XL-185 band change?

[IFRIED91]

Hello before everyone hammers the fact its single band only....

I noticed in the feature manual purchasing other bands is possible. I was wondering if anyone is familiar with this? Maybe the radio restricts you to having a single band active at a time? RPM 2 does classify all XL series radios as 1 regardless of model

 

[MTS2000des]

Nope. The band is not changeable via RPM2. The XL-185 transceiver board is what it is at the factory. The XL-200P OTOH is a different story.

 

[IFRIED91]

Nope. The band is not changeable via RPM2. The XL-185 transceiver board is what it is at the factory. The XL-200P OTOH is a different story.

i was told by multiple sources all portables are all the same identical unit when it comes to internal hardware .. just marketed differently for lower budget users

 

[IFRIED91]

Nope. The band is not changeable via RPM2. The XL-185 transceiver board is what it is at the factory. The XL-200P OTOH is a different story.

also band change technically is done since all XL radios are 136-870mhz... feels like they wrote this software parameter on a friday and left it as is haha

 

[a417]

i was told by multiple sources all portables are all the same identical unit when it comes to internal hardware .. just marketed differently for lower budget users

Are they reliable/knowledgeable sources?

 

[mmckenna]

Different FCC ID's on the XL-185's and XL-200's.

I suspect they are confusing the XL-200 with it. The XL-200 can be ordered single band. Other bands can be activated as needed. Some agencies might do that to save money, then add the other bands as needed or as budget allows.

 

[IFRIED91]

Different FCC ID's on the XL-185's and XL-200's.

I suspect they are confusing the XL-200 with it. The XL-200 can be ordered single band. Other bands can be activated as needed. Some agencies might do that to save money, then add the other bands as needed or as budget allows.

Different FCC ID's on the XL-185's and XL-200's.

I suspect they are confusing the XL-200 with it. The XL-200 can be ordered single band. Other bands can be activated as needed. Some agencies might do that to save money, then add the other bands as needed or as budget allows.

Separate FCC ID is a requirement merely for having a radio that’s identical internally but has a different model #.. example would be the Motorola APX900 and vertex standard vx 949 for the nypd.. literally same radio but different fcc ids

 

[IFRIED91]

Sorry about the tiny text but look at the bottom of the screenshot.. single bands are its own features for $0.01

 

[BMDaug]

I thought that the 185 was like a 5300M (a feature restricted yet physically identical version of the 7300M). It’s definitely the Harris MO to make the 185s all the same hardware wise, but only allow activation of a single band. That’s what I always believed, but that’s based on multiple assumptions and we all know what that can do…

Do the 185s use different FCC IDs or even different model numbers for radios banded differently? I have no experience with the XL series…

-B

 

[mmckenna]

Sorry about the tiny text but look at the bottom of the screenshot.. single bands are its own features for $0.01

Maybe you should contact Harris and ask them to activate the other bands on your XL-185 for 1¢ each.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[BMDaug]

Maybe you should contact Harris and ask them to activate the other bands on your XL-185 for 1¢ each.

Let us know how it goes.

HAHAHAHA… That’s awesome! But seriously, to me that price means that they will reband a radio for a cent. You own the hardware and all they have to do is swap one feature for another. You can’t get all the bands at once, but it may equate to “band agility”, which definitely makes the radio more flexible and adds significant long term value.

-B

 

[MTS2000des]

Why would they not just sell the XL-200p then? Something doesn't add up. The same way and APX6000BN isn't the same hardware as an APX8000, just because APX CPS shows "all the bands" in the codeplug, doesn't make sense that Harris would compete with themselves. And the 185p can't do 700 talkaround? (At least RPM2 tells me so). If it's the same RF hardware as an XL-200p, why would they implement such a limitation?

 

[BMDaug]

Why would they not just sell the XL-200p then? Something doesn't add up. The same way and APX6000BN isn't the same hardware as an APX8000, just because APX CPS shows "all the bands" in the codeplug, doesn't make sense that Harris would compete with themselves. And the 185p can't do 700 talkaround? (At least RPM2 tells me so). If it's the same RF hardware as an XL-200p, why would they implement such a limitation?

For the same reason they sold an M5300 and an M7300… The M5300 is identical hardware but includes feature 30 “Limited Feature Expansion” and is sold at a more affordable price because it can not perform functions like TDMA.

-B

 

[gatekeep]

While the physical hardware inside the XL-185P and XL-200P's are pretty much identical (part numbers and actual assembly numbers are identical in a lot of cases), the boards are populated very differently; for instance the board inside the XL-200P is populated with all the inductors, capacitors and other components for required to enable all-band; where as the XL-185P only has the parts populated for the band the radio was ordered with. So while in theory, you could change the band (which Harris won't let you do), the radio will not align or work properly.

EDIT: You can better see this if you look at the side-by-side internal photos submitted to the FCC when L3Harris got FCC approval for the radios:

https://imgur.com/a/CCRJwRa

 

[wa8pyr]

i was told by multiple sources all portables are all the same identical unit when it comes to internal hardware .. just marketed differently for lower budget users

also band change technically is done since all XL radios are 136-870mhz... feels like they wrote this software parameter on a friday and left it as is haha

This is true for the XL200P, but not the XL185P. The hardware in the 185 is set up for the band as ordered and that's it.

Different FCC ID's on the XL-185's and XL-200's.

I suspect they are confusing the XL-200 with it. The XL-200 can be ordered single band. Other bands can be activated as needed. Some agencies might do that to save money, then add the other bands as needed or as budget allows.

That's what we did here. The Sheriff's Office and fire departments ordered XL200P radios with 700/800 only. I, on the other hand, ordered all-band enabled for my agency's radios, as that's a feature we need for interoperability and for the few systems we have which are still on other bands (and because I could).

 

[12dbsinad]

We hardly ever sell XL-185's as the price difference is small vs a single band XL-200P (or at least they used to be). Plus, the 200 opens up a lot of future functionality. An example of that is we had a PD on VHF that wanted to add vehicle repeaters to extend range in the sticks. This was easily accomplished by using a 800 Mhz VRS and flashing the 200's to add the band. This could not have been done otherwise.

 

[mmckenna]

I was looking at the prices and the XL-200M stripped down was a bit cheaper than the XL-185 in it's basic configuration.