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APX4500 Mobile on 900MHz Amateur Band

Low-Band

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***I’m not sure if I should post this in the Motorola Forum, or the Amateur Radio Forum…

Wanted to reach out to the experts and get advice on if the Motorola APX4500 Mobile can be programmed to support the 900MHz Amateur Ham Band???
I’ve done some research online but can’t find a concrete answer on the APX4500.

Backstory: A buddy gave me a 900MHz APX4500 Mobile Radio. He said it’s essentially useless since it won’t do anything but 900MHz. Before I throw it away, I was curious if it could be used for the 900MHz amateur band. It’s my understanding that this radio works on 896-902 MHz and 935-941 MHz, with the 33cm Ham band being right in the middle at 902-928 MHz.
Model: M22WRS9PW1AN

Please provide more than a Yes or No answer.
If NO, is it a hardware limitation, software limitation, something else.
If YES, can you point me in a direction so I can do more research, and maybe get this rig on the air.

Thanks!
 

Low-Band

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Not possible. APX band lower/upper limits are hard coded.

So is there no way to 'hex edit' this model like the older MCS2000 stuff? (FYI: My knowledge on the APX series is very limited)
 

BigLebowski

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So is there no way to 'hex edit' this model like the older MCS2000 stuff? (FYI: My knowledge on the APX series is very limited)
No, there is no way to do this on an APX. Many people have been interested but there is just no out of band on any of the APX radios.

I would not, however, just throw it away. There are a handful of commercial 900mhz systems people might use it for if you offered it up for sale or trade in the appropriate place.
 

N4KVE

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I have a friend who did hex edit an APX4000 to 900 ham freq’s. But the radio is hard coded to not work there. So if he transmits on 901.9875, it works great. If he tries to transmit on 902.0125 it emits the unhappy bonk. And he’s been working on a fix for three years. OTOH, 900 XTL’s, & XTS’s work great at 902/927.
 

N4KVE

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Gary and his "friend" strikes again.
LOL. Yes that’s the same guy. The whole radio business he had was basically a secondary business he ran, but since Covid, he’s basically closed it down to concentrate on his primary business. I used to bring him a radio to “upgrade”, & autotune, & it’d be ready in 10 minutes. Now he’s so busy, I drop it off, & it’s ready in a few months. So I’ve had to find a new “friend“.
 

Low-Band

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Thank you for responses and knowledge.

@GTR8000 I better understand now what you mean by 'hard coded' based on the explanation what happens when someone tries to 'hex edit'

@N4KVE Thanks for the detailed explanation on what happens when your friend tried to 'hex edit' one with no success. I hope he eventually succeeds!

@BigLebowski I understand it may be valuable to someone with a commercial 900 system. Not too many out there now that most are trying to migrate away from 900MHz due to the Anterix private LTE push.
 

N4KVE

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900 MHz users are mostly utility companies, like electricity, or water providers. Here in Florida, Harris recently completed a statewide 900 radio system.
 

D308

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I have a friend who did hex edit an APX4000 to 900 ham freq’s. But the radio is hard coded to not work there. So if he transmits on 901.9875, it works great. If he tries to transmit on 902.0125 it emits the unhappy bonk. And he’s been working on a fix for three years. OTOH, 900 XTL’s, & XTS’s work great at 902/927.
Is that specific to the 900mhz radio? There’s an APX 4000 vhf on Qrz for sale and the seller said it works fine in the ham bands.
Confusing😵‍💫
 

nikronzo

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clearly this conversation is about 900MHz radios. If you do some basic research about the bandsplits of the APX VHF radios, you will see they include the ham split in VHF
 

D308

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clearly this conversation is about 900MHz radios. If you do some basic research about the bandsplits of the APX VHF radios, you will see they include the ham split in VHF
Right, I was told by a local ham that said no one has been able to make an APX work in the ham bands. He wasn’t specifically talking about 900.
Thanks for the clarification.
 
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