Harris XG-100P

[GTR8000]

Malaysia actually

Both Mexico and Malaysia, actually.

 

[TDR-94]

It was an APX7000 that I was looking at that stated Mexico.

 

[K2NEC]

Both Mexico and Malaysia, actually.

Touche

 

[KJ4SKP]

Yep,that and the RF-310M-HH are much more durable (as rescue161 has pointed out) and tacticool looking The XG-100P, of course, doesn't have any of the military centric waveforms or CCI related components of the PRC-152. It's form factor also had to be changed and "lightened up" to be able to fit on a duty belt. You really can't do that with the PRC or RF.


I just “ discovered “ this radio today and got pretty excited
Mexico

I get it and yes, it does do a lot for a lot less than Motorola and can actually be set to never affiliate, so I do like that. I have a P7300 and a couple of XG100Ms for that very purpose. I just see countless occurrences of the 100P just failing unexpectedly. There is no rhyme or reason as to why. Encryption keys drop, switches go bad, screens either get stuck in a boot loop or just never go past the boot screen. Sometimes, the boot screen will stay on even with the battery removed. Gently setting them down on a desk and they reboot. And these are our never-leave-the-office radios. The public safety radios are in a constant rotation back and forth from Rochester to us. I've seen problems with radios before, but nothing like I have seen with the 100P. When I worked in maintenance, I was on a tower at the 150 foot mark and my tool bag got wrapped around my fall-arrest and dumped the contents. Everything survived, even my Galaxy S4 (did not even crack the screen), but the 100P bit it hard. We picked up the pieces and saw the construction and were appalled. The shields inside the radio were like a Mylar balloon; as in not rigid. To me, it looks like the radio was designed and then they modified the design to fit the P7100/P7200 batteries, so I think that is why the battery pogos break so easily. I have some personal P7100 and P7200s and their construction is head and shoulders above the 100P. I never had the battery pogos break on them. Alignment procedures on these and other Harris radios is terrible too. The training that I attended in Lynchburg went over the 8-hour manual alignment procedure. I can do a full manual alignment on an XTS2500 in less than 30 minutes and that is taking my time. We went over the Motorola procedures for the instructors and they couldn't say anything, other than they would talk to their engineers to try and get the time down.

On the other hand, the 100M is awesome (other than alignment). We rarely have any issues with them, except for the CH100 control heads. We opted for the CH721, but one of the units here bought their own and went with the CH100 and they have nothing but problems. I will say that these are on boats that are in ocean waters, so that is on them for buying a touch screen control head for a boat.

I just “ discovered “ this radio today and got pretty excited looking at the features. I am looking for a very durable multi band radio for “tactical” applications. Seeing the post about how fragile and prone to failure is really surprising and very disappointing.

 

[rescue161]

There are plenty of people that are satisfied with them, but we are not. We do like the XG-100M and have had very few problems out of them. The XL-200P much better than the XG-100P.

 

[prcguy]

An XL-200P would be really nice but the current used price for hamsters is not. It also uses a different RPM that may or may not be available in a friendly version like the XG-100P uses. The XG-100P seems to be a unique radio for amateur use since its new enough to have good design, features and hopefully reliability vs being old enough to bring the prices down to earth that are affordable by regular people.

I just “ discovered “ this radio today and got pretty excited looking at the features. I am looking for a very durable multi band radio for “tactical” applications. Seeing the post about how fragile and prone to failure is really surprising and very disappointing.

There are plenty of people that are satisfied with them, but we are not. We do like the XG-100M and have had very few problems out of them. The XL-200P much better than the XG-100P.

 

[KJ4SKP]

is there somewhere in the RPM to set CTSS or PL tones to access amateur radio repeaters? For that matter is there any video tutorials on how this software can be configured etc?

 

[rescue161]

Yes. You put all of the channel info under the Conventional Frequency Sets tab, under Systems. There are two there. One for P25 and one for standard, but I always put everything under P25. I do not know why they have two separate tabs. I have P25 and analog repeaters, so that is why all of it is under the P25 tab. If you only put it under non-P25 and later find out that you have a new P25 repeater in the area, you'll have to point back to two different tabs, vs the single P25 tab. I guess what I'm trying to say is that using the P25 tab does not make you lose anything that the normal conv tab has and gives you the ability to have P25 in the future.

And yes, the PL/DPL info is on both of those tabs.

 

[KJ4SKP]

excellent answer sir. thanks for your help.

 

[KJ4SKP]

And yes, the PL/DPL info is on both of those tabs.

I don't see PL/DPL tones in the P25 or conventional sets in the RPM 14 software. How am I missing that?

 

[rescue161]

And yes, the PL/DPL info is on both of those tabs.

I don't see PL/DPL tones in the P25 or conventional sets in the RPM 14 software. How am I missing that?

When you are on the P25 or Conv tab, you have to create a new 'Conv Freq set." On the P25 tab, it is towards the top right, under the tabs "P25 Trunked Systems" and "OpenSky." Once you click on that, that is where you enter the frequency info and PL/DPL, etc.

 

[KJ4SKP]

hmmm, don't see it. can you point me to it? I'm little slow.

 

[rescue161]

You are on the right screen. You have to change the radio button from P25 to see the the TX CG unshade.

TX CG is the TX PL/DPL and RX CG is the RX PL/DPL.

Change the voice mode to analog and the TX CG will be able to be edited. Then you just type 88.5 or a three digit number for DPL.

Also, if you select wideband for a VHF ham freq, it will be good to go, even if your radio is narrowband only. If you try wideband for UHF ham, it will write, but fail if your radio is narrowband only.

 

[KJ4SKP]

thanks man. really appreciate the info. I see that now.

 

[rescue161]

No worries. Glad to help. Have a great night.

 

[prcguy]

I'm no expert with RPM but I think you need to build up all your possible "systems" first like ham, GMRS, police, etc. I always make a system a "project 25 conventional" so I can enter analog or P25 channels. Then you have to make up your zones and add the channels from all your systems into each zone.

Then under the top level "sets" you have "conventional frequency set" which has basically the same info as your systems, or at least it does in my setup. And in all my sets under each conventional frequency set, I put everything under a "project 25 conventional" tab again.

If you are doing any trunked channels they would go under a "P25 trunked" tab under "systems" and under "sets" you would fill in a "trunked frequency set" instead of a "conventional frequency set".

Are you thoroughly confused yet?

 

[K2NEC]

Like every software, it has a learning curve. Despite what most think, it's not too difficult to work with once you get the hang of it.

 

[KJ4SKP]

I'm no expert with RPM but I think you need to build up all your possible "systems" first like ham, GMRS, police, etc. I always make a system a "project 25 conventional" so I can enter analog or P25 channels. Then you have to make up your zones and add the channels from all your systems into each zone.

Then under the top level "sets" you have "conventional frequency set" which has basically the same info as your systems, or at least it does in my setup. And in all my sets under each conventional frequency set, I put everything under a "project 25 conventional" tab again.

If you are doing any trunked channels they would go under a "P25 trunked" tab under "systems" and under "sets" you would fill in a "trunked frequency set" instead of a "conventional frequency set".

Are you thoroughly confused yet?

I am confused indeed. I guess I’m having trouble getting my head around the difference between, systems, sets,zones , channels etc. My order of importance would be local ham repeaters,simplex channels , GMRS, police scanning if possible, weather. Any suggestions on how to structure these frees?

 

[rescue161]

There are some positives over other brands, like Global sets, but some of the negatives are not being able to sort or rearrange the order of talkgroups/channels without stepping each one up/down, or cutting and pasting individual items. One of the better features of the newer XL200 platform on RPM2 is the ability to use the same pers files between mobiles and portables. On the XG100, you have to change the pers to mobile or portable and some things are not used between mobiles/portables. Another cool thing with newer firmware on the XL200 is the ability to finally hide systems and use only zones. That was one of my biggest complaints with using zones and end users finding their way to the system anyway and their channels not lining up the way they do in their zones. Huge headache. We use zones to keep everything from several trunking systems in one zone, but the users always find a way to change the radio to a system and can't turn to their normal talkgroup, because it is in another system.

 

[prcguy]

The best way to do this is to view an existing mission plan of someone else similar to what you want so you can see all the variables.

I am confused indeed. I guess I’m having trouble getting my head around the difference between, systems, sets,zones , channels etc. My order of importance would be local ham repeaters,simplex channels , GMRS, police scanning if possible, weather. Any suggestions on how to structure these frees?