What exactly is a Motorola P25 System

[DragLvr911]

Alright so i searched it here and i kinda got more confused .. i was just wondering what the heck a Motorola P25 system is and what does it do, or even who uses it. I still have my beauty *BC-246T* .. Anyways just looking for some help as my manual doesnt even make referance to this system anywhere. Haha i hope this is simple guys.

 

[mciupa]

The BC 246T cannot listen to P25 signals of any sort.

Which system is it that you are trying to monitor ?

Look at getting a BCD 396T .

 

[N_Jay]

Alright so i searched it here and i kinda got more confused .. i was just wondering what the heck a Motorola P25 system is and what does it do, or even who uses it. I still have my beauty *BC-246T* .. Anyways just looking for some help as my manual doesnt even make referance to this system anywhere. Haha i hope this is simple guys.

"Motorola" is a manufacturer of radio systems. They may be conventional or trunked, and be proprietary or open standards.

"P25" is an open standard for digital radio systems primarily or public safety. They may be conventional or trunked.

Some people refer to a system as "Motorola P25" because they were the first to bring P25 to market.

Some Motorola proprietary trunked systems also use parts of the P25 standard. (just to add some confusion to the discussion.

 

[N4JNW]

The 246T is just a trunking only scanner as has been mentioned. It will triple trunk, and do analog transmissions, but P25 is above it's limitations.

As mentioned, the Uniden 396T will trunk, and recieve digital. The RadioShack Pro-96 will as well, at a fraction of the price. The 396 has more features, but the Pro-96 recieves far better.

 

[MarcInIllinois]

The 246T is just a trunking only scanner as has been mentioned. It will triple trunk, and do analog transmissions, but P25 is above it's limitations.

As mentioned, the Uniden 396T will trunk, and recieve digital. The RadioShack Pro-96 will as well, at a fraction of the price. The 396 has more features, but the Pro-96 recieves far better.

But the 96 has issues with 700mhz towers (at least in Illinois).

 

[loumaag]

...what the heck a Motorola P25 system is ...

I think that most of the information to answer this question was supplied already; however, right now get the joining of those two terms out of your head. That is Motorola and Project 25, the two have no more association in reality than M/A-COM and Project 25 do. Motorola is a vendor and they do have a proprietary type of trunking system, but it has nothing to do with a Project 25 trunking system (other than when the scanner manufacturers incorrectly associate them.)

As to the "fraction of the cost" difference between a BCD396T and a Pro-96, the difference is about 4% for a radio that comes with all the accessories (power supply, batteries, programming cable) as opposed to one that you must purchase those items. (~$520 vs ~$500) Also, the 396T is a much more versatile radio (I own both of them) and IMHO it actually works better.

 

[kb2vxa]

Hi Lou and all,

While I don't intend to be argumentative, APCO P-25 may be open code but it still uses proprietary hardware. Being quite expensive it's use in Amateur Radio is limited while the Icom D-Star is becoming quite popular. Funny, that's another proprietary one and Japanese to boot but radios so equipped are readily available at competitive prices while retrofitting for P-25 can get pricey.

From what I'm told the P-25 modules for Uniden are getting hard to come by but then again they could be wrong. Maybe somebody actually in the know can comment.

 

[loumaag]

Hi Lou and all,

While I don't intend to be argumentative, APCO P-25 may be open code but it still uses proprietary hardware. Being quite expensive it's use in Amateur Radio is limited while the Icom D-Star is becoming quite popular. Funny, that's another proprietary one and Japanese to boot but radios so equipped are readily available at competitive prices while retrofitting for P-25 can get pricey.

From what I'm told the P-25 modules for Uniden are getting hard to come by but then again they could be wrong. Maybe somebody actually in the know can comment.

Warren, did you mean to post this completely off topic post somewhere else?

 

[N_Jay]

Hi Lou and all,

While I don't intend to be argumentative, APCO P-25 may be open code but it still uses proprietary hardware. Being quite expensive it's use in Amateur Radio is limited while the Icom D-Star is becoming quite popular. Funny, that's another proprietary one and Japanese to boot but radios so equipped are readily available at competitive prices while retrofitting for P-25 can get pricey.

From what I'm told the P-25 modules for Uniden are getting hard to come by but then again they could be wrong. Maybe somebody actually in the know can comment.

Hu????

 

[WayneH]

Hi Lou and all,

While I don't intend to be argumentative, APCO P-25 may be open code but it still uses proprietary hardware. Being quite expensive it's use in Amateur Radio is limited while the Icom D-Star is becoming quite popular. Funny, that's another proprietary one and Japanese to boot but radios so equipped are readily available at competitive prices while retrofitting for P-25 can get pricey.

There are so many things wrong with this paragraph.

What proprietary hardware? The only thing proprietary is the code to assemble voice from digital, which is patented by DVSI. Everything else is up to the equipment manufacturer to do on their own.

The gear is relatively cheap for ham use also. I seem to be seeing more P25 amateur repeaters than I do D-star. You can purchase some pretty cheap (yet terrific quality) P25 gear; you do not have to use Motorola.

 

[N_Jay]

There are so many things wrong with this paragraph.

What proprietary hardware? The only thing proprietary is the code to assemble voice from digital, which is patented by DVSI. Everything else is up to the equipment manufacturer to do on their own.

The gear is relatively cheap for ham use also. I seem to be seeing more P25 amateur repeaters than I do D-star. You can purchase some pretty cheap (yet terrific quality) P25 gear; you do not have to use Motorola.

Well put!

Sort of the same thing I said (assuming you could read between the lines of my "Hu")
:twisted: :lol: :twisted: :lol: :twisted:

 

[loumaag]

As I asked in Post #8, I fear that Warren was posting in the wrong thread. His reply (taken in total) has nothing to do with this thread. So, until he replies, maybe we should quit bashing...or not. Just for the record, Icom is attempting to "capture" the Ham digital FM market in the US by supplying gear, first to the ARRL HQ's and now if you buy 10 D-Star radios they will give you a D-Star repeater...reminds me of the tire business and OEM Mfgrs...look where that got Firestone/Bridgestone. :roll: