Hytera PD982i

[lrdchivalry]

Anyone have any experience with this radio or Hytera radio's in general? I am considering buying one and would welcome opinions.

 

Respectfully,

lrdchivalry

[gman1971]

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.

[lrdchivalry]

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.

 

Thanks for the reply. I have also been looking at the 7550e. It's my understanding that you have to pay motorola for updated firmware and CPS subscription, is this correct? What do you think of Kenwood radios, such as the NX-5300?

[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.

[lrdchivalry]

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.

 

Can you explain to me why I wouldn't want to go higher than 2.09 (I am assuming that is the firmware) or the newer CPS?

[wayoverthere]

and the cable is 20 bucks, on eBay (get the one made by a ham, I don't recall his name)

 

his username is bluemax49ers. Looks like he's on Amazon as well.

 

https://www.ebay.com/str/bluemax49ers

[gman1971]

Motorola ties CPS with firmware versions. Once you go up to a version, you cannot go back. CPS 2.0 has some usability concerns, some features that existed in CPS 16 were removed ( I think Bluetooth programming being one of them) The radios seem to dial home as well, there is a host of ransomware type of business model on the new CPS. So, if you go above 2.10 firmware, you don't have a choice but to use CPS 2.0.

 

My entire fleet of 25 XPR radios are on 2.09, no issues to date.

 

G.

[lrdchivalry]

Motorola ties CPS with firmware versions. Once you go up to a version, you cannot go back. CPS 2.0 has some usability concerns, some features that existed in CPS 16 were removed ( I think Bluetooth programming being one of them) The radios seem to dial home as well, there is a host of ransomware type of business model on the new CPS. So, if you go above 2.10 firmware, you don't have a choice but to use CPS 2.0.

 

My entire fleet of 25 XPR radios are on 2.09, no issues to date.

 

G

 

I am a total radio newb and my only limited experience in programming radios is my Tera radios and my HD1. Bluetooth programming would be cool. What do you mean dial home and the ransomware? If I were to get a 7550e and had to sign up with motorola to purchase a cps subscription, wouldn't I be stuck with the latest firmware and cps? Perhaps, I should look at other companies like Kenwood, Icom or Yaesu.

[gman1971]

MOL Subscription gives you 3 years free of upgrades and CPS upgrades, so you're not stuck with the firmware. Basically what I've been told is that the features on the radio expire, requiring regular activation fees. Plus the CPS is much buggier and slower than the older CPS 16. 

 

Yaesu is no more, it used to be Vertex Standard, but they are wholly owned by Motorola now, and the name was retired 2 years back... so, o more Vertex Standard...

 

ICOM and Kenwood make decent radios too, but most new LMR radio makers nowadays have some sort of subscription business model... so you're stuck with it. In the older Motorola CPS once you enable things they remain enabled until you perform a recover on the radio. Talker alias and a few other things on the newer firmware are neat, but TBH, I've never used them. I have all my radios preprogrammed with whatever I need to do, or talk and just leave it at that.

 

IMO I would just get an XPR 7550e with 2.09 from eBay, get the CPS from eBay as well and the cable. The XPR radios sound far better than the Kenwoods, most people I know who operate entire fleets of radios use Motorola gear, not Kenwood, nor ICOM. I detest Motorola business model, but I have to say whatever engineering they put on their radios pretty much sets the bar for LMR.. and if you really have some cash to burn, then I would get an APX7000 multiband portable... nothing else will touch that radio in terms of receiver performance...  but for most light duty LMR stuff, APX is absolutely overkill... and its just P25 only so...

 

If you don't need to have DMR, then there is the older Motorola XTS series, they are P25/FM, and these have pretty impressive specs as well. The XTS5000 is also a multiband VHF/UHF/700/800 mhz, with FKP... its a nice radio, just no color display... so if you want to have a fancy screen then perhaps that is not the radio you want.

 

G.

 

I am a total radio newb and my only limited experience in programming radios is my Tera radios and my HD1. Bluetooth programming would be cool. What do you mean dial home and the ransomware? If I were to get a 7550e and had to sign up with motorola to purchase a cps subscription, wouldn't I be stuck with the latest firmware and cps? Perhaps, I should look at other companies like Kenwood, Icom or Yaesu.

[lrdchivalry]

MOL Subscription gives you 3 years free of upgrades and CPS upgrades, so you're not stuck with the firmware. Basically what I've been told is that the features on the radio expire, requiring regular activation fees. Plus the CPS is much buggier and slower than the older CPS 16. 

 

Yaesu is no more, it used to be Vertex Standard, but they are wholly owned by Motorola now, and the name was retired 2 years back... so, o more Vertex Standard...

 

ICOM and Kenwood make decent radios too, but most new LMR radio makers nowadays have some sort of subscription business model... so you're stuck with it. In the older Motorola CPS once you enable things they remain enabled until you perform a recover on the radio. Talker alias and a few other things on the newer firmware are neat, but TBH, I've never used them. I have all my radios preprogrammed with whatever I need to do, or talk and just leave it at that.

 

IMO I would just get an XPR 7550e with 2.09 from eBay, get the CPS from eBay as well and the cable. The XPR radios sound far better than the Kenwoods, most people I know who operate entire fleets of radios use Motorola gear, not Kenwood, nor ICOM. I detest Motorola business model, but I have to say whatever engineering they put on their radios pretty much sets the bar for LMR.. and if you really have some cash to burn, then I would get an APX7000 multiband portable... nothing else will touch that radio in terms of receiver performance...  but for most light duty LMR stuff, APX is absolutely overkill... and its just P25 only so...

 

If you don't need to have DMR, then there is the older Motorola XTS series, they are P25/FM, and these have pretty impressive specs as well. The XTS5000 is also a multiband VHF/UHF/700/800 mhz, with FKP... its a nice radio, just no color display... so if you want to have a fancy screen then perhaps that is not the radio you want.

 

G.

 

Thanks for the info!