I have 35 Baofeng BF-888s Radios I wish to have an MDC1200 preamble on. I found one guy who said he can install a chip that he can program for me, but he was very shady, I don't trust him lol.
Probably not a good choice for a radio in your instance. If the rest of your system is running MDC, then you really should be looking at compatible radios, however, there are options, see below.
As for "shady", trust your gut.
Basically what I want is it to give off an ID and have that second of tone that keeps you from talking, just like the Motorola radios have, with the exception of $200 gets me 20 cheap radios instead of 1 good one. Does anyone know if this is possible or where to find it?
Here are a couple of options:
https://www.midians.com/specs/automatic-number-identification-ani/ani-f
https://www.midians.com/specs/ani-encoders/ts-120-sm1
https://www.midians.com/specs/ani-encoders/vae-1-sm1
CIM-1200 MDC-1200/GE-Star Encoder | Officer.com
Installation won't be easy. It's going to take a bench tech some time to:
1. figure out the right places to tap into the circuit board to get the right signals in/out.
2. install and program these.
3. test.
That isn't going to be cheap. Purchasing 35 of these, paying a tech to figure out the installation, then do the installation is going to take some time. Bench time can be around $85 per hour. You are probably looking at a couple hours of work.
Then you have the issue of putting a $70 option into a $15 radio (yeah, I know, they probably cost more than that, but it's still a $15 radio).
So, now, you have the cost of the radio, the cost of the ANI board, the cost of the tech time. Now add in the normal attrition rate of these radios. Each time one fails, is lost, stolen, damaged, etc. you are looking at paying for installation.
That is, of course, if you can find a tech that will work on these things. They are essentially "disposable" radios. Finding accurate schematics to find the connection points will likely be difficult. Then, making sure these guys will fit inside the radio case. All a lot of hassle for what you are trying to do. These are a few of many reasons most of us steer clear of these radios.
Might make some sense to do what you are asking, but -really- these low end radios are suitable for hobby use, maybe very light industrial use. You could easily find radios that will do MDC1200 natively for nearly the same price you'll pay for the board and installation.
Seems like trying to polish a turd. In the end you have a shiny turd.
