TriSquare eXRS manufacturer out of business.

[KB7MIB]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; U; en-US) Gecko/20081217 Vision-Browser/8.1 301x200 LG VN530)

On the eXRS Yahoo group, there was a post about TriSquare having gone out of business. So the supply of eXRS 900MHz FHSS radios may dwindle in the near future. If you want to buy any (or any more), find them ASAP.

 

[KB7MIB]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; U; en-US) Gecko/20081217 Vision-Browser/8.1 301x200 LG VN530)

I have one pair, and I may go back to the store to see if they have another pair left.

 

[70cutlass442]

What kind of range are you getting out of those things?

 

[COMINT_NE]

Bought a pair of eXRS radios, and had problems with them not Synching up properly. Great idea, but poor implementation.

The Motorola DTR series of 902-928 FHSS radios work exceptionally well, but you're also paying Motorola prices for them.

 

[rescuecomm]

With Sprint shutting down Nextel in 2013, you should be able to get Motorola I355's cheap. They have fewer channels (150), only 0.6 watts, but are more rugged.

Bob

 

[62Truck]

Bought a pair of eXRS radios, and had problems with them not Synching up properly. Great idea, but poor implementation.

The Motorola DTR series of 902-928 FHSS radios work exceptionally well, but you're also paying Motorola prices for them.

I think some of the earlier radios had issues syncing up. I have a pair that I am borrowing from a friend just to mess with and I haven't had any issues.

The DTR radios are nice but are not cheap

 

[70cutlass442]

With Sprint shutting down Nextel in 2013, you should be able to get Motorola I355's cheap. They have fewer channels (150), only 0.6 watts, but are more rugged.

Bob

I just bought 40 of these phones with chargers... For short range communications... they are awesome. Would use them over FRS anyday.

 

[dksac2]

Their web site is still up and operating, someone should call them, rumors get started pretty darn easy.

No mention of them out of business anywhere else either.

I have not had sinc problems with mine and talk across a fairly open valley with single story homes 3.5 miles with a friend all of the time. If I get directly behind my home, I'll loose him, but with some open space, the radios talk great.

They are not perfect, but they pack a lot of features for the money and at a crowded fair, I'll take my Tri Squares anyday, I think within their intended use and their limits (only one watt), they are fantastic.
Some just expect too much from them.

John

 

[brianearlspilner]

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Well, I emailed Trisquare, and here is the news:

Dear Rusty Shackleford,

TriSquare has decided not to continue the manufacture and sale of its eXRS radio products line. There are still units available at various retail outlets and warranty support will continue as long as necessary.

Best regards, Sales

 

[dksac2]

I think it's too bad they are going away.
They were not perfect, but had a lot of features for the money. There are only the lower priced versions left on E Bay.

I have to wonder if the government had something to do with this. Low cost spread spectrum that the public could easily buy.

Things are getting worse, they would not want us to be able to communicate and have it be difficult to descramble. This smells of big brother. I have of them and will hold onto them. I'm betting they will sell for some decent money in the future even though quality commercial versions are available.

John

 

[COMINT_NE]

I think it's too bad they are going away.
They were not perfect, but had a lot of features for the money. There are only the lower priced versions left on E Bay.

I have to wonder if the government had something to do with this. Low cost spread spectrum that the public could easily buy.

Things are getting worse, they would not want us to be able to communicate and have it be difficult to descramble. This smells of big brother. I have of them and will hold onto them. I'm betting they will sell for some decent money in the future even though quality commercial versions are available.

John

Please get over yourself. The units weren't secure at all. Analog FM with a slow hop time and limited frequency pool. If you search the forum you will find people talking about them. The Men In Black didn't visit Trisquare and tell them to stop making them. They were a poor product that was overpriced and didn't sell. One Man In Black even wrote about them: http://www.sinister.com/ticom/prometheus.pdf page 114 if you're afraid of reading the whole book because you'll be put on "a list".

