• To anyone looking to acquire commercial radio programming software:

    Please do not make requests for copies of radio programming software which is sold (or was sold) by the manufacturer for any monetary value. All requests will be deleted and a forum infraction issued. Making a request such as this is attempting to engage in software piracy and this forum cannot be involved or associated with this activity. The same goes for any private transaction via Private Message. Even if you attempt to engage in this activity in PM's we will still enforce the forum rules. Your PM's are not private and the administration has the right to read them if there's a hint to criminal activity.

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    To obtain Motorola software see the Sticky in the Motorola forum.

    The various other vendors often permit their dealers to sell the software online (i.e., Kenwood). Please use Google or some other search engine to find a dealer that sells the software. Typically each series or individual radio requires its own software package. Often the Kenwood software is less than $100 so don't be a cheapskate; just purchase it.

    For M/A Com/Harris/GE, etc: there are two software packages that program all current and past radios. One package is for conventional programming and the other for trunked programming. The trunked package is in upwards of $2,500. The conventional package is more reasonable though is still several hundred dollars. The benefit is you do not need multiple versions for each radio (unlike Motorola).

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Amazon Cord Replacements for Motorola Radios

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Mboy00

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Looking into this option as Motorola is charging 400$ currently it feels like for any cord I need. Anyone have negative experience with this?
 

a417

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Amazon cords are garbage. 100% knockoffs. Smaller than spec'd wires, shoddily done connections, cheap insulation/covers that degrade overnight, inconsistent schematics.

Any time I need a cord for a EOL'd radio, I usually go to ebay or a site like this with classifieds.

What cords do you need?
 

a417

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are you talking about power cords? Mic cables? Accessory connector (cords)? Programming cords?
 

a417

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3 of those are trivial to make with spare parts. I build most of my cords myself, if I am not writing the cabling purchase into a job quote.

Is this for fun/personal or business?

The rest usually pop up on the ebays from time-to-time in aftermarket form, and have varying degrees of reliability. If you search around on here you will find threads that usually have a seller name that provides a good (but not OEM) product.
 

a417

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Any recommendations on how to learn to build a cord?
some of those radio model lines are old enough to have voted several times.

The schematics are easily found on batlabs, or on other places on the internets.
 

Mboy00

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Okay. What type of parts do you recommend ordering/from what supplier? Pins obviously but where would I get like the plastic black part that is the outline effectively
 

a417

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Don't buy oem parts. You'll go broke.

I usually buy old mics (for housings and pins), used accessory connectors (for the XTLs) and then depending on what computer interface I'm using to program via (usb / true serial) it will change what kind of wiring/interface I make up. The CDM programming wire I have came from an old serial printer and an RJ-11 crimper.
 

ElroyJetson

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Buy quality parts and cables. Or you risk bricking an expensive radio over a cheap cable. I'll only buy an aftermarket cable where the maker of it will vouch for it with a guarantee of performance. That basically means, I only buy OEM cables with very few exceptions.

My Motorola account pricing on OEM cables is always lower than those same OEM cables being listed online, so don't forget to check out your MOL account pricing. It's often not really that bad.

Cheap cables will cost you more.
 

Mboy00

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Buy quality parts and cables. Or you risk bricking an expensive radio over a cheap cable. I'll only buy an aftermarket cable where the maker of it will vouch for it with a guarantee of performance. That basically means, I only buy OEM cables with very few exceptions.

My Motorola account pricing on OEM cables is always lower than those same OEM cables being listed online, so don't forget to check out your MOL account pricing. It's often not really that bad.

Cheap cables will cost you more.
About that… my Motorola account they tried selling me a HT1250 RIB for 450$. Do you have a special price thing or something?
 

a417

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About that… my Motorola account they tried selling me a HT1250 RIB for 450$. Do you have a special price thing or something?
I'll bet the RIB-less cable is way less than that.
 

n3obl

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The older program cables usually cost a decent amount back in the days. Plus when ordering an oem rib box etc.
 
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