• 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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    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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Harris comparable radios

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BlueMoon2

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Hello everyone,

My area is going to a Harris p25 phase 2 system. Many officers have either a Motorola apx 6000 or 8000 radio. It looks to me like a comparable Harris radio might be the xg-100p or xl-200p. Am I right?


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Thunderknight

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The 100 (no longer made) or the current 200 is equivalent to the 8000 in that it is all band.
I think there are a few choices in single band (like the 6000 is).

I should note that the APXes could be used on a Harris system if the system owner so permits.
 

rescue674aa

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You won’t be able to use a XL200p or any radio above R04 or R05 will not be able to be backed down to use with RPM10b. Sorry.


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BlueMoon2

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Rescue67, I’m not sure what you mean. I assume that Rxx is a firmware version. I’m brand new to the world of Harris. I’ve only just looked at their website.

According to Harris’ website, the xl-200p is a newer radio. Already no longer made? I also understand that the Motorola apx radios could be allowed on the new system, if approved by the system owner. How would that work?

I have looked for videos of Harris xg and xl radios online, but I’m only coming up with Harris sales videos and two other non-sales videos. That new? Or that proprietary?


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ElroyJetson

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DO NOT ASK ME FOR HELP PROGRAMMING YOUR RADIO. NO.
RPM is the software package used to program Harris radios. It's virtually impossible for a private citizen to get his hands on a USABLE version of RPM above version 10B.

Some radios can not be used with 10B. It requires newer software, which you can't get. OK, suppose someone gave you the newer software. It's useless to you because each installation of it has to be authenticated by Harris individually. Without that authentication it's useless to you. Harris won't authenticate your installation if you don't have a signed contract with Harris and you've handed them the appropriate large sum of money.

The oldest P25 Phase II capable radio is certain versions of the P7200. The P7300/XG-75 is one radio that can do it BUT finding one with Phase II features is rare and expensive. The XG-25 and P5500 are also potential candidates.

It's cheaper and easier to buy a scanner. And much safer from a legal perspective.
 

rescue674aa

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I second Elroy’s statement.


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BlueMoon2

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I understand what you’re saying and I wouldn’t even try to get a personal p25 phase 2 Harris radio. I just made that last statement from the perspective of what my local government might be thinking.

If my local government is going from a Motorola smartnet system to a Harris p25 phase 2 system, would they have to get rid of the Motorola xts radios and apx radios to go to the new Harris radios or could the mix up? I’m just trying to figure out what the process would be.

I know that you naturally would have to install the new infrastructure first and migrate down to end user radios.


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Thunderknight

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To the OP, I think everyone jumped the gun and figured you wanted to try and program a personal radio for listening to the system.

If you are just an interested observer/citizen, then there are two ways they could proceed. They could buy all new Harris end user equipment (perhaps as part of a larger turnkey system bid), or they could re-use their existing Motorola subscribers. The 8000 and 6000 are quite new and should serve them just fine.

The XL-200 is still being made and the Harris flagship multiband radio. There are other models they make that are single band.
 

BlueMoon2

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Thunder knight, thank you. Sorry to anyone for the misunderstanding. I am just a citizen radio enthusiast that is also a ham. In a search that happened yesterday, one of the deputies mentioned that they were going to be getting new radios. He has a Motorola apx series radio and I thought it strange that they were going to be getting radios when the ECC has just recently talked about building a new tower for the infrastructure.

I just didn’t know exactly (and still don’t know) where we are in the new radio system process.


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kayn1n32008

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I understand what you’re saying and I wouldn’t even try to get a personal p25 phase 2 Harris radio. I just made that last statement from the perspective of what my local government might be thinking.

If my local government is going from a Motorola smartnet system to a Harris p25 phase 2 system, would they have to get rid of the Motorola xts radios and apx radios to go to the new Harris radios or could the mix up? I’m just trying to figure out what the process would be.

I know that you naturally would have to install the new infrastructure first and migrate down to end user radios.


