kidphc

Most can't be passed through without leaving a big hole and requiring a grommet to seal said hole. I have used a coax that had an fme connector (barely larger then rg58). Came with a fme to pl259 adapter. It was pretty slick if you ask me. Most of the time you need to snip off the connector to get it through tight spaces and crimp on a new connector. Contact the vendor to see if it can be disassembled for installation with instructions. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

I had a fender mount that was introducing a lot of rfi in the middle of the gmrs band. 2m/70cm cap modded radio. Installed a dedicated gmrs radio and antenna (back 1/3rd of roof). Noise was manageable with just a hair of squelch. Turns out the rfi noise was caused by a failing brake accumulator, and hydraulic leak into the abs computer. My generation landcruiser and some 4runners use a electric motor to build brake pedal pressure. God awful expensive part. The rfi went away when the brake module was replaced. When I find leds that make rfi noise that is noticeable, in the trash it goes. It's the driver, lots of leds you can't replace the driver. A neighbor of mine has decent inverters on his solar panels. Only really made noise when at peek power, sunlight going full tilt on the panels. My noise floor goes from s3 to almost s6-s8, usually not home at those times. His plasma screen was terrible also, thank God he upgrade the tv. A lot of rfi comes from cheap electronics and poor shielding, sigh. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Rfi, or installation issue from the electronics running on the car. Seems like the shielding is kinda crappy on alot of Chrysler products. Turn off the car and rfi is gone. Some times the delayed accesories can still introduce noise till about 5minutes after shut off. Your coax can act as a big antenna, routing can make a difference. Generally, a good practice in mobile installs is to keep the coax ad far away from power and canbus lines as possible. Cross those lines if possible at 90 degrees with the coax. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Try the 4505. The 5/8 over 5/8, other then the size it is a very, very impressive antenna. Did I say impressive. I am running a 4503 right now. It's not bad, just a bit more deaf than the 4505. Crap i might be selling mine. Even uncut it was about 1.2 to 1.3 in gmrs repeater frequencies. Still have not cut the 4505 or the 4503 just really no need to. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Personally, I am all over the place. From ¹/4, 1/2, 3/4, 5/8 over 5/8. Also using a ham base antenna in the attic. I'll be using a diy yagi made by a local named Roland next. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Personally, depending on location. Ie mountains and repeater availability. Usually, 20 watts or so are nice and adequate. Most will let you trim the power back some even enough to get on the frs interants and still be close to inbounds according to some rules. Plus most are economical compared to a 50 watt model. Most 40/50 watt radios can't turn the power down enough to play with the entire allocation. Hence some channels are blocked etc. But it is always nice to bump up the power when at the fringes of a repeater or in the woods. With uhf and vhf. Gmrs is uhf. Focus on the antenna setup more then the radio. 15w with a properly setup 5/8 antenna gets you out further and cleaner then a 50w with unity gain antenna with no groundplane and crap coax. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Wasn't trying to be down on the op. Maybe bad wording. Was wondering if there was any reason they were asking. Mostly, to see if there are any other paths to get them where they want to go. Sorry if it was taken that way. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Yes, but mainly for hand helds. Btech makes one. The input voltage is usually set to 1 watt or less. For mobiles, yes they sell amplifiers. But the radio needs to put out about the same wattage as handheld and most radios that put out more then 20watts can't be lowered enough Normally, it is easier to get a more powerful mobile. Gmrs is already limited to 50 watts, which really is enough. Hell with a good antenna system you could get away with about 20 watts 80-90% of the time. The question I want answered is why are you asking?

