PACNWComms

Yes, these (all 177 of them) were Malaysia built Motorola Trbo XPR7550e radios. The Trbo series is also often made in Mexico as well.

Yes! It is not just one device, it might be thousands, or an entire shift of production "products" impacted. I had to warn a dozen sites across the United States of this, 177 Motorola XPR7550e radios that were in the same batch and appear to have the same problem. I am used to Motorola and battery issues, but actual radios......this is getting ridiculous. A decade ago, out of 100 Motorola radios, there might be one bad one in the batch. Now, it might be 5-6 radios, or in this case ....all 177 bought in a specific batch. I wonder how many others out there are impacted by this specific production "batch" of radios?

Something to watch out for as well.....not limited to mass production radios, but other devices/accessories.

Well, it seems that my Motorola XPR7550e also has cold solder joints (in fact 177 radios all from the same batch) near the top of the board. Dreaded issue with many series of radios, with wave soldering being used in production, the top of the board (where the antenna, channel selector, and volume/on/off knob are located) gets the cooler solder joints that fail over time. Or, as I put it.....Motorola Planned Obsolescence. Often times, Motorola (and other brands/model) radios end up in auction sites as they have intermittent issues related to their antenna connectors, power and volume settings (radios get bumped "Off" when the potentiometer begins to fail), or channel select issues when worn on the belt and the knobs are rubbed. This can often be cold solder joints from manufacture. This is not limited to Motorola (I have seen this with Kenwood as well 5100/5300 series handhelds). The fix is to re-solder the connections if the pots or antenna connector is just loose, to replacement of potentiometers if volume/on/off or channel select is too loose. 3D printing also came in handy as shields can also prevent torque on the top knobs and antenna connection, preventing wear on the circuit board connections that may be prone to poor soldering during manufacture. As for Motorola XPR7550e radios, Motorola has repaired them under warranty, or via flat-rate repair if out of warranty.....but will only support them for another three more years (the model was discontinued and replaced by the Motorola R7 series radio), you often get five years of production and five additional years of support. For those buying second hand, buyer beware, or use for negotiation of price. Anyone else experience this with their radios (any manufacture), if so, what was the fix?

I recall seeing a variant of this radio when I first saw "Jaws".

Work had me get rid of a bunch of old Motorola HT220's, various versions (some with PL capability, some with more than one channel), all pretty beat up, but kept a few for pictures....this type of use.

Better than a radar detector in my area of the country

Good movie..."I heard it on that radio there" as Wild Bill Kelso shoots it in the gas station, and his plane starts down the road.

Before it was batteries with serial number "500000AE928E" used for XPR3x/7x and APX900/4000 series Motorola radios. Batteries could have different branding and markings, but were always serial number "500000AE928E". Now, it appears that they may have changed the serial number to "693651350574". Picture shows "Elxjar" as brand name and then the same serial number for all of the batteries. (Some advertisers may be lazy and cut and paste pictures too, so be sure to check your actual batteries for the same serial number). Check your "Motorola" batteries, and make sure you do not have many with the same serial number.

Use one that looks very similar, but might need that "Farsometer 2000" label for mine

Monitoring analog UHF near my work right now. Always busy on UHF, and a lot of DTR series Motorola radios in use on default TalkGroups as well (they were sold to many on the local river to get away from the UHF users that proliferate the area). Lots of vessel crews, barge workers, construction and flaggers on DTR, and those that did not get that memo, still using cheap UHF blister pack radios.

Have been using SDR's for a long while now, as well as software defined military radios. Wat made me break into the amateur side was finding out that Icom was supplying the first few "black box" receivers for the Predator (RQ-1, surveillance only, no Hellfire missiles back then) fleet. The civilian versions of the PCR-1000 had some issues, like being able to be opened up like those purchased for military/export use. Now, like others have mentioned, I monitor my own networks with SDR receivers, and the HackRF is better than the cheaper USB versions, but it is so easy to just carry along a small USB/antenna and listen to what is nearby. For portability, I used a re-purposed Hinge Health Amazon Fire tablet and SDR# with USB dongle. For the money, great combination and makes the tablet useful again. My newest "scanner" would be a Uniden BCT-15X (possibly a handheld Uniden floating around somewhere), as the SDR USB sticks are on every older computer now, doing something at some point.

My employer has a "Spectrum Management" organization, while I fall under the "hardware" side of the equation. I have had to specify this 2017 aspect to them so many times it has led me to send them to some of your videos for layman's term version of FCC legalese. We use everything from Motorola TalkAbout series GMRS, to APX8000/8500 radios.....and where the specific model meets the needs and legality of the area they will be used (nationwide). So many people do not understand that things changed in 2017.

Ok, that is pretty funny. Although, in my case I would probably have some three letter agency come at me even for that. I work in a unique clique. Still, may have to buy some of those.