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What's your everyday-carry two way radio?
- Thread starter Danny37
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GI_jose82
Member
Zero9holsters.com also make some good kydex holsters for radios
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
GI_jose82
Member
I have the XTS5000 holster from Zero 9... Love it!
XTS5000Zero9-2[/url']https://flic.kr/p/RvunD4]
GI_jose82
Member
Looks good! Which belt clip did you go with?
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
radioman2001
Member
An XTS-3000 UHF for my T-Band, FDNY, Westchester FD, Dutchess FD, and a XTS-5000 7/800 for Metro 25, and Doitt 800. No cases, just battery belt clips. Oh almost forgot my EX600 for VHF. All sit on my desk scanning along with company issued Icom F3161DT, but I just carry the EX while working in field unless I need to use our wide area digital system. I guess you can also count one of 2 Iphone's with Zello.
I have way too many radios to take to work otherwise.
I have way too many radios to take to work otherwise.
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I went with the Mollie clips
The EX series are nice little radios.
I know it might sound "noob" but I've played the "expensive radio" games with product failure or defunctness and just too pricey to replace with fancy new stuff...
With that said, I LOVE MY Baofeng GT-3TP. And when that meets its demise, there are plenty replacements available at reasonable price. And the BTECH UV2X50 is a pretty sweet mobile.
With that said, I LOVE MY Baofeng GT-3TP. And when that meets its demise, there are plenty replacements available at reasonable price. And the BTECH UV2X50 is a pretty sweet mobile.
I always carry my Yaesu VX-8DR along with a couple Scanners.
I'm preferring to carry a single radio around these days. With the moves happening in public safety in my area all onto one common system, it's not as difficult as it used to be to accomplish that, either.
The NX-5400-K2 is pretty nice in my opinion.
It is a single band and handles analog and P25 in the same radio (I know a lot of people here get it for the NXDN (and maybe DMR, I forget if it supports that) aspects, but as I said a lot of my agencies are on P25 trunking now). The color screen is nice and the controls were easy to learn coming from a TK-2180/3180 previously.
I just programmed a bunch of APX900s for another agency. They're OK radios but they feel rather light to me which lends the sensation of them being flimsy to my mind. This radio has some heft and while I have seen a crack in one case in the "usual" spot for a Kenwood (between the antenna and the accessory port dust cover), and had the antenna connector somehow snap completely off another radio, otherwise they seem pretty robust.
My only real gripe is that there are a bunch of agencies around here who refuse to let go of the concept of 2-tone paging, even on P25 digital, and the Kenwood's 2-tone decoding on P25 seems to be extraordinarily tight. I have been working on it for over a year and can only get a Kenwood radio to alert off a tone transmitted from another Kenwood radio. Tones transmitted from a console, even the "correct" tones - even tones recorded from a Kenwood radio to a properly formatted/sampled WAV file and then played back over the console - the Kenwood radios steadfastly refuse to open up to those tones, while Moto radios and Unication pagers will trigger off those tones all day long.
The NX-5400-K2 is pretty nice in my opinion.
It is a single band and handles analog and P25 in the same radio (I know a lot of people here get it for the NXDN (and maybe DMR, I forget if it supports that) aspects, but as I said a lot of my agencies are on P25 trunking now). The color screen is nice and the controls were easy to learn coming from a TK-2180/3180 previously.
I just programmed a bunch of APX900s for another agency. They're OK radios but they feel rather light to me which lends the sensation of them being flimsy to my mind. This radio has some heft and while I have seen a crack in one case in the "usual" spot for a Kenwood (between the antenna and the accessory port dust cover), and had the antenna connector somehow snap completely off another radio, otherwise they seem pretty robust.
My only real gripe is that there are a bunch of agencies around here who refuse to let go of the concept of 2-tone paging, even on P25 digital, and the Kenwood's 2-tone decoding on P25 seems to be extraordinarily tight. I have been working on it for over a year and can only get a Kenwood radio to alert off a tone transmitted from another Kenwood radio. Tones transmitted from a console, even the "correct" tones - even tones recorded from a Kenwood radio to a properly formatted/sampled WAV file and then played back over the console - the Kenwood radios steadfastly refuse to open up to those tones, while Moto radios and Unication pagers will trigger off those tones all day long.
Danny37
Member
Unfortunately it only supports 10 groups so you need to have a channel up and down soft keys assigned to have the full 200 programmed. The only issue I've seen with the earlier models of vx-800 is the squelch opens up so easily, like the wind can blow and static will fill your speakers.
Danny37
Member
What a beauty! Now is this case meant to fit the standard cap batteries? I love my slim impres battery since it makes the radio lightweight.
Danny37
Member
Nothing wrong with that, I have a TYT uv-3r that's built like a tank. That radio has taken so much abuse and still works like a charm.
I'm not sure about the slim battery because I've never had one for my XTS. I only have the standard capacity and the high capacity impress batteries and it fits nicely.
The holster I have from Zero 9 hasn't scratched my radio at all. The inside of the holster is nice and smooth.
mikegilbert
MHz so good
APX8000.
Has everything I need here in LA, or any city between San Diego and Seattle. Best radio I've ever owned.
Has everything I need here in LA, or any city between San Diego and Seattle. Best radio I've ever owned.
Project25_MASTR
Millennial Graying OBT Guy
I think part of the reason is the P25 protocol doesn't actually support group paging. It'll support an individual page via call alert but not an entire group without dedicating a talk group for that specific group's pages. Two tone over P25 is another issue as it is not part of the protocol either and one simply can not inject tones into an IMBE or AMBE chip and have them reproduced correctly...grab a trunking capable service monitor and try it (you'll need either a spare encoder or separate monitor to encode the 2-tone) and you'll find you can't alert the radio.
The vendors currently perform 2-tone over P25 by creating a bitstream which reproduces the correct tone (think in terms of a 1011 Hz test tone). From what you are suggesting, it sounds like Motorola allows for some bit error/reproduced frequency error which Kenwood may not currently.
radioman2001
Member
"APX8000. "
My retirement radio.
My retirement radio.
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