PACNWComms

I was able to play around with the CRFS RFeye nodes recently. Usually, another division of the company handles this, but I was out with former military units I was once a member of.....seeing how this can detect FRS/GMRS/MURS and potential use for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) detection (around airports in this case). Was fun putting GMRS radios into people's hands and having the system track their transmissions around an area. These were Motorola XPR6550 and XPR7550e handhelds. Attached is what a typical node looks like. We had three set up so the system could triangulate position. I then sent a "curveball" by transmitting from Motorola DTR410 Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) radios. I could sense them, get a rough bearing and distance, but could not "lock" onto them due to the frequency hopping aspect (902-928 MHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical [ISM] band). Anyone else use this system or something else for finding location of radio transmissions (APRS is common and also useful)?

As mentioned above, I hoard solder with lead as well...often found at garage sales. Coming back to the thread after a few days, dropping this meme picture.... I must admit though, I have burned myself and things around me over the years with a hot soldering iron. I have a co-worker from the oil industry that was a military veteran (like me) that still gives me a "demerit" for the burn mark in a plastic cart, where I let the soldering iron slip. That permanent melt mark was while soldering Motorola PR1500 handhelds that had broken antenna connectors ~ 2008 or so.

I have been pretty good at leaving a paper trail (or Internet trail), so the correct people know what I am up to......it does "out" the boot lickers though, often. If you just pay out the rope far enough, most people will not only pull the rope, but hang themselves with it. The ones that don't, I assist as much as possible......keep good people around you, and let the rest fall by the wayside.

Most of those components between the portions of the Chip Dragon picture are antenna connectors and channel pots for Motorola handheld radios.

Luckily, with the warranty period ending, and the fact that we have Chip Dragon (I miss labeled the picture as Air Dragon though) stations spread across the country, we can do this. In fact, Motorola XTS series radios as they age also have this problem.....but it only manifests after 10-15 years of use. And why we still use XTS series handhelds, we can repair them, they work well, and Battery Universe sells IS rated batteries for them, even though Motorola ended support and manufacture a few years back now. Soldering is a skill that I wish more "radio" technicians were taught. Now, it is IT types being handed a radio system, that in some cases do not even know how to change a car tire (if their car even comes with a spare now), let alone solder. Then, crappy solder that does not last, or flow well because it is hazardous....that gets to be a crazy situation for a large company and anyone that even tries to solder. I had an intern in a safety class mention that "soldering" should require a specific hazmat class and safety classes as you could get burned and contaminated with lead. I told my "leadership" that if they push too hard on that route, they may see some of the older techs leave...with no replacement. The youngest member of my team came from Icom America and is almost 40 now....and he can solder (but most often is working on Kenwood NX-51xx/53xx series radios, yes those fail too). Thank you for the reply.

Could be interesting, thank you for sharing......you know my attitude toward CCR's though Better late than never, and not amazed it has taken this long to reign in some of those products/manufacturers, some very "dirty" RF emitters in some cases. Doing some testing with several series of Motorola radios myself soon.....how they operate in GPS and radar compromised environments. Using my own XPR6550/XPR7550/e radios in GMRS band (have to use my personal license) - work does not even want to be tied to this project (unless it goes well, then the "brown nosers" will try to say they supported me all along - funny how that works), so doing while on "vacation". But it caught the eye of the Feds. Received their personal invite, as I also tested cameras, which helped result in the Hikvision ban. For CCR's I do own a lot of them, (purchased to evaluate) which confirms my use of: Motorola, Harris, Thales, and Icom radios instead. The Anytone 878 series is the only CCR I bring along these days to the field.

Yes, good test equipment will last a very long time. Still using an old Fluke 87 (no series III or white backlight here). Leaking LCD crystal around its display.....and believe it or not, a metrology tech put the main knob on in the wrong position, had to correct that myself. (My personal fluke ended up in the work pool as it looks like many others.....has happened with a Motorola XPR7550e radio as well). Black gasket broke, so electrical tape seals the gap in places.....but still accurate and great for use in dark corners of electrical cabinets or floor board of cars. Some co-workers bought the cheaper Kelin Tools multimeters, only to find they lacked a backlight. The old expensive Fluke 87 continues to do the job (suspect mine is 30 years old or so). By once, cry once. Get good gear.

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.

"Take a look at the Motorola XPR "e" series and the Vertex EVX radios if you want to see what a SDR chip coupled with good electronics and a little filtering can look like. Heck, even the older CDM mobiles had great analog receivers with some nice audio." Why I use CDM 1550LS+ (surplus from previous employer) and a XPR7550e for GMRS use now. Great radios that do what I need them to do. And will most likely last for years doing so. Better equipment, and paying attention to detail on coax and antenna means better signal quality, less power loss and more reliable use.

For local Search and Rescue, used FRS/GMRs often in the past (decade or so ago) as many state and national parks tried to popularize FRS Channel 1 for emergency use, but it seems to only be used by little kids asking "hello" now. Even some search and rescue helicopters were equipped with Garmin Rino series GPS/radios.....and a local park claimed that these had been used to find some lost hikers at some point, but possibly just a local anecdote. Unless Garmin's have improved (they have several generations of newer GPS/radios now), they seemed like a great idea but never saw them actually used much for emergency situations. Just good to have if you find yourself in a situation where location is known via GPS, and a radio signal might be heard.