If I were the Powers That Be and evilly inclined, I'd subsidize Trisquare to bring the price down to less than that of cheap FRS radios in the hopes that people would buy them and use them to say things that they normally wouldn't over the air, becuase they think that simple slow speed FHSS with analog FM is actually secure. Or I might shut them down knowing that the conspiracy theorists would automatically assume it was becaue their product was so good it was a threat to all those Rivet Joint aircraft flying around listening to people phonesexing their significant others, even though it wasn't. Decisions, decisions...

 

[prcguy]

Sounds like a comment from someone who has never used a Trisquare radio. Sure you can listen in with a particular $700 near field monitor but how many people have those or would buy one to listen in on some Trisquare radios? The near field monitor also has to be very close and if someone were listening with one you would probably have a hard time not spotting them.

I have several Trisquares and find they are fantastic little radios at only $25ea brand new. They are already at or below the cost of cheap FRS radios and for me they work better and are very secure. Too bad they will stop making them, I think they were a very innovative and useful product.
prcguy

Please get over yourself. The units weren't secure at all. Analog FM with a slow hop time and limited frequency pool. If you search the forum you will find people talking about them. The Men In Black didn't visit Trisquare and tell them to stop making them. They were a poor product that was overpriced and didn't sell. One Man In Black even wrote about them: http://www.sinister.com/ticom/prometheus.pdf page 114 if you're afraid of reading the whole book because you'll be put on "a list".

If I were the Powers That Be and evilly inclined, I'd subsidize Trisquare to bring the price down to less than that of cheap FRS radios in the hopes that people would buy them and use them to say things that they normally wouldn't over the air, becuase they think that simple slow speed FHSS with analog FM is actually secure. Or I might shut them down knowing that the conspiracy theorists would automatically assume it was becaue their product was so good it was a threat to all those Rivet Joint aircraft flying around listening to people phonesexing their significant others, even though it wasn't. Decisions, decisions...

 

[COMINT_NE]

Sounds like a comment from someone who has never used a Trisquare radio. Sure you can listen in with a particular $700 near field monitor but how many people have those or would buy one to listen in on some Trisquare radios? The near field monitor also has to be very close and if someone were listening with one you would probably have a hard time not spotting them.

I have several Trisquares and find they are fantastic little radios at only $25ea brand new. They are already at or below the cost of cheap FRS radios and for me they work better and are very secure. Too bad they will stop making them, I think they were a very innovative and useful product.
prcguy

I've used them, and they are pieces of junk. An old PRO-83 with all the frequencies from the Trisquare's hopping pool programmed in does a pretty good job of listening to them a good half mile away. Then you have the well documented issues of the radios losing sync with each other.

Use whatever you want, but for the money I'd rather invest in some old VHF Motorola handhelds on MURS with DES-XL. They are at least secure from average and slightly above average monitoring attempts. Same with the Motorola DTR radios, although they'll cost a little more and have their own issues.

 

[prcguy]

Since the Trisquare radios hop a 50 channel list and change frequencies 2.5 times a second it's physically impossible for a PRO-83 or any other police scanner to follow. Either someone gave you some bad info or your making things up.

The only consumer type receiver that can deal with them is the Optoelectronics Interceptor or Explorer which are a little pricy and has to be within a fairly close range. Also, where would you get the list of 700 possible frequencies to program into a regular scanner since they are not published? If you had the specific list of a 50 ch hop group you could set up 50 scanners each on a single freq and that would work and only 30 scanners would give you most of the information but thats quite an expensive way to listen in on some inexpensive little radios.

It would not be legal to use Motorola handhelds with DES on any amateur, MURS, FRS or GMRS frequencies so how do you deal with that? Also the cost of those handhelds and KVL to support them is a bit more than the $25 retail cost of a Trisquare radio, not a very practical comparison.

