gman1971

Still thinking about selling the 7550? What model is it? and what EIDs do you have on it? G.

You figure...? Respectfully, that kind of statement denotes some lack of understanding about what support is. First off, HRO sells what makes them money, not what is necessarily good (or bad). There is a trend nowadays to buy cheap garbage coming from China like its something special... and I know that very well, I bought a lot of it... and unfortunately for me, now I can't seem to be able to get rid of most it b/c its just worthless... or how much do you think a used BF-888s would go for? 3 dollars? 2 dollars? when they are like 8 dollars new... so... you work the math. Best of all? back when I purchased my BF-888s, several years ago, they were like 39 bucks a pop... I didn't thought the were that bad too. How can one get better support from a company that doesn't even have a single schematic available?, (which also seem to have screwed the business owner at www.wouxun.com) AFAIK there are no (known) service manuals, or procedures to repair these turds, or even how to align them it ever needs alignment? If the thing breaks you're basically SOL. Been there, done that with the CCRs... ... first comes the sledge, then into the garbage bin, where it really belongs. All my XPR and EVX radios were purchased from eBay, some were pristine, some had a few scratches, few have letter engravings, others required some cleaning , even one required wetsanding and rubbing compound to make screen brand new, again... even with those scratches, nicks, engravings etc, these used XPR radios demolished every other radio I own, including the EVX radios, on ISOTEE tests and on real world performance. To date I haven't had a single issue with any of those used commercial radios, neither EVX nor XPRs, and one of them EVX-539 fell off the rooftop of my house into the concrete patio... radio still works to this day. But you know what is the best of all? That a couple months or so ago I didn't know a darn thing about Motorola radios. So, I just started downloading from MOL, and other places, the XPR radio service manuals to read them. Yes, Motorola has service manuals for all their radios, including the old ones... talk about support! There is a plethora of support for old Motorola radios, improvements, mods, you just don't know it. A mint used XPR6550 (w/charger and battery) might only be 150 bucks average on eBay today, perhaps cheaper if you looked elsewhere, but you forget the fact that an XPR6550 was a top of the line 1000 dollar radio back when it was new 10+ years ago. The Wouxun, new, is just an 80 dollar CCR bottom of the barrel crap radio... In 10 years, the Wouxun will probably be in some landfill, whereas most Motorola XPR7550e that are in circulation today will still be in circulation in 10, or even 20 years, b/c those radios just work, and very well while at it. A broken, non operational, XPR7550e is worth more than your Wouxun new... that should hint you about how good these radios actually are. So, why do they sell a broken XPR7550e for 250 bucks? well, b/c someone skilled can easily fix them, thanks to the plethora of service manuals, and replacement parts you can buy from Motorola... and you really believe there is no support...?? So, to conclude: What does the extra 920 dollars gets you over an 80 dollar Wouxun, Baofeng, TYT, CCR et. all? What about a 35dBm better effective sensitivity over an XPR6550? Yes, a 35 dBm difference in effective sensitivity is quite a statement, which in real world translates more or less to the CCR unable to hear past 1/2 a mile a 4W UHF portable in most terrain types, except flat, and the XPR6550 will keep on working at well over 2 miles out, ground to ground, on 4W UHF, in hilly suburban environment... other than that, the Wouxun is great. G.

Thank you!

As it has been stated, you can find a lot of the older Motorola CPS on the net if you look around hard enough, but If you have a MOL account (not to be confused with a paid CPS subscription) then you can find a lot of the old software, firmware, all for free (including getting a MOL account, free), on their site. That applies for all Vertex Standard EVX and older gear as well. In the subject of getting a MOL account: Its not as bad as its been claimed to be, sure you can face a worst case SOL scenario, but chances are you won't. I went in scared shiatless... and I waited and waited, ... but after a couple of email exchanges, and a couple of weeks wait I got it.... and I am a just regular guy... The advise I was given, that I will share here is: don't BS on the forms. Don't use email names like "motorolahacking@somewhere.uncom" or "motorolasucks@hackers.org" etc. etc. Be very professional and courteous with the reps who email asking for information, I'll reiterate always use abundant courtesy but be very precise when addressing their requests too. Don't need to write a save the kittens diatribe... Also, don't think/assume they are there to get you, they are not. Always consider that the guy writing on the other side of the email probably (and likely) had the worst day of his life due to dealing with a dozen of other very angry customers... etc... so unloading on the guy is never a winning strategy, he just works there, and b/c of that he can also deny your MOL request. And yes, it wasn't ideal for me to have wait for 2 weeks to get my new toy programmed, but the benefits of having access to MOL and their online store, among other things is great. I get accessories and antennas directly shipped from MOL to my house in ~48 (sorry, not days) hours. Free shipping, free access to all the software from the legal repository... etc. There are things I can't get that needs a Motorola dealer, but those are mostly specialty stuff. EDIT: Motorola counterfeit stuff is beyond rampant on eBay and 2nd market places like it, and especially so for quality portable antennas, so having the MOL account solves the problem altogether. G.

