Motorola DTR700 Portable Digital Radio 900Mhz

[n1das]

Ok- I too have been bitten by the Moto DTR/DLR bug. I’m a ham, but most of my friends are not. I’m done with FRS given how impressively these perform. My girflfriend was so impressed with these she‘s ordered some for her work, which needs on site reliable simplex to manage events hosted at small summer-camps (usually line of sight, no terrain obstruction, log cabin type construction, and end-to-end no more than 1/2mi).

LOL, I knew that would happen! I knew when I first posted about these radios that other people would eventually get bit by the DTR/DLR bug like I have. It sounds like your G/F's application is perfect for the DTRs and DLRs. Have you tested the DTR/DLR's performance at the camp?

I have already been bit by the digital radio bug (P25, DMR, NXDN) on Amateur Radio. My wife is not a ham but loves using these radios when we are out shopping or doing whatever. After using the DTRs and DLRs, she definitely DOES NOT want to use FRS bubble packs and much prefers the DTR and DLRs. She is not a ham but fully "gets it" when it comes to having good radios to communicate with for keeping in touch in our day to day activities. The only reason I keep a few Motorola Talkabout FRS bubble packs around is for playing with the nephews when they visit.

 

[county]

LOL, I knew that would happen! I knew when I first posted about these radios that other people would eventually get bit by the DTR/DLR bug like I have. It sounds like your G/F's application is perfect for the DTRs and DLRs. Have you tested the DTR/DLR's performance at the camp?

I have already been bit by the digital radio bug (P25, DMR, NXDN) on Amateur Radio. My wife is not a ham but loves using these radios when we are out shopping or doing whatever. After using the DTRs and DLRs, she definitely DOES NOT want to use FRS bubble packs and much prefers the DTR and DLRs. She is not a ham but fully "gets it" when it comes to having good radios to communicate with for keeping in touch in our day to day activities. The only reason I keep a few Motorola Talkabout FRS bubble packs around is for playing with the nephews when they visit.

N1DAS- you are complicit in this new addiction of mine lol.. I think it was one of your posts that convinced me I must try these radios out.. and I’ve found your write-ups accurate and helpful. So far the radios have exceeded my range-testing expectations. The customization ability of the groups/private groups, and thus the channelization, make them so ridiculously versatile.

We’ve not yet tested at one of the summer-camps but will in the next couple months. As you can imagine most organized large group camp activity has ceased for now due to covid. But we’ve tested similar distances that have comparable terrain but an even more attenuative/denser clutter path profile than camp, and the area is saturated by the radios. . no packet loss or failed calls.

In fact a small group of us (9 ppl) are headed to a campground this week for a social-distancing camping experience and I’m bringing my fleet of 6 radios (2 DTR700s and 4 DLR1020s) for us to put through the paces.

Anyhow on another but related topic N1DAS, you’d mentioned using amateur DMR, would be fun to connect on a BrandMeister TG if you‘re setup for that, and we can discuss in more detail these little powerhouse radios! I will PM you my info.

 

[alcahuete]

N1DAS- you are complicit in this new addiction of mine lol.. I think it was one of your posts that convinced me I must try these radios out.. and I’ve found your write-ups accurate and helpful. So far the radios have exceeded my range-testing expectations. The customization ability of the groups/private groups, and thus the channelization, make them so ridiculously versatile.

We’ve not yet tested at one of the summer-camps but will in the next couple months. As you can imagine most organized large group camp activity has ceased for now due to covid. But we’ve tested similar distances that have comparable terrain but an even more attenuative/denser clutter path profile than camp, and the area is saturated by the radios. . no packet loss or failed calls.

In fact a small group of us (9 ppl) are headed to a campground this week for a social-distancing camping experience and I’m bringing my fleet of 6 radios (2 DTR700s and 4 DLR1020s) for us to put through the paces.

Anyhow on another but related topic N1DAS, you’d mentioned using amateur DMR, would be fun to connect on a BrandMeister TG if you‘re setup for that, and we can discuss in more detail these little powerhouse radios! I will PM you my info.

You're going to love them! Several of us have put these things through their paces, N1DAS the most without a doubt, and they just perform and perform. I have yet to have one ever fail me when I needed to communicate. The damn things just work.

 

[n1das]

N1DAS- you are complicit in this new addiction of mine lol.. I think it was one of your posts that convinced me I must try these radios out.. and I’ve found your write-ups accurate and helpful. So far the radios have exceeded my range-testing expectations. The customization ability of the groups/private groups, and thus the channelization, make them so ridiculously versatile.

