900 mhz mobile radio availability

[WSFL333]

I've looked online and checked HRO, Giga parts, DX Engineering,  looking for an affordable mobile 900 mhz ham radio without results ( I know there is the Icom IC - 905; not in my budget) . Perhaps that band has dropped in popularity so that no one manufactures them anymore. Is the used market my only option?

thanks

 

[SteveShannon]

13 minutes ago, WSFL333 said:

I've looked online and checked HRO, Giga parts, DX Engineering,  looking for an affordable mobile 900 mhz ham radio without results ( I know there is the Icom IC - 905; not in my budget) . Perhaps that band has dropped in popularity so that no one manufactures them anymore. Is the used market my only option?

thanks

 

Have you seen this website?

https://www.qsl.net/kb9mwr/projects/900mhz/plan.html

[kidphc]

I was going to install a 900 in my truck.

What stopped me? Another brick for one band. A band that is being over taken by SCADA equipment, that alsi has one repeater locally, with very little usage and is kinda far for me. With an SDR I was shocked at the noise floor locally on 900 MHz.

You may want to look at old public safety gear. For example here is a XTL2500 BRICK 900. You will still need the head, mic, speaker, cables, programming cable, cps etc. Although not difficult, if you have very little big "M" experience you could fall down a rabbit hole of learning.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/135159923563?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=iZAsytqvQCq&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=a03yk-vsq9o&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

A cheaper option might be to try using or having some program a Motorla GTX in 900. They are going to have other issues, for example battery might be dead. But hell they pop-up on Fleabay for $50.

LSCOTT, might now what to look for in the older Kenwood 900 mobiles.



Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

[Socalgmrs]

Umm.  First why? Second when even the retivis is $1600 that may tell you something.  
 

you can get old used Motorolas starting at $100ish but your gonna have to learn the programming, get the cable and cps and depending on age get an old 32bit computer.  

[Lscott]

29 minutes ago, kidphc said:

LSCOTT, might now what to look for in the older Kenwood 900 mobiles.

I wish I did. I only have a couple of Motorola XPR-6580's for 900MHz and just got a used Kenwood NX-411. Both are hand held radios that do maybe 2.5 to 3 watts on the band. Neither one takes direct programming of frequencies in the Ham 33cm band without doing some hex editing of the programming software for the Motorola or the code plug for the Kenwood. I published a manual how-to for the NX-411 on another group. A fellow Ham there is writing a custom utility to automate the code plug hex editing based on what I discovered how Kenwood encrypts the code plug contents.

https://groups.io/g/AR902MHz/topic/hex_editing_kenwood_dat_files/108936914

The main issue with a 900MHz mobile radio is the significantly higher losses in the coax cable. You think it's bad on GMRS/Ham 70cm, wait till you see the numbers at 902/927 MHz. For example if I used the typical 17 feet of RG-58, usual for mobile antenna installs, I would see a 41 percent power loss at 902 MHz. My 2.5 watt HT would get 1.46 watts to the antenna.

[nokones]

11 hours ago, Socalgmrs said:

Umm.  First why? Second when even the retivis is $1600 that may tell you something.  
 

you can get old used Motorolas starting at $100ish but your gonna have to learn the programming, get the cable and cps and depending on age get an old 32bit computer.  

Essentially, with Windows 32-bit Operating Systemyou are dealing with the vintage Jedi Series radios like the MTS or MTX radio and the 900 Meg operating band range will not go down that far to the Amateur Radio Service 33 cm band unless you know how to hex edit the CPS. 

You might be better off looking at the XTS2500 900 MHz or XTL2500 900 Meg radios.  The portables will run you about $175 - 250 and the mobiles will run you about $400-550. The CPS is easy to learn and use and with this CPS you will need a 64-bit Windows Operating System.

[WRUI365]

There is the Motorola XPR route like the XPR7580 which is 800/900 mhz analog and dmr

[tweiss3]

I went the XTS/XTL2500 route, and then found out they took down all the 900 repeaters, one guy had 5 in the area and let the tower lease lapse due to lack of use.