gman1971

To answer your question: yes. If you want the latest and greatest firmware you have to pay for a 3 year subscription. BUT... You don't want to go above 2.09 on Motorola XPR radios unless you don't have a choice. Most radios sold on eBay come with firmware 2.09, so you don't have to. The legacy CPS 16 can also be found on eBay for dirt cheap, and the cable is 20 bucks, on eBay (get the one made by a ham, I don't recall his name) I don't know much first hand about the Kenwood NX series, but from someone I trust he told me the radios have poor audio compared to the XPR7550e radios. He uses XPR radios for their own private setup... what someone uses sometimes tells you more than what they actually say. Also, my educated guess is that the XPR 7550e also havebetter receivers too... and while you don't have an SMA... I am on my 15th XPR7550e already, and I don't miss the SMA even the slightest. These bolt XPR7550 antennas test on the analyzer way better than most SMA garbage I've tried to date... which to me is nice, its almost impossible to get a garbage antenna for the XPR7550e, and they are cheap, 9 bucks from Motorola online directly shipped to my house. The stubby (3.5inch) green base antenna frequency center right at the center of the GMRS frequencies, or at around 464 Mhz. G.

+1 to 6550 +1 to anything Kenwood. Avoid garbage CCRs, if possible. G.

I would get an XPR 7550e, they have better receivers, and much better audio. Also, Hytera stole tech from Motorola... they got sued and they lost, they owe Motorola a lot of money due to lawsuit, AFAIK. G.

happy new year to all. G.

Fellow Motorolian citizen being a good Samaritan! Nice!! Upvoted!

Front end? what front end? Lets not forget those things put out all kinds spurious RF noise all over the spectrum too... so you are screwing everyone over as well.. .but who cares... when the CCR range is only 1/4 mile all you need is that cheap 50W CCR PA, and crank that sucker all the way up like a boss,... lets boost those spurious dB even further, all that just to extend the range to a whopping 2 miles simplex... So, you don't mind the interference?, but what about others? so, what happens when your CCR spews all kinds of RF noise all over the band? That doesn't matter? There are some of us who care and spend a lot of money trying to avoid interference to others... G.

Nice location! G.

If you need any help, please, don't hesitate in asking. G.

hahaha.... man, you're hilarious, OP. I think you shouldn't limit such delightfully entitled attitude of yours to just GMRS, after all why stop there, right? I've heard cops have radio systems with statewide coverage, yeah, and guess what: you're paying for those systems with your taxes!!, therefore you are totally entitled to use these frequencies too... yeah!! absolutely... crank that CCR PA to 100W and kerchunk that P25 statewide like a boss with some "Breaker Breaker, 10-4 10-4, roger copy that, out..." or if CB aint ya'r thing then some "CQ CQ, calling all buddies in this frequency, roger roger india sierra uniform charile kilo alpha bravo..." haha.... G.

Yep, I agree.... and it seems like the laws are put forth to accomplish this, too... a race to the bottom of the barrel... just instill fear to make people buy CCRs, really... but, I am just sitting back and enjoying the show, from high above, that is, from my Super-Snob Class Motorolian XPR battlecruiser ... G.

Correct. Unless you need to be on latest, 2.09 and CPS 16 build 828 work very well. G.

Man, that is the land of CCRs right there...

wayoverthere and WRAK968 pretty much nailed it. Shame RAS cannot be used on FM sometimes...

From the Batwing cave... G.

2nd hand Motorola XPR4550.

<checks out>

Not in the budget? no way!! G.

The moment you have pay, you might as well do it right: Get for your own LMR and run AES256 and RAS... doesn't get more secure and private than that. G.

Yes, the radios can be programmed via BT and WiFi, but you need the cable to set them up at first. With the newer CPS 2.0 I don't think you can use BT to program the radios. Same thing here, acceptable risk. G.

