Can anyone identify this radio?

[fantasma25]

Can anyone help me identify thos radio. It was taken out of a truck, they want to sell for $100. I want to see if it is worth it.

 

[W8KIC]

Can anyone help me identify thos radio. It was taken out of a truck, they want to sell for $100. I want to see if it is worth it.View attachment 148050

Do you mean voluntarily taken out of a truck by it's owner or otherwise?

 

[ecps92]

Can anyone help me identify thos radio. It was taken out of a truck, they want to sell for $100. I want to see if it is worth it.View attachment 148050

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[Project25_MASTR]

Just a picture of a control head is not very helpful as that particular control head could be used on multiple radios (much the same with Motorola, EF Johnson, and other manufacturers products).

 

[mmckenna]

Can anyone help me identify thos radio. It was taken out of a truck, they want to sell for $100. I want to see if it is worth it.

If you have to ask, it's probably not worth it.

Not taking a dig at you, just saying that buying random radios is usually a bad idea.
No way to tell what band that is from the photo. Could be VHF Hi, VHF low, UHF, 800?

Question would be, 'what do you need'?

$100 isn't a good price for rando-radio. Not knowing what band it is, questionable background, questionable condition, questionable accessories.
Then you need to deal with software and programming cables.

And then you might find that a radio that old is out of alignment and won't work worth beans.


If you have a specific need, you'd do better shopping for a radio that meets those specific needs.
Or, offer the guy $10 for it and spin the wheel….

 

[wa8pyr]

If you have to ask, it's probably not worth it.

Not taking a dig at you, just saying that buying random radios is usually a bad idea.
No way to tell what band that is from the photo. Could be VHF Hi, VHF low, UHF, 800?

Question would be, 'what do you need'?

$100 isn't a good price for rando-radio. Not knowing what band it is, questionable background, questionable condition, questionable accessories.
Then you need to deal with software and programming cables.

And then you might find that a radio that old is out of alignment and won't work worth beans.


If you have a specific need, you'd do better shopping for a radio that meets those specific needs.
Or, offer the guy $10 for it and spin the wheel….

What he said.

Looking at the picture it appears to be either an Orion or an M7100; I don't recall offhand if that control head was used on any other radios or not.

If what you're looking for is VHF or UHF and the radio is an M7100 it might be worthwhile, but if it's an Orion it's probably not worth the effort unless you're an inveterate tinkerer. If it's 800 MHz don't bother.

 

[mmckenna]

You can get newer radios cheaper. Especially if all you want to do is listen.

 

[2154]

I'd pass. Unless you were getting it for free or less than like $20. It's not worth it. Like mmckenna said, there's newer better stuff out there.

 

[devicelab]

Or, offer the guy $10 for it and spin the wheel….

Them: You like it huh? How about you give me $100 for it...
Me: How about I let you live...
Them: Man knows how to bargain.

 

[ElroyJetson]

It's commonly known as an Orion or an M7100 and may be VHF, UHF, or 800 MHz. If it's 800 it's hardly worth shipping. It's worth a bit more if it's in a VHF or UHF split that's useful to you.

They're good radios, just pretty obsolete and getting long in the tooth at this point.

The simplest way to find out if it's an Orion vs. an M7100 is to look at the radio chassis. If the gasket is orange it's an Orion, if it's blue it's an M7100.

The M7100 is newer but they share the same control heads and are operationally the same. Difference being, M7100s are capable of P25 (phase 1 only) trunking while Orions are not capable of P25 trunking at all.

 

[wa8pyr]

The M7100 is newer but they share the same control heads and are operationally the same. Difference being, M7100s are capable of P25 (phase 1 only) trunking while Orions are not capable of P25 trunking at all.

I've found that the M7100 series is a bit easier to use in the ham bands than the Orion; VHF and UHF M7100s work right away, while Orions generally tended to need some internal tweaking due to VCO lock issues, especially below 146 MHz.

 

[Tom_G]

The Orion's had some of the loudest audio I have ever heard.

 

[merlin]

Control head on my M7100s look like that. Looking at one now.
Got about $120 invested in the whole system.

 

[merlin]

The Orion's had some of the loudest audio I have ever heard.

27 watt audio IC, and with the 40 watt speakers, blow the roof off your house.
The analog audio processor made it the best sounding also.
All that carried into the M7100s

 

[merlin]

Just a picture of a control head is not very helpful as that particular control head could be used on multiple radios (much the same with Motorola, EF Johnson, and other manufacturers products).

They come in front mount also.

 

[Tom_G]

Just another question on this topic.
I have an 800 Orion and I built a "Shop Programming cable" for it. (CA101288V15)
When I turn the radio on, the display shows PCPROG, but when I program with programmer, it can't initialize the radio.
I've been digging around looking for anwers, but had a couple question for anyone who might have experience.
1.) Can Orions be programmed with RPM? I had read somewhere that they were only supported with programmer.
Just want to validate that it wasn't programmed with RPM and I won't be able to program it with programmer.
2.) Any other suggestions on the "Unable to initialize the radio" error?
Thanks,

 

[Muxlow]

Just another question on this topic.
I have an 800 Orion and I built a "Shop Programming cable" for it. (CA101288V15)
When I turn the radio on, the display shows PCPROG, but when I program with programmer, it can't initialize the radio.
I've been digging around looking for anwers, but had a couple question for anyone who might have experience.
1.) Can Orions be programmed with RPM? I had read somewhere that they were only supported with programmer.
Just want to validate that it wasn't programmed with RPM and I won't be able to program it with programmer.
2.) Any other suggestions on the "Unable to initialize the radio" error?
Thanks,

Your sure its an orion series? If its a remote mount or cant recall maybe even the front mounts also.
Around the control head on a front mount and along the blank faceplate on the remote mounts they had a rubber gasket that went around the radio. Orions were red and M7100's were blue

M7100 can be programmed with RPM and the orion series ended at programmer (as far as i remember)

Make sure you have the correct com port selected. If its a true serial connection on the radio it will be com port 1 or 2. If your using a USB to serial adapter then youd have to look in device manager to see what com port its on.

Iv made a programming cable for the front and remote mounts and just made them go to a DB9 to connect to my toughbook for programming and worked fine.

 

[Tom_G]

Your sure its an orion series? If its a remote mount or cant recall maybe even the front mounts also.
Around the control head on a front mount and along the blank faceplate on the remote mounts they had a rubber gasket that went around the radio. Orions were red and M7100's were blue

M7100 can be programmed with RPM and the orion series ended at programmer (as far as i remember)

Make sure you have the correct com port selected. If its a true serial connection on the radio it will be com port 1 or 2. If your using a USB to serial adapter then youd have to look in device manager to see what com port its on.

Iv made a programming cable for the front and remote mounts and just made them go to a DB9 to connect to my toughbook for programming and worked fine.

Thanks for the suggestions,
The gasket is red. Its a D28LPX model. Front mount, scan.
I know COM1 is the correct port as I use it for other radios with programmer. (MPA's and JAG's with the RIB)
This cable I made up is RIB-less version for Orion's.
I also double checked my cable pin-outs end to end and it tested good.
Very strange...

 

[Muxlow]

And when you take the cable off the radio it does boot up as normal yes?

Do you have the radio maint program too? See if you can read the radio info or the feature string with that? Or very least see if the radio reboots when you click JUMP

then try and open programmer and see if you can read it then. Do you have a microphone connected to the front? If so try taking that off just for the F of it to see if that changes anything

 

[ElroyJetson]

Neither ProGrammer nor RPM will read a radio that's not supported in their own support list. If it reads, it IS on that list.