Whats to keep someone from...

[JnglMassiv]

Whats your opinion on the radius series?

There's hit and miss in the Radius series. I've found the GP300's and, in particular, the GP350's to be truly fantastic. Loud audio, beefy heft, quite sturdy, narrowband flavors available, scanning, signalling..really nice and reasonably priced radios.

 

[dgoodson]

What stops you from.... (the original post) I think what stops you literally is nothing. But as a practical matter, Hams have a pretty solid legacy of being "self policing"; so if you crank up on a Ham band, and don't follow the customary protocols, and don't appear to have valid license credentials, I suspect you would be turned in pretty quickly, and in the interim "stonewalled"- that is, folks wouldn't talk to you

 

[N_Jay]

What stops you from.... (the original post) I think what stops you literally is nothing. But as a practical matter, Hams have a pretty solid legacy of being "self policing"; so if you crank up on a Ham band, and don't follow the customary protocols, and don't appear to have valid license credentials, I suspect you would be turned in pretty quickly, and in the interim "stonewalled"- that is, folks wouldn't talk to you

Actually, if you go back to the original question, NOTHING.

There is nothing illegal about having a radio programmed with whatever FREQUENCIES you want.

Trunked programming is a different story since it entails using LICENSED Software.

 

[bwillcox]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with owning and using Motorola gear for monitoring conventional frequencies. You won't find a better sounding and tougher radio out there.

Trunking is a different story. Programming a trunking radio up without authorization is illegal (since you WILL transmit on the system) Check the news stories here or elsewhere. People have gone to JAIL for doing this. I agree that Moto audio beats scanner audio hands down, but just get a scanner.

On the lower end of the Motorola scale, look for some GP300s or GP350s. They are good solid 16 channel radios. The HT1000 in the Jedi series is also an excellent choice. The JT1000 is a 16 channel portable that is field-programmable (and is usually pretty expensive because hams LOVE them)

If you want to go higher end, look around for a Saber or Systems Saber or any of the Jedi series portables (MT2000, MTS2000)

If you really have some money or need to hear APCO25 digital (aka IMBE), look for an Astro Saber or one of the XTS portables. (The Astro sabers are much less expensive than they used to be, though!)

You have to have a computer, Radio Interface Box (aka RIB) and the proper Radio Service Software (RSS) to program your Motos. The only way to legally get RSS is to get it from Motorola, and most of it is quite expensive ($300 seems to be the price for most of it) It's an investment, but it's Motorola. You can't do better, and you won't want to use anything else.