Harris XL-200P Full Spectrum Radio

[ElroyJetson]

Sure, to have perfect end to end coverage with cell-class tower sites, you'd need LOTS of them. For full wifi coverage, you'd need even more.

But it's actually a practical and reasonable idea to build out systems to cover the metropolitan and urban areas in many places, while retaining a need for bigger, longer range sites for rural area coverage.

Look at the cost model: 20 channel trunking site with 300 foot tower: What's that going to cost, at least a million bucks? I'm not really sure. A cell site is a few hundred grand. A wifi access point can be under a hundred bucks for an indoor unit and run a few thousand for a longer range outdoor access point like a Cisco 1520. Let's say 2000 bucks for one of those. It'll cover several city blocks, depending on building construction types. And a couple hundred of them will give more thorough coverage in an urban environment than a centrally located trunking site, at lower cost.

You could even run even higher numbers of small outdoor rated access points in the 500 dollar range, like the Cisco 1310 and similar models, giving coverage in detail.

Granted, you're not going to blanket the entire county with tens of thousands of WAPs spaced a few hundred feet apart, but it's a viable option in the urban areas and actually some internet service providers have been setting up public wifi systems that already cover large portions of several cities, and are planned to eventually give complete coverage over entire cities.

A mix is the best solution. I'd say, densely packed WAPs in the urban jungle, longer range access points in the suburb and light industrial areas, cell type sites in the fringe areas, and full scale trunking sites for rural coverage and longer distances.

 

[MTS2000des]

R8000 test on VHF

Using our new R8000, our senior tech tested it on VHF (146.52MHz specifically), 12db sensitivity was down to .11uv and would unmute all the way down to .08uv. Power out was 6.33 watts, and freq error less than 16Hz.

Not bad. If he gets more time, he'll test UHF and 7/8 tomorrow, but other more pressing things are going on right now.

It certainly has it in the RF performance department. I don't need an R8000 to tell me how well it hears and talks. I've been comparing it side by to side to my XTS and APX radios and it's as good if not better at RX sensitivity.

 

[DisasterGuy]

The cell site concept has seen mixed results over the years. It is the basis for multi site (Harris world) or SmartZone (Moto world) design in P16 systems. It was also a driving concept in the design of iDEN and OpenSky.

Where there is real value is as underserved fill sites as was the concept of the Harris MicroMastr and their push for VDOC in the P25 standard. Some bugs need to be ironed out but I hope to see the MicroMastr return for small cell deployment.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

[cmdcomm]

Just got APX8000 "contract" pricing:
All band, TDMA , Wi-Fi $6,900.00
Add AES/DES,DES-XL, DES-OFB, ADP $8,200.00

Thanks for the pics!

 

[ElroyJetson]

I'm curious about the wi-fi capability of these newest radios.

Can it be used as an alternate voice communications path? (VOIP)

An "intelligent" radio would know what communications systems are currently available to it, and switch
to a backup automatically if a primary path was unavailable. So if the trunking system goes down or is out of range but wi-fi access is available, switch to wi-fi.

 

[cmdcomm]

Soon, but not yet. It can be used to update the radio when it is in range of a programmed wifi network

 

[NavyBOFH]

Just got APX8000 "contract" pricing:
All band, TDMA , Wi-Fi $6,900.00
Add AES/DES,DES-XL, DES-OFB, ADP $8,200.00

Thanks for the pics!

Good to know - I put in a quote request for the figures you stated above. $8k is a bit too steep even for that. What is the Harris price for the same?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MTS2000des]

Just got APX8000 "contract" pricing:
All band, TDMA , Wi-Fi $6,900.00
Add AES/DES,DES-XL, DES-OFB, ADP $8,200.00

Thanks for the pics!

This matches what I was quoted for an APX8000. I'll pass. I already have two 7000s and a 6000.

But the Harris is a radio I would for sure consider replacing the APXs with. One radio that covers all public safety and amateur bands, all the encryption support I would need. And lots of cool "radio people" features like RSSI/dbM display, channel/talkgroup display on trunking. and most importantly, HIGH PERFORMANCE RF.

