Short Motorola DTR550 and DTR2450 Review

[hornhonker]

I've been testing a pair of 900mhz DTR550 radios around the Victoria area
and have found the range quite good. They penetrate dense wet trees reliably and operate over hills to a suprising degree. A nice feature is one radio may be left unattended while driving about with the other as they do a handshake to see if they are in range before allowing conversation. This makes it very easy to test the range.

I also did a very short test with a pair of European DTR2450 2.4G radios and they were very dissapointing. No ability to work over hills and any foliage
may have well been a brick wall. Places where the DTR550s were good were a no go at 2.4G.

By the way, I notice some other activity on 900mhz by other motorola DTRs
(Local hockey rink) on the default channel 1. Guess they were too lazy to pgm some private key channels.

[Securenet_DES]

The U.S version (900Mhz) has a 1 watt TX power level, the European version (2.4GHz) has a 100mW TX power level. That could explain the dismal range. I am quite happy with my DTR radios and their range. I have all gen 2's with the longer whip antennas. Through my travels I have only heard one other user on public ch.1. It was a hotel maintenance dept.