Well, what radios did you get, and which radios did these CCRs replace? What is your use case scenario? Comparing CCRs to ham gear, based on factual ISOTEE measurements, isn't saying much. On average, the ham radio equipment I've measured is vastly inferior to their LMR commercial/military counterparts. The front end filtering in most ham gear is just lacking, or non existent (like in CCRs). Even radios considered good, like the TM-V71a mobile, or the TH-F6a portable (both of which I own, and multiple of, btw) those just don't hold a candle to even the old XPR4550 mobiles, or the XPR6550 portables... regardless of band. Sure the TH-F6a is a phenomenal radio b/c it does things nearly no other radio can... but when reliable reception inside Best Buy is needed, only quality LMR gear is up to the task of receiving due to the presence of a better front end. And then, there are radios, like my XPR550e, which are so far ahead of those ham radios portables/mobiles that I don't own measuring equipment good enough to determine how good these XPR555e actually are. I can measure/align pretty much every other radio I own, ... not the latest XPR Gen2+ radios. As for quality... what do you mean by quality? define quality... as in how is put together? Who cares how its put together if the radio can't hear its way out of a paper bag... the case for most CCR rubbish. Which brings me to the question: if you were shown two radios and told you could only have one, which one will you choose, between a scratched up, dirty XPR7550e, which is producing intelligible audio, or a pristine Wouxun that is silent, both tuned to the same frequency.... which one would you chose? It is a no brainer for me... Quality of a radio should be measured in quality of the receiver, above all else, otherwise, just buy a phone. You can do more with a cheap phone than with a CCR... There are many analogies to the CCRs, night vision scopes being another one... but that is a topic for another forum... even though light amplification is a form of electromagnetic amplification, just not in the radio spectrum... G.

Well...totally, the argument about a CCR being your first or 2nd radio, be it a BF-888s, an UV-5R, or a GT-3 like I stated with... its totally valid. Nobody is arguing that, not even me. I started with CCRs, but you calling me a brand snob is simply not true. I've ISOTEE tested every radio I own, and not just a "can you hear me now test", I've performed ISOTEE testing, which dispels any doubt about receiver quality. On a spectrum analyzers you can see those CCRs tell the story about RF spurious garbage all over the place, which can, and will damage your expensive electronics, like monitors, or TVs if you are unlucky enough to hit the PTT near any of them... and yes, its happened to me... The problem with CCRs is that most beginners, after getting a taste of what repeaters can do they immediately jump to the conclusion that the more expensive CCRs, with screens and million contacts, et all. will better, when that is simply NOT TRUE. I'll reiterate, I started with CCRs, and I still own more CCRs than I care to admit... which for the most I just can't get rid of them b/c I would have to sell them at such a loss that even shipping would make the profit nearly zero or negative for most of those.... I guess I am now a "2nd hand" Motorola / Vertex Standard brand snob... b/c buying a 2nd hand XPR6550 for 70 bucks in mint condition, with its charging cradle, with an IMPRES battery that is basically new, and a windported genuine Motorola shoulder microphone is just so much more expensive than buying a 100 dollar Wouxun PIECE OF GARBAGE. Your POS Wouxun is worth 40 bucks on the used market, that is if anyone wants to touch it with a 10-foot pole... my XPR6550 can probably be sold for about 150 bucks, and still the person who gets it will think he, or she, came ahead, and so did I. In the end, you can do whatever you want, you can call me, and others, brand snobs or whatever else you want until you turn up of any particular color, of your liking, but that is not going to make your CRRs perform any better than any of my (2nd hand, used) XPR7550e I own now. The fallacy of, I don't have enough funds... is just that, a pure BS fallacy, an excuse to be cheap... I was a cheap, and I bought more than twice.... It is of my observation that people these days seem to have plenty of money to do things wrong, many times, but not enough money to do things right, just once. With that said, and to conclude, if I could do this all over again, knowing what I know now, I would've just listened to these people who were telling me exactly what I am telling in this thread. "Go with brands like Motorola, Kenwood..." nah... I thought I knew better too... I'll knock CCRs any day of the week, they suck, and I'll admit I made a big mistake buying them in large quantities. Thinking I knew better than the people who warned me... "buy something better... buy something better".... I laughed, telling them the same thing, that I shouldn't knock them... what I didn't know is they were laughing, about me wasting my money, but I just didn't know it. G.

