Whats to keep someone from...

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muhockey86

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I was on hamcity.com looking for a new portable for scanning purposes and I noticed you can purchase a motorola transceiver in the range of 438-470..whats to keep someone from ordering that online and having their local pd frequencies programmed into that?
 

vs1988

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I'm sure others know more about this than I do, but probably little to nothing to prevent someone accessing PS freqs.

My friend is a ham and he says some stores will want to check your FCC lic. first, but people can buy off of ebay too. I guess it all comes down to integrity and trust. If someone were tx'ing on a conventional freq, it might be hard to find out where the tx is coming from, but not impossible. On trunked systems, the adminstrator can inhibit the radio.
 

KE4ZNR

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muhockey86 said:
I was on hamcity.com looking for a new portable for scanning purposes and I noticed you can purchase a motorola transceiver in the range of 438-470..whats to keep someone from ordering that online and having their local pd frequencies programmed into that?

a little thing called common sense....of course we know not everyone uses it and that is when laws are broken and people end up jail+ pay fines...
 

muhockey86

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I'm planning on ordering one for rx'ing only so I'll have it programmed with the outputs only and no pl so it can't accidently transmit
 

JnglMassiv

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What's to stop anyone from doing anything?
There's nothing to gain from malicious interference but lots to lose. The penalties are severe.

Motorola two ways are awesome rx-only radios. I have Chicago Police going right now on an ASTRO Saber, loud and clear.
 

muhockey86

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Thats what I heard, I'm aware of the severe penalties....I'm just worried one of my friends wouldn't understand the seriousness of transmitting and do it thinking its halarious. Should i go with no PL tones or put in a tone that the city does not use?
 

jparks29

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the only thing to prevent someone from interfering with ANY system, is lack of knowledge.......

there's easy access to radio's/software...

easy access to programming info.....

the only "limit" is self imposed.....

the only safeguard is that most criminals are stupid....

although...even officers assume that another officers radio was stolen when someone keys up and starts cussing/yelling.....noone thinks someone could've just bought a radio...
 

muhockey86

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lol i get what your saying....but trust me, my friends would have no idea on whats going on...only reason i bring that up, oen of them asked about my mobile ham and i told them that they couldnt transmit with out a license...come outta the gas station and there he is cussing up a storm on a skywarn repeater
 

jparks29

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the radio's that I have TX capability for PS systems I'm authorized to use.... I have two things...

one, is a powerup password, when the radio turns on, it asks for a password, no password, radio no workie.....

two, is TX IN....Tx Inhibit, in other words, there's a hidden menu option that's ON by default, that has to be cleared in order to be able to transmit on those channels....

so, someone steals my radio... they can't do anything with it.....

worst case scenario, they find out my password, and STILL can't do anything but listen, or, like you said, cuss up a storm on a skywarn repeater......which..of course,would make for a very fun fox hunt..

ALL CONVENTIONAL moto radio's that I know of support 100 PERCENT receive only channels to be programmed in....trunking is a diff story....(auto affiliation and such)
 
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Rayjk110

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What's the radio model? If it's a GP-68, it can't do RX only, as I have one and I know it can't.


Oh, and jnglmassiv - I've got citywide 1 going on the XTS. Someone had a "loose" radio and was asking the dispatcher for permission to 'mobile' with a homosexual and he was gettin' pretty mad. heh.


Oh, and what's to prevent someone from programming local PS freq's into a motorola? A 6 page long licensing agreement for the software, which is anywhere from $200-400, and another $100 for the R.I.B. box and probably around $60 for a decent RIB > Radio cable.
 
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Rayjk110

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I used to own a set of CP200's..no bueno...total crap radios. Get a used Saber/XTS and you will be much happier. They feel like cheap pieces of plastic in your hand, I trust my sets of P1225's better than I would those, that's why I got rid of them, but for casual monitoring I guess they would be OK so long as it's local, but don't expect them to do extraordinary things.

Also if you go asking to a motorola shop/programmer to program PS freq's, most won't do that without a copy of the dept's license or a letter from the radio guy at the department.
 
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Rayjk110

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Yes, like I said it's a very long contract you sign with them (cant copy it, re distribute it, etc) and the software alone costs about $150-200 for the Radius stuff and the cable and RIB (Radio interface box) costs about $100 combined or more. If you can afford to contact motorola and pay that, then yes, you can. I own the software for the CPS series and for $150-200 it really doesn't seem worth it, but it's the only thing that will program them.
 

muhockey86

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Wow thats expensive.....I would really like to pick up a moto though...preferably something of the same quality as the local pd is using....but all that seems like too much trouble
 
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Rayjk110

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Yeah, it kinda is.


See www.batboard.batlabs.com

Sign up, and ask any Motorola-related questions there, the whole purpose of that board is discussion on moto stuff. Alot of people are on that board that can help with any questions, including myself.
 

bassmkenk2508

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if you find a vhf, uhf or dual band ham radio with a "MARS/CAP" mod, that will most likely mean it has been modded by a tech for out of band trasnmit, for legal use of course ;)
 
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