MT1500 Fire Service

[KDN]

With the assistance of a few people from my local county and fire deparments, we are putting in a large grant for new radio equipment. Being a huge HT1000 and MT2000 user and having a bunch of them in service, it seems that our best bet will be MT1500's 48 Channel with limited Display. Does anyone have these radios in use in the public safety field and what are you thoughts on them?

Thanks for the Help.....

[alex]

They are built the same way the XTS1500/XTS2500's are built. They are a first cousin of a XTS5000 radio. If you have the option, I suggest buying an XTS1500 instead of the MT1500. The reason being is although they are IDENTICAL on the inside, the MT has a limited upgrade path. For example, you can not upgrade a MT1500 to P25. While you may not have intentions of using that feature today, spending a little extra to get a radio that is at least upgradeable to more mainstream features would be a benefit tomorrow.

There's already been one instance on this forum where someone bought at bunch of MT's, and was then told by Motorola that they had to buy all new XTS"s because they needed one additional feature. If I can find the post, I'll update the thread with a link.

Good luck on your quest!

-Alex

[wavetar]

You are incorrect Alex, the MT1500 can be upgraded to P25, as per this thread:

http://batboard.batlabs.com/viewtopic.p ... 00+upgrade

You even posted the features it could get upgraded with...seems you've forgotten!

Todd

[alex]

You are incorrect Alex, the MT1500 can be upgraded to P25, as per this thread:

http://batboard.batlabs.com/viewtopic.p ... 00+upgrade

You even posted the features it could get upgraded with...seems you've forgotten!

Todd

Holy crap... talk about a good brain fart on my part!

The MT1500's are sold as 800mhz only, while physically capable of doing both 700 and 800 mhz. So you can not use a out of the box MT1500 on 700mhz.

If that's an issue for you, then buy the XTS1500, which is identical, just the software says "oh yeah, you can do 700 too!"

Thanks for the correction Todd... In the end, that might have been the thread I was trying to think of.

-Alex

[KDN]

Looking a little deeper into the past postings, it seems that the MT1500 does not decode MDC on the radio, a feature that would be benifical to incident commanders! It also seems with the XTS1500 you have 96 channels as compared to the MT1500 you only have 48. Does anyone have a price difference for the XTS1500 and MT1500???? What is a XTS1500 going for???

[escomm]

The XTS1500 is a great radio if you want to spend $1500 for a basic two-way radio and needlessly spend money on features that you don't need or won't ever use.

I don't see why fire service needs a display. I don't even see why you'd need more than 16 channels, other than on command vehicles and for brass. You certainly won't (or at least, shouldn't) be using P25 on the fireground.

You can get 2 1/2 PR860s for the cost of an XTS1500, and their warranty is twice as long. Motorola will soon be offering an extended warranty that covers physical and liquid damage on Professional Series radios, so any concerns about "inferior construction" are thrown out the door.

If you are insistent upon having a display, you can go with an HT1250 that has 128 channels and still get two for the cost of one XTS1500.

Also keep in mind you get to buy the charger for the MT1500 separately. It's not included in the purchase price. Same goes for every Astro radio.

Some food for thought.

[N4DES]

We have some of our beach based lifeguards equipped with the MT1500's and they are wearing very well even with all the salt water and air around them.
The others that are out there (LTS2000's and EJF 7780's) are nothing but headaches to maintain.

Mark

[Mfire39]

MT1500's decode MDC ID's just fine on the display..

-Marc

[RESCUEMAN433]

I just ordered 10 xts1500 vhf portables with the enhanced p25 conventional software, there was only like a $40.00 price increase on these from the mt1500's but we did purchase off of state contract. I think we gave around $1100.00 per radio.

-Adam