Are motorola digitial groups proprietary?

[jaydio]

Our site has inherited a UHF system with an XPR8400 repeater and a few XPR3500 radios.

The moto radios have a zone set up with a couple digitial channels with numbered call ID's.

It doesn't seem like they're using DPL/PL just the digital groups.

Seperate from this, we also have a few Vertex VX427 radios that appear to use other frequencies.

Just wondering if it possible to program the VX427 to talk to those motorola digitial groups?

We're in process of having the repeater relicensed to us and will probably have a local radio consultant help us with programming.

Thanks for any tips

 

[Cameron314]

VX427 aren't digital.

 

[wa8pyr]

No, Motorola digital groups are not proprietary. Their flavor of DMR matches the international standard, albeit with a few Motorola-specific additions.

The being said, you really ought to get the repeater completely reprogrammed so you don't run the risk of connecting to something out in la la land that you shouldn't connect to.

As far as the VX427 radios go, the XPR8400 will do analog, so you could run everything in that mode if you wanted to, but DMR is so much nicer.

 

[jaydio]

I see. So basically the VX427's are out if we want to stay digitial with the motorolla repeater.

We've submitted (through consultant) to renew license to the same frequencies for same system.

The system was for our campus only.

I guess the easiest thing to do in this case (though not cheapest) would be to purchase additional Moto XPR3500 radios and program those for the existing system?

 

[jaydio]

One question though, could you suggest any cheaper (surplus/ebay) radios that would work with that XPR8400 / XPR3500 system? For example it seems like XPR3300e's could work. We will need a dozen or so more radios than we have for our operations. The additional radios will be inside so don't care so much about waterproofing or other things. Just need basic radios that would work with the existing digitial system.

 

[alcahuete]

One question though, could you suggest any cheaper (surplus/ebay) radios that would work with that XPR8400 / XPR3500 system? For example it seems like XPR3300e's could work. We will need a dozen or so more radios than we have for our operations. The additional radios will be inside so don't care so much about waterproofing or other things. Just need basic radios that would work with the existing digitial system.

How many channels do you need? The CP100d and CP200d are going to be a little cheaper.

 

[TampaTyron]

Might as well get some $50 BaoFeng DMR radios too...... You really cannot be too cheap when it comes to radios that you rely on for safety and day-to-day operations. TT

 

[jaydio]

Might as well get some $50 BaoFeng DMR radios too...... You really cannot be too cheap when it comes to radios that you rely on for safety and day-to-day operations. TT

Think there's a fine line these days between being "too cheap" and "sorry, everyone gets a pink slip". Can't argue that it's safer at home on our computers searching indeed and monster.com. Been there, done that once. No fun. The previous company that owned the site was publicly traded (i.e. those companies that typically use your 401k money to buy money-is-no-object everything... from $1000+ office chairs to $1000+ DMR's).

When you're a start-up and being sensible with your out-of-pocket expenses because you have other peoples jobs on the line, I think there are plenty of high quality used / NOS industrial radios (and everything else) available on surplus markets. Anyway, we do mention XPR3300e's rather than $50 baofengs.

-Jay

 

[jaydio]

How many channels do you need? The CP100d and CP200d are going to be a little cheaper.

We only need 1 channel (for all) - but technically maybe 2. Not knowing exaclty how it works - 1 channel (to all) that would be on the repeater, and another channel (to all) that would be direct in case repeater is ever offline. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[PACNWDude]

Sunny Communications out of Colorado might be a good choice for appropriate gear, to include repeaters and duplexers as well as handheld and mobile radios at a lower cost than new, but higher and more reliable than Baofeng's. Great company, have purchased hundreds of radios from them over the years for small corporate units that do not have tax-payer money or municipal grants (once again tax-payers money) behind them. Corporate world is based on saving money and spending it wisely, I have saved/spent a lot with this company, but have no other affiliation to them - I did get a XPR7550e for $505.00 once though, personal credit card payment, while my employer spent $1470 for the same radio direct from Motorola Solutions Inc.. My employer at that time had no contract with Motorola and did not pay their bills on time.

 

[TampaTyron]

As a large shop where we take in thousands of radios a quarter in trade ins, we sell a bunch to Sunny for cheap. He fixes, recases, and flips them. We could do same, but we want these radios out of our markets and Sunny makes it so easy. However, he has slowed in taking piles of radios after the last 100 MTR3k and several thousand 6550 and 7550 (non e). TT

 

[paulears]

You renewed the licence through a consultant, so you have a local expert? It seems odd to ask here when you don’t actually have any info on how your system is programmed?

if it really is a simple digital repeater, with no clever features, just everyone needs to talk to everyone, then you reprogram the entire things, repeater and ALL the radios to the two frequencies, all on slot one, cc1, no encryption. As basic as you can get, everything set to one big group, radios with sequential IDs, no names, no small groups. Then, the list of radios that will work increases greatly and you could buy, for example, cheaper radios than Motorola, but it needs somebody to program every single radio from scratch. Do you have the software and cables? That’s the usual problem.