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.

"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.

Yes, while the ones in the unit work, I did find several online vendors that have "tube kits" for the SX-24/25, not too bad of a price, ~$65 to replace all the tubes. Might buy a kit just to have when one finally goes. They do get hot, noticed to top hinged cover had some black scorch marks from the tubes that get the hottest.

Wife knows I can find something birthday wise in many larger thrift stores...so she encouraged it and we went for my last birthday to an area with a lot of them. Bought an old Hallicrafters SX-24 with matching speaker. Doesn't look like much but still works (most of my "gifts" were radios from several stores). Not going to hide my purchases, last was re-casing kits for some well used Motorola XPR-6550 handhelds (right after getting the SX-24 and some other older radios).

Have been fighting some sites buying these batteries, to include the Motorola APX/XPR knockoff through Grainger......and wondering why the chargers (Motorola IMPRES) and Cadex condition charging profiles do not work with them. either the batteries get very hot and charging stops, or they all have the same chip/serial number and fail the IMPRES charge/condition charge cycles. Have forced many to do what they should have in the first place, buy from reputable vendors (one's who at least refund you if they sold fakes, or ones that do not meet sales specs). mAh capacities seem to vary a lot, and you can feel it in weight in many cases.

However, my tastes also go the way of Kugellager above, I have a lot of Hallicrafters receivers as well. Most recent acquisition this past week. SX-24 with speaker. Needs to be cleaned up, but is fully functional. The "No!" on the speaker was next to a note card stating that you had to buy the radio before powering it on (I discretely plugged it in, with the volume to minimum and turned it on as the speaker was not connected - wanted to see if all the tubes worked at least).

What sits at my desk at work.....helps me keep tabs on the analog gear. Have several more Realistic/Radio Shack/GRE receivers around as well. Very useful for FRS/GMRS monitoring.

+1 on this. I have found many people that do not even seem to realize there is a difference, Japanese made Yaesu FT-8900 series radios, versus Chinese copy of that radio. Quality is very much an issue, and I have found many of these in state Emergency Operations Centers, often as spares or replacement for the original Yaesu. One person even told me that for the price, they expect them to fail and will replace them with another Chinese knockoff, as they can afford it. (Never mind the time to get another radio, supply chain, procurement, and so on adding to lost time as downtime).

Looks like some of the Subaru's I see around my area, lifted, brush guard, lots of extra lights, and "Overlander" stickers all over them. Then, they have a GMRS (usually a high priced Midland) radio installed. That Camry would be pulled over for the lack of fender's or mud flaps in my area, but it would be interesting to know what that owner was going for. (Hopefully it is not a 4 cylinder with those oversize tires though, and how is the braking)?