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EF Johnson vs Motorola

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stantech

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To all who responded I Appreciate all the answers & posts regarding the EF Johnson FPP radios. It does make me feel a bit better having just purchased two 5100's. Methusaleh I like your RR name & I had a friend years ago who used the same. Used HT-1000's & later on HT-1250's for my job & the 1250's actually held out pretty well in bad weather but then again we were'nt fighting fires throughout the night in sub frezzing temps. Again thank you all for your responses & stay well all !!!
 

FFPM571

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I am well aware what the 3000 and the 5000's can and cant do. I have mulitple units. Since since the 5000's and 3000's share accessories and the EFJ also do the only thing they dont share is a programming cable
 

WB0VNE

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I'm totally new at programming these and having an understanding of them but I've learned a couple things (Thanks to Bob M.)

I'm operated the Johnson 5300 (Mobile) and 5100 as our Civil Air Patrol units use these. In my limited experience I would agree with the gentleman who said that they are rugged. The joke has been that you use it to check in with Mission base and then pound tent stakes in with it. The only weak point I've found is the tabs that the battery latches onto. The battery sticks into the radio pretty tight so my theory is that some geniuses try removing the battery by pounding the back of the radio on a desk (or a brick) and crack off the Cast Alum tabs.

I just picked up a few used ones (ebay) to program for CAP and maybe check out the local Amateur P25 repeater. The software is a little bit twitchy because you need a specific version depending on which (firmware) rom the radio has. The roms match up with how Johnson was building the radio at the time. So you might see a radio power up saying it was ver 6.2.4 and then another might be 2.8.15 The first digit matches up with the particular hardware. (the electronics inside - Micros, DSPs and such) So... Long story made short. The best firmware would be 2.xxxx for radios with Versions that start with a 2. And the last version for a radio with version 4.xxx would be something that starts with 4. For example you wouldn't try putting 6.123 on a radio that currently has 2.8.15 on it because its not the right code for the hardware in that era of the radio. 1 for 1, 2 for 2, 3 for 3 and so on. And likewise there are different versions of PCC to program the radio. If you use too new a version on an older radio it won't work. I've not figured out the sequence of what goes with what other then what I use to do the V2.8.15 radios I have.

I'm all excited because I was able to program one of them (Last night) ok. No one is more amazed then me... ;-)
 

general22

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hi i was wounder if some one could help me out and PM Me. I have a EF Johnson 5100 vhf ver 1.28.11. . I Paid for that ver. But did not work.Then he sent me VER 1.30.07 and it will not work at all on my computer. Error message. and the guy i got it from will not get back to me :( Sucks any help would be awesome..
 

cmjonesinc

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hi i was wounder if some one could help me out and PM Me. I have a EF Johnson 5100 vhf ver 1.28.11. . I Paid for that ver. But did not work.Then he sent me VER 1.30.07 and it will not work at all on my computer. Error message. and the guy i got it from will not get back to me :( Sucks any help would be awesome..

PM sent
 
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