Radio upgrade

[WRWM850]

Pretty new to 2 way radio...Been rocken the Baofeng and I'm ready to step it up.

I'm leaning towards a commercial radio that I can use on gmrs frequencies leaning towards a motorola 5000 (and yes I know that is not a legal gmrs radio that's not what I'm asking)

I really value reliability  and and would like something multi purpose, one concern is that they are getting old, would it be a bad move to spend that much money an older radio?

I'm currently considering buying an xts 5000 military version uhf2 with battery and charger plus some programing for 400$ 

a couple others that a have considered are EF Johnson 5100 ant Anytone AT-D878UVII PLUS

 

Anyone have have any advice on this?

[gortex2]

That's way too much for that radio. Grab the XTS2500 for 1/4 of the price. Remember to add in the cost of software and programming cables of either one you get. The EFJ is a nice unit as well. 

[SteveShannon]

2 hours ago, WRWM850 said:

Pretty new to 2 way radio...Been rocken the Baofeng and I'm ready to step it up.

I'm leaning towards a commercial radio that I can use on gmrs frequencies leaning towards a motorola 5000 (and yes I know that is not a legal gmrs radio that's not what I'm asking)

I really value reliability  and and would like something multi purpose, one concern is that they are getting old, would it be a bad move to spend that much money an older radio?

I'm currently considering buying an xts 5000 military version uhf2 with battery and charger plus some programing for 400$ 

a couple others that a have considered are EF Johnson 5100 ant Anytone AT-D878UVII PLUS

 

Anyone have have any advice on this?

If you’re looking for a GMRS radio, I certainly wouldn’t even consider the Anytone 878.   I have the same basic radio with the Alinco nameplate.  It’s a fine DMR radio, but you really have to learn how to build codeplugs in order to get anything to appear as a channel for selection.  Most of the advanced features of the radio are useless in GMRS.  Why spend the extra money?

Here’s what’s involved:

For analog channels it’s a little easier than for digital.  You enter each channel by hand.  The radio isn’t capable of the 1/2 watt PEP requirement for some of the interstitial channels, so you cannot cover those channels, at least not in full compliance.

Then, after entering the channels, you must enter them into zones.  You can have one big zone or multiple zones. You could have a different zone for each different repeater or city or any other way you want to slice and dice.  Zones are a bit like memory banks and channels may be included in multiple zones.

The CPS has some inconsistencies as well, mostly poor English translations that appear in some spots.

In use, you use the up and down buttons to select the zone and then you use the rotary switch to select channels within the zone.

I have added both analog and digital channels from the front panel, but it’s not really intuitive, requiring you to be deep within the menu to do so.

Scanning is absolutely unintuitive.  You can create a scan group in the CPS, but when the radio asks you to select the group, and you do, you’re presented with a list of all the channels within the group.  You must also have added the channel to the scan group when you defined the channel. That’s the most frustrating part of the radio.

I suspect the same thing is true of both of the commercial radios you have listed; you must use the dedicated CPS before anything appears on the front panel to use.

If you’re trying to avoid Chinese GMRS radios, I really like the Garmin Rinos.  They’re made in Taiwan, rather than China, and they are well built.  Now, you cannot change the antenna because they transmit GPS coordinates. They can also be used to send text messages, to another Rino, but that’s not why I would buy the radio. They are type 95e certified.

Honestly, I would just recommend getting something like the Wouxun KG 805 or 905, or even the 935 or the new plus model. By all accounts they’re easy to use, very reliable, and don’t require a background in commercial radios to care and feed. The experience won’t sour you on radio.

If you still are interested in either the Motorola or EF Johnson you’ll find they are nearly bomb proof.  I don’t have either, but I understand the desire to have really high end equipment.  Others can advise you on other type 90 alternatives such as Kenwood TK-3270 etc.  

Good luck!

 

[hfd376]

The xts5000 is a great radio, with lots of useful accessories available. The downside being they are somewhat big and heavy, and a pretty conspicuous radio to carry around. 