LOL, thanks. I first learned about the legacy DTR410/550/650 models back after they first came out in 2006. I wife (g/f at the time) and I were using NEXTEL i355 phones in 2007 IIRC and we played around with the off-network DirectTalk feature (not to be confused with DirectConnect which used the NEXTEL iDEN network). The DTRs are a spinoff from the phone's DT feature and use the same FHSS system and share a common design but were coded differently (supposedly on purpose) to be incompatible. I suspect the DTRs and the phone's DT feature became incompatible when features were added to the legacy DTRs. The legacy DTRs and the DirectTalk feature in iDEN phones used Motorola's MOTOTALK platform. The DLRs and the DTR600/700 models are using an updated version of the MOTOTALK platform.

MOTO Talk - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I got interested in the DTRs again when the DLRs came out in 2015. That meant that I had to get a pair of DLRs to play with. I was also surprised to learn that the DTR410/550/650 models were still current product. Researching the DLRs showed they are backward compatible with the legacy DTRs. The new DTR600/700 models hadn't been developed yet. Meanwhile, the FCC still had not acted on the proposed new rules yet for GMRS/FRS and it was possible at the time that GMRS would be made license by rule and rendered a bubble pack only service. I was researching alternatives and wanted a practical digital replacement for GMRS/FRS for local on-site simplex type use. The DLRs and DTRs do that very nicely.

In fact a small group of us (9 ppl) are headed to a campground this week for a social-distancing camping experience and I’m bringing my fleet of 6 radios (2 DTR700s and 4 DLR1020s) for us to put through the paces.

They should work well for social distancing camping.

You are going to eventually want to get the Multi-Unit Charger (MUC) accessories for your fleets. I have the MUC for my fleet of 6 DTR700s. I also still have my fleet of 6 DTR650s and the MUC for them. I might eBay the DTR650 fleet and the MUC for them one of these days.

 

[Floridarailfanning]

social distancing camping

Sounds like fun!

 

[county]

Just reporting back after our camping excursion using DTR700s and DLR1020s. Range expectations were exceeded (more on that later) though I’m disappointed to report having had now a total of two lock-ups on my Mar-2020 MFR date DTR700s (thankfully didn’t happen at camp). The lockup was cleared by power button power-cycle. I wasn’t paying close enough attention to know if it’s been the same one ea, time. And it happened at time of channel change. I see there is a newer FW dated July 2020 (R010202) that is to address a screen freeze. I hope that resolves it. I am on the FW version just prior to that (R010201). I’ve also had 2 instances of a loud ‘screech’ heard by receiving radios from a DTR700. . clears up immediately on the retry.

So . . camp range testing. . our friends‘ camp was 1/4 mi away, with only a few trees in the path, so no problems of course. Another friend that came up a day later to meet us had one of the 1020s and as she was 1.5 mi out, she was able to contact us (albeit a little choppy at times). . what impressed me was there was no direct line of sight due to terrain . . however being that it was a mountainous area with some moderate peaks nearby we may have had some reflection help at play.

We were all in reliable contact throughout . . hikes etc., never really got more than a mile from camp for activities but the radios worked great.

I’m anxious to get the new DTR700 FW on board. I’m stopping short of recommending the DTR700s for my gf’s work application until I can verify the lockup issue is resolved in the new FW. They need as much battery as possible so I hate to go the disable battery save route.. BUT it is great to know about that workaround N1DAS found.. it’d be fine for my personal use of the radios.

 

[n1das]

Just reporting back after our camping excursion using DTR700s and DLR1020s. Range expectations were exceeded (more on that later) though I’m disappointed to report having had now a total of two lock-ups on my Mar-2020 MFR date DTR700s (thankfully didn’t happen at camp). The lockup was cleared by power button power-cycle. I wasn’t paying close enough attention to know if it’s been the same one ea, time. And it happened at time of channel change. I see there is a newer FW dated July 2020 (R010202) that is to address a screen freeze. I hope that resolves it. I am on the FW version just prior to that (R010201). I’ve also had 2 instances of a loud ‘screech’ heard by receiving radios from a DTR700. . clears up immediately on the retry.

