MTR2000 narrow band only?

[LakeMan2]

I had someone tell me they had a UHF MTR2000 that was only capable of narrow band. I told them that it may be programed for only narrow band, but that the MTR2000 was capable or either wide or narrow band. They swore that no, theirs was only capable of narrow band.

So...is there some special codeplug or something that Motorola put out for the MTR2000 that physically limits it to narrow band only? Or can it be tuned such that it won't work on wide band? Or is he just wrong and all MTR2000's are capable of both wide and narrow band (which is my understanding)?

 

[mmckenna]

Yes, they'll do wideband.
Likely what he is referring to is that it's been programmed with newer software that only allowed narrow band. Once programmed with the newer software, it (usually) won't let you program it with the older wide band capable software.

The reason is that on January 01, 2013 almost all commercial 2 way radio users in the VHF and UHF bands were required to use narrow band only.

You can likely program this MTR for wide band if you have the software AND get the wide band key from Motorola Online. The key will open the programming software up and let you do the old wideband channels.



Disclaimer:
My "Motorola-ese" is a bit rusty as I've not been purchasing their stuff in a long time. I've still got a few MTR-2000's in service, but I usually don't have to mess with them. I'm sure someone with a bit more recent knowledge of the Motorola way of doing things can put it into better words.

The last FSM I have for these shows that the UHF models were capable of 30KHz, 25KHz, 20KHz and 12.5KHz.
The 900MHz modes, were narrow band only. This is standard on the 900MHz band across the board.

 

[LakeMan2]

Thanks for the info.

Just to be more specific, the system he was talking about was a 435-470 split.

I was aware of the requirement to go narrow, and than many (most?) new commercial radios are now in fact "locked" to narrow only for US versions. I thought that the MTR2000 was old enough that this was not the case and there was no newer software that locked it to narrow only. I thought that the latest software was RVN4148P, version R03.03.02 which I think was released in the mid to late 2000's well prior to the 2013 conversion requirement.

But you could be right, maybe they did release something that when programed locked it to narrow only.

 

[mmckenna]

I'd have to check and see what version I'm running. I got it in early 2012.
I'm pretty sure Motorola EOL'd the MTR2000 about that time. I ordered one in 2012 and they sent me the wrong band split. Getting them to replace it with the correct version was nearly impossible since they were shutting down the assembly line, or at least that was what the sleaze-bag Motorola rep tried to tell me. I know the MTR-3000 came out about that time.

Could just be your buddy is wrong, too.

 

[KG4INW]

Latest software still allows wideband, no problem.

 

[cmdrwill]

Latest software still allows wideband, no problem.

That IS a big relief.

 

[linboogy]

just more reassurance, my MTR2000 is wide band for GMRS and I have the latest RSS and it still allows wide band as the others have said

 

[LakeMan2]

That is good to hear. I also took a look at the R03.03.02 RSS and it has the option to select 20-30kHz for the receiver and a deviation of 5000 Hz on the transmitter. The MTR2000's are old enough that I don't think there were any hardware option that limited the bandwidth, so I don't know why anyone would think that they are limited to narrow band only.

One other question is that for the receiver, you can't specifically select 25kHz, the drop down has 20-30kHz. How can it really be a range? That would imply that something else determines if it is really 20kHz, 25kHz, or 30kHz? It has to be some specific bandwidth. What is the real receiver bandwidth if you select 20-30kHz? Is there something under Station Alignment that sets that? I looked through the RSS help. but did not see anything....but maybe I missed it.