25 version of it that runs in $1000s
Danny37
Member
Highly unlikely, NYPD operations are done on conventional analog mode.
jamezzy
Member
actually, its the vx-p824 ! we do not carry the cheaper one, dont ask me why lol
Danny37
Member
Wow really? I guess that's a flag, maybe P25 coming to ny in the future. I know cw4 is p25 and encripted.
jamezzy
Member
According to my old driver, who now works in radio repair, the reason being it does MDC1200 from the factory .The price they pay is no where near retail, so it was just easier to buy these he said....
Danny37
Member
Hmmm, i can't speak about the vx-824 but I have the big brother vx-929 and it does mdc1200 from the factory without the vdme board.
How do you get it to do MDC1200 without the vmde200 board installed?
Danny37
Member
I'm not at home right now but when I bought mines it had mdc1200 without vdme board. I discovered it I believe under the signal options in the software when you can choose DTMF as a signal option but the mdc1200 was also highlighted and so I used it. The only reason I have the board is so it can get rid if the squak of mdc1200 and to decide radio IDs on display from fleetsync, MDC and ge star.
- Status
Similar threads
