Batboard

Have you heard anything about the new portables ?
I heard they are going to be shown to the dealers on November 1st.

Can you be a little more specific? There a lot of "new radios" out there.

PR400 portables and PM400 mobile models. 16, 32, 64 channels.
CM200 and CM300 mobiles. 4 or 32 channels.

pieces of crap... a slight step above the cp200 stuff....

i am not impressed.

seems like M is becoming a whore again. so much for them trying to eliminate the radius line.... sadly, this keeps their dealers from selling their higher end stuff... why would you buy it if you can get almost the same thing for cheaper...

my 2 cents....

-werdnuts

http://www.lincolncreative.com/MotoPhot ... 00_tn.html

[OK - I tried to make it so the image showed up, it didn't work. Tried to make it a link, didn't work, so copy and paste the url -- Alex ]

a few questions...does it have 16 pin accy connector to make a repeater like other radius mobiles? Whats that plastic feel like?? Thin, soft and flexible like HT750 or SM 50 or harder, thick, denser like ht1000 or maxtrac (does it FEEL tough). Maybe it's a little too early for some of these questions since it looks like they just took the brochure pictures, but some of you seem to have some pretty tight /\/\ connections so anythings possible. Speaking of anything possible, does anybody notice the striking resembelence to the MC Micro or other EURO stuff or is it me? Oh yeah I guess that rumor was true about radius being sold off to a Irish company for manufacturing, because I see it's looks like a moto Euro market and the irish peeps have probably had something to do with the Euro Market gear for some time. I called Motorola yesterday to get my Accompli fixed and the guy told me the paging Headquarters that I used to live near in Boynton Beach FLA. Shut down and moved to Ireland, I thought it just shut down, not closed to do a little less work elsewhere...I guess the Large subsciber based paging networks are gone and maybe they consolidated the onsite radio and onsite private paging divisions since the voice/tone pagers are really just a half a cheap radio (keynote/minitor III and not getting any better by the looks of it) and are usually sold to the same markets. Who knows its a strange coincedence to me though. Oh yeah...if you know anything about "C" or "C++" programming and you haven't offered your help yet (because I know some of you guys do know how to edit code)...don't say I didn't ask you to help out one of these days.

At least you can turn them on and off instead of this annoying delayed push on/off button that the CDM model suffer from.

Nand.

They look like an updated version of the GM300.. and the one with some alpha display text...

By the way.. the picture for everyone to see... in case you are too lazy to click a link.

not that anybody would to be too lazy to see how motorola just made a cheap-o radio for the bazillionth time...its not that exciting anymore when they introduce new stuff, I actually dread it because it's like watching somebody kill themselves....I remember the days of the real radios. Then FRS and spirits came in and it somehow found its way to influence the work radios. Has anyone seen some of the radios on the business in government section? It looks like half the handhelds are black spray painted talkabouts. I hadvn't been working in radio (but would like to be again if somebody could teach or help me with that software) or on the website for awhile and boy did my stomach almost turn. Looks like they have sold their souls to the devil and are trying to just get radios into the hands of everybody....it's like supposedly high end DVD players for $129, don't sell it as Higher performance or in this case high performance for commercial use )i.e. built to be reliable if itis a toy. Will somebody please step up and take control of two way radio, it seems to have lost it's course

Can't speak for the new mobiles as I haven't seen one in person yet, but my take on the CP200 is that it is a tough, rugged radio. The case is stiff, the chassis has no flex to it, and there have been as yet no goofy firmware of software glitches. They just go out and work, to me they are a better radio than the P1225, and a good successor to the GP300. Been out on the market for months now, and aside from some water dunks or physical damage, have seen no component failures yet.

Anyone else with real-world experience with the CP line care to weigh in?

Thanks,
Tony

Dude, the CP200 had a firmware/software issue out of the box the first month of production. it's fixed now, but still goes to show M doesnt care anymore. The theory since the start of the waris line is 'get the product to market, let the customer find the problems, and we'll fix 'em as we go.'

very different from the old school M stuff....

just my thoughts.

werdnuts

Well, I don't know which firmware issue you're talking about, could you elaborate? I know of two SRN's, SRN-1412 dealt with programming problems due to power interruption, and SRN-1416 was a serial number range issue.