So . . camp range testing. . our friends‘ camp was 1/4 mi away, with only a few trees in the path, so no problems of course. Another friend that came up a day later to meet us had one of the 1020s and as she was 1.5 mi out, she was able to contact us (albeit a little choppy at times). . what impressed me was there was no direct line of sight due to terrain . . however being that it was a mountainous area with some moderate peaks nearby we may have had some reflection help at play.

We were all in reliable contact throughout . . hikes etc., never really got more than a mile from camp for activities but the radios worked great.

I’m anxious to get the new DTR700 FW on board. I’m stopping short of recommending the DTR700s for my gf’s work application until I can verify the lockup issue is resolved in the new FW. They need as much battery as possible so I hate to go the disable battery save route.. BUT it is great to know about that workaround N1DAS found.. it’d be fine for my personal use of the radios.

I recommend the DLRs for your g/f's work application.

Your g/f's work application probably would love the DLRs because they are so (expletive) small and so insanely easy to use. They are less expensive too so it will be easier to justify the cost. The legacy DTR410/550/650 radios (now discontinued) were great radios and feature-rich as the DTR600/700 models are but often are too much "radio" for the average business radio user. The DLRs are Motorola's answer to that. DLR = Digital Lightweight Radio, according to Motorola.

The look and feel of the DLRs are patterned after the UHF analog CLS series radios hugely popular in retail establishments. Some people don't like large round PTT button on the front of the radio because they are so used to a PTT button on the side of a (big) radio. The large round PTT button on the front actually makes sense given the radio's small size. A thumb press with either hand is all it takes to press PTT. The local Costco Wholesale near me uses DLR radios and I can hear them on the default channels when I'm in range. They use them right out of the box at the factory default settings like FRS bubble packs.

Great to hear about the range reports. It's amazing how people keep underestimating these radios. They totally blow FRS away for starters and in some cases outperform conventional Part 90 portables on simplex. Where they excel in performance and beat other radios is when operating inside buildings. Operation inside buildings is exactly what they were designed for and that's normally where businesses are located.

Where the DTRs and DLRs blow everything else away is aboard cruise ships. People who have used DTRs aboard cruise ships report having full ship coverage from end to end on all decks compared to a pair of 4W UHF Part 90/95 portables on GMRS which had trouble penetrating more than about 2 decks. Reflections are at play when inside a cruise ship since you essentially are inside a compartmentalized metal enclosure. The shorter wavelength signal at 900MHz reflects in and out and around all the nooks and crannies of the ship where longer wavelength signals on VHF (MURS for example) and UHF (GMRS for example) won't. The ship is much more "open" at 900MHz compared to 460MHz and 150MHz. The FHSS operation also helps too as individual hot spots and dead spots on any given frequency also hop around as the frequency hops around on the 902-928MHz band. The FHSS operation effectively stirs the modes for you to take advantage of the many reflections taking place.

I'm thinking of experimenting with DTR range testing compared to FRS and then repeat the experiment with good quality Part 90/95 commercial portables on GMRS. I'll set a DTR radio and FRS radio side by side at home and then take the other DTR and FRS radio with me and go for a drive. I'll talk into the DTR and FRS radio at the same time while recording the audio heard from both radios at home. I will have to record audio at home because the FRS radio has no way to tell me when I'm out of range like the DTRs/DLRs do. The DTR audio will be delayed from the FRS audio so it will be easy to tell which is which in the recording. I expect the FRS radio will be out of range before running out of range with the DTR. When I finally do run out of range on the DTR, I'll assume FRS is already gone. The goal isn't to set any range records. The experiment is intended to capture the degradation in performance as I get on the fringes of coverage with each in a side by side comparison.

You've piqued my curiosity about a FW update. I'll check it out and update my DTR700 fleet ASAP. I think I have the same FW version you have. I've had the loud screech behavior once in a long while but dunno what that is. Disabling the battery saver in the CPS appears to be effective as a workaround for the lockup behavior. I've had ZERO lockups after 2 months since disabling the battery saver. The CPS warns that disabling the battery saver shortens the operating time on a charge by about 20%. That seems about right from my experience. I decided to try disabling the battery saver because I've run into quirky problems with conventional radios in the past due to the battery save features.

These are amazing radios.

 

[n1das]

I recommend the DLRs for your g/f's work application.

I recommend the DLR1060 over the DLR1020. The DLR1060 is advertised as a 6 channel radio but is expandable to 10 channels with R05.01 or newer CPS. IIRC the latest CPS version is R07.02. The DLR1020 is not expandable beyond 2 channels. The 1020 appears to be the cheap entry level model and the 1060 appears to be the upgradable model.