[nokones]

The Motorola CPS Astro 25 programming software with the USB radio to computer programming cable will program the XTS1500, XTS2500, and XTS5000 radios and the software is Windows 11 compatible. The XTS3000 radios require the ASTRO Spectra software and only compatible with a Windows XP 32 bit operating system. The charger and audio accessories are compatible among all the XTS series and the Jedi HT1000, MT2000, and MTS2000 series radios. The XTS3000 and XTS5000 batteries are the same; but the XTS1500 and XTS2500 batteries will take a different battery than the XTS3000 and the XTS5000 radios.

The XTS1500 is a 48 channel radio; the Type 2 and 3 XTS2500 is a 255 channel; and the Type 2 and 3 XTS5000 is a 999 channel radio.

These radios are great and my opinion are the best to have as far as quality and reliability.

I paid $275 for a XTS5000 radio that was never used and essentially a brand new radio and $175-250 for a few refurbished radios. $400 is a tad on the high side to start out with and obtaining the software will be challenging. The programming cable appears to be somewhat available. Be careful with after-market cables.

Also, there is the learning curve in using the programming application insofar as the feature and other parameter settings especially when undoing the encryption and trunking settings along with knowing the difference between ASTRO and non-Astro in order to program the radio for analog conventional use. Once you get the hang of it, you'll enjoy it.

You'll be glad you did without any regrets

[Lscott]

6 hours ago, WRWM850 said:

Pretty new to 2 way radio...Been rocken the Baofeng and I'm ready to step it up.

I'm leaning towards a commercial radio that I can use on gmrs frequencies leaning towards a motorola 5000 (and yes I know that is not a legal gmrs radio that's not what I'm asking)

I really value reliability  and and would like something multi purpose, one concern is that they are getting old, would it be a bad move to spend that much money an older radio?

I'm currently considering buying an xts 5000 military version uhf2 with battery and charger plus some programing for 400$ 

a couple others that a have considered are EF Johnson 5100 ant Anytone AT-D878UVII PLUS

 

Anyone have have any advice on this?

Have you considered some less expensive radios than the above? There are other analog only commercial radios that will take a beating and keep working. Myself I carry a Kenwood TK-3170. You can can find them for very reasonable prices used and it has Part 95 certification too.

http://www.swscomm.com/kenwood/TK-2170_3170.pdf

There is also a version with trunking, TK-3173, which you won't use on GMRS, but programs the same as the 3170 and uses the same cables and software.

http://www.swscomm.com/kenwood/TK-3173.pdf

[muggz]

The alleged difficulty of working with Motorola to gain access to the CPS is what has prevented me from picking one up.  I have an Anytone D878UVII Plus (I dabble with DMR) and it works fine on GMRS frequencies.  My codeplug has a zone (channel group) and scan list for GMRS.  This radio offers a ton of features that you can explore over time.

[WRWM850]

Thank for all the great information everyone! I decided to work my way up to something more commercial/digital capable later on;

For now I just ordered a bundle deal of Motorola uhf radios (5) cp200s with batteries, lapel mikes, program cable, software, chargers, extra batteries ect for 213$ seems like a good deal, hopefully these turn out to be good started radios, and something I can feel better about than my uv5r (not it doesn't have a place) I just really enjoy and appreciate using quality made equipment so hopeful these are... I don't know much about them.

[WRWM850]

On 3/17/2023 at 7:42 AM, muggz said:

The alleged difficulty of working with Motorola to gain access to the CPS is what has prevented me from picking one up.  I have an Anytone D878UVII Plus (I dabble with DMR) and it works fine on GMRS frequencies.  My codeplug has a zone (channel group) and scan list for GMRS.  This radio offers a ton of features that you can explore over time.

yeah that radio looked like a really good bang for your buck and I've heard some good thing about it. I am pretty new to radio and very intrigued by DMR: how do you like using the dmr so far?

