From my personal perspective, the sweet spot of P25 + reasonably priced + reasonably sized is a second-hand Motorola XTS2500 acquired on eBay. That model is also on CAP's NTIA compliance list.You will need someone who is able to program it appropriately.
Fun fact, the National Comm guys were showing off an APX at the national conference this year. I thought that was rather interesting to see.
The newer features in the APX are not so very interesting (P25 Phase 2 etc). In the CAP context, I'd find it hard to justify $1,500++ for a basic, used APX radio vs. maybe $500 for a good condition XTS5000 with a new Li-Ion battery.
CAP's attempted move to P25 ensured cheap, member owned radios are becoming a thing of the past.Just like the national comm guys had hoped for.They have their reasons (they're not shy about this point), but it makes it tough in wings that either don't have an accurate TOA or don't adhere to it properly.
P25 isn't the problem, inexpensive P25 radios are plentiful, and aren't much more than the amateur gear we used to use.
If anything is going to send personal radios to the wayside, it's encryption. Which, AFAIK, isn't in the plans unless a customer requests it.
The cache of UHF radios that NESA uses was sent back to NTC at some point after the 2017 school was over, and reprogrammed with encryption keys, and with encryption on full-time; it's usually programmed to be user selectable. From what I understand, when the new Motorola APX radios start shipping from NTC to the wings, they will come with encryption keys loaded as well, but IIRC, will be selectable.
Quote from: Slim on September 13, 2018, 06:54:18 AMThe cache of UHF radios that NESA uses was sent back to NTC at some point after the 2017 school was over, and reprogrammed with encryption keys, and with encryption on full-time; it's usually programmed to be user selectable. From what I understand, when the new Motorola APX radios start shipping from NTC to the wings, they will come with encryption keys loaded as well, but IIRC, will be selectable.NESA radios had keys already in that year, we turned them on when we issued them out, but yeah the constant-on was a new thing that was done after NESA I guess.
I have to see if my Traverse has the same issue as my Sport Track with the windows(metallic particles in the glass for the tint blocked through-the-glass antennas).
Why do I have inventory records from 2009?