 

[county]

Thanks David - yeah that’s a solid recommendation to go with the DLR1060. . however what we both like about the DTRs is the better range we've been able to demonstrate in some 'worst case' scenarios. . namely some basement-to-basement tests over a ~0.4 MI distance in dense residential. . the DLRs were a no-go while the DTRs were solid. Admittedly, this is likely only the 3% for her use-case at work.. from non-scientific testing it looks like the DLRs demonstrate ~70-80% of the coverage of DTRs. She also likes the text messaging ability (even though you're limited to the 'canned' messages entered via CPS) since cellular coverage is variable where they'd be using them. The alpha-tagging of channels on the DTR is also super nice. But to your point, the 1060 would likely do almost everything they need. 50 channels are certainly not needed. 10 channels of the FW-upgraded 1060s would be adequate. Operational group channels really only need a couple assignments, maybe 3 tops. . it's the useful direct-calls for the key leadership folks that'll fill up the channels.. but again, I think 10 would be more than enough. We could obviously tape a printed channel map to ea. 1060. We're planning to test my radios (DTR700s and DLR1020s) at the biggest camp next month. . so we'll soon see!

Naturally I'm super optimistic the new FW has solved the lockup issue on the DTR700. So far so good with limited testing, no lockups. Fingers crossed.

 

[n1das]

It's unlikely any difference in range between the DTRs and DLRs is due to differences in transmit power levels. I may have posted this before but the DTR and DLR transmitter power levels from the FCC and ISED Canada certifications are listed below.

Legacy DTR410/550/650: 890 mW (+29.5 dBm)
DLR1020/1060: 880 mW (+29.4 dBm)
DTR600/700: 830 mW (+29.2 dBm)

The radios were certified at a few tenths of a dB under the 1W (+30.0 dBm) legal limit to account for measurement uncertainty and the expected amount of variation from unit to unit. The manufacturer (Motorola), not the accredited test lab, is ultimately responsible for ensuring the transmitted power output does not exceed the 1W (+30.0 dBm) legal limit. The exact power level listed in the FCC/ISED Canada certification for each model is what was measured from the individual sample submitted to the lab for certification testing. IMHO, the differences in transmitter power output are insignificant and shouldn't have any effect on usable range.

The slight range advantage with the DTRs over the DLRs is most likely due to the differences in the antenna on each radio. From my experience I couldn't tell much difference if any between the DTRs and the DLRs. You have to be right on the absolute fringe of coverage to be able to tell any difference. The average user in an on-site small business environment would never notice any difference. Also, were the radios clipped to a person or being handheld when using them? Being body worn vs. strictly handheld may affect performance. I've noticed the effect more with stubby antennas compared to non-stubby antennas.

I'm using the stock PMAF4024 1/2 wave antenna on my DTR700 fleet. I also have the PMAF4025 stubby antenna for them. The stubby antenna is not listed on Moto's site but they are available from Moto dealers. I got the PMAF4025 stubby antenna from Magnum Electronics.

Motorola PMAF4025 900 MHz Stubby Antenna - DTR

Motorola PMAF4025 900 MHz Stubby Antenna for DTR700, DTR720, DTR600

www.magnumelectronics.com

I've experimented with the stubby antenna on the DTR700s and found it works very well. It's real tough to tell any difference in with them compared to the stock 1/2 wave antenna. The average user will never notice any difference. I want to use the stock 1/2 wave antenna for max performance but I also like the convenience of the stubby antenna so I'm on the fence on which to use all the time. The radio looks cool with the stubby antenna too. If I had a fixture to connect each antenna to a network analyzer, I would interested in seeing a plot of the return loss for each antenna to see any differences between the stock 1/2 wave and stubby antennas.

 

[county]

Yep- fully agreed the performance difference seen is due to the more efficient 1/2 wave antenna on the DTR700. . esp. since the RX specifications are identical between the models being discussed. Yes, I also want the stubby for the coolness factor!

 

[county]

BTW N1DAS let us know how the FW update goes. I had some difficulty with the bundled C++ packages being seemingly corrupt when installing , despite trying a reinstall, repair, etc. , on my 64 bit win 10 pro machine, but the FW update did work on my older 32 bit win 10 machine despite indicating the x86 C++ pkg failed to install.

Hoping the update solves your lockup issue also, though I know you did find the battery save workaround.

