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Motorola DTR700 Portable Digital Radio 900Mhz

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gman1971

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Very nice, thank you for sharing your experiences. I am eyeing these radios as well myself. Even if I have an entire fleet of XPR (U/V only) and SL radios, I guess one can never have enough radios, right...? I think its a common disease found in forums like this one :D LOLOL.... (sarcastic)

The range comparison is quite good, indeed. One possible explanation is that different materials have different transparency index to the wavelength going through it; like heat vs visible light, for example, common glass is opaque to heat, wavelength ~13 microns, but its perfectly transparent to 0.45 micron wavelength (visible green light) , and the same is true, germanium is opaque to visible light, but is crystal clear to 13 micron heat... so my guess is that at the frequencies being used, the things are more transparent than at 460 mhz.

G.
 

kv5e

T¹ ÆS Ø
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900 MHz gets through cracks and small openings and reflects well. That's why Part 90, Part 22, and Part 24 paging/data messaging in the 929-932 and 940-941 MHz works well. Antennas are small enough to get high gain and simulcast works well with proper engineering.

The /\/\ Part 15 900 MHz devices work well in large ships and buildings because of these propagation characteristics.

I have a fleet of them and they work well as long as you understand the limitations of 1 watt at these frequencies.
 

n1das

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Very nice, thank you for sharing your experiences. I am eyeing these radios as well myself. Even if I have an entire fleet of XPR (U/V only) and SL radios, I guess one can never have enough radios, right...? I think its a common disease found in forums like this one :D LOLOL.... (sarcastic)

LOL, having too many radios is almost enough. LOL. :D

I sold my DLR1060 fleet to a friend for his business after I got my DTR700 fleet. At first he wasn't sure what he was going to use them for except maybe as rental radios for his customers. Now he and his employees use them ALL the time around the office and at job sites. Family uses them too.

I had to sell some radios given that I also have a fleet of DTR650 radios. I had them all working with each other on public and private groups. I also had the DLR and DTR700 fleets also working with each other on Profile ID mode channels with the PIN feature. The legacy DTRs don't have the PIN feature but still use the same underlying FHSS system.

My wife got p!$$ed at me for selling the DLR fleet because they are so convenient and so small and insanely easy to use. LOL. It's OK because she loves using the DTRs too. :) She's not a licensed ham but fully gets it when it comes to having local on-site radio communications to use. Now to work on the ham license part.... :)

900 MHz gets through cracks and small openings and reflects well. That's why Part 90, Part 22, and Part 24 paging/data messaging in the 929-932 and 940-941 MHz works well. Antennas are small enough to get high gain and simulcast works well with proper engineering.

The /\/\ Part 15 900 MHz devices work well in large ships and buildings because of these propagation characteristics.

I have a fleet of them and they work well as long as you understand the limitations of 1 watt at these frequencies.

Agree 100% and I never got the DTRs and DLRs to set any range records however they never cease to amaze. The DTR and DLR radios were specifically designed to work where small businesses are located, and that's inside buildings.

People who have used the DTRs and DLRs aboard cruise ships report having full ship coverage on all decks compared to a pair of 4W UHF Part 90/95 commercial radios on GMRS simplex which had difficulty penetrating more than 1 or 2 decks. Like buildings, the ship is more "open" at 900MHz compared to 460MHz or 150MHz. When deep inside the ship, you are essentially inside a compartmentalized metal enclosure and many reflections are present. The reflections and the FHSS operation actually helps the coverage. The individual hot spots and dead spots also hop around as the frequency hops. The FHSS operation effectively stirs the modes so to speak.

These are amazing radios.
 

nostolgiaforinfinity

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has anyone tried connecting an external antenna to the U FL connector on the DTR700 board instead of using the antenna stud connection? That's assuming the U FL connector actually works for an antenna and isn't just there for testing purposes. I've been doing a bit of research on trying to connect an external antenna to the DTR700, and so far this is the only idea I was able to come up with aside from a sketchy chinese connector here: Rf Coaxial N Female Back Bulkhead Connector With Extended 12.5mm M4 Thread Pin - Buy N Connector Female,N Female Bulkhead M4,N Coaxial Connector Product on Alibaba.com
This the the correct threading (M4) but would need to be cut down. Grounding would also be an issue from what I understand.
 

rescue161

KE4FHH
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I just got two of each type of these radios and can add to the mystery of why the DTR550/650 suffer in range when using an external antenna. The SMA on my DTR650's have an unusually low male pin, so if your female SMA has a recessed female terminal, it is more than likely not making full contact. I measured the SMA on my DTR650's and here are the results.