Well. I understand the need for UV, I was there, I thought I needed many bands too, so I bought several Kenwood TH-F6a... with the fastest scan on a portable (at the time), all bands, all modes, etc... based on advice just like yours, that I needed all these things... but what I didn't know at the time was that all I really wanted/needed was one (1) lowly darn channel that worked, from anywhere within 20 miles of the base... without requiring using other people's infrastructure, ie everything else that wasn't my own hardware. Since I've already afforded all of them, and in large quantities, from the BF-888s to the 400+ AT-578UV, and none of those worked as well as the "lowly" single band UHF 6550, I can safely claim that if you're interested in reliable comms then CCRs are not the droids, err, the radios you're looking for; and by reliable comms I mean simplex beyond 2 miles (sometimes more than 1/4 mile is historic for those things), that is. My BF-888s could hit repeaters 25 miles out... but anything tested with commercial GMRS repeaters is doomed to succeed... So, let me ask this question again: What radio would you have in your belt if something goes down? the one radio that can talk from DC to daylight, 1 gazillion contacts, the fanciest AMOLED screen on Earth, sixty hundred ringtones... etc, but you are unable to pick any signal, or a scratched up XPR6350 with just 32 channels, no display, no nothing, that actually picks up the signals when you might need them the most? I think its clear which radio we want to use. Same analogy for a phone, nobody buys a phone with no coverage, no matter how many apps, memory, CPU, etc, it might had. The main purpose of a phone is to communicate, and if it can do other things then that's great, but when you buy a phone you expect it to work everywhere... and then, if it can run Call Of Duty Warzone at 4k 120fps, awesome... but in that order. G.

For very high up places you're better off with a low gain, or unity if the altitude difference is too big. G.

Yes, but I quoted the entire deleted post. So you can read it there.

The original post is quoted on post #31 G.

IronArcher. Well, what can I tell you. I guess I am way past that phase of tinkering with cheap radios, only to realize I couldn't achieve what my original goal was: I wanted my radios to be like my phone, so if the phone ever goes out, the radio still works. Most people here can relate to that; I think that is the dream most beginners have when they start. At first you think its easily achievable, b/c your UV5R is able to kerchunk Ham repeaters at 50 miles away.... so you're even more convinced that your CCR range should be at least 35 miles, easy!!... so you quickly go and buy $199 50W CCRs, some China RG-58 (more like unshielded 26AWG copper plated aluminum), with all CCR chrome plated connectors, and when you crank that CCR mobile to 50W, hoping to talk to the ISS on the other side of the planet, you quickly realize that the range is < 2 miles, at best! And now you'are several hundred dollars in the hole, with nothing to show for. You set your expectations to reach Ham VHF repeater level of performance using the lowest quality gear, which btw, its neatly wrapped in the nicest package form, sugarcoated with the lowest price tag to make it palatable eating the poo... so after the disappointing results, you think that perhaps you haven't spent enough money, so fall into the you need more antenna gain... and you need to invest in more power too, a PA, or a more expensive CCR with fancier features, b/c you know, seeing the channel number is going to add some extra 10 miles to the CCR range... and 1 million contacts? that is another 15 miles, at least!!... so off you go, getting more 50W mobiles, throw some PA, pump 200W, melt a few things,... yet range still <3 miles, at best. so, after you've spent a thousand or so dollars, and at this most people just call it quits. Not realizing that the repeater you can hit from 50 miles away has an 8 bay folded dipole, running 7/8 heliax, with a 1000 dollar cavity duplexer and a 500 dollar preselector, with a 500 dollar old Motorola repeater... on a 500 foot tower that costs an arm and a leg to rent every month... Scanning was cool, but CCRs are dog slow at scanning, not sure why the CCRs are even used as scanners. Personally, I only need to monitor a few frequencies, so my XPR radios have a few scan lists setup for that. with EMS fire, Hospital, etc. "The range curse cannot be destroyed by any CCR craft that we here possess, only with a Motorolian blade can it be unmade." G.