Many years ago, commercial gear was about it, too. Indeed, they are about the only game in town. Surplus commercial is a very viable choice if you are interested in 902 MHz., and there are groups out there dedicated to converting those rigs. Still, if I had a buddy who was set up to program them, I'd probably acquire lots of them and dedicate them to various tasks. I've used some of their newer base station radios (don't know the model) on Part 90 commercial stuff, and wasn't impressed, however - several of these rigs crapped out on us during the event we were supporting. But you end up with a radio that's generally very high quality - particularly some of the older M gear. He has the local M shop program it, and rarely makes changes because it ain't cheap. I do know one ham who uses all Motorola gear. This web site is mostly for repeater info, but they have a lot of info on a wide variety of commercial radio gear. Our ARES group now has 8 nice 8-channel mobiles with all the area ARES repeaters and 146.52 programmed in them. Not long ago, an area radio club acquired a boatload of retired Johnson mobiles and came up with the cables and software to program them. EF Johnson radios are plentiful, as are Kenwood commercial radios, and those from the other big Japanese makers. That might be the cheaper, less painful way to do it, in the long run.īe aware that Motorola is not the only game in town, either. If you find a nice radio, you would like to use on the ham bands, you can always take it to a Motorola Service shop and have them program it for around $35-50. But they keep upgrading the software, and you really have to keep on top of that, especially if you are programming factory fresh radios. Thankfully, the newer stuff I work with has radio programming cables that plug into the USB connection. If a radio was programmed previously, with a newer version of software, you may be SOL when you try and use your older version. Don't ask online for anyone to send you a copy, they won't. You might find old software discs at a hamfest. Software for older, obsolete radios is no longer available. The older radios need a computer with a serial port, plus a "Radio Interface Box", radio specific cable, and the software. I've been employed in the two way radio business in one form or another, since 1985, working with Motorola gear.
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