All radio companies acquire examples of other brands for evaluation. I know for a fact that even some "second rate" companies are eagerly analyzing their newly acquired APX7000s and Unitys in the hopes of figuring out how to make a genuinely competitive product at a lower cost.
It doesn't take a lot to do this. Especially now. Rebanding has played a part in this, as many agencies
got really smart when they first got wind of rebanding to come in the future, and started saving up ALL
their radios as they wore out or were replaced with newer ones. All those old radios were valid for one-for-one trade-ins per the rebanding rules. So the agencies ended up with a great number of
extra brand new in the box radios...for free. No rule or law says they can't resell them. This is how
some brand new radios have entered the open market. Even some individuals got in on this, by
taking their stock of STX's or M-PDs and making a deal with an agency to swap them out for them...and take a cut for themselves.
As for the quality of M/A-Com (now Harris) equipment and systems, I really need to be quite clear about this.
I'm a Motorolan at heart. I've always liked Motorola's public safety radio products and consider them to be hands down the best on the market, overall. My experience with Motorola products spans from the Motrac mobile and HT220 portable radios to the present day APX line. I can practically draw some of their schematics from memory. I also have a fair amount of experience with the GE (and later brands) products as well.
It's really simple: Both brands work. Both brands have their gems, and their dogs, too. EDACS
is a very solid, very reliable trunked system. So is SmartNet/SmartZone. But both brands have had issues with digital systems, no matter what they're called. Astro digital and ProVoice digital both have serious limitations on voice quality and intelligibility. They're getting better with each successive firmware release, though. I do think that the build quality of Motorola's portable radios today is FAR superior to the build quality of M/A-Com/Harris P5100/7100/7200 and other recent series radios, and I also think that for the most part, the RF performance of Motorola portable radios is superior to those mentioned M/A-Com models, but that is not to say that I think that the M/A-Com
radios are poor performers. They're actually quite decent, mostly. I simply think Motorola makes
a BETTER portable radio.
When it comes to mobile radios, though, I'd have to be honest about it and tell you that I think the M/A-Com M7100 and M7200 radios are extremely solid radios in every respect. It's hard for me to say that I'd prefer an XTL or APX mobile radio to an M7200, if both radios served my needs. The M7100/M7200 is a worthy competitor on level ground with the XTL and APX mobiles.
Harris isn't going to go away. The federal government WANTS multiple radio vendors available to them
and will place enough orders to ensure that nobody is going to be forced out of business. And, Harris has a HIGHLY competent engineering staff that will require Motorola's engineers to stay on their toes and not get complacent. There has never been a better engineering staff behind the radio family once owned by GE.
The end result is that customers win. Better competition makes better products. This isn't bad for ANYBODY.
Elroy
