15 years ago I was handed a UHF MT1000 that covered 438-470 in one range. It was a big upgrade from an HT220. It had GMRS, business, public safety and amateur channels in it. No crystals or reeds required.
You can pick up the same 99 channel radio today, on ebay, for under $75. The 16 channel ones go for less. The high band 146-172 model stretches down to 144 very nicely. The low band 42-50 covers Red Cross channels at 47mhz and 6m ham very nicely. Sorry, you can't listen to the California Highway Patrol on 42mhz very well. I'd call that kind of performance per dollar spent very ham friendly. In fact, I have a total of 5 MT100s to my name. BTW until I can pick up SDH series Jedis those 99 channel MT1000s are my current portables. The only thing the Jedi will give me is coverage of 440 mhz amateur up through the LA County Sheriffs (talk and listen at 482mhz), expansion from 99 to 160 channels, and a slightly lighter / smaller radio. The high band one will give me amateur, CAP, business, public safety and some RPU channels all in the same radio. The disadvantages of the Jedis is that I have to acquire a couple of new chargers, some new batteries, new speakermics, and a new MVA. Mike WA6ILQ At 07:26 AM 01/18/08, you wrote: >Buying A$TRO radios is not an acceptable answer. As for the Spectras, >I've had no problem with a UHF Spectra going to 440 and 470. The only >thing I hate about them is the primitive CSQ channel priority. Even in >the commercial world, that is ridiculous. Try using it on a channel that >has an LTR system on it. You will never hear any other channels. > >The Maxtrac would go several MHz out of band without issue. Try doing >that with a CDM. I know of nobody who has gotten one to do 449.9875 and >470.0125 in one radio. > >Joe M. > >[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > On Tue, 15 Jan 2008 14:23:58 -0500, MCH <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > >Motorola has become very ham unfriendly anymore. > > > > I would suggest becoming more friendly with Motorola's product line. > > You now have XTS and XTL radios that cover VHF as 136-174 or UHF as > > 380-470 and require no software range mods. > > > > The ASTRO Spectra line had been the worst for 440 support, or starting > > VHF R2 at 148MHz though software moded to 146-ish. That's definitely > > no longer the case with the XTL line. Very ham friendly in my opinion. > > > > > >Yahoo! Groups Links > > >
