GP350s to play with

[WTCPT]

I just got 7 GP350s, I think most are VHF, have one charger, I need to try setting up the charger with some voltage source and see how these all charge up and hold their charge, but it looks like I have a neat little family of radios to learn about. Can't get to to at all right now, I have EMT school tomorrow and have to keep my mind on that. But any basic info on the GP350s is sure welcome.

 

[cmdrwill]

The GP350 is one of the family of GP300, P110, GP88 radios. The GP 350 has the most rugged housing and uses the same chargers.

The chargers work well with 12 DC volts input, center pin is positive.

 

[WTCPT]

Thanks you this info is solid gold for me, please put in any other "gold" if you like, folks!

 

[WTCPT]

I got 3-4 more chargers and 2 wall warts for 'em, yay. And had a chance to take literally a few minutes and look at a couple of the radios more closely, they range from "worn" to "minty" cool.

Two have DTMF keypads, can freqs be entered manually on those?

 

[n3obl]

In order to program those you will need a Motorola RIB box and cable to mate to the radio.

To program those. The program contact is on the back of the radio. I believe it is the center pin and ground for contact. No the DTMF pad will not program.

If these are 16 channel radios.. if you want scan you have to use one of the position on the ch knob.

Frank

 

[WTCPT]

I bet that RIB box costs hundreds of dollars too .....

 

[N1SQB]

Nope!

I bet that RIB box costs hundreds of dollars too .....

Not according to this ad!
Programming cable for Motorola GP350 & Mobile Radio NEW - eBay (item 380204852047 end time Mar-09-10 17:06:36 PST)

Manny

 

[WTCPT]

I don't do ebay though. No ebay, no credit cards, no banks, nuttin. Thanks though! I might put a 'wanted' in the classified ads here if there are any.

 

[WTCPT]

Hm I had a look at the ad .... the programming is a DB-9 connector at the computer end, and a couple of solder pads to the radio? I can make something, looks like I'll need an old PC, the software and a DB-9 and stuff. Rib boxes used to be real money, refreshing to see they're not now - I remember seeing them that fit to a set of gold plated pads on the side of the radio, people hacking their own had to make a matrix of pogo pins to do it, and while I have literally owned more than my own weight in pogo pins, I don't have any now :-( I have a source for 'em, $1 each or so, worth it if needed though!

Sigh .... 7 radios and only 4 antennas .... how'd that happen?

 

[JnglMassiv]

The GP350's are some of my favorite Moto radios of all time. And I consider myself a fairly seasoned collector. I have a small fleet of them myself. Some interesting trivia: some versions are narrowband compatible, the accy connector is unique to the GP350, there are 2 and 16chan versions available, there's also a somewhat unusual DTMF keypad model. I have a pretty rare voice inversion board for the 350, would love to find a second one.

It will probably be hard to locally source a RIB, not to mention a GP350 programming adapter. I've had plenty of experience with alligator clips, blown fuses and heart-pounding, white-knuckled 'write to radio' sessions. If you think you may keep the radios a while, it might be worth finding someone to help you buy the ebay adapter. It's not impossible without the adapter but much easier and, considering you'd still need a RIB anyway, likely cheaper to boot.

 

[WTCPT]

Fascinating! Supposedly they all are on a common freq, I've had a ton of stuff happen around here, from a minor roof rebuild to the unusual-tasting bug I almost ate, and EMT school tomorrow, seems there's always EMT school.

I'm of a mind to keep them and think long and hard before letting them go.

I can probably build any RIB required, even the multi-pogo-pin nightmare RIBs are something I can build. I just need time and motivation. First I need to get these charged up, see if they talk to each other etc. Maybe find some manuals online.

Thanks! I'm always up for discussing these interesting radios.

 

[WTCPT]

Actually, I probably will just sell these, does anyone know if there's a "stuff for sale" place on this site?

 

[WTCPT]

I ended up selling 'em at a hamfest, $150 for all. I could not get 'em to talk to each other, they seemed to charge up OK but I could see the other guy's point of view and went with his price.

I did pick up a scanner with sick audio for $2 to try to fix and a neato shortwave (imagine a Grundig G4 in a big klunky box with big klunky controls, this thing is cool) for $40, and a bunch of other goodies.

Including more soldering iron tips! Yay!