As one last reality check, I'll point out that software is both expensive
and tricky to obtain by an individual.. but not impossible. First off, M won't do business with you unless you have a Motorola Online (MOL) account, so to get one of those call up 1-800-422-4210, tell them what you're looking to do, and they'll walk you through the setup. All of the software licensing is handled there; none of this read-10-pages-sign-and-fax business you may have read about on the Batlabs main page or in older posts here. It takes about 2 weeks for them to process, but once you're set up you can buy pretty much any software package except PRO series (HT750/1250, etc..) CPS.
Once you've made up your mind to jump through the hoops and shell out the big $$, I'd recomment a Maxtrac or similar radio as a good beginner rig. Programming is pretty straightforward and the software won't hit you too terribly hard in the pocketbook. And for the most part, they all have HOT receivers. I had one on the service monitor the other day that broke squelch at .11mV. The favorite among most hams is the 40-watt 32-channel Maxtrac 300 for their expanded channel capacity and feature sets, so you can expect to pay upwards of $250 (ballpark range) for one of those. But don't discount the lower-powered 16, 8, and even 2-channel models; they're all good radios. The Radius Mobile (GM300, M120/208/216) series is built on identical architecture, so all of this applies to them as well.
Another good beginner rig is the M1225. The VHF models are spec'd for 150-174 MHz bandsplit, but will work down to 144 with no appreciable loss of receive sensitivity or transmit power. The 20-channel versions have 8-character alphanumeric displays and will scan EVERY channel in the radio (more on this later). They're fairly popular among volunteer agencies as personal radios, so you can also expect to pay around $250 ballpark for them as well.
If you've just gotta have a Spectra, great, go for it. They're not quite as sensitive as the Maxtracs, but you can get them in up to 110-watt versions. However, the software is a bit convoluted and confusing, and you're limited to scanning 16 of the 128 possible conventional channels MAX. In fact, as a rule, no Motorola radio will allow you to scan more than 16 channels, regardless of how many it will hold. This, IMO, is the greatest tradeoff between a Motorola rig and a consumer-grade ham radio or scanner. However, there are workarounds. If the Spectra you're looking at has a MLM software version greater than 6.15 (be sure to ask), you can program your channel list into zones and have a seperate scanlist for each zone. Additionally, each scanlist will hold any channel in the radio, so, for example, your Zone 3 scanlist can have channels from Zones 1 and 2 in it. However, you cannot scan each zone's scanlist sequentially. Once you're in a zone, you're limited to its scanlist. This rule also applies to the MCS2000 mobiles, as they are all zone-capable.
Hope this answers some of your questions. I've been a licensed ham for 4 years and have never owned an actual ham radio. In fact, if it weren't for Field Day I would've never even
talked on one.
[/motosnob]
