XPR Motorola XPR 3500e on Ohio MARCS-IP?

[JethrowJohnson]

Good evening everybody,
About a week or two ago I heard that the Marietta Police Department wanted to use ARPA funds to buy digital radios so that they could switch to the Ohio MARCS-IP network. Today, I saw WTAP's report about it, and in their video they showed a Motorola XPR 3500e sitting in a charger on the desk. I just looked that radio up, and all my search results suggest that this is a DMR radio. MARCS isn't a DMR system, it's a P25 Phase I system. So can this model of radio also operate on P25 systems or was the first article I saw incorrect about what system they plan to use? Another discrepancy is that it also looks like this radio is capable of VHF/UHF only, but the Washington County site on MARCS uses the 700 MHz band.

 

[clbsquared]

A 3500 will not do P25.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

and in their video they showed a Motorola XPR 3500e sitting in a charger on the desk.

I'd assume archived footage (most viewers won't know or care what the radio is) unless Marietta has an undocumented DMR tac channel or two

 

[tweiss3]

I just saw the article. It appears they are using a 3500e for their current analog dispatch. But as stated above, no it's not capable of working on MARCS.

 

[JethrowJohnson]

Okay. Thank you all for your answers. I don't know why they would need DMR radios, but like @Whiskey3JMC said, maybe they have DMR TAC channels we never knew about, but I'm not sure that's possible either, because if they did they would probably be encrypted, but they don't have any encryption. They always have to call each other on the phone if they're looking for someone, because a lot of people here who have warrants monitor their traffic, and that's why they want the new system to be encrypted full time. But I'm somewhat confused now, because The Marietta Times said they want to switch to MARCS. Idk. But thanks for the help guys. 🙂👍

 

[wa8pyr]

Okay. Thank you all for your answers. I don't know why they would need DMR radios

Just because they have a DMR-capable radio doesn't mean they're using DMR. These radios also do analog and as their current UHF channel is analog, the XPR is probably what they felt they got the best deal on. Other models cost a lot more money.

Motorola is like just about all manufacturers; the radio has every feature available built in, but a basic radio is relatively inexpensive because all the features are disabled except analog only. Where they get you (and with Motorola they really get you $$) is in the feature upgrades; adding DMR costs a bunch extra, adding encryption to that adds even more, other bells and whistles add more on top of all that.

MARCS-capable radios are even higher on the price scale.