 

[n1das]

BTW N1DAS let us know how the FW update goes. I had some difficulty with the bundled C++ packages being seemingly corrupt when installing , despite trying a reinstall, repair, etc. , on my 64 bit win 10 pro machine, but the FW update did work on my older 32 bit win 10 machine despite indicating the x86 C++ pkg failed to install.

Hoping the update solves your lockup issue also, though I know you did find the battery save workaround.

I downloaded the new FW but haven't done the FW update yet. I also noticed the Motorola Business Radio CPS is now up to R08.02. The new CPS fixes changes a feature in the DTR600 but made no changes for the DTR700. I may get time to work on it tonight. I had zero problems with the previous FW updates so I'll see how this one goes.

The "screen freeze" issue as described by Motorola is different from the lockup behavior I experienced. I found the screen was frozen as well as all controls on the radio including PTT were frozen. No transmit or receive, no response at all from any controls or the keypad. It simply appeared to be brain dead. The power button was also dead. Totally brain dead but still shows a normal display. Pressing PTT a bunch of times and/or holding the power button down for 30 seconds would eventually cause the radio to do a power-up reset and then everything was normal again. On a few occasions I've had to pull the battery to reset a locked up radio. When one of my DTR700s was locked up, I found I could try talking to it with another radio and the locked up radio would acknowledge PTT from the other radio and allow the other radio to talk but no audio was heard from the locked up radio.

I will apply the FW update soon and post an update.

 

[county]

Did a bunch of tests today, channel changes, menu operation, etc. . and my fingers are crossed by experiencing no lockups so far on FW R010202. I tend to think my prior lockup behavior was similar to what N1DAS described as I experienced no talk permit tone on PTT but I was so flustered with the lockup I power cycled quickly rather than trying to note all of the symptoms!

I find myself wishing the radios would handle ‘late entry’ but if they miss the preamble, the whole transmission is missed.. Say for example another user just powers up, or is in a brief deep fade where preamble is not heard, or changes to a channel with an already active call, an in-progress transmission will not be heard. I also wish there was preempt-priority scan and ability to scan private groups (not just ‘public’) but I have irrational lofty ‘public safety grade’ feature-set expectations lol! They are amazing radios for the price point, and are very feature rich. I’m still overall quite impressed.

 

[n1das]

Hopefully no more lockups. I want to keep the battery saver disabled because it appears to be effective as a workaround. The slight hit on battery life on a charge isn't too bad.

I applied the FW update to my DTR700 fleet tonight and everything went smoothly. I had no issues with installing and using the DTR Update Tool on my 64-bit Lenovo laptop running Windows 10.

The lack of late entry is due to the nature of FHSS. And unlike pairing Bluetooth devices, these radios have to pair up on the fly with each PTT press.

One effect I've noticed is when a radio is on the fringe of coverage and other radios in a group are all in range of each other and close together, the radio out on the fringe sometimes doesn't get sync'd with the other radios in the group when one of those radios talks. Audio is sometimes garbled up due to being out of sync with the talking radio. I found this only happens when the radio is right on the fringe of being in range of the group of other radios. All radios hearing the preamble from the radio that talked reply with an acknowledgement, including the radio out on the fringe. I don't know how the talker radio resolves collisions heard due to multiple acknowledgements received from multiple radios hearing the talker radio. The talking radio ends up responding to an ack received from one of the nearby radios in the group and not from the radio out on the fringe. At 5.9 microseconds per mile of separation distance between radios, the radio out on the fringe can sometimes end up being slightly out of sync with the talking radio because the talking radio responded to an ack received from a nearby radio.

You can scan private groups in addition to public groups but there is no preempt-priority scan. I would love to have that feature too. I recall the scan option in the DTR700 is scan public+private groups or scan only public groups. I'm recalling from memory and don't have the CPS open right now.

Anyhow, the FW update to my DTR700 fleet went smoothly.

 

[county]

Thanks - I see the setting you’re talking about for the scan list to include the private groups. I don’t see that it’s possible to customize which private groups are members of the scan list, so perhaps it is all or nothing for the private groups, and obviously customizable for the public ones. Let me know if I’m missing something. I assume one can only scan the private groups for which the scanning radio is a member, but have yet to verify.

Still no lockups after another day of testing.

BTW, got a couple stubby antennas on order.

Appreciate all of the help and suggestions/input!

