Handheld Control Head Transceivers

[JASII]

A number of years ago I had a couple of Standard C5718DA amateur radio transceivers. They were quite handy for me, at the time, and easy to swap from one vehicle to another by simply having a mobile antenna and power cable wired in.

Anyway, enough reminiscing, is anybody aware of any similar, current amateur radio transceivers?

The commercial land-mobile choice seems to be the Motorola XPR5550 (or XPR 5350) and a PMLN7131 Handheld Control Head.

XPR 5000 Series Mobile Radio - Motorola Solutions

The XPR 5000 delivers superb audio, integrated Bluetooth, enhanced GPS, and text messaging for your on-the-go communications.

www.motorolasolutions.com

PMLN7131 - Handheld control head - Motorola Solutions Asia

PMLN7131 - Handheld control head

www.motorolasolutions.com

https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-product?id=4233

Standard C5718DA Transceiver

 

[MTS2000des]

XTL5000s also support HHCHs, the older W3 heads are cheaper, less to look at, but fully functional. You will need a specific TIB (transceiver interface board) module to PROPERLY use a W3 head on an XTL. The newer (current) Odyssey 3 (aka O3) head are plug and play provided the TIB is an Odyssey TIB. They are more expensive as they are compatible with APX radios. Both heads do not have a speaker like the XPR, but keep in mind, the puny speaker in an HHCH is gonna sound like crap if you got the windows rolled down.

All depends on what you want to spend. FWIW the XTLs are a hell of a lot easier to program with Astro 25 CPS, no issues with wideband entitlements or software hacks. Drag and drop is MUCH easier on the Astro 25 CPS, and FWIW, you won't have to worry so much about firmware or the technical abortion that is TRBO CPS 2.0.

I run an XTL5000 VHF in my county ride for ham use with an O3 head.

 

[BMDaug]

I run a Harris XG100M with a HHC731 (Hand Held Control 731) in my manpack and I love it! I can throw the backpack in any vehicle and slap a mag mount antenna with Compactenna LMR-I on top and operate from any vehicle without any wiring (aside from the mag mount). I have narrow and wide band vhf, uhf, and 7/800 with P25 phase 1 & 2 trunked NAS. I can run about three shifts on a charge (talking quite a bit). It also allows me to run P25C AES 256 on my business channels.

-B

 

[vagrant]

I use an XTL5000 UHF in the vehicle with the W3 control head. It works well as I do not need a color screen. As previously noted, easy to program and plenty loud with the external speaker. With P25 and analog for Amateur and GMRS I'm happy with it at 10W and bumping to 40W if needed.

Alternatively, there is the XTS5000 portable that can be used with an XTVA and a similar W3 XTVA HHCH. I use a VHF and UHF XTS5000 in the house with two XTVA's and their respective HHCH. Of course lower watts with the portable.

 

[mmckenna]

Anyway, enough reminiscing, is anybody aware of any similar, current amateur radio transceivers?

I haven't seen any recent ones. But I don't follow the amateur products very much.

The commercial land-mobile choice seems to be the Motorola XPR5550 (or XPR 5350) and a PMLN7131 Handheld Control Head.

NX-5000 line will do HHCH. Not cheap, but analog, DMR, NXDN or P25. And, if your last name is Buffett, you can do multiple RF decks.

The old TK-5x10 radios will do HHCH also, but analog/P25 only.

 

[JASII]

There is actually a GMRS Midland that will do it.

Midland MXT275 MicroMobile GMRS Two-Way Radio | Midland Radio

The Midland MXT275 MicroMobile two-way radio offers 15 GMRS channels, a powerful USB-C charging port, NOAA weather alerts, & more. Order yours today.

midlandusa.com

 

[mmckenna]

There is actually a GMRS Midland that will do it.

Midland MXT275 MicroMobile GMRS Two-Way Radio | Midland Radio

The Midland MXT275 MicroMobile two-way radio offers 15 GMRS channels, a powerful USB-C charging port, NOAA weather alerts, & more. Order yours today.

midlandusa.com

Yeah, great if you want GMRS. Nice little compact unit.
There's also a Uniden CB.