Don't know if I'd give one to animal control or public health, but then they have an XG-15P for less than a grand and does phase 2.

Harris has proven they are serious about the public safety subscriber market.

Glad to see that.

 

[MTS2000des]

More XL-200P porn

Got a 2nd demo unit issued to me, this one is a system model, in black. Gotta say, the more I use this radio, the more I like it. If it would only work on Smartnet (fat chance) I would only have to carry ONE radio.

Got bored with my DSLR on a rainy Georgia day...

 

[MTS2000des]

 

[MTS2000des]

 

[ElroyJetson]

No doubt it's a good radio, but I've gotta say, Motorola has always made better looking radios and I don't see that the 200 is going to cause me to change my mind. The APX looks a lot more professional.

Granted, looks are not a major factor. You need a radio that gets the job done and at a fair price.

But the whole GE-to-Harris radio product line has always had some fairly goofy looking cosmetics. It's just something I expect of them.

 

[MTS2000des]

No doubt it's a good radio, but I've gotta say, Motorola has always made better looking radios and I don't see that the 200 is going to cause me to change my mind.

Looks may be important to some, but as a professional who is evaluating a product on it's merit, we look at:
1)-Does it meet standardized specifications?
2)-Is it compatible with our needs?
3)-Is it built well? Does the vendor have local support? Warranty, etc.
4)-Is it priced competitively, is it a good value.

Bottom line, the Harris is HALF the price of the all band competition when comparably equipped. That fact alone cannot be ignored. Harris is not a newbie to the market, their experience is just as strong as the competition.

Most users really don't care about looks the way the hobbyist in me does. It's about performance, compatibility, quality, and price. Users want a radio that works, and doesn't break their budget.

The APX looks a lot more professional.

The APX8000 should have been built on the 7000 platform, the small display does not match the high tier price. But that is my personal opinion. One of our personnel has one, and it performs as well as the APX7000s we have in service, and is certainly a refined product. But the price makes it unrealistic for many.

But the whole GE-to-Harris radio product line has always had some fairly goofy looking cosmetics. It's just something I expect of them.

The agencies who use them don't seem to mind. Many who have EDACS systems still use M-RKs. I think that's a sexy looking radio, but I've never used one, so I don't have any baseline performance wise to really judge the build quality, and the important factors like RF performance, TX/RX audio quality, and serviceability.

OTOH, the XTS2500 is an attractive looking radio. It is also a disposable one. I know of one agency near us that has had many problems with the mode selector going bad and rendering the radio useless, all because Motorola didn't bother to properly strain relief it, and using the radio with the factory holster T-strap causes too much pressure on the knob, causing it to break. It requires a complete teardown to board level repair.

Looks are not everything and the least important in my professional opinion.

 

[ElroyJetson]

I don't disagree with anything you've said.

I'm going to predict that Motorola's response to the 200 will be a big price drop for the 8000.

I agree, the 8000 should have been built on the 7000 chassis with the larger display, but then again, the advantage of a smaller display is that it's a bit less likely to get broken and the 6000 display is really very adequate for its task. More than adequate, it's really very good.

It took a long time to get to this point, with high resolution full color displays on multi-band and even all-band portable radios. Today we can get the radios that I dreamed about 10 years ago.

 

[WNZT398]

Harris XL-200

Beta testing going well.

 

[ElroyJetson]

Question for you: Does this radio allow concurrent receive on multiple bands? If not, do you prioritize which band is the one to be heard?

 

[freeonfreak]

Absolutely. It'll receive across 136-864. You can program channels in any order.

 

[ElroyJetson]

So, what happens when you receive two simultaneous signals? Do you hear them both, or is one prioritized over the other?

 

[freeonfreak]

Based on your 4 scan priority levels. If 100 channels are programmed with the same priority scan level, then whichever opens the receiver first, will be heard. Additionally you can add scan hang time and talkback on scanned settings. This proves how robust it is.

 

[ElroyJetson]

So it does NOT do concurrent receive. Which is what I was asking.

Good to know.