Motorola has my vote. And this is a much better alternative to that CCR garbage, (well, at 80+ its not so Cheap after all, just same amount of garbage) . The S24 uses Rodina Lite, which is the same receiver design found in their top tier XPR7550 models... while not as good, still leaps and bounds better than the finest garbage Wouxun can make... https://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorola-EVX-S24-PORTABLE-2-WAY-RADIO-403-470-MHz-UHF-3-WATT-256-CHANNELS-BLACK/383746208130?epid=28034596558&hash=item59590e7182:g:Al4AAOSwpYhfdPdw ...and I am sure you can negotiate a slightly better price too... If you want something far more capable, you can find XPR6550s for just a little more. The XPR6550 uses a double conversion superhet and superior filtering on the front end... https://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorola-XPR-6550-UHF-Portable/293784700438?hash=item4466eec616:g:1jUAAOSw3rFfa1ZY My personal preference goes to the XPR6550, I have a few of those and they are far better than any CCR I've ever tested, and sadly... I own a ton of those garbage CCRs... G.

The same thing happens with the MD5, it gets overloaded in RF crowded sites, thus sensitivity suffers... but nowhere near as bad as the TYTs... those may desense up to 50 dB based on ISOTEE measurements I've performed. Yes, DMR is not allowed on GMRS, but it is in the 70cm ham band and commercial LMR frequencies. G.

Sounds like it. G.

