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Witch radio brand do you prefer

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Project25_MASTR

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I don't prefer a single brand. I have preferences for different tasks. For example, for anything Tier III DMR, I prefer Simoco infrastructure due to low cost, redundancy and the amount of included features that you just don't see in offerings from Tait and Motorola (Capacity Max). The new 700 series line of mobiles and portables are pretty awesome and beat out a few of Motorola's higher tiered offerings in terms of audio quality (and of course price). I won't touch Hytera due to some lousy dealer support issues I got drug through with them.

Talking P25, it's really hard to beat Motorola's offerings just in terms of the fact it works and has very few issues. Tait has a pretty robust feeling portable with the TP9400 but after the Harris partnership it has become a little difficult to get one's hands on them through regular means. (Hands down would deploy their P25 infrastructure over Simoco's). Withing the next two months I'll be deploying two Simoco SRM9005 based P25 tactical repeaters...we will see how those roll out. Still waiting on the GME CM60 to make it through CAP testing so I can get my hands on a couple to try them out (they look promising though and the price appears to be reasonable).

As you can see, I like to keep options open though I do tend to compare everything to Motorola as they've really set the standard here in the US over the decades.
 

buddrousa

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I will second that on not just one brand it has been listed here several times the plus and minus of each brand and model. The scanners I buy depend on the intended use as you can see I still have and use all that I have listed Radio Shack , Uniden , and Whistler.
 

jwt873

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Same.. I don't get into the fanboy mindset.. I just look at dependability, value and features.

I'm a ham (but I do use my equipment for general MF/HF/VHF/UHF scanning).. I've wound up with mostly Icom and Kenwood equipment.
 

kayn1n32008

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I have pretty much moved over to Kenwood. I own a variety of radios: Icom, Kenwood, VertexStandard, CSI and Motorola. I have come to prefer my Kenwood radios.
 

Project25_MASTR

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I have pretty much moved over to Kenwood. I own a variety of radios: Icom, Kenwood, VertexStandard, CSI and Motorola. I have come to prefer my Kenwood radios.
The only time I've messed with Kenwood is with the local (VHF side) of the local P25 system. Okay, I say local but it's the largest system in the state, covers VHF and 7/800, and has over 50 sites (some being simulcast). Kenwood sold a few of the smaller departments on them and they have never operated correctly on the system. Kenwood engineers have attempted several times to fine tune them over the last 8 years or so and I hasn't helped.

I don't think it's a honest representation of Kenwood's capabilities but there will be no more fine tuning as the radios are being phased out for APX replacements. I'm actually pulling the first 6 next week.

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12dbsinad

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The only time I've messed with Kenwood is with the local (VHF side) of the local P25 system. Okay, I say local but it's the largest system in the state, covers VHF and 7/800, and has over 50 sites (some being simulcast). Kenwood sold a few of the smaller departments on them and they have never operated correctly on the system. Kenwood engineers have attempted several times to fine tune them over the last 8 years or so and I hasn't helped.

I don't think it's a honest representation of Kenwood's capabilities but there will be no more fine tuning as the radios are being phased out for APX replacements. I'm actually pulling the first 6 next week.

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What kind of problems are we talking about here?
 

Project25_MASTR

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What kind of problems are we talking about here?



Preferred site, site scan, site roaming, poor RF performance on the portables (when compared to a XTS2500).

Preferred site is a big one for that side of the system. Unlike the neighboring 7/800 MHz stuff where the channel banks are fully loaded, most of these sites only have 5 channels. After 8 years they've just given up on them though.


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12dbsinad

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Preferred site, site scan, site roaming, poor RF performance on the portables (when compared to a XTS2500).

Preferred site is a big one for that side of the system. Unlike the neighboring 7/800 MHz stuff where the channel banks are fully loaded, most of these sites only have 5 channels. After 8 years they've just given up on them though.


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Interesting, have heard some problems in this area as well. Thanks for the follow up post.
 

mmckenna

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Preferred site, site scan, site roaming, poor RF performance on the portables (when compared to a XTS2500).

They usually need some fine tuning out of the box.
The PD I look after is using Kenwood NX-210's. They were happy with them until one guy started using an XTS, then the complaining began. Heard a lot of "Kenwood is junk" talk. I started taking the radios one at a time and putting them on the monitor. Found that most of them were off by a bit just about everywhere. The seem to be working well now.
Other issue I've see is that whoever Kenwood buys their antennas from isn't doing a very good job. I've found their high gain VHF portable whips vary greatly in SWR and resonate point.
 

mmckenna

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Since this is the "Industry Discussion" forum, you'll have a hard time finding people that get to choose their favorites. Purchasing rules tend to get in the way of just buying our favorites. Lowest bidder, existing state contracts (WSCA, etc), all get in the way.

We used Motorola for years, but their support structure fell apart locally. Got to the point where it would take days to a full week to get a Motorola RSS tech on site. While their radios were pretty good, we had to dump them due to the poor support. When we went looking for a replacement for the rapidly failing SmartNet system I had, it was narrowed down pretty easily. We have NPSPAC 800MHz channels, and Motorola would only sell us P25 systems. Even though (at the time) their MotoTrbo radios would do 800MHz, they had specifically blocked out the NPSPAC channels (my understanding is that this has changed). Anyway, Motorola wouldn't change, we had to go P25 or we'd have to relicense our entire system. Since we didn't need P25 and didn't have the budget for it, we went looking at others. Considered LTR, but finally settled on NXDN. Kenwood was much more responsive, radios would work on NPSPAC channels, etc. Chose them based on that.

Over the years we've had Kenwood, Motorola and EF Johnson. I've been happy with all of them in one way or another, but also all have had their frustrations.

I think if I was buying a personal radio for my own use, I'd probably go with Kenwood just because their support is so much better and more "small user" friendly.
 

lmrtek

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As far as digital, I've designed, serviced, and installed more moto turbo repeaters than anything else and they work very well.

The only Japanese company I like is ICOM because of their IDAS NXDN repeaters

I've programmed and installed several of their repeaters and the audio quality seems better than Motorola and they are future proof for the next round of band narrowing
 
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