• To anyone looking to acquire commercial radio programming software:

    Please do not make requests for copies of radio programming software which is sold (or was sold) by the manufacturer for any monetary value. All requests will be deleted and a forum infraction issued. Making a request such as this is attempting to engage in software piracy and this forum cannot be involved or associated with this activity. The same goes for any private transaction via Private Message. Even if you attempt to engage in this activity in PM's we will still enforce the forum rules. Your PM's are not private and the administration has the right to read them if there's a hint to criminal activity.

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    To obtain Motorola software see the Sticky in the Motorola forum.

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    For M/A Com/Harris/GE, etc: there are two software packages that program all current and past radios. One package is for conventional programming and the other for trunked programming. The trunked package is in upwards of $2,500. The conventional package is more reasonable though is still several hundred dollars. The benefit is you do not need multiple versions for each radio (unlike Motorola).

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Real or fake?

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ZS6HZ

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So, boys and girls, here's your test for the day. Is the attached pic of a genuine or a counterfeit Motorola battery?

There's a telltale clue. Can you see it?
f10b7514b37e88e9fe03983da7a83134.jpg
 

Voyager

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I, too, was looking at the logo (the batwings are overlapping), but it could be a bad print. And the Rechatge mis-spelling could be Motorola. Two things I'm liooking at harder are the LIon cells and Taiwan as the source. I wasn't aware Motorola had LIons, and last I knew they used cells from Japan. Of course, those are both subject to change.
 

ZS6HZ

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Res5cue is the winner. [emoji3] Motorola would never release a battery with "recharge" spelled incorrectly, and with lousy punctuation.

These batteries are being sold for $50 in Goma, DRC. Not only are they fake, but they don't last, and they devalue the brand that Motorola spends a lot of money on building. But in Africa, money is always an issue, so the place is flooded with counterfeit Chinese goods. You can't trust ANYTHING you don't import yourself from South Africa or Europe.

Duracell batteries, Nokia phones, Samsung TV's, "genuine" car spares, even counterfeit Goodyear and Bridgestone tyres are sold here.
 

Voyager

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Actually, I just checked, and that part number IS a LIon battery, but when did Motorola change to Taiwan for cells?

Also, I looked at a couple batteries known to be genuine, and they too have punctuation errors. One has that recharge line in all Caps For Each And Every Word, and another has the same except the words "is not" are in the correct case. So, Motorola does release batteries with incorrect gramatics.
 
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ZS6HZ

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Oh, just for interests sake, the real Motorola PMNN4066 is a 7.2V LiIon battery, and some did contain cells made in Taiwan according to the information I have been able to get hold of.
 

ZS6HZ

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That's interesting, Voyager. I've never seen spelling mistakes on /\/\ products. I guess we have to forgive them the Initial Capitals [emoji6]
 

KG4INW

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The date code is wrong as well since Motorola switched to four digits well before that late in 2012. The correct one should be 1247.
 

Rred

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Batteries, all kinds of batteries, have long been filled with counterfeits and scams because there's a lot of profit to be made that way. And by the time the customer finds out, if they find out, the seller is long gone.

Gen-you-whine Motorola cell phone batteries were sold online for years, with "high capacity" labels slapped over regular batteries. Who can tell?

Amazon is full of Ultrafire batteries. Except, Ultrafire doesn't manufacture batteries with the same volt and amp ratings that +90% of the Amazon sellers claim.

Same thing for spark plugs and common auto parts, many other things. Except of course, cheap counterfeit lithium batteries have that knack of catching fire or exploding. :-(

--Red
 

Voyager

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Batteries, all kinds of batteries, have long been filled with counterfeits and scams because there's a lot of profit to be made that way. And by the time the customer finds out, if they find out, the seller is long gone.

Not just batteries. ALL kinds of electronics and electronic components.
 

ZS6HZ

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Indeedy. I was in the local market in Goma yesterday to buy a Nokia cellphone to attach to my Trbonet server... I had to take a laptop with me because about 60% of the "Nokia" phones in the market wouldn't see genuine Nokia software suite because they were fakes.

Some had the name "KONKA" or "ONKIA" on them in the same font as "NOKIA", but others were identical to the real deal.

This is how it works... I go into the market and I get accosted by vendors a) because I'm a foreigner, b) because I'm white, and c) because they KNOW I'm in the market to buy something...

I check out as many phones as I can until I identify one that will be suitable, then I get the name of the guy selling the phone (Gilbert) and get a price from him... In this case, he wants $300 for a simple phone (which was probably stolen in neighboring Rwanda)

Then I go back to my client's office and speak to his assistant, a Congolese guy named Henry. Henry waits a few hours, then wanders into the market. Innocently he meanders through until he gets to Gilbert's stall and looks through some phones. He eventually asks the price of the phone I identified and he's told it's $70. He bargains it down to $50. Henry brings me the phone, and I give him $30 for his efforts....

:)
 
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