Well, doing radio aficionado (ham) stuff is a very different use than what I do with my radios. Most ham repeaters will reach 40-50 miles, easily, to even to the lowest of the lowest end, like a Baofeng UV3R without breaking a sweat. But you can't communicate with your kids, your wife over ham repeaters, unless of course, all were licensed ham operators. Even then, starting personal conversation with your kids over the ham bands will piss a lot of operators... asking you why are you using ham radio to talk to your family, blah blah. I also have to concede that Motorola radios, in stock form, don't lend themselves to ham stuff very well at all... not unless you have FPP... which is not available in the US region radios. Again, I don't use my radios to chat about QRZ or whatever it is the hams on the air like to chat that day. So, we've established that its all great when there is an infrastructure already in place (as in, repeaters) for these cheap crap radios to work, giving you the false feeling that the XPR7550e is just as good... I made that mistake. Unfortunately, tho, when you are trying to run your own *cough cough* "private" setup that has a range measured in tens of miles, rather than tenths of a mile, you are left with nothing but buying high quality gear, which includes quality infrastructure, quality cables, quality connectors, quality filters and quality radios. Otherwise, the range just won't be there, especially if you don't live in a "prime location", and I know very well b/c I've tried to build my own setup on the cheap before. I've sunk far too much money on CCRs, including CCR mobiles, CCR portables and cheap cables, like LMR400, you name it... if I don't have it somewhere on my parts bin, chances are I've probably had it at some point. I've wasted enough money to admit I totally wasted my money on CCRs. Moral of the story is don't waste yours, buy a high performance radio. While I am now a devoted Moto snob, I am more than willing to concede that Kenwood/Icom make very fine LMR radios too, just not what I prefer. There is a reason why these radios cost a lot more, when new... but you can find those, used, for a lot cheaper... there is no need to buy a CCR. All the radios (except the 868) you mentioned in your post are all TYT radios, all use the same crap receiver, or... when a cow takes the worst poop of the year, which produces a very nasty smell... now increase that smell by 100 dB, and now you have a TYT radio... Yep, I am not exaggerating, and there is no error in my dB number either. I've had, and still own far too many of those TYTs... same applies to Retevis... which are just TYT knockoffs/copies/imitators, holy cow, a knockoff of a piece of crap? Special mention needs to go for the HD-1, which aside from being just as bad as the GD77, in terms of RF performance, as it desenses just as bad, its just a giant piece of crap, a very big one while at it. For the money wasted on that HD-1 you can find a mint condition XPR6550 UHF with charging craddle and programming cable. These CCRs are so cheap to make, that the sellers/resellers/manufacturers are willing to give it to you for free after you write a review about how bad they are in Amazon reviews. They will ask you what you want just to change your review for one more favorable... and this has happened to me on several TYT/Radioddity radios purchased there. These CCR manufactures/resellers will buy their way to your pocket, trying to bribe guys like me who likes to compulsively buy radios and write 100% honest reviews... into giving them good reviews. I don't like sugar coating things. These Anytones, Wouxuns, Baofengs, Xiang, Kayung, Shityang.. whatever fancy "Chinglish" name they came up with... its a piece of garbage. These radios probably cost 1 dollar to make, if not less... again, its your money, and some people don't have a lot to begin with, so make it count, buy a quality radio, make every dollar count. I can tell you, an XPR7550e is a big investment, but you can recoup your investment if you sell it back on eBay... once you buy an HD-1 or a GD77 nobody will touch that piece of crap, not even with a 10 foot pole... so you're stuck with it, unless you dump it at a huge loss... Again, don't be fooled by 500mil contacts, fancy screens (which aint that fancy after you actually own an SL7550e), dual band, tri band, quad band, giga band... all that jazz... I was... its cool to have eight bands and gazillion contacts with a color display... but reality is that when you use the radios like I do, as a personal 99.75% reliable comm device, the fancy screens and million contacts don't mean squat if the radio can't hear its way out of a paper bag. Certainly embarrassing when you're inside a store, shopping around and you reach for your shoulder mic to radio home, asking what brand of whatever is it they want me to buy... and then nothing... crickets.. Turns out they did hear me fine at home, loud and clear, as in "full quieting" good, but it was the POS CCR radio I was carrying that was unable to hear the call back while inside the store's RF mess... How do I know? B/c I was "that guy" taking to a radio without response.... Yup, that is exactly what will happen when you take those CCRs inside a place like Best Buy, Home Depot, Menards... they desense so bad, like its going out of style... utter garbage. As for the 868, the Alinco MD5 (similar to the 868) I used to carry, which coincidentally broke after a 4 feet drop on asphalt (very disappointed, btw) easily outperformed the two 878s I had. I don't know exactly why b/c they were supposed to be similar radios... but the MD5 did edge the two 878s, maybe better tuned... don't know. As for the fall, my previous EVX-539 radio fell from the roof of my house, smashed onto the concrete patio, I thought it was done... but alas.. radio was fine, not even a scratch, and still works to this day. Alignment wasn't required after the fall either. Don't try that with an 868. I haven't dropped any of my 6550/7550e yet, knock on wood, but I am sure those will be quite as hardy as well... Hope your 868 never drops on concrete, b/c it will be like playing chicken with a dump truck... Also, if your 868 ever gets submerged... it might experience some "leakage" problems. Based on my experiences, the 868 is certainly not the radio I would ever want to be caught with should a SHTF situation arise... Point is, while the 868 isn't a totally utter garbage radio, it still no match for the XPR7550e receiver. I still have two Alinco MD5s, both boxed, both up for grabs, if anyone should become interested, that is if after me telling you how bad they really are you still want them and not an XPR7550e.. .... Point is, the XPR7550e demolished the MD5, no matter how much I changed the alignment settings, the fact remains that the XPR7550e produced clear voice when the MD5 did not produce anything... and that, ladies and gentleman, that is all it matters to me in a radio, that it just works. G.

Well, "Generally better than Baofeng" isn't saying much... really. What is the use, and whats the price point you're talking?