You mean like an amplifier? Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Wiring and Accessories Canbus Terminator Unlike the Motorola Canbus like on the XTL series and newer. The Harris radio wasn't self terminating. Think old fire ring/token ring networks where you had to terminate connections or the ring would fail. So we need a couple of terminators. Original Part# CD-014027-0001 These were supplied with the radio when new. Most are long gone, or in a box somewhere in a radio shop. Substitute Part# MACDOS0010 These were originally XG-75m, 7300m, and 5300m series radios About $11 a piece Generally, most radio setups will need 1-2, but if you add multiple heads then you may need several extras Microphones DTMF MC-103334-040 MC-103334-041 Included with MAMW-NMC9C Standard MC-101616-040 MC-101616-041 Included with MAMW0NMC72 Noise cancelling MC 103334-050 MC 103334-051 Included with MAMW-NMCSD Avg $20-100 depending on stock and condition Speaker and cable Speaker Cable Part # 1000005812-0001-REVB I plan on using my speaker from the XTL. The speaker cable is basically that 4 prong box connector that Motorola uses. Originally part of the installation kit. Avg $18-23 Again carry over from XG-75m, 7300m, and 5300m series radios. SEE A TREND YET? Speaker If you have to have your speaker have Harris on it. Part# LS102824V10 Avg $20 new Again carry over from XG-75m, 7300m, and 5300m series radios. SEE A TREND YET? Canbus Cable Part# ca-009562-030 Supplied with original installation kit I am using a new/old stock Macom cable. Again carry over from XG-75m, 7300m, and 5300m series radios. SEE A TREND YET? Abg $25 ebay $98 new Power Cable Part# CA-012616-001 Unable to Find Used cut Pigtails About $15 THIS Ebay seller- they will make custom cables with ignition sense https://www.ebay.com/itm/385499758239?hash=item59c1937e9f:g:gfYAAOSw22Jj~3Wg&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwI9bS6n%2BKCoIgtM0yfEty4%2F7s34lwkfTrxn7j2xMwrwTVzXos7yJkiZ73gVXNkFLLoY0x6Jfl9AVqdZ44BFx9KSmA%2BtZsPmvIV2lJ%2BOt50xEk00xYx0ADHSRPTunwh1V6QvejTSdKKub3GG2go2xjEmRNxkLATRXnp3iNMPWlzAzWDd7pkEhV%2BR0j1U1SZZmX%2BI3oxj%2Fza%2FS3yFRCW8%2FsntVeSTKwWVa6Ph9oc8Qxqh2nFL1w6FDn1%2Fbkx6kAif%2BgA%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR8KWp6DzYQ About $35 Programming cable It is a Rs232 9pin Straight serial cable. I opted for an FTDI usb to rs232 NO rib box necessary Rs232 female on the head and back of the radio. Avg $20-40 Antenna connectors VHF HIgh, UHF and 7/800 TNC female on the radio brick. So you will need a Male TNC to your chosen antenna connector. VHF Low BNC female on the radio brick Again adapter if necessary. GPS port... I am not utilizing the GPS From my understanding the radio will provide NMEA formatted data. this will be on several pins on the 44 pin serial port. Reference photo of back of radio on page 18 Figure 3-2

Unfortunately, I don't know how to mod older harris 900mhz radios. From what I get, the public service usage is below and above the frequencies we hams get to use. So it might be possible to get what you are looking for in a single band radio. I had looked at an old motorola, think it was an Mc series, sorry can't recall. They were about $100 on ebay. But the usage of 900mhz was so low in my area that I abandoned the idea. Plus, the whole 23cm/13cm opposite link nailed the coffin shut for me. If it really something you want to play with there are some cheap 900mhz single band mobiles both from harris and motorola to play with. Or play with the big boys with an icom ic9700, which lacks 900. Think it was more for the satellite boys. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Page 21-30 contains a part list Page 52-53 has a diagram that includes the part numbers to aid the search. The radio body or complete system can be found on ebay ranging from $300 (brick) only to $1000-$3000 depending on the head style for a complete system. I chose to buy the bricks and components separately. You can buy an older complete 7300m/5300m/75M for about $120-150. Double check the part numbers from those radios, to verify what parts carry over. THE HEADS and Mounting Refer to page 18 of attached manual from first post for pictures of the styles. CH721 Head- Avg about $60-80 on ebay. Part# CU23218-004 (system head) Part# CU23218-002 (scan head) This part can be a carry over from a 7300, 5300, XG-75M CH721 Head Remote Mounting Bracket I opted for the remote head bracket, which may be changed to the ram style home brew mount copying the Harris mountU Shaped bracket Remote Head U bracket Part# KT008608 Avg Price new on ebay $10 + shipping CH721 Head Remote Pedestal Mount Part# MACDOS0012 Would love to find one but haven't, probably will have to DIY something similar CH721 Catalog numbers Ch721 scan head remote # XMCP9E console mount # XMCP9G CH721 system head remote # XMCP9F console mount # XMCP9H Ch100 remote mount # XMCP9H console mount # XMCP9Q CH100 Touch screen, bluetooth head Part# 120991200-01 Avg $1000-$2000 (new) Highly sought after but crazy priced. allows for bluetooth programming allows for system/configuration changes that are unavailable on any of the other heads., CH100 Head Remote Mounting Bracket Part# 12099-1500-01 Avg $60 new on ebay CH100 Head Remote Pedestal Mount Part# 12099-1501-01 not sure if you need the above as well as the CH721 Pedestal mount. Refer to Fig 8-9 on page 59 to understand what I am saying. Remote Brick Bracket Part# KT23117 I chose to use part# fm103111v1 We will see if it works fine. Probably won't have the screws, but it is the part number that is included with the kit I couldn't find the kit AVG $18.99 for a beat up one Console Install bracket Part# KT101533V1 Avg $15-40 You can do multiple head setups. A pair of CH721s, a pair of CH100s. You can not mix and match a CH100, with a CH721 head on the same system. This is much like trying to use and 03 head with a 05 head on an XTL series Motorola radio. XG-100M00-1470305.pdf