 

[JASII]

So, I could have the Kenmore KCH-21RM connected to say one VHF high band deck and another UHF deck and do BOTH MOTO TRBO and APCO P-25?

Hmm, if I was as rich as Oprah, I would do that. I suppose the head is close to $1,000 and each deck might be close to $1,000, too?

Kenwood KCH-21RM Featured Control Head f/NX-5000 Series

Includes a clip. For KENWOOD NX-5600, NX-5700, NX-5800, NX-5900 remote mount radios

www.ameradio.com

 

[mmckenna]

So, I could have the Kenmore KCH-21RM connected to say one VHF high band deck and another UHF deck and do BOTH MOTO TRBO and APCO P-25?

Yes.
You'd have to add the DMR option to both decks.

Hmm, if I was as rich as Oprah, I would do that. I suppose the head is close to $1,000 and each deck might be close to $1,000, too?

Depends on how you option them out. But, yeah, it's not for El Cheap-O hams. You gotta -WANT- it.
If you are not in a hurry, you may want to see what Tait comes out with in the next year or so. They have a multiband hand held coming, and there's been off and on rumors of P25+DMR. Would not be surprised to see a multiband mobile come down the pipe.

 

[KevinC]

There is actually a GMRS Midland that will do it.

Midland MXT275 MicroMobile GMRS Two-Way Radio | Midland Radio

The Midland MXT275 MicroMobile two-way radio offers 15 GMRS channels, a powerful USB-C charging port, NOAA weather alerts, & more. Order yours today.

midlandusa.com

One caveat of these units is they are narrow band only (2.5 kHz deviation). Which may be an issue working with other GMRS units or through a GMRS repeater.

 

[BMDaug]

One caveat of these units is they are narrow band only (2.5 kHz deviation). Which may be an issue working with other GMRS units or through a GMRS repeater.

Ya the lack of wideband on current generation LMRs sucks for the ham… that’s the advantage of using slightly older hardware. I like the previous generation of Harris stuff because I’ve got vhf, uhf, 7/800, narrow, wide, and NAS with encryption options in a single unit, both portable and mobile. Timing is just right to be able to use all of the features of the radio without running my own trunking site…

-B

 

[pandel]

Check out the Anysecu WP-9900. Small, cheap dual band and has a HHCH. They have also been sold as QYT WP-12.
I don't know too much about them yet.... Just ordered one $129 on Amazon to put in my new car. I don't want to mount a full radio up front. You can find several reviews on You Tube if you're interested.

 

[pointman1177]

This is exactly the kind of thing I have been wanting lately. Thank you OP for reading my mind on this. Years ago I bought an O3 control head with the intention of running multiple XTL5000's however I am new to the Motorola world and did not know if I would be able to make it work and have since put a pin in the idea. Someone recently posted the Kenwood Version which I really like. In the end I cant decide if I want to go this route having only pre-programmed frequencies with no VFO seems like a downfall when travelling. If others have successfully ran this type of setup I would like to hear from them without hijacking this post.

 

[mmckenna]

In the end I cant decide if I want to go this route having only pre-programmed frequencies with no VFO seems like a downfall when travelling. If others have successfully ran this type of setup I would like to hear from them without hijacking this post.

I ditched all my ham only radios about 10 years ago. Haven't missed it at all.
There's only so many simplex frequencies. Any of the modern commercial radios have plenty of channel capacity to program them all in.
Same with repeater pairs, and you can use functions like Motorola MPL (manual PL) or Kenwood OST (Operator Selected Tone) to adjust the PL tones on the fly. If you wanted to go way out, the Kenwood NX-5000's can be ordered with an optional "Front Panel Programming" option that lets you make adjustments to channels on the fly from the radio face. Not super easy, but possible.

Never regretted switching to the commercial radios, but maybe my use case is different than others.

 

[BMDaug]

I ditched all my ham only radios about 10 years ago. Haven't missed it at all.
There's only so many simplex frequencies. Any of the modern commercial radios have plenty of channel capacity to program them all in.
Same with repeater pairs, and you can use functions like Motorola MPL (manual PL) or Kenwood OST (Operator Selected Tone) to adjust the PL tones on the fly. If you wanted to go way out, the Kenwood NX-5000's can be ordered with an optional "Front Panel Programming" option that lets you make adjustments to channels on the fly from the radio face. Not super easy, but possible.

Never regretted switching to the commercial radios, but maybe my use case is different than others.

I don’t miss ham only radios either. I don’t miss a VFO but the XG100M will do full programming from the front panel including TX freq, RX freq, TX and RX CTCSS/DCS or in the case of P25, TX and RX NAC… The Harris also allows me to control squelch and TX power from the front panel on a channel by channel basis. The only thing I can’t do is choose wideband or narrowband, but I just keep a wideband analog system, and a narrowband analog system and keep my amateur and business channels totally separate.

I do also run a Panasonic Toughpad in the pack and often use APRS to find local repeaters while off-grid (most repeaters beacon APRS, especially linked repeaters since they can beacon without additional hardware). I try to plan ahead and add the repeaters via programming before I head out, key words here are “try to”. I don’t run multiple radios from the handheld controller though… the Harris is multiband and I can always NAS or monitor VHF low if I get bored…

-Brian

 

[tweiss3]

I ditched all my ham only radios about 10 years ago. Haven't missed it at all.
There's only so many simplex frequencies. Any of the modern commercial radios have plenty of channel capacity to program them all in.
Same with repeater pairs, and you can use functions like Motorola MPL (manual PL) or Kenwood OST (Operator Selected Tone) to adjust the PL tones on the fly. If you wanted to go way out, the Kenwood NX-5000's can be ordered with an optional "Front Panel Programming" option that lets you make adjustments to channels on the fly from the radio face. Not super easy, but possible.

Never regretted switching to the commercial radios, but maybe my use case is different than others.

I have FPP on my 5300, and the only down side is any changes or new channels automatically flip to narrow band. I messed up one DPL on a travel allstar node, and when I changed it, someone mentioned my audio was way way down. When I got back home and connected, I saw it flipped the channel back to FMN.

 

[BMDaug]

I have FPP on my 5300, and the only down side is any changes or new channels automatically flip to narrow band. I messed up one DPL on a travel allstar node, and when I changed it, someone mentioned my audio was way way down. When I got back home and connected, I saw it flipped the channel back to FMN.

Sounds like liability mitigation lol! I’m assuming you can’t toggle W/N from the front panel? The Harris can’t “add channels”, only modify existing channels so the standard workaround is just to put a few dozen generic channels (usually the simplex calling frequency) in a “narrow” system and the same in a “wide” system, name the systems Wideband and Narrowband and have those channels as “assignable”.

-B

 

[prcguy]

Here is my cheap version of a Harris XG-100M mobile with remote mic. Its a Harris XG-100P hand held attached to a military wideband amp and a Bluetooth speaker mic. The amp puts out 18-20w with 1-5w in across 30-512MHz and will do 40w out on 28v. Its handy to toss on the seat of the car then you only have to deal with the small wireless speaker mic. The amp is designed more for the MBITR and PRC-152 series with VHF low band through 512MHz and since I don't have any frequencies to transmit on in the 700-800MHz range it works fine for my purposes.

I have another amp the size of two packs of cigarettes that has about the same specs but its 28V only.

 

[mmckenna]

I have FPP on my 5300...

Yeah, they default to narrow unless you have the wide band permission on the KPG software. FPP would, as I expected, force narrow band since opening up wide band would probably require modified firmware.

 

[prcguy]

Ok, I had to post a picture of the other amp, its just too cool. 30-512MHz and 20W output. So how does this compare to your manpack setup, daug?