Lscott is absolutely right. Nice radio that lil Kenwood, BTW... Steer clear of the Wouxun, Baofeng, et. all... CCR trash, I failed to believe this for far too long... and I had to buy twice... (actually, more than twice, b/c I kept buying CCRs wishfully thinking the next one would be better... big mistake.) G.

Lscott is right: MURS channels are 151.82, 151.88, 151,94, 154.57, 154.6 Mhz.

Totally, the difference is night and day. And those XPR7550e are not really that expensive when you consider what you get out of those... range measured in miles rather than tenths of a inch, kinda the most important one... G.

The main difference is in the receiver. Quoting from memory here: "...the 7550 uses Rodina v2.1 receiver and the 7550e uses a newer Rodina v2.2 receiver. From what I've gathered after talking with people who do this for a living, the e model has a ~4 dBm advantage over the non e model. For a few extra bucks, the e model is the way to go. The e model also has WiFi if you want to program them via WiFi... I haven't crossed that bridge yet, but both my 5550e and my 7550e have WiFi disabled, even though they connect just fine to my home WiFi... G.

LiFePo is probably a better route than LiPo... and yes, the extra cost, IMO, clearly outweighs not having a working base/repeater if the whole power grid goes down for a few weeks, or... when you or others might need it the most... which can happen... tell that to some people in Puerto Rico. G.

Sucks to hear it died from a 4 feet fall... I am sorry. G.

Thank you!!! I'll try toothpaste then... but it really doesn't bother me at all. The radio works great, its not a phone where I need to read the screen for emails, etc. Awesome... I've done that for several sub 100 dollar beat up XPR6550s... a heatgun works great for removing the deep scratches from the body... kinda like car upholstery... you have to use a small nozzle tho... don't just bake the whole radio or it will melt into a blob haha.. G.

Yes, don't swap antennas around, I have a few of those so all radios never had the antenna changed. I'll see if I can get the EVX ATU-16D... and repeat the test. I would expect the other LMR radios to be a bit better... the XPR7550e was amazing tho... I just didn't believe I was having a perfect simplex talk with home 1.89 miles away when none of the other radios could actually hear a thing. Yeah, I don't buy anything antenna from eBay anymore. I now use MOL directly, so I know the antennas I am getting are as genuine as they can be... with certificate of testing, etc.. Counterfeit crap you always pay for it... Thanks! G.

I guess this was the culmination of what started with just a couple of Baofengs UV-5R back in 2013ish... So, couple of days ago I finally bit the bullet and got my first XPR7550e, been eyeing those for a long time, form factor and performance, I've even programmed a couple for a friend, but never really tested them.... But now this one is mine... my own, my precious.... hahaha, and I just cannot even begin to describe how amazing this radio is. I ran every possible test I could think of, high RF noise, no antenna, ... everything short of an ISOTEE test (since the 7550e doesn't have an SMA connector)... and the 7550e beat every other commercial grade radio I own by an ample margin. Including EVX-539 portables, XPR6550s... and it utterly humiliated the garbage China radios... it demolished all those CCRS even harder than the EVX/6550 did... We did a 1 watt range test, on foot, one XPR6550 at home, ground floor, and the XPR7550e, along with a few other radios on us. Remember, terrain around here is very hilly, not flat, this is Madison WI, where you won't find a flat piece of land anywhere... So, we walked exactly 1.89 miles distance on 1 watt, ground to ground, before the XPR7550e was the only radio left standing, the only one able communicate with the 6550 at home. Measured RSSI Signal strength on the 7550e screen was -118 dBm @ 1.89 miles. Considering this radio would still produce audible (and intelligible) digital audio all the way down to ~ -129 dBm, I think it still had, at least, 1/4 mile of range left on it... The XPR7550e was using the PMAE4070A antenna, and all other radios used PMAE4048A antennas, except for the GD77 which used a Vertex Standard UHF antenna since it uses the sticking out SMA (female)... At that distance, 1.89 miles, even my best-tuned EVX-539 portable, with a really good Motorola GMRS antenna PMAE4048A, the RX light was just blinking but no audio could be heard. The XPR6550 was about the same as the EVX-539... the light would blink, but no audio heard either. All those LMR radios stopped communicating at about the same distance, or around the 1.5 miles mark, and at 1.6 miles the digital robotic/breakup made voice communication 100% unintelligible on all those. We also tested the following China radios on DMR: Alinco MD5 (made by AnyTone) Baofeng BF-1801Radioddity GD-77 Retevis RT-52 The Alinco MD5 was the best of the pack, it performed similar to the EVX-539/6550, and also used the same PMAE4048A antenna, but at 1.89 miles the light would simply randomly blink and no audio could be heard. Then the BF-1801, the GD-77 and the RT-52... all those stopped receiving audio completely at about .5 miles from the house, that's right, these cheap pieces of utter crap weren't able to communicate with a Motorola XPR6550 after just 0.6 miles... and you wonder why you don't have any range with these CCRs?... I think its time to stop wasting money, start saving up for a 2nd hand XPR7550e, just like I did... mine is used, it has a couple of small scratches on the screen... but those scratches on the screen certainly didn't stop it from demolishing the "mint condition" RT-52 and all these pieces of China garbage... Yes, I know, you need the CPS, you need a cable, heck, you need to actually invest some money to field a XPR7550e... I know, I know it quite well, b/c I also started with x2 Baoturd UV-5R CCR radios... but looking in retrospect I should've gone directly with an XPR7550e, I can safely say that it would've saved me a lot of money, a lot of sleepless nights trying to figure out why my radio range was measured in tenths of an inch rather that in tens of miles.... G.

