Some of the MOTOTRBO equipment that has shown up on eBay was from out of the country and was not supposed to be sold in the U.S. This has been a problem for many years with Motorola equipment. Using a non-FCC Type Certified unit can be a very costly 'mistake'. Be very careful when buying any radio equipment on eBay if the price seems to be 'really really good' and the units appear to be new (or very close to new). Sometimes, you can really find a 'great deal' on eBay, but sometimes, the 'deals' are not so good for the buyer.
The cost of a MOTOTRBO portable will probably range from around $400 to $450 on up to around $800 per unit, depending upon the exact model and quantity purchased, and depending upon how much of a discount off of list price you can get. There are a couple of new models (the XPR3000 series) that don't come standard with all of the various 'modes' (trunking, for example) and they aren't submersible, so the cost for these units can be quite a bit less than the higher-tier models.
List price for an XPR8400 MOTOTRBO repeater is about $2800 (without duplexer).
As to Hytera offering the "same stuff" as Motorola, they do not. There are numerous differences between the Hytera DMR products and the MOTOTRBO products, for example in features, quality, performance, and durability. Anyone who is serious about purchasing DMR equipment, needs to make sure that they compare the two product lines carefully, before making a final decision to buy one based on a 'lower price'. There's a lot of truth in the old saying "You get what you pay for". For some applications, a 'lower price' product may be a perfect 'fit'. But in other cases, it can be the wrong 'fit'.
John Rayfield, Jr. CETma
Find a company that deals with radios like that and go talk to them.
Tell them your budget and what you want. But my quick guesstimate is as follows:
300x $400 - Handhelds, and that is based on ebay prices adjusted for a bulk order (I had to start somewhere as there are no official Motorola price lists). If you want mobiles they usually are more expensive and come with mounting costs, antennas...
A repeater? Hmm... I would say 5k for Motorola one, you could try Hytera for maybe half of that.
And the accessories, extra batteries, chargers, hell... even training for the employees.
This fun party called "switching to digital" would cost at least 150k.
If you are serious look into Hytera, they offer same stuff but without Moneyrolla logo on it. And as I heard from a very good family source, their stuff is top notch quality.
