APX6000XE

[bigalnz]

I do a lot of volunteer work for a charity that is involved with conservation of an endangered bird.
A lot of this work is in the bush at night, and currently most of the team use cheap simplex radios on citizen radio bands. I was looking at an APX6000XE as a step up - but I am no Motorola expert (other than using them in my day job). They look rugged, and also very $$$.

It looks like Motorola has a philanthropic grant program annually - but I could not find much about it. Anyone know more?

Working quietly in the bush is key, and moving fast through the bush, but still being able to talk on the radio quietly - perhaps ear piece and mic accessory would also be helpful.

Would this radio be suitable? If we moved to encrypted simplex could it do this too?

There might be some other repeater channels (non encrypted) that we could add to talk to our government partners too.

 

[KD9RTX]

If the rest of the team is using CB the APX isn't going to do you any good.

 

[KE4ZNR]

I do a lot of volunteer work for a charity that is involved with conservation of an endangered bird.
A lot of this work is in the bush at night, and currently most of the team use cheap simplex radios on citizen radio bands. I was looking at an APX6000XE as a step up - but I am no Motorola expert (other than using them in my day job). They look rugged, and also very $$$.

It looks like Motorola has a philanthropic grant program annually - but I could not find much about it. Anyone know more?

Working quietly in the bush is key, and moving fast through the bush, but still being able to talk on the radio quietly - perhaps ear piece and mic accessory would also be helpful.

Would this radio be suitable? If we moved to encrypted simplex could it do this too?

There might be some other repeater channels (non encrypted) that we could add to talk to our government partners too.

Please don't take offense but APX series of radios are not for situations like you are asking about. It would be akin to wanting to buy an 18 gear 18 wheeler as a daily usage vehicle when you have never even driven a golf cart. APX radios are designed to operate in specific bands (public safety or public works oriented) and require special programming cables and software. And the programming software requires extensive training to be able to program the radios correctly.
Please leave the APX line of radios to their designed user base and consider something else.

 

[Echo4Thirty]

I do a lot of volunteer work for a charity that is involved with conservation of an endangered bird.
A lot of this work is in the bush at night, and currently most of the team use cheap simplex radios on citizen radio bands. I was looking at an APX6000XE as a step up - but I am no Motorola expert (other than using them in my day job). They look rugged, and also very $$$.

It looks like Motorola has a philanthropic grant program annually - but I could not find much about it. Anyone know more?

Working quietly in the bush is key, and moving fast through the bush, but still being able to talk on the radio quietly - perhaps ear piece and mic accessory would also be helpful.

Would this radio be suitable? If we moved to encrypted simplex could it do this too?

There might be some other repeater channels (non encrypted) that we could add to talk to our government partners too.

Who do you need to be encrypted from? Are you concerned the birds are going to pick up your signal and fly away?

/s

I have never heard of this grant program, but I highly doubt that Motorola is going to give away one radio. There is no PR in that for them.

 

[vagrant]

The OP is probably in New Zealand, or Australia, so CB can mean UHF frequencies. Anyways, the APX cost is significant. A repeater system could cost less. One would be best served by improving the antenna first.

Have fun in the bush

 

[bigalnz]

The OP is probably in New Zealand, or Australia, so CB can mean UHF frequencies. Anyways, the APX cost is significant. A repeater system could cost less. One would be best served by improving the antenna first.

Have fun in the bush

Thanks for the kind words. We do have some requirement to keep what we do private (hence encryption) - be good to have a radio that can handle some water exposure, and sometimes we want to talk to govt agencies and on marine channels - so that's the multi-mission government side of the radio requirement.

 

[ElevatorsAndRadios]

For a higher quality single-band radio, consider the XTS5000 instead. Still plenty good and reliable, and a fraction of the price. The XTS5000 can do encryption too (if OP wants encryption, let OP encrypt). Get familiar with the 5000, and if you like it and want to upgrade, sell it and upgrade. But as others have stated, an APX6000XE is an overkill starter radio. My first Motorola radio was an RMM2050 MURS radio, followed by a CP200. Both of those radios had no displays and very little programming functionality. Each time I got a new radio, it was just slightly more advanced than my previous one. This made for a very slight learning curve. My point is: get the radio that suits your needs, don't overspend on something you won't take full advantage of.

 

[mmckenna]

Letting us know what country you are in would help us provide an accurate answer.

I do a lot of volunteer work for a charity that is involved with conservation of an endangered bird.
A lot of this work is in the bush at night, and currently most of the team use cheap simplex radios on citizen radio bands. I was looking at an APX6000XE as a step up - but I am no Motorola expert (other than using them in my day job). They look rugged, and also very $$$.

If everyone else is using "cheap simplex radios", there's no benefit to you having an APX series radio. It's not going to give you more range, it's not going to give you features that will benefit the others. It's just a very expensive radio.

It looks like Motorola has a philanthropic grant program annually - but I could not find much about it. Anyone know more?

Letting us know what country you are in would help. There can be various grant programs for specific types of users, but I'd be surprised if Motorola is going to give away a several thousand dollar radio to one individual that doesn't really have the ability to utilize most of the features of the radio. When companies do give away equipment, it's usually tailored to specific uses. If everyone else is using cheap radios, there's no benefit to one top tier public safety grade radio in the mix.

Working quietly in the bush is key, and moving fast through the bush, but still being able to talk on the radio quietly - perhaps ear piece and mic accessory would also be helpful.

Any radio can be provisioned to do that. APX series is overkill for that sort of application. I have an end user group that operates a large natural reserve in a very remote area that includes habitat for some very endangered animals. They are using a much lower tier radio from Kenwood that does everything they need.

Would this radio be suitable? If we moved to encrypted simplex could it do this too?

No, not really a logical choice unless wasting lots of money was the goal. If you need voice obscuring features, -all- the radios must be capable of it, not just one of them. There are much cheaper ways to achieve this without making every user have a radio capable of running the type of encryption the APX line does.

There might be some other repeater channels (non encrypted) that we could add to talk to our government partners too.

You would need to have permission from that agency, and your radios would need to be compatible with their system. Without knowing what country you are in, which 'government partner' you need to talk to, and how their system is provisioned, anyone providing answers would be guessing.
If interoperation with a government agency is one of the requirements, your #1 task to to work directly with that agency and the people who run their radio system, not a hobbyists radio webpage.