Stay with Kenwood or go with Motorola (amateur radio use)

[K6GBW]

I've been a Motorola guy for forty years. Over the last few years my anger towards Motorola's business practices and prices scheme has done nothing but grow. I currently have an APX8000 and several XTS5000's. Honestly, I ditch them all for a Tait or a Kenwood in an instant.

 

[mrweather]

Seeing lots of mention of the VM8000 in this thread, what about the VM7000? I like the idea of having low-band; any word on whether it can be forced in 6M?

Also, on the fact sheets they mention C4FM as a modulation. Is that the same as Yaesu Fusion or is it some proprietary flavour of EFJ/Kenwood C4FM?

 

[dryfb]

Seeing lots of mention of the VM8000 in this thread, what about the VM7000? I like the idea of having low-band; any word on whether it can be forced in 6M?

Also, on the fact sheets they mention C4FM as a modulation. Is that the same as Yaesu Fusion or is it some proprietary flavour of EFJ/Kenwood C4FM?

C4FM in the commercial market is just P25, not compatible with YSF

 

[kayn1n32008]

Seeing lots of mention of the VM8000 in this thread, what about the VM7000? I like the idea of having low-band; any word on whether it can be forced in 6M?

I believe the low band NX model has been successfully moved into the ham band.

I believe(could be wrong) the VM-76xx can be used with the VM8000.

Also, on the fact sheets they mention C4FM as a modulation. Is that the same as Yaesu Fusion or is it some proprietary flavour of EFJ/Kenwood C4FM?

C4FM in the commercial market is just P25, not compatible with YSF

C4FM = 4 level, Frequency Shifk Keying. DMR, NXDN and P25 phase 1(non-LSM/Simulcast that uses a form of QPSK)all use C4FM. It is piss poor marketing on Yaesu

 

[mmckenna]

Seeing lots of mention of the VM8000 in this thread, what about the VM7000? I like the idea of having low-band; any word on whether it can be forced in 6M?

You can add the low band deck to a VM-8000.

Evans @kd4efm has put the Kenwood NX-5600H on 6 meters. He's posted info on that before.

Also, on the fact sheets they mention C4FM as a modulation. Is that the same as Yaesu Fusion or is it some proprietary flavour of EFJ/Kenwood C4FM?

Yeah, Yaesu did a bastardized C4FM that is not compatible with P25. In the LMR market, C4FM is P25. Not compatible with System Fusion at all.

 

[dryfb]

= 4 level, Frequency Shifk Keying. DMR, NXDN and P25 phase 1(non-LSM/Simulcast that uses a form of QPSK)all use C4FM. It is piss poor marketing on Yaesu

Very bad marketing. I do wonder how many hams who aren't familiar with digital have bought a P25 radio when they actually wanted YSF, since P25 has the fact that it uses C4FM much more commonly stated

 

[DeoVindice]

I believe the low band NX model has been successfully moved into the ham band.

I believe(could be wrong) the VM-76xx can be used with the VM8000.


C4FM = 4 level, Frequency Shifk Keying. DMR, NXDN and P25 phase 1(non-LSM/Simulcast that uses a form of QPSK)all use C4FM. It is piss poor marketing on Yaesu

Not having a 7630 deck on hand, I can't say for sure whether it will work but it's likely. I have successfully hex-edited Armada to bend UHF R2 radios into the upper 440s, for what that's worth.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

I believe the low band NX model has been successfully moved into the ham band.

I believe(could be wrong) the VM-76xx can be used with the VM8000.


C4FM = 4 level, Frequency Shifk Keying. DMR, NXDN and P25 phase 1(non-LSM/Simulcast that uses a form of QPSK)all use C4FM. It is piss poor marketing on Yaesu

C4FM literally means "Continuous 4-Level Frequency Modulation". In other words, a continuous 4FSK signal on a FM carrier. Continuous is the key word…DMR subscribers do not qualify when transmitting (thus why DMR is consider 4FSK and not C4FM).

 

[kd4efm]

I do know right now, that armada wont go past 50 on analog. So the V7630 wont play there (currently). The other thing is, the VM7630 is analog only. The NX5600 is NXDN and Analog. Though it could do P25 as that's the same vocoder for NXDN. DMR was tried, but the firmware has it locked out. For now, the NX5600 is NXDN 12.5. Anything future wise is up in the air.
As I noted, only the VP/VM8000 is the only DMR capable model, the 5,6 and 7000 Vikings are not road mapped for DMR. Still rumored that the AP was allegedly going to get DMR but that has not ever come true, yet, to my knowledge. BK9000 is the only other subscriber radio I know that has DMR, but wont have NXDN.

