Where I work, we have analog portable radios and a repeater. We just recently upgraded to digital radios and repeater, and fortunately, it’s dual band.
The portable radios do really well for about 1 mile inside a vehicle without any static. The 1 1/2 mile range we start cutting out pretty significantly since we’re obviously inside of a tin can.
I was curious if there