From outer shell to the inside base, the depth of that measurement is 0.215" and the center pin measures 0.070" from the bottom. I have several adapters for testing and most of them are recessed around ~0.060", so the center pin is only making it into the female terminal about ~0.010" and add to that that the pin is tapered, so it is more than likely making a very poor connection, if it's making contact at all. The original antenna and the longer 900 MHz whip both have female terminals that extend all the way to the end of the SMA connector. I would bet that if you filed down the female connector the bring the terminal closer to the end, that it would make better contact and therefore give better performance.
 

ElevatorsAndRadios

yarewesog
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I am unsure if this has been discovered and posted in any DTR thread to date, as there is so much to read scattered across this thread and other forums.
From what I gathered, the consensus seems to be that ALL radios in a DTR fleet operating in a private group must contain a private contact list with ALL of the members of the private group. Furthermore, all members wishing to use the private group must be assigned to the group in EVERY radio. However, I was able to add a new DTR700 to an existing fleet of DTR700s operating on a private group WITHOUT reprogramming the rest of the fleet.

Briefly:
-The existing fleet of DTR700s is programmed traditionally: all radios (except new radio) assigned as private group members; all radios (except new radio) in each others contact list
-The new DTR700 has all of the existing radios in its contact list, and it is assigned to the private group being used in its profile only. No other radios have been updated.
-The new radio can communicate with all of the old radios and vice versa, after only programming one radio (the new one).

Is this common knowledge already?

With this in mind, I am inclined to believe that setting a private group is nearly as simple as setting up a profile ID group, and that private groups are less secure than we initially thought. In the cases of both profile ID's and private groups, all one theoretically needs are the four-digit PIN or eleven digit ID +hopset, respectively) to get a new radio to communicate with the rest of the fleet. Reprogramming of the existing fleet is unnecessary in either scenario.
 
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n1das

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Nashua, NH
I am unsure if this has been discovered and posted in any DTR thread to date, as there is so much to read scattered across this thread and other forums.
From what I gathered, the consensus seems to be that ALL radios in a DTR fleet operating in a private group must contain a private contact list with ALL of the members of the private group. Furthermore, all members wishing to use the private group must be assigned to the group in EVERY radio. However, I was able to add a new DTR700 to an existing fleet of DTR700s operating on a private group WITHOUT reprogramming the rest of the fleet.

Briefly:
-The existing fleet of DTR700s is programmed traditionally: all radios (except new radio) assigned as private group members; all radios (except new radio) in each others contact list
-The new DTR700 has all of the existing radios in its contact list, and it is assigned to the private group being used in its profile only. No other radios have been updated.
-The new radio can communicate with all of the old radios and vice versa, after only programming one radio (the new one).

Is this common knowledge already?

With this in mind, I am inclined to believe that setting a private group is nearly as simple as setting up a profile ID group, and that private groups are less secure than we initially thought. In the cases of both profile ID's and private groups, all one theoretically needs are the four-digit PIN or eleven digit ID +hopset, respectively) to get a new radio to communicate with the rest of the fleet. Reprogramming of the existing fleet is unnecessary in either scenario.

Is the channel you are using programmed as a Private Group or Profile ID? They are two different things and cannot talk to each other.

Private groups program and function identical to the legacy DTRs where the 11 digit private contact of every radio the group has to be programmed into every radio in the group. The 4 digit Profile ID Number (PIN) doesn't matter in this case because it is not used with Private Groups. Private groups in the DTR600/700 and DLR1020/1060 are fully backward compatible with private groups in the legacy DTR410/550/650 models.

When the channel type is set to Profile ID instead of Private Group, the 4 digit PIN feature is used and contacts in the radio don't matter. To add another radio to a fleet of radios using Profile ID channels, all you have to do is set the PIN to match what the fleet uses and you are done. This assumes that all radios in the fleet are at the factory default settings. Motorola developed the PIN feature starting with the DLR series to make it insanely easy to secure a fleet of radios right out of the box without using the CPS. Previously with the legacy DTR450//550/650 models, they only way to secure a fleet of radios was with Private Groups and required the CPS.
 
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ElevatorsAndRadios

yarewesog
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Private groups program and function identical to the legacy DTRs where the 11 digit private contact of every radio the group has to be programmed into every radio in the group.
As I stated above, I have found that - at least on a fleet of only DTR700s, this is NOT the case. The channels we are using are private groups. A Profile ID is set, but we do not use Profile ID channels. It is possible to program only one radio and add it to the private group. I worked an entire shift using a radio on our private group that was in no other radio's private contact list, nor was it added to the private group in any radio other than itself. I know this because I am the one who programs all of the radios ;)
 

KC3ECJ

Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2015
Messages
506
This makes me think of a DTR radio in a micro-mobile type package. 12-14V DC input and a large and LOUD speaker audio and a mobile mic. The +29.5dBm (890mW) power level is plenty for forklifts and warehouse cart applications. I agree, a DTR with a speaker mic would work too.
I would like something along this line to become a new CB radio service since it's already in an ISM band.
 
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