What Motorola Portable Radios Should I Consider For 10 Meters Or 6 Meters FM Simplex?

[JASII]

My wife and I are both amateur radio operators. One of our other hobbies is riding ATVs. I am just starting to research the possibility of using some second hand Motorola portables on either 10 meters or 6 meters FM simplex.

-What Motorola portables would be suitable? (It looks like the HT750/Waris line is/was available in low band.) Can either be programmed "out-of-band" for 10 meter or 6 meter simplex?

-How does the performance of a portable radio on either 10 meters or 6 meters simplex compare to one on 2 meters? (Since we would be using rubber-duck antennas, is it about the same in a wooded area?)

- We would likely program a simplex frequency, with a PL or DPL and just use it back and forth while ATVing.

-My goal is to get something that is rugged and reliable. I am not looking to talk to other hams. I want something that will work, even if it gets dropped or splashed.

-Am I wasting my time thinking about VHF low-band? Should be simply go with VHF high band and be done with it?

 

[Thunderknight]

I think you would best with 2 Meters. At low band (6M and especially 10M), portable radio antennas are huge compromises. (some people refer to them as flexible dummy loads
If you were running 100W mobiles with mobile antennas, I think you'd see a benefit to low band. But for an HT, you can get a good 2M antenna on it, where as that's much harder on low frequencies (unless you want a telescoping whip).

 

[prcguy]

I play with military hand helds on 6m and while we get ok range its far less than using the same radio on 2m. Many military hand helds using short loaded rubber antennas are rated for only a few hundred meters range. With larger whips 6 to 10ft long they work much better but that's not practical for most people. I think you will be better off on VHF hi band.

 

[wcu02mpa]

I have an HT1250 for ten meters and also an MT1000 99 channel for ten FM. The MT1000 has amazing sensitivity. I have not found a good Motorola six meters Unit. I also have a Kenwood TK-190-1 for 10M FM and it also is really good. The Kenwood TK-190-2 does great on six meters. You won’t get any DX transmitting but it is cool to listen when the skip rolls in. I have some New England fire Dept’s and Van Pool transportation in My scan list.

 

[mmckenna]

2 meters is your best bet.
We ride ATV's/UTV's all over California and parts of Nevada. Before I was able to get the others to get their ham licenses, we used GMRS. Worked well enough.
Eventually the ham tickets allowed us to switch to ham. All the UTV's have a VHF mobile in them. All are commercial radios with good antennas permanently mounted on the roll cages and large external speakers facing the driver so they can be heard over the noise.

With the ATV's, portables were used. Most of us had speaker/mics in our helmets which really helps. Keeping the radio in a back pack up as high as you can get it worked pretty well. The full length 19" long antennas helped a bit.

As others said, 10 and 6 are going to be a challenge due to antenna/ground plane limitations. Range may not be much of an issue if you ride close together, but I've found over the years it is really easy to make a wrong turn in the dust and end up separated by a few miles. The extra range of the mobiles has been beneficial for us. 10 and 6 might work just fine, though. Maybe a better choice is to look at what repeaters are in your riding areas. In a jam you might want to have access to a repeater if you get really split up, or if you need some help from others.

 

[kayn1n32008]

As others have said 2m is your best bet. Keep the radios as high up as you can, use speaker mic’s/headsets. Use the best antennas you can afford.

I have used quads for oilfield survey work in the bush and have had good results with 5w VHF LMR portables, speaker mic’s and just helical antennas as long as you keep the antennas as in obstructed as possible.

 

[mm]

Motorola MT1000/P200 LOW band HT'S work very well.

The 29-36 split radios program to 29-29.7 without any hardware mods.

There are now hundreds of 6 meter mt1000/p200's in operation since ~2009 converted to work 50-54 MHZ.

The 42-50 MHZ split MT1000/P200 radios require hardware mods which I came up with years ago and the mod document is over on REPEATER BUILDERS page.

http://www.repeater-builder.com/motorola/genesis/pdfs/mt1000-6m-rev6.pdf

The modified MT1000/P200 6meter radio is very sensitive and works fine on 6 meters with a 6 inch MOTOROLA NAB6064 antenna.

Tests done on a low height 6 meter system using a 6 meter to 220 MHZ remote base and on a linked 6 meter high height repeater system has shown a measurable improvement in HT performance if a speaker mic is used to enable holding the HT slightly away and up from your body in one hand while using the speaker mic with the other hand.

We are seeing ~ a 7-11 mile range with these 5 1/2 watt 6 meter HT's on this low elevation system (500 foot above sea level hill with a 30 foot Height 5/8TH VERTICAL) and 22-45 miles to a linked 6 meter repeater system on various ~2000 to 3700 foot hills with the MT1000/P200's and the NAB6064 ~6 inch rubber duck/speaker mic combo.

Prior to using the NMN6156 SERIES speaker mics, our range was just 3-4 miles when holding the HT's near the operators face while transmitting.


HT DX on 6 and 10 is certainly possible.
From Salem Oregon, during every summer and winter e season for the last 9 years, I have regularly used my 6meter p200/6 inch duck/speaker mic setup to work into the 52.56 repeaters in both prescott Arizona and Mt Frazier California and another remote base system near Rock Springs WYOMING on 52.525 or 50.3 FM SIMPLEX.


In 2001 during the December e season, from my Prescott AZ QTH, using a 6meter ge pe handheld with rubber duck and speaker mic I worked 10 STATES in New England from Maine to Virginia, 4 in the Nortwest (Or. Wa. Id and Wy.), California, Nevada PLUS Hawaii and Alaska on 52.525 and/or 50.3 fm simplex.

On 29.6 FM between 2012 and 2015 during very good 10 meter seasons, using my Mt1000 with the 11 inch duck, I have 11 mainland states plus Alaska, Hawaii, and ZL2OK IN New Zealand, JL1TZQ SEVERAL times in Japan and a asiatic Russian station on 10 meter FM simplex, 29.6.

Mike, vlc/7