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If it’s a phase 2 system, then the XTS/XTL radios won’t work, they are phase 1 only.

The APX would be fine, if they were proven to work with the system.

My province went with a Harris phase 1 system, and at there are multiple agencies using APX subscribers on it. There are approved radios from all manufacturers that produce 700/800MHz subscriber radios(Tait, Kenwood, Relm, Harris, Motorola)


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rescue161

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It depends on what features they plan to use on the new Harris system. If they are using OTAP, then that feature will not work with other vendor's radios. If OTAP is not used, then their Motorola would work fine as long as they were flashed for the features that the system supports. XTL/XTS radios will also work, they will just tear Phase 2 talkgroups down to Phase 1 when they are affiliated to said Phase 2 talkgroups.
 

BlueMoon2

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So update on the original post, I found out yesterday that they are going to trade in all Motorola radios for Harris radios.

So back to the original question, if Motorola apx radios are the latest and greatest that Motorola offers, what about the latest and greatest that Harris offers? The website is kind of confusing. There’s xg series and xl series. Help?!


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KJ4NFP

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My thoughts...

Hi there!

I'm an RSA for a Harris phase 2 system and on the admin board for a moto phase 1 system. I'll share a few thoughts that might help.

1. It's been said and is true that moto radios will work on the phase 2 in all of the required P25 compliant areas. OTAP is not one of those so there must be some proprietary servers to bridge the gap. Not too hard really, just expensive and one more link in the chain to fail.

2. Phase 1 radios will work, but it will revert the talkgroup (and voice channel) to fdma, rather than tdma.

3. I use the Harris XG-75, XG-25, and XG15 on my system for all portable users. The higher model number represents a higher tier and lower represents the lower tier. They are not bad radios. They don't hold up as well as the moto or kenwood (though that may be my users as opposed to the manufacturer).

4. we have a few of the xl-200p in all band and LTE. very nice radio and I like it far better than the APX.

5. We use the xg 25 and xg100 mobiles. Very solid radios and feature packed.

There is not a ton of info on Harris out there as they do not hold the secondary market in the same way that Moto and Kenwood do. They have also been sold a myriad of times so their name changes. They are also quite expensive as well. I use Harris (ma/com) m7100 as my mobile ham rig daily alongside my d710. Really great radios.

I hope my ramblings shed some light for you!

73's
KJ4NFP
 

BlueMoon2

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Kj4nfp,

Thank you! I agree there’s not a lot of info out there about them, which is why I’m trying to get more. Can you pm me? I have a few more questions about how they work, etc.

73

Kk4sho


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JacksonPD

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I have always been a Motorola Fanboy, however, I was recently given an XL-200P to test and this blows my APX8000 out of the water. Hands down the best radio I have ever owned. The audio is significantly better than the APX6000/8000. Much deeper base. Just sounds a whole lot better and seems to equalize the radio traffic volume. The Range and Battery life are about the same. I like the use of operations a lot better and the built-in Instant Call Recorder is amazing. It allows my officer to play back the last several radio calls. I think our agency is going to be purchasing about 200 of these in the next couple of months. The Best part was that the APX6000 single band was going to cost around $4500 with the features we needed and the XL-200P VHF/7/800 was only costing $3300.
 
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DisasterGuy

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Stay tuned for several new version and accessory releases for the XL185p and XL200p as well, particularly of interest to the fire service community.

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KJ4NFP

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I have both the apx and the XL and I will say I tend to grab the XL-200 first at this point. It has become my everyday radio.
 

low3oh

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I love my XL200 and wouldn't give it up for anything anyone else makes.

I will contend that the radio offers the average user too many options, however with the newer RPM software you can "hide" menus so that has become a non-issue.

call playback is especially helpful for me on a fire scene or MVA where there is lots of ambient noise. Turning the backlight to momentary (off) will preserve tons of battery life.

also really like being able to color code my channels, so at a glance I can tell if I'm listening to dispatch, an ops channel, or scanning something like the local PD.

I honestly believe they knocked it out of the park with that radio.
 
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