[WRWM850]

On 3/17/2023 at 5:16 AM, nokones said:

The Motorola CPS Astro 25 programming software with the USB radio to computer programming cable will program the XTS1500, XTS2500, and XTS5000 radios and the software is Windows 11 compatible. The XTS3000 radios require the ASTRO Spectra software and only compatible with a Windows XP 32 bit operating system. The charger and audio accessories are compatible among all the XTS series and the Jedi HT1000, MT2000, and MTS2000 series radios. The XTS3000 and XTS5000 batteries are the same; but the XTS1500 and XTS2500 batteries will take a different battery than the XTS3000 and the XTS5000 radios.

The XTS1500 is a 48 channel radio; the Type 2 and 3 XTS2500 is a 255 channel; and the Type 2 and 3 XTS5000 is a 999 channel radio.

These radios are great and my opinion are the best to have as far as quality and reliability.

I paid $275 for a XTS5000 radio that was never used and essentially a brand new radio and $175-250 for a few refurbished radios. $400 is a tad on the high side to start out with and obtaining the software will be challenging. The programming cable appears to be somewhat available. Be careful with after-market cables.

Also, there is the learning curve in using the programming application insofar as the feature and other parameter settings especially when undoing the encryption and trunking settings along with knowing the difference between ASTRO and non-Astro in order to program the radio for analog conventional use. Once you get the hang of it, you'll enjoy it.

You'll be glad you did without any regrets

I've been scouting ebay for a few weeks and the prices are really going up, like they are  being discovered by a new generation of people that want be prepared and have something reliable.

I went with something cheaper and more simple for now (Motorola cp200) but I am going to keep my eye out for a good deal on a 5000 or a 2500

 

on the 5000 and the 2500 are you stuck with the frequency rang you buy or can you program then tp transmit on any frequency?

 

[WRWM850]

On 3/17/2023 at 3:28 AM, hfd376 said:

The xts5000 is a great radio, with lots of useful accessories available. The downside being they are somewhat big and heavy, and a pretty conspicuous radio to carry around. 

that makes me lean toward the 2500 

[WRWM850]

thanks for the information, durability is a very big factor for me ill check out the  Kenwood TK-3270

[gortex2]

4 hours ago, WRWM850 said:

on the 5000 and the 2500 are you stuck with the frequency rang you buy or can you program then tp transmit on any frequency?

 

No. The majority of LMR gear including the CP200's you bought are on one split/band and that's it. To be honest thats one of the good things is the radio is designed to work in XYZ area vs a CCR that is so wideband. If you plan to play with ham and get your ham ticket look for R1 radios from motorola. A R2 will not work on ham but will work in GMRS. 

[hfd376]

5 hours ago, WRWM850 said:

that makes me lean toward the 2500 

You do save some weight with the 2500, but the overall form factor is very close. They use most of the same accessories, including chargers. 

You'll want to see H18QDH9PW7AN as the model number, it indicates the RF band of the radio, in this case 380-470 MHz or range 1. A model number of H18SDH9PW7AN indicates the RF band is 450-520 MHz, or range 2. Range 1 can be programmed for the amateur radio 440 MHz band as well.

Make sure the radio is front panel programmable (FPP) or you'll need to find the software or someone to program it for you. 

[muggz]

9 hours ago, WRWM850 said:

yeah that radio looked like a really good bang for your buck and I've heard some good thing about it. I am pretty new to radio and very intrigued by DMR: how do you like using the dmr so far?

DMR is fun - I enjoy learning and there's a lot to learn.  I have a hotspot, which also has provided lots of learning potential.  I've explored a local DMR network called PNWDigital, as well as the Brandmeister and TGIF networks.  Lots of opportunity to socialize.  The Anytone is a very solid radio both physically and its capabilities.

There's more social chitchat on GMRS around me, though.  For me ham is for learning and GMRS is for chatting.