EFJohnson 5100 ES TDMA Upgrade?

[dmason04]

So I came across something rather interesting on the back of my EFJ 5100 today. One of them was marked with a sticker (see attached photo) indicating: P25 Phase II TDMA Upgradeable. I checked the rest of them and noticed they were all marked this way. I had heard the possibility of this from seeing EFJ catalogs and whatnot, however, after reading that this was an error, I was confused as to why they'd mark these radios with stickers like that. So my question is, is this TDMA operation thing a myth? If so, why did EFJ continue to falsely advertise and get away with it? If it is possible, how is it done now that this model is older than dirt and I assume it is unsupported by Kenwood or EFJ?

 

[KevinC]

I wonder if that was done thinking the Phase II spec would be something different than it ended up being?

 

[dmason04]

I wonder if that was done thinking the Phase II spec would be something different than it ended up being?

It's possible but these ones are series 6 radios and I assumed that they would have been made in the late 2000s to early 2010s which is when Phase II became a thing (2011). They had advertised TDMA in a catalog from 2007, which I assume would be for X2-TDMA. Those stickers appear factory but I will look into this further as it has definitely piqued my interest.

 

[MTS2000des]

Except "X2 TDMA" was a Motorola Solutions proprietary feature.

 

[ScanWI]

EF Johnson sold the 5100 radios with an upgrade option that when Phase II was available you could either upgrade them or trade them in for the model that would do Phase II. The 5100 never supported Phase II.

 

[Echo4Thirty]

the 5100s were being explored for the option of Phase II but it was determined the board would need to be reworked to handle the TX/RX timing cycle. IIRC the PA also was not able to ramp up to full TXPO in time between slots. Furthermore, the industry HATED the X series and associated the form factor with the horrid EFJ experiences of the past. Marketing and Sales wanted to ditch the platform and focus on a new form factor. New EFJ, New Radio, New Experience as it were.

When i walked into a customer location, they often had a 5100 on their desk ready to pounce on me. There was no way in hell I could go in there with a phase II radio that looked anything like a legacy radio. Convincing them to demo the viking was hard as hell. Once they saw the viking and armada they would open up.

EDIT: I also ran into a lot of "The Viking looks like my XTS5000, and that radio is old!". I would try to spin it as a good thing for less training and the ability for certain Moto audio accessories to be used, ultimately some customers saw it as a old radio the same as they were carrying.

 

[dmason04]

That was what I found interesting since the stickers made it seem like the device actually supported it. The catalog says that the radios came with the AMBE+2 vocoder but then they never pulled the marketing or issued a statement.

 

[Echo4Thirty]

AMBE+2 was also used in Phase I

 

[DeoVindice]

the 5100s were being explored for the option of Phase II but it was determined the board would need to be reworked to handle the TX/RX timing cycle. IIRC the PA also was not able to ramp up to full TXPO in time between slots. Furthermore, the industry HATED the X series and associated the form factor with the horrid EFJ experiences of the past. Marketing and Sales wanted to ditch the platform and focus on a new form factor. New EFJ, New Radio, New Experience as it were.

When i walked into a customer location, they often had a 5100 on their desk ready to pounce on me. There was no way in hell I could go in there with a phase II radio that looked anything like a legacy radio. Convincing them to demo the viking was hard as hell. Once they saw the viking and armada they would open up.

EDIT: I also ran into a lot of "The Viking looks like my XTS5000, and that radio is old!". I would try to spin it as a good thing for less training and the ability for certain Moto audio accessories to be used, ultimately some customers saw it as a old radio the same as they were carrying.

The X-platform portables were, uh, special, to put it in a family-friendly way. The ES-platform portables have their issues too but are a major step up. Funny enough, I've had nothing but good experiences with mobiles of either series. A 5300ES is my truck radio and it's been excellent, and one of the NYS 53SLs is in my other vehicle.

EFJ did a great job with Viking/Armada. A VP600 rides in the car charger next to my 5300. I have no use for TDMA but I appreciate the improvements over the 5100.

 

[Echo4Thirty]

The ES radios were not bad. Their biggest downfall was they looked exactly like the craptacular X-series.