 

[kayn1n32008]

You can add the low band deck to a VM-8000.

Evans @kd4efm has put the Kenwood NX-5600H on 6 meters. He's posted info on that before.

There is also a VM- series lowland unit as well.

 

[alcahuete]

Don't forget Tait. Got my hands on a friend's VP8000 for a bit to see how it was, and it was a great radio for sure, but ended up buying a Tait TP9900 several months ago, and have very few complaints. Does analog, P25, DMR. Doesn't do NXDN but I also don't have NXDN repeaters in use around here, so no biggie. I have other radios that cover NXDN anyway, if I ever need it. On the plus side, you also get 900 MHz with the Tait, where you don't with the VP or APX line. So if you're using it for ham use, you get 2m, 440, 33cm, all in a fairly small package compared to the other radios.

 

[mmckenna]

Don't forget Tait.

Tait loaned me a TP-9800 for a while and I really liked the form factor. Nice radio. Should be a serious contender.

 

[kd4efm]

Since I made a mistake, I own it.

I said a BK 9000, meant the Tait TP9000 or as noted from others, the TP9900.
My mistake. I own it.

 

[APX8000]

Just go with the Baofang and call it a day. Make sure to leave the PTT release tone on too.

 

[kd4efm]

Just go with the Baofang and call it a day. Make sure to leave the PTT release tone on too.

or the McTOROLA Dual band.

 

[fontanei]

Don't forget Tait. Got my hands on a friend's VP8000 for a bit to see how it was, and it was a great radio for sure, but ended up buying a Tait TP9900 several months ago, and have very few complaints. Does analog, P25, DMR. Doesn't do NXDN but I also don't have NXDN repeaters in use around here, so no biggie. I have other radios that cover NXDN anyway, if I ever need it. On the plus side, you also get 900 MHz with the Tait, where you don't with the VP or APX line. So if you're using it for ham use, you get 2m, 440, 33cm, all in a fairly small package compared to the other radios.

Between the VP8000 and the TP9900, which one had the loudest undistorted RX audio?

 

[tweiss3]

I can't compare to a TP9900, but the VP8000 has ridiculously loud and clear audio.

 

[d119]

Oh boy... Here we go - you let the cat out of the bag on this one.



I can say this - as a die hard Motorola fanboy for most of my life, I've ditched them personally and at work.

100% VP/VM series is what I purchased for my personal radios. My daily driver is my personal VP8000, and both of my vehicles have VM8000's in them. I just bit the bullet and purchased all of it.

ONE SINGLE TEMPLATE to rule all three radios. Any change I make I can drop in all of the radios without any fuss or BS.

Work vehicle has a VM8000 paired with a VM7630 LB radio. You can't go wrong. When it came time to replace our XTL and XTS portables at work, that was the end of Motorola. It all got replaced with Viking and NX gear.

Screw Motorola. I'm not your beta tester, and as a taxpayer, I'm disgusted. I make purchasing decisions at work regarding this very thing, and we cannot buy Motorola equipment in good faith anymore. It is not taxpayer friendly, especially for smaller agencies, the support is terrible, the software and firmware are terrible, and I don't need to be force-fed a lot of garbage (like "cellphone radios") that I don't need or want. As a taxpayer who pays into the agency I work for, and as a custodian of federal and state taxpayer dollars, I cannot knowingly screw you - the American taxpayer - by buying a bloated, overpriced, egotistical, WASTEFUL name. You're welcome.

The EFJ equipment fits the bill in all respects -feature availability, support, software quality, and the most important three things - RELIABILITY, BUILD QUALITY, and PRICE.

/rant off.

Go with the VP/VM series equipment over Motorola. You'll be glad you did the first time you use Armada, and if you ever need tech support, well, lets just say the people who designed these things aren't completely out of reach...

Yeah, the radios are a little larger, but your wallet and sanity will make up for it.

Note: The above is my personal opinion and not representative of my employer or anyone else. I have received no compensation for my endorsement of Kenwood/EFJ and my endorsement is that of me personally and not my employer.

 

[YL3IM]

Just go with the Baofang and call it a day. Make sure to leave the PTT release tone on too.

 

[prcguy]

View attachment 193596

Interesting, the FCC usually relies on local law enforcement or US Marshals for arrest. And I've neve known them to wear uniforms.