Gettng information to purchase a radio

[umlawgrad]

How does one get the programing information to purchase a Motorola XTS radio? Say I wanted to purchase a radio to monitor the Nashville Davidson County digital system. I can't believe that the radio shop would be willing to give out the necessary information. However, I read of a lot of people who have radios (Open Sky, etc) in order to get the better quality than a consumer scanner can offer. Is there a secret? Of course I would only be interested in a receive only mode.

Thanks,
Steve.

 

[Grog]

Short answer, Buy a scanner...

 

[N4JNW]

If you want to monitor Nashville, you don't need an XTS. You'd just need a digital scanner, such as the RadioShack Pro-96, Uniden Bearcat 396T, or the top of the line, Uniden Bearcat 996T. Those are all examples of digital scanners, which will recieve Nashville's digital system.

There isn't any reason to buy a Motorola radio, unless the system you want to listen to is encrypted and then no scanner will recieve it, or, unless you are a part of the city's public service.

I don't reccomend purchasing a Motorola XTS. You could purchase a very high quality digital scanner for a fraction of the price, and be able to recieve so much more, other than just the system it is programmed for. Ever thought about scanning aircraft or trains? Everytime I go to music city, I'm all ears on BNA. If you have a XTS, all you're gonna get is Police, Fire and EMS.

 

[umlawgrad]

I understand that. I am just asking how someone who wants to purchase a, radio say ma/com or open sky or encrypted Motorola, gets the information to purchase the radio. I just used Nashville as an example. There seem to be enough people with Jaguars out there. Do they have connections with the agency? Where do they get the programing info?

 

[w8jjr]

How does one get the programing information to purchase a Motorola XTS radio? Say I wanted to purchase a radio to monitor the Nashville Davidson County digital system. I can't believe that the radio shop would be willing to give out the necessary information. However, I read of a lot of people who have radios (Open Sky, etc) in order to get the better quality than a consumer scanner can offer. Is there a secret? Of course I would only be interested in a receive only mode.

Thanks,
Steve.

All the info you need to program it is here. You can get a XTS from any motorola dealer. Put a repeating search on Ebay to mail results to you daily. They show on there at times.
For the programming software, Motorola requires a software license agreement for all Motorola Two-Way radio software. This signed agreement must be renewed every two years. This is a contract with you and Motorola, Inc. In addition to the software license agreement you must purchase the software license for every model you require. Software generally runs between $200.00 to $400.00, this includes two years of updates.
You can contact Motorola direct for your software needs - 800-814-0601 in the United States. In addition to the software license agreement and the individual radio software purchase you will need to purchase the correct programming cable (and RIB) for the radio you are looking to program. There are groups out in interland that trade moto software. Being a law grad you know the trouble with that. The reason people get them for Open Sky and the Passport radios is that scanners cant decode them. Not hard to program. If its not those two types, then getting a bcd396t (handheld) or a bcd996t (base-mobile) will work just fine. Hope this helps out.

 

[loumaag]

I understand that. I am just asking how someone who wants to purchase a, radio say ma/com or open sky or encrypted Motorola, gets the information to purchase the radio. I just used Nashville as an example. There seem to be enough people with Jaguars out there. Do they have connections with the agency? Where do they get the programing info?

The ProVoice or OpenSky radios can be had as have been alluded to here in the replies. There are exceptions and you would do well to inquire locally (try your regional forum) for information about a specific system. EDACS systems that are using ESK require special attention and generally you're out of luck. You mentioned Motorola encrypted, there too you are out of luck as you need the encryption key (which you are not going to get legally) to program the radio. That said, if you were just asking out of curiosity, this (and previous) replies should suffice to answer your question, if you are serious about a radio purchase for a specific monitoring need, you would have to be a lot more specific about your needs and once again either a regional forum or a specific radio type forum would be a better choice for these type of queries.