Midland LMR

[alexgeo]

I'm sure most of us know Midland Radio from their consumer-grade CB and GMRS radios. It seems like Midland was a fairly big player in the professional radio scene at one point in time. Even up until recently some low band radios used by the CHP were Midland's.

With that being said, is Midland still putting out bids for public safety and professional radio systems? I haven't seen any of their equipment installed anywhere. Their website has a section dedicated professional radios, but it's completely disorganized and looks like vaporware in my opinion. It's a shame considering that the Syn-Tech series of radios look so sharp...

 

[clbsquared]

From what I've seen recently, it would appear they are targeting farmers with their "Micro Mobile Bundle". Their ads are a little misrepresentative of their radios ability though.

 

[mmckenna]

Yeah, they seem to be fading away in the commercial sector. What radios they do have seemed to be aimed at the wildland fire market.
I haven't seen any of their new stuff in a while. I think they've been at recent trade shows, but nothing stands out.

Probably not something I'd invest in. Wouldn't want a bunch of Midland LMR radios only to have them drop completely out of the market.

CB, FRS, GMRS and weather radios seems to be where they are focusing their efforts.

 

[Wtrout]

Can you still use the midland vhf LMR radios or are they outdated and unusable?

 

[mmckenna]

Can you still use the midland vhf LMR radios or are they outdated and unusable?

Depends.
The really old stuff may not do narrow band deviation as required by the FCC, so may not be useable on LMR frequencies, but OK on ham frequencies.
The newer stuff is all narrow band capable and perfectly legal to use on ham or Part 90 LMR.

 

[Grondoline]

I was using Midland mobiles in my trucking business in the 1980's; still have a few laying around. Worked OK and cheaper than any of the Big Three during that era

 

[speedway_navigator]

I had one of their 64 channel (I think) mobiles with the compact control head in my service van, way ahead of GE and big M.
I think that was the radio with EPROMs, the chip had to be erased in a UV device for about 20 min before it was placed into the programmer. That was hex input, you had to use a chart to translate from freqs and PL codes to program that sucker.

Only down side was the cable from the T/R unit, it was like an IDE cable, flat at about 2" wide, hard to run to a trunk.

 

[AM909]

I had one of their 64 channel (I think) mobiles with the compact control head in my service van, way ahead of GE and big M.
I think that was the radio with EPROMs, the chip had to be erased in a UV device for about 20 min before it was placed into the programmer. That was hex input, you had to use a chart to translate from freqs and PL codes to program that sucker.

Only down side was the cable from the T/R unit, it was like an IDE cable, flat at about 2" wide, hard to run to a trunk.

That would be a 70-something. Didn't have to translate to hex when using the Midland programmer, a weird proprietary device that looked like a big desk calculator. Standard 2K (I think?) EPROM mounted to their own daughter board. They came out with round control cables at some point, but you still had to deal with the wide connectors on each end. We sold a bunch of those radios into pretty rough environments like cement mixers and tow and trash trucks. Great radios, rarely broke. Unfortunately didn't generate much service business. Nice small control heads – I had one in my Mustang's glove box. Fit perfectly.

 

[techman210]

Midland “made” a lot of base/repeater stations for the California Highway Patrol in VHF lowband.

They were actually manufactured by Oki- and that factory was wiped out by the Tsunami.

it was the 71-01xx line of radios.

 

[speedway_navigator]

Did the GE Phoenix need hex translation? I remember something did because I was in digital electronics at the community college in those days and was surprised to see hex out in the real world.

I left the GE shop in 1985, don't recall the round connector.

 

[CopperWhopper67]

I wrote to Midland a year and some change ago asking about their current and future presence in the Part 90 space (specifically P25). They wrote back promptly with,
"I am sorry we are completely out of the P25 business and have been for over 5 years . Nothing for the future"

 

[GlobalNorth]

Good grief. When I started in LE in the early 1980s, we had some Midland portables that remotely resembled the Motorola MX-300 and made our GE Mastr portables look slim and trim in comparison. Someone in the city had gotten a sweetheart deal with a small radio shop and they stuck us with them. The batteries were never fully seated unless the user pushed from the bottom up and they were better impact weapons than they were portable radios.

Thank goodness that person was fired and we got a real radio shop that sold us Moto gear that lasted, even when fully submerged in a swimming pool [no exaggeration - I did it on a drowning].

 

[speedway_navigator]

I was standing in the street with my boss of the GE shop while he was getting some stuff from his trunk. We both had portables on our belts and suddenly a San Diego cop stopped and asked us if we were cops since we had the same radios they did.

 

[apx7000xe]

Georgia State Patrol uses Midland VHF P25 repeaters for their statewide communications

 

[Wtrout]

Depends.
The really old stuff may not do narrow band deviation as required by the FCC, so may not be useable on LMR frequencies, but OK on ham frequencies.
The newer stuff is all narrow band capable and perfectly legal to use on ham or Part 90 LMR.

would there be a way to convert it to narrow band or would it just me good for ham channels?

 

[E5911]

Midland put out the STP/STM line made under contract from a Turkish Company, Aselsan during the 2000s. The radios ( Aselsan 4700 series portable radios ) are still being produced as far as I know. But I cant seem to get ahold of anyone at the company.

Some have mentioned them as the SynTerch3 series. I have a uhf portable im trying to get going and 2 mobiles. Ive herd good and bad reports about quality etc. I'm trying to find a AA Clamshell battery pack, but so far no luck.

 

[E5911]

If anyone knows about the MRP25 software PM me. I cant get it to install

 

[MTS2000des]

Been a while since I meddled with these, but like legacy MSI stuff, it required a legacy O/S to install. Won't run on 10. Ended up installing it on an XP laptop with no issues. That's a start.