Trying to compile a list of parts necessary to build out an XG-100M. Nothing more at this point. The Radio: XG100M VHF low band 30-50 MHz 9 miliwatts Some agencies around DC suburbs still use VHF low Shenandoah PD Maryland state on the western handle of MD couple of others It CAN NOT transmit on the ham bands Filters are to tight VHF High 136-174 Wide/narrow 5-50w UHF 380-520 MHz Wide/narrow 5-50w UHF 700-800 MHz 2-30 w 700 MHz 2-35 w 800 Mhz P25 Conv., Trunked, 12.5/20/25 kHz spacing Modulation Phase 1 TX: C4FM, RX: C4FM & WCQPSK Phase 2 TX: HCPM, RX: WCQPSK DVRS (digital vehicle repeater) available for 700/800 Mhz only

Should add. Yeah, I know about some of the memory/cps hacks to get some models to open up. Prime example is my XTL5000 it is an R2 "s" model. That was cps reconfigured to a quasi "Q" spec. With a CPS hack/hexedit. The older harris radios some could be reconfigured "opened up" to transmit outside of their original band, using "sc" files. Initial research is showing not possible with the XG-100M/P series.

Yeah, mxdn is pretty much unavailable in Washington DC area. One repeater in Arlington. Wonder if that repeater is as dead (little to no traffic) as a majority of the p25 repeaters in the area. Really wish repeaterbook wouldn't list some of these tiny repeaters (1 mile coverage) for personal use. You know the hotspots with a high gain outside vertical. I feel it kinda misrepresents the actual digital coverage. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

I ask the boys when I have dinner with them next. 3/4 of them work with or are in the radio depots. But I know of no hacks for the mobile to open up the bands any more. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Agreed. I found the most traffic on 70cm yeasu c4fm, dmr and dstar. Rarely heard anything on 1.25m. Sadly, really wanted to, so I could look at those radios. Even with the popular digital modes not so many repeaters were set up for vhf. It was almost a 4-5 to 1 ratio of uhf to vhf. I looked into old motorola 33cm gear. But not many repeaters around here don't require either a 13cm or 23cm up/down link on rhe opposite side. Guess most of them were running icoms. Kinda frustrating. I thought of converting an old motorola flip phone for 900mhz.

So as expected, a 3/4 wave antenna just ain't cutting it. I tried out a Laird BB4503 (5/8 wave nmo). It out peforms the cut down signal stall in reception and transmitting everywhere (locations). This is stock and uncut. Originally, I was planning on cutting the signal stalk whip and putting it on the BB4503 after during some NanoVNA sweeps. I am not sure if I am going to be doing that with the new radio being installed soon. It all may be replaced with a STI flexi tri-band. If I decide to keep the BB4503 installed I will sweep the antenna and see if I have enough bandwidth without going over 2.0 SWR across 440-468 Mhz, At that point i will decide if I will buy a triplexer and install 2 more NMOs. So the decision has been made to put a tri-band in the location of where my 440-470 antennas are located. I wanted to keep it seperate but good god are quality triplexers for public service expensive. Not to mention it got harder to find ones where the band pass was wide enough to let ham bands through. The best one I could find was a Comtelco DB3 at about $192. Which was pretty wide banded. The STI-co which was another choice were 3x-4x the cost. The panorama ones averaged $160-300 were also pretty widebanded. I may try to utilize the signal stalk whips with the Tri-bander, kinda like I was going to with the 5/8. BTW, the 5/8 antenna is really stiff, we hit a parking garage support with the antenna and it sound like it was going to rip the back half of the roof off. Enough so my wife said we are bringing my car next time we come here.

Nice collection. So many dollars those Harris Prcs.. good god the prices that old Falcons still go for. Bragging rights,unfortunately in the group I spend time with goes to the APX 8.5k xe boys. Yes they own them as well as have ones that are issued.. But they are mostly FEMA or local FD. Wish I could justify nearly 5-6k for an APX, entitlements plus software and accessories. The XG100P is a nice radio, Fighting random reboots, but I think the battery might be done or has an internal short. I am going to be loaned another Harris Lithium battery and we shall see. The receive on the XG100P is actually pretty awesome, its better then the XTS500 I have. Even though the filters are pretty tight and the front end is no slouch on the XTS. I really like the radio and might actually end up replacing a bunch of hand helds. So much so I almost bit the bullet on an auction for one. But a buddy part of above said group. Coughed and said buy the XG100M(F) first while they are cheap. Welp... $440 dollars later and the XG100M is on its way with a CH721 head. Which means I will be ripping out my hacked XTL5000/05 that has been in the truck for less than a month. Would cost more to get the brick for the XTL5000 VHF hi-power. Really wish I could afford the CH100 head ($1900 still available new) touch screen and bluetooth would be awesome as well as a couple of the FPP features available. For those unfamiliar with the XG100M (F). It is a full spectrum mobile from Harris. It was designed for interoperability between agencies. So it has low band VHF which I don't think the APX mobile has, sure it is older then the APX mobile, but a lot cheaper then the APX XG100M VHF low band 30-50 MHz 9 miliwatts Some agencies around DC suburbs still use VHF low Shenandoah PD Maryland state on the western handle of MD couple of others It CAN NOT transmit on the ham bands Filters are to tight VHF High 136-174 Wide/narrow 5-50w UHF 380-520 MHz Wide/narrow 5-50w UHF 700-800 MHz 2-30 w 700 MHz 2-35 w 800 Mhz P25 Conv., Trunked, 12.5/20/25 kHz spacing Modulation Phase 1 TX: C4FM, RX: C4FM & WCQPSK Phase 2 TX: HCPM, RX: WCQPSK DVRS (digital vehicle repeater) available for 700/800 Mhz only

Bunch of little things. This radio was set to use system vs zones. Took me a bit to figure out I needed to create a conventional set first then I could add it the system. Bunch of little quirks like every piece of software. Like you can have banks. You don't program it like banka, then bank b. It just goes to channel #16 (bank a) #17 it's bank b. Not really sure why the gmrs frequencies were programmed into p25 conv frequency set and not to the conv freq set. I will have to ask the guru tonight at dinner. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

Programming now over bluetooth. Slow and tedious because I don't know the software. But it programs fine over bluetooth. So no need for the expensive cable, as long as blue tooth feature is enabled. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

So good news. As long as bluetooth is enabled on the radio it will pair fine with a computer. With two exceptions. Exception one the computer couldn't see the radio. A whole bunch of "unknown" showed up on the computer when scanning for bluetooth. Could be the computer. On the radio it saw the computer fine. So I paired from the radio, acknowledging from the computer. Done. Exception two, this is RPM 14. some of the pop-up dialog isn't scaled quite right. Cutting off some buttons. No biggie, worked in QA for years. Use to this kinda thing. Just hit "tab" till it looks like the left button is lit, then hit enter. That is if you have this problem.

What is often neglected is obstructions and elevation. If you are using a handheld it becomes even more critical. For instance, I can hit a repeater with a handheld everywhere in my house, but one spot, which coincides with a desk I use often. Turns out there is a building some 4 miles away that is inline with the repeater and the desk. Move over 2 feet and full signalling. First, see if you can listen to both the input and output of the repeater and see if there is traffic. Double check tones and frequencies. Triple check how far you are. If you know the general location of the repeater, get close and see if you can make it into the repeater. I usually try this when troubleshooting gets difficult to verify radio settings.

Most definitely. Too bad there aren't many options for APCO p25 in the amateur world. Mostly old commercial gear. Just depends on what you are doing and the quality level of gear you are willing to pay for.

Not at all. Since it's not my radio but "long/short term loan". Nothing really. My friend handed it to me with the hi gain antenna and lithium battery. Only thing so far would be a charger (about $80 with shipping for a used harris multi Chem from ebay). Maybe a programming cable ($100, used to about $400 new in bag). Software I am hunting for (probably about $750 if I need to order from harris). I have found new/old stock for about $1200 (no bat or charger) to about $1300 for a complete used set. You can find used ones without battery for about $600, normally $800. So if I'd go out and buy one I figure close to $2k. Still cheaper then an Apx. Do I like it more then the apx, no but it's 1/2 to a 1/3 of the cost. Big if would be finding one that was widebanded on uhf. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk