Harris XL400 ?

[chrismol1]

MEGA OUCH that is way to much for a radio....

Come on now, please, think of the children

These radio wars are getting exciting. I'm going to guess the military contractors have the same thing going on over those $1,000 hammers or whatnot except now that the wars are "over", "they" moved to the civil/public safety sector or at least copying their business models

 

[MTS2000des]

We're paying around $7400 for APX-6000XEs with TDMA, AES-256 OTAR, and 3 year service essentials. Thought the XL400 was going to be serious competition for the XE line which has been a fire "go to" portable. Not at $10-15K.

 

[RussH]

We're paying around $7400 for APX-6000XEs with TDMA, AES-256 OTAR, and 3 year service essentials. Thought the XL400 was going to be serious competition for the XE line which has been a fire "go to" portable. Not at $10-15K.

Fair... but the APX-6000XE is single-band only, doesn't have LTE capability, and doesn't meet the new NFPA standards. The Harris equivalent would be the XL-185 which, similarly featured, would cost about half of what you're paying.

 

[2154]

We're paying around $7400 for APX-6000XEs with TDMA, AES-256 OTAR, and 3 year service essentials. Thought the XL400 was going to be serious competition for the XE line which has been a fire "go to" portable. Not at $10-15K.

The difference is that the 6kXEs were pre NFPA 1802. Once Motorola releases its version of an NFPA 1802 spec unit at double the Harris price, then it won't be so bad. As RussH said, you gotta compare apples to apples with this argument and the closest Moto has currently would be an APX8000XE.

 

[12dbsinad]

I'm willing to bet the 400 will come in at around 9-10K for a nicely optioned radio. The Mot 8000XE today is a 10K radio fully optioned. NFPA1802 XE will probably be 15K or more I'm willing to bet.

Still doesn't make it right. Still insanely priced for a portable radio no matter how you slice it.

 

[MTS2000des]

Fair... but the APX-6000XE is single-band only, doesn't have LTE capability, and doesn't meet the new NFPA standards. The Harris equivalent would be the XL-185 which, similarly featured, would cost about half of what you're paying.

Don't need/want multi-band as everyone around here are on 700/800. What is needed is fair competition. The XE is a solid performing radio in the fire service. The NFPA rating is not going to make me try to justify inflating a price double what our agencies are paying today. LTE, WiFi et al is not a need. We don't use RM on our system as it is and even if we did invest in an RM server, we can't manage non-Motorola assets with it so who cares.

I've tried the XL-185. It ain't a fire radio, sorry Harris. Nice portable and fine for law or EMS, but no way I'd put one of those in turnout gear and expect it to survive the way our 6000's have. About the only thing I can say comes close is a Kenwood VP-6000. Now the first gen XE500 RSM's...talk about a POS. 50 percent failure rate on the ones I deployed. All of them at month 13 just outside the 1 year warranty.

 

[conversefeed]

The XL-400 does everything that the XL-200 does it is just more ruggedized and focuses on the Fire Service 37% larger PTT and bigger Top display bigger Emergency button and bigger knobs

 

[KK6ZTE]

The XL-400 does everything that the XL-200 does it is just more ruggedized and focuses on the Fire Service 37% larger PTT and bigger Top display bigger Emergency button and bigger knobs

So all the same bugs, battery fitment issues, etc?

And lack of configurable TX tone setup to match wildland fire service?

 

[rjschilder]

So all the same bugs, battery fitment issues, etc?

And lack of configurable TX tone setup to match wildland fire service?

Just out of curiosity, what exactly do you mean by lack of configurable TX tone setup? You can't change the TX 'channel guard' on the fly?

 

[ATBandit]

Ouch... just heard though the grapevine that a fully-loaded XL-400 will set you back around $15k each...

pricing isn't finalized or shared with dealers yet - that's also a list price estimate... public safety will be able to buy on gov't purchasing contracts for a sizable discount

 

[ATBandit]

The difference is that the 6kXEs were pre NFPA 1802. Once Motorola releases its version of an NFPA 1802 spec unit at double the Harris price, then it won't be so bad. As RussH said, you gotta compare apples to apples with this argument and the closest Moto has currently would be an APX8000XE.

there is only 1 lab currently set up to do NFPA 1802 certifications - that lab has confirmed there aren't any other manufacturers seeking 1802 certification. i'm hearing that motorola's position is their XE radio is sufficient and NFPA 1802 isn't an immediate focus for them.

 

[KK6ZTE]

Just out of curiosity, what exactly do you mean by lack of configurable TX tone setup? You can't change the TX 'channel guard' on the fly?

Sorry for the late response. Yes, you CAN change the RX and TX channel guard on the fly, however, it's a fixed list with every CTCSS one. You can't generate a list like you can on the APX or Kenwoods that matches the "standard" wildland 32 tones. You'd have to carry a cheatsheet with you. It's not great for a CAL FIRE or USFS style agency where you're changing tones constantly.

 

[rescue161]

We can change the tones and frequency on our XG100P. Any tone, DCS of PL and any frequency on the fly. I haven't tried on our XL portables. I would imagine that it would be similar to the 100P.

 

[RussH]

We can change the tones and frequency on our XG100P. Any tone, DCS of PL and any frequency on the fly. I haven't tried on our XL portables. I would imagine that it would be similar to the 100P.

rescue161... it's very much a similar process.. but you have to enable a "channel-edit password" in RPM2. This will allow you to adjust these settings on the fly.

 

[AESFTW]

**** stain green, that is all I have to say.

 

[58006]

List price $13,195 and should be available in the next couple of months.

 

[RussH]

List price $13,195 and should be available in the next couple of months.

Just for laughs, I priced one out earlier this week and that's about what I came up with as well.

Fully loaded, it came out to just shy of $16k

 

[mmckenna]

Just for laughs, I priced one out earlier this week and that's about what I came up with as well.

Fully loaded, it came out to just shy of $16k

Kind of as I figured, with contract pricing, I knew we were going into the realm of $10,000+ radios.

This s*it is getting out of hand.

 

[motorcoachdoug]

while mother moto and Harris keep on jacking up the price for the radios so they can make a profit and do you really think they really care about the end user??? all they see is big $$$ signs that Uncle Sam is willing to pay for a NFPA radio...

 

[58006]

Kind of as I figured, with contract pricing, I knew we were going into the realm of $10,000+ radios.

This s*it is getting out of hand.

When it gets added to the NYS Contract it will be just under $10K.