CP185 MDC Signaling

[tropiradio]

I have two CP185 VHF radios that are a couple of years old and do not have MDC signaling. I saw that the current offering of this model now does include MDC and was wondering if there might be a firmware update out there that would allow me to upgrade the older radios I have to get MDC operational. Anyone knows anything about this?

I know its a very low tier radio barely worth dealing with, but it would be very useful for me to be able to get MDC signaling working in them.

Thank you.

 

[tropiradio]

This is where I saw that the CP185 supposedly now includes MDC (in the INCREASED PRIVACY section). Not sure it might be a mistake or the info is correct.

Motorola CP185 4-5 Watt 16 Channel VHF or UHF Business Radio

Lightweight, affordable and easy-to-use two way radio.

twowayradiogear.com

The brochure (still) does not mention anything at all about signaling, at least the ones I could find and apparently it never has, at least on the older ones I have from 2008-2010 which would make sense as the radio has absolutely no signaling option in CPS.

 

[W6VVM]

I used to have a few of these radios without signaling. I eventually picked up a signaling model just to check it out. They were different model numbers altogether so I don’t think signaling can be enabled on a non-signaling model. They’ve since been re-homed.

As I recall, the signaling was very basic. No contact storing so essentially the display just shows the MDC ID on decode, and of course sends MDC pre or post PTT.

 

[tropiradio]

That is basically what I only need, that the radio sends out its MDC ID on post PTT.

Given that Motorola implements features in software, and PCBs of similar models are almost identical, it may still be possible that a Firmware upgrade might enable MDC, unless there is some kind of lockout to prevent upgrades to slightly different models. I really have not looked much at the schematics yet, but the required hardware for MDC is probably already present on the CP185 board in the form of the ASFIC and MCU chips. It is well known that the difference in features between similar models is generally only software. The other solution I can think of is replacing the EEPROM like way back when I was able to convert a HT750 radio to HT1250 and then just replacing the front housing with one that had the display and keypad and the radio would work perfectly, minus the clock backup battery. But if that where the only option for the CP185 as well, still would need a copy from the EEPROM contents of one CP185 with signaling enabled.