VP 900 radio with Motorola NTN9176 vehicle charger

[martyemtp]

The EFJohnson/Kenwood VP portable radio appears to very similar to the Motorola XTS 3000 portable radio. The department that I work for is going through a radio system upgrade. We are switching to a 800mhz trunking P25 phase II system. Unfortunately, the surrounding mutual aid will be remaining on VHF analog. This is why we are switching to a dual band radio.

The department current vehicles has Motorola NTN9176 type vehicle chargers. The contact points for charging the battery are in the same place. The battery also looks very similar the XTS 3000 battery. The question I have, will the Motorola NTN9176 vehicle chargers charge the radios and batteries. In the contract process, vehicle chargers were missed as part of the purchase. The current plan is to wire the wall chargers in to the vehicles or place a wall charge just outside the vehicle. I am hoping possible reuse the vehicle chargers.

I am unable to find specification on both the VP 900 and NTN9176 to see if they are compatible. The department will not have possession of the new radio until May 2020. This gives me a little time to research this. Also, not a lot information about the Viking VP 900 portable other then what EF Johnson/Kenwood puts out there.

 

[n3obl]

I can tell you newer ef johnson batteries show as error in motorola impres chargers and vice versa.

 

[MTS2000des]

The VP series are nothing inside like the XTS. Battery contacts may line up as the previous poster stated, they won't charge in MSI OEM chargers, but we have some of the Endura brand aftermarket XTS chargers and they handle them just fine.

The VP900 is the last of the Viking series Kenwood is selling, the VP400/VP600 (similar form factor but single band only) were killed off. They all use the same programming software (Armada) which is some of the best radio management/programming software around. It is used with the newer "Kenwood" branded Viking series: VP5000/VP6000, which are all branded Kenwood now.

My personal opinion: EF Johnson is going away and Kenwood is the brand name and product line moving forward. Hopefully, Kenwood will grow Armada and dump the technical abortion known as KPG-Dxx. Armada was clearly written by people who actually program radios for a living.

 

[kd4efm]

While I agree KPG-D1 is a PITA, it wont be going away anytime sooner then I wish.
Armada is great too, but I find some falicies with it too. Just me

EFJI, for the lack of saying "is going away" is a misconception. They are not. They are growing, and so are the pains. (eye roll)

 

[MTS2000des]

I'm glad to know EFJ isn't going anywhere. An agency near me is deploying an Atlas P25 simulcast system to replace a 20 year old Smartnet system. They've got a mix of VP6000s and VM7000 mobiles.

The problem I have with D1 is it's clunky, slow (even on a modern i7 box with 16GB of RAM and an SSD), and the licensing silliness makes it impractical for agencies who's IT department constantly re-image mobile devices. Armada, OTOH, is quick, painless and easy to manage radios, trunking talkgroups and conventional systems are put in logical lists, drop down everything- and being able to link templates to codeplugs saves time when working with multiple product variants.

 

[mmckenna]

I used to have a SmartNet system
Even 10+ years ago, programming 5100's was W-A-Y easier with PCConfigure than programming an MTS-2000 or XTS with CPS on that system.