Surplus radios

[HenryJ]

The narrowband mandate is coming! I help out with radios for my fire department as well as the "full time job". I have close to thirty VHF mobile radios and probably a dozen HT portables that will no longer be useable for the fire service or for government communications. All are VHF radios and have been programmed to 153-154 mhz frequencies. All should be 136-174 mhz capable? Most of these are not capable of narrowbanding.

I really hate to trash all these radios. Any of you amateur radio operators that might be interested in some radios? Might make a good APRS box, packet radio, or even a limited use as a 2m vehicle rig.

Any ideas?

 

[gary in ohio]

All are VHF radios and have been programmed to 153-154 mhz frequencies. All should be 136-174 mhz capable?

DONT assume that you can get them into the ham bands. Many commercial radio are pretty tight on specs. Also many commercial radio comes in 2 or 3 different VHF bands. Two issues you will run into, one is programming them out of band, the second issue is getting them to operate outside of band. Motorola radio out of the box cant be programmed into the ham bands as a general statement. Yes you can modify software and get new code plugs that will accept ham freq, but now you need to get the RF working on the new bands. YOU might need to replace filters or caps and they all will need retuning. Kenwood software will often allow ham bands input and many dont require retuning for acceptable use, but for optimal use they will need to be tuned. Icom and Vertex/Yaesu are hit and miss as to usable in the ham bands. Bendix often is speced for 136-174 out of the box and are a great choice.

Do keep in mind that ham's and Public saftey/commercial radio use there radios differently. If your staying on repeaters you most likley will not see any differances. If your gong to go simplex, note no ps/comm radio have variable squelches. Its either on off.. Also scan may not work the way you want it to... Kenwood tk-840 UHF radio is oddball scann, instead of scanning channels its scans banks and whatever was the last channel used on that bank is scanned.

As a dedicated or purpose radio they work will, but there are limitations. Another issue is power. Ham are suppose to use the minimal amount of power to complete the contact, now granted few lower there power for simplex contacts, but legally they should. Most commercial gear gives you no switchable power options on mobiles. HT sometimes. Mobile power options are often get a different model radio, low power 25 watts or another high power model at 100watts.

 

[HenryJ]

They will not "out of band". I believe that would be illegal. You would need to operate them between 132-174 mhz.
You are right that we can not assume they will "Ham band", but thus far I have yet to find one that will not. These are all "older" models. Some of it is "junk" even though it still works. It will just not narrowband or program easily. There is lots of good information out there on using radios like these. Eham is one resource. Someone handy with building cables might find these a goldmine.
Four of the Relms are working for a local amateur. He has simplex and repeater channels in service and working great.
Ten of the Midland LMR radios are serving as packet radios and mobile bases for a couple amateur clubs that assist SAR teams. One advantage with these is that they will transmit in the emergency frequencies whereas some amateur radios will not without modification. Some of these will narrowband, but it was not cost effective to keep a few of them in the fleet. All the Midland LMR were narrowband capable as a SAR team in Vermont found when they arrived.

All but a few of the Motorola radios have front panel adjustable squelch.
Most are 25W / 50W a few are straight 40W. The bases and a couple mobiles are indeed only 100W.
At least half a dozen of the mobiles are 34+ channel radios. Many of them are limited to 4 or less though. The HT portables range from 2-16 channels depending upon the model.

I am thinking about using a couple of the HT as "toss in" APRS units and maybe use one of the mobiles as a gateway receiver.

If anyone is interested they can PM me an email address and I'll pass along the list of models I have compiled.

The sad part of this is that you can buy a new Wouxon HT for under $100 with cables to program it. Why would you waste $100 buying cables and software to program an old radio with an old battery?
The advantages of a new mobile rig may greatly out weight the hassle of dealing with these old mobiles.

I'd like to find a good home for these and have done so for some of them so far. I just hate waste and like to see stuff put to good use.

 

[GlennA]

you might Just be prepared to almost give them away. good luck

 

[HenryJ]

you might Just be prepared to almost give them away. good luck

I am already there. These are not for sale or I would have posted in the classifieds.
They are lost souls needing homes. Well, either that or "wheel chocks" :Wow1:

 

[GlennA]

Just finding a place to dispose of them is nearly impossible arond here.

Wheel chocks for all!

 

[DaveInDenver]

I'd take surplus Motorola radios if they're free but don't usually pay for them. Motorola doesn't exactly give away the software and so a new type costs the owner a couple hundred for a license. It's too bad because the radios can almost always be modified to work on ham bands (often there's no need for hardware mods, other times they just need a few new caps and/or inductors values) and are built like tanks.

 

[AxeAngel]

Id be interested in a handheld.

 

[Martinjmpr]

If you can't find a buyer, how about donating them to a local SAR (Search and Rescue) patrol, volunteer fire department, or similar organization? Not sure how difficult/expensive it would be to program them for the appropriate frequencies but it might save them money they could use on other things. Just a thought.

 

[s@ndm@n]

We operate our race radios on Commercial radios. We'd love to have spares (either HT or mounted) if they still need homes... FCC licensed for several 151 and 152 range.

 

[HenryJ]

We operate our race radios on Commercial radios. We'd love to have spares (either HT or mounted) if they still need homes... FCC licensed for several 151 and 152 range.

FCC is requiring all radios operating in these bands to be narrow band by the end of next year. These are old enough that they will not likely transmit 12.5
That is the reason they are being replaced.
I do not know what other countries are doing in their commercial bands.
Drop me a PM with your email. Look over the list and see if there are any that might fit into your needs. If you can get them programmed cost effectively, they would serve you well. If you intend to transmit 151-152 mhz wideband in the US with them after Jan 1 2013, they will do you no good.
Amateur bands can still operate wideband. That is where I have been hoping these might be useful.

Now, that being said, some of these may indeed narrowband. Those we have found to not be in our best interests to keep as it was not cost effective to have them in the fleet or we had battery life issues. The fire department has gone to the HT1250, all the rest have been taken out of service. Some on the list may be narrowbanded to work just fine.

 

[s@ndm@n]

Gotcha. Just read up on the NB/WB thing... I really had no idea as our radios are already apparently NB. (Vertex and Yaesu)

Thanks for the info! Guess it wouldnt do me much good in a few months.

 

[HenryJ]

This is a site with narrowband information: http://www.fcc.gov/pshs/public-safety-spectrum/narrowbanding.html

This is a very good document:

http://www.imsasafety.org/PDFs/Narrowbanding V2 R2.pdf

This is a very simple document put together by the International Association of fire Chiefs. Every one should read it.

If you have not already narrowbanded your license, you need to do that now so you don't lose it and your frequencies. That amendment to your license is under $100 and can be done at any time. After that is in order you can narrowband at any time as long as your equipment is done before the deadline.
I have not been able to get a concrete answer on what the penalties will be for wideband transmissions after the deadline, but I'm told it will be significant enough that you should have narrowbanded!

Lots of people with heads in the sand still. The fire service in the state of Oregon has been frustrating to say the least. next year is going to be a real mess with the rush to go narrowband. I hope to be done earlier rather than later.

 

[Borrego60]

What type of handhelds are they and what type of mobile radios? I do have some software it just depends on the radios. Please Pm me with models.

 

[Fish]

What about taking the mics off and just using them as scanners? The NB/WB thing wouldn't matter much until there were interstitial freqs in use.