Before we all jump on Motorola's case regarding new radios with problems, let's not forget that every radio they came out with in the last 10 or more years has gone though some sort of growing pains. I will concede that the statement is true about letting the customer (and the service shops) work out the problems, but is this really a new thing? Not really. It took several years to sort out Jedi fail code and codeplug corruption problems. And they are still putting out SRN's on it.

Bottom line is, I have seen two radios out of several hundred come across the bench for anything. And to me, that's not a bad start.

my point is simple and M wont deny it. Rather than spending more time and $$$ on testing and working out all the bugs prior to sending a product to market, they are getting close, then sending the product to production, allowing the customers to find the 'bugs', and subsequently fixing them with 'firmware upgrades'. M wont deny this. it is just how they have dicided to do business. they are trying to reduce overhead and keep profits up during these difficult times. my point is, M built a name for itself by making the most reliable/dependable radios on the market. by adopting this new philosophy, they sacrifice one of their major selling points. what is the firmware for the pro series radios now... 5.4 or somthing? this is just proof of my point. sadly, they are going to lose out on one of the great selling points / product traits that M products 'were' known for.

i am sure many of the die hard M fans will agree with me. i am not trying t stir the pot. i am merely pointing out a change in business practice that has been acknowledged by M, the industry, and the customers as a whole. this among other business practices that have or are being changed, is directly affecting the brand equity of the Motorola name.

it is sad for those of us who still love M products, but foresee a downfall in the future.

-werdnuts

Hello.

/\/\, like evarybody else, needs to compete to stay alive.
Plectron built products that are around to this day, but, where is plectron?
Ask the average cell-phone user, what do they want, a sturdy 'phone, or a new, sleek and stylish model, every year.
You can build a radio to meet strict military requirements, universal power source, waterproof to 10 foot, etc, but, would anybody but the military buy it?
I use the thales radio when in the elements, but the kenwood TH-F6/6 a/e when in a social setting, military radios are not well accepted in polite company.
So. /\/\ is doing what /\/\'s gotta do.

Hopefully Motorola doesn't make the mistake GE / ericsson made back in the early 90'.

They had either a VERY LOW tier line with the monogram (maxon) products or could sell you the top of the line M-PA for 3 thousand. Nothing in between during those middle years. Motorola needs to have low mid and high tier product lines to satisfy the various types of customers.

Although I do agree even so called lo-tier stuff from the old days of motorola was way better quality than it is now.

Although does anyone remember what a dog the MOSTAR is?

Hello.

Remember /\/\s super-cheap, entry line radios?
Before radius, /\/\ had some radios built like CBs, but on business band.
The radius line was the answer to the cheap imports, and expensive sales staff.
Radius was an experiment, gone right! as it was to set the stage for dealer sales of the product line.

How about the SSE5000 .... perhaps an NYPD special by /\/\
....Anyone have any info, specs, etc.?

I hope everybody realizes that Motorola doesn't make the radios anymore. They are made in Asia, probably Tiawan, definitly Pacific rim. After the boondoggle our Fire Department had with the CDM line, and having to deal with Motorola who could not answer simple questions about our problem radios, until they spoke to the engineers in Asia. Motorola should not be called an American product. Also BTW I doubt that our Fire Department will ever buy another Motorla product again. We now prefer Vertex, far more features and 1/2 the cost, and just as durable. One of LT's dropped a VX-180 in a portable water tank filled with, what I called swamp water, didn't find it for about 10 min, just opened it up washed it out, blow dry it, and it works just fine!

We have had very good luck with the CP200's. The P1225 is a piece of crap and had numerous firmware issues. The SP50 is like the P1225 and is WAY over priced. So far our customers like the CP200's and we have not had any issues from them! I don't know where you are getting your information from but I'm impressed with the CP200.