I have a number of Trisquare handhelds and so do a bunch of other friends and we have never experienced any problems with the radios.
prcguy

I've used them, and they are pieces of junk. An old PRO-83 with all the frequencies from the Trisquare's hopping pool programmed in does a pretty good job of listening to them a good half mile away. Then you have the well documented issues of the radios losing sync with each other.

Use whatever you want, but for the money I'd rather invest in some old VHF Motorola handhelds on MURS with DES-XL. They are at least secure from average and slightly above average monitoring attempts. Same with the Motorola DTR radios, although they'll cost a little more and have their own issues.

 

[bfperez]

It would not be legal to use Motorola handhelds with DES on any amateur, MURS, FRS or GMRS frequencies so how do you deal with that?
prcguy

If I understand the law, encryption capable radios manufactured and/or type accepted before MURS was converted to license by rule would still be usable on the MURS frequencies. Same with GMRS.

 

[prcguy]

The DES waveform uses CVSD modulation with an emission designator of 20K0K1E, which occupies 20KHz of spectrum. While MURS does permit "digital" modulation, the 20KHz wide DES waveform would not be permitted on the first three MURS channels cuz its too wide.

Otherwise I don't find any rules against using encryption, as long as the emission designator is allowed and the radios are type accepted for MURS or are one of the few that are grandfathered.
prcguy

If I understand the law, encryption capable radios manufactured and/or type accepted before MURS was converted to license by rule would still be usable on the MURS frequencies. Same with GMRS.

 

[prcguy]

Forgot to mention, encryption on FRS/GMRS is specifically prohibited.
prcguy

If I understand the law, encryption capable radios manufactured and/or type accepted before MURS was converted to license by rule would still be usable on the MURS frequencies. Same with GMRS.

 

[COMINT_NE]

1. Encryption is allowed on MURS, and DES-XL can be used on the wideband channels.
2. The Trisquares hop at about 3 channels a second.
a. Most modern scanners do 50-100 channels a second. Put in the all the frequencies, and turn off scan delay. It'll sound chopped, but you'll hear enough. The wider ones with a +-7 KHz. modulation acceptance seem to work best.
b. An Opto Digital Scout has a 300us lock time, and needs to find only 50 frequencies.
c. Any 21.4 MHz. IF oputput tuner (CEI, WJ, etc.) put into a wideband IF demodulator will make short work of monitoring 900 MHz. FHSS, especially if the emitter stays away from the band edges, like the Trisquares do.
3. The original point of my first reply is that it was unlikey that "Big Brother" stopped the production of xRS radios. If I can go to a couple hamfests and buy surplus equipment that can intercept them, imagine what's installed in a Rivet Joint aircraft.
4. Security by obscurity is not very secure.
5. Enough people have had trouble with xRS radioquality that Trisquare decided to stop selling them. If they were so great, then Trisquare would continue to sell them.
5. Anyone can feel free to duplicate my experiments. The equipment is out there, and I've detailed my procedures well enough.
6. I'm willing to share a copy of my DD214 and assorted certs with anyone who emails me unredacted copies of theirs first.

 

[jhooten]

I didn't buy them for security, I bought them to get away from the children (some of them well past their thirties) who thought it fun to push the damn alert button on their FRS radio every 5 seconds.

When the i355 comes in I'm going to see what they will do.

 

[COMINT_NE]

I didn't buy them for security, I bought them to get away from the children (some of them well past their thirties) who thought it fun to push the damn alert button on their FRS radio every 5 seconds.

When the i355 comes in I'm going to see what they will do.

The Nextel Direct-Talk does a pretty good job, and I think would be the way to go if you're on a budget and wanted to stay off FRS/GMRS. Otherwise, your only real option is to get a small business band license for a handfull of portables/mobiles and run NXDN or TRBO. That's an order of magnitude more expensive, but hey you only have to buy it once.

I also knew a couple guys who were snagging low band radios for pennies on the dollar when the previous owner "upgraded", and put a VOIP-connected base station on the property of the guy with the highest elevation...