 

[county]

Unfortunately at the conclusion of day-3 of testing on my DTR700s with FW R010202, I experienced a lockup after channel change. The radio would not transmit or otherwise respond to keypad input. . other radio on same channel received nothing when pressing PTT (thought maybe if no talk permit or other feedback it might still TX), then before I could do anymore diagnostics the radio spontaneously rebooted and all was well again. The whole ordeal lasted ~10-15 seconds.
I suppose now I’m simply going to disable battery save and keep testing.
The radios have crazy good battery life. In a prior test I got 30 hours of stand-by on RX before low battery alert. . and that’s no joke. . admittedly radio was not being used much, a few short TX/RX tests during the period, but it’s an interesting and impressive baseline.

 

[n1das]

Unfortunately at the conclusion of day-3 of testing on my DTR700s with FW R010202, I experienced a lockup after channel change. The radio would not transmit or otherwise respond to keypad input. . other radio on same channel received nothing when pressing PTT (thought maybe if no talk permit or other feedback it might still TX), then before I could do anymore diagnostics the radio spontaneously rebooted and all was well again. The whole ordeal lasted ~10-15 seconds.
I suppose now I’m simply going to disable battery save and keep testing.
The radios have crazy good battery life. In a prior test I got 30 hours of stand-by on RX before low battery alert. . and that’s no joke. . admittedly radio was not being used much, a few short TX/RX tests during the period, but it’s an interesting and impressive baseline.

I suspected the latest FW update would not fix the lockup behavior although the documentation mentioned the latest FW fixes a screen freeze issue and that's a different behavior. I have never seen the the screen freeze behavior while the rest of the radio remains fully functional. The best thing to do is complain to your Moto dealer and have them pass the info on to Motorola. Trying to talk to Motorola directly won't do any good. Motorola needs to hear customer feedback and complaints through their dealers to get them to do something.

The CPS warns that disabling the battery save feature will shorten battery life on a charge by about 20%. That seems to be about right from my experience. Battery life on a charge is still OK and plenty long enough. The battery saver impacts the standby time. The battery save function is already "off" when actively receiving or when transmitting. Your 30 hour standby time will be reduced to about 24 hours with the battery saver disabled in the CPS.

 

[sdwaves]

Greetings All,

My first post on this forum. Crediting n1das and the usual suspects, I also fell victim to this addiction bug with these Moto FHSS radios. I am active on other forums concerning these Motorola FHSS radios such as the DTR700 and DLR1060 varieties, as I have both. They are light years ahead of FRS/GMRS and MURS radios. For connection reliability testing, I have gone so far as putting the DLR1060's into a fully covered tin can and setting the tin can into a microwave oven for radio shielding purposes. I was still able to establish connection 300 feet outside of the residence between the two DLR1060 radios. My initial range testing for the DLR1060's stand at an easy 10.5 miles, mostly line of sight over an expansive valley populated by a busy town. Even though these FHSS radios aren't designed or meant for long distance, I can't help but be curious as to what their absolute practical line-of-sight limits are, especially for less than 1 watt of power output.

My interest in chasing down this lockup behavior of the DTR700 radios led me to this forum, and in particular, to "County"'s awareness of a recent FW upgrade for the DTR700 radio. It's been one day since I've upgraded to the newest firmware on my DTR700's. I've been mainly testing the uptime and their intermittent transmit/receive/standby duties. I have yet to experience a lockup. Keep in mind that I'm limiting menu/screen activities to a minimum to try and isolate probable causes. I will report back if and when a lockup occurs. As an aside, like n1das, I also have had no software installation failures on my 7+ year old laptop running Windows 10 home edition.

It is a disappointment to hear of County's most recent lockup after the latest firmware update. I was so hoping the newest FW update catches and resolves most of these software lockup/crashes. I'm aware these particular radios are not marketed as mission critical, but it really tarnishes Motorola's reputation to have expensive and unreliable "business" radios when other lesser radios can be had for a fraction of the cost and are bullet-proof.

Nevertheless, I'm entralled with these radios.

 

[N4KVE]

I'm aware these particular radios are not marketed as mission critical, but it really tarnishes Motorola's reputation to have expensive and unreliable "business" radios when other lesser radios can be had for a fraction of the cost and are bullet-proof.

Like their first cousins, the Motorola/Nextel phones with “Direct Talk” mode, & FW that’s 10 years old. These devices have never locked up on me, & are easily available for under $40 in mint condition. Any radio I have ever owned, the “battery save” feature is NEVER activated.