Go here, https://www.ve2dbe.com/rmonline_s.asp, open an account, put the coordinates of your land, radio power, frequency, antenna height, etc... and it will give you a fairly accurate radio coverage map. Personally, I would go with Motorola Maxtracs for UHF GMRS repeater. G.

My main base repeater is connected to a large LiPo battery bank, mated to a 100W solar panel on the roof. Without the solar panel the pack is large enough to run the repeater idle for ~3 weeks, 24/7, that is assuming the sun doesn't go dark... otherwise that solar panel gives it unlimited runtime. G.

If the cable is exposed there is a good chance its done b/c once air gets inside of LMR400 the rusted braid will act as a giant noise PIM generator when rubbing the shield foil. I would just replace the cable with something new, silver plated N connectors at the very least. Heck, I would just use that as an excuse to ditch the LMR400 and go with a FSJ4-50B Heliax feedline... best move I ever made, btw. G.

Not sure what to make about connecting radios to solar power, wind, nuclear fusion, or other things... My suggestion, and thus possible solution, was clear: A couple of Motorola Maxtracs, a ~100 dollar notchplexer, and a 30 feet FSJ4-50B heliax feedline mated to a 1/4 wave UHF antenna, I stated that length of cable b/c I assumed, perhaps incorrectly, this was going to be a rooftop installation on the farm. FSJ4-50B can be had for dirt cheap off eBay... and when heliax is so inexpensive, I cannot think of any good reason to use any other kind of cable for a repeater. If you go down the path of bad habits, correcting them once you've amassed a large quantity of equipment becomes very expensive. RG-214 is great for short patch cables, I use that and RG400 exclusively on all my setups... but not for feedline. The suggestion of heliax had nothing to do with perfection, but It has to do with doing things right from the beginning. Sure, you can patch things together with a couple of 8 dollar 888S Baofengs, a 24 dollar Baofeng repeater controller, using x2 large 100 feet runs of RG-58, each one soldered to a a coat hangers cut to sort of UHF length, zip tied to a nail at each end of the farm's rooftop, ... and that will sort of "work" too... but it doesn't mean it was done right. G.

Sure, but I would like to point out that there is just too much loss for any decent long run of RG-214 at UHF... IMO its just not worth it, not when you consider that I got a 25 feet Heliax FSJ4-50B, factory made cable, with tags and sweep print, trimetal N-male connectors on both ends, for about 30 bucks off eBay. Also, worth mentioning that the FSJ4-50B is not the same as the LDF4-50A "Mighty Anaconda" Heliax cable. The FJS4 is still corrugated copper, heliax, but about the thickness of LMR400, which makes it much more manageable than the LDF4-50A Anaconda cable, and superior to the low performing LMR400, it has a considerably lower PIM, with trimetal N male ends which will last a lifetime... IMO doesn't get any better than that for UHF. G.