Question about Motorola Public Safety Radios

[fire42man]

I couldn't find this in the search, so I'll go ahead and proceed. Since our county is going narrowband in Feb 2012, I believe that means our FD has to replace our radios. We have plenty of UHF CDM1550s and HT1250s, and some older models. Can I change these for amateur use, and can the older models be used on the VHF bands?

 

[n5ims]

Old commercial radios can often be used on the ham bands without issue. One thing to check is the bandsplit of the radios would need to include (or be very close to) the ham frequency range you plan to use it on. Some can be used easily (simply program in the frequency or frequencies and you're done) while others may need to be modified to work there (some can simply be tweeked a bit while others may require fairly complex mods to work).

The VHF-Hi ones would be used on 2 meters and the UHF ones on the 440 MHz band. If you have any VHF-Lo ones, they may work on either 10 meters or 6 meters, depending on which split you have. The ham bands are not part of the narrowbanding process so that's not an issue with using the old radios there.

 

[ChrisE_STB]

Your 1550s and 1250s do not need to be replaced

 

[SCPD]

.... and they work very well on the 2 meter/70cm ham bands BTW. I have a VHF 1550 and a UHF 1250 that are programmed for ham use. I keep them to the side as back up radios.

 

[onex135]

CDM / HT Pro-Series Radios

Just FYI: The CDM1550 and HT1250 VHF and UHF are narrowband capable, just reprogram them. But, as others have stated...they do work well for amateur use. I too keep a couple in each band around for such use.

 

[Thunderknight]

narrowband in Feb 2012, I believe that means our FD has to replace our radios. We have plenty of UHF CDM1550s and HT1250s, and some older models.

Are you simplying narrowbanding in place (same frequencies, still analog)? If so, then why are you replacing those radios? They (CDM1250, HT1250) should both be narrowband capable.The older radios may or may not be.

Narrowbanding does not automatically equal radio replacement. It all depends on the capabilities of the current radio and whether the system is narrowbanding in place or going to a completely new technology.

To the other part of your question, if those are UHF radios, they can not be used on the VHF (e.g. 2M) ham bands. As for using them on the 440 ham band, it would depend on the split of the radio.

 

[jim202]

It has been a sly ploy of many radio shops to tell agencies that they have to replace their current equipment due to narrow banding. In some cases this is true of the real old radio equipment. In many cases, it is just greed on the part of the radio sales force to make more money. They are even being told that they have to abandon all their low band channels, VHF channels, UHF channels and migrate to the 700 MHz band. This is as far from truth as you can get. But the radio shops are pushing for every radio they can sell.

It seems it is more common than not for the public safety agencies to take the word of their radio people of the status of their radios. As a result, you as the tax payer take it in the pants. These public safety agencies are not smart enough to get a second opinion or do some home work to check out the status if their radios need replacement.

On the same subject, these radios are approaching the end of life and should have a program being put in place to orderly look at replacing them down the road. The radios for the most part do not have to be in mass replaced by the January 01, 2013 date.

I couldn't find this in the search, so I'll go ahead and proceed. Since our county is going narrow band in Feb 2012, I believe that means our FD has to replace our radios. We have plenty of UHF CDM1550s and HT1250s, and some older models. Can I change these for amateur use, and can the older models be used on the VHF bands?

 

[SteveC0625]

CDM1250's and HT1250's are all narrowband capable. What or who gave you the idea that they need to be replaced?

[sarcasm] Wait, don't tell me, some salesman convinced someone in your department that you need different radios.[/sarcasm]

As a previous poster said, if your county is simply switching to narrowband, you have no need to do anything other than have your radios reprogrammed when the time comes to actually make the switch.

 

[fire42man]

I just figured they would have to be replaced, but the county EMA didn't make it too clear. But our pagers and alert monitors still have to be replaced?

 

[SteveC0625]

I just figured they would have to be replaced, but the county EMA didn't make it too clear. But our pagers and alert monitors still have to be replaced?

You will probably want to get your EMA to give better info on this. Is it just a switch from wide to narrowband and while remaining analog on your existing channels, or are there other changes?

Minitor V's can be reprogrammed to narrowband - it's just a check mark next to the frequency in the programming software.

II's, III's, and IV's are not narrowband capable, but can be modified to work well in the nb environment. Some radio shops are offering that service, but it's about $100 per unit.

The alert monitors are different animals. If you are talking about the old Motorola L03's and M03's and the old Plectrons, I suppose it is possible to have them modified for narrowband but I have not heard of anyone offering that service.

 

[iamhere300]

I just figured they would have to be replaced, but the county EMA didn't make it too clear. But our pagers and alert monitors still have to be replaced?

We are using Minitor III and 1V pagers on a narrowband syste with no issues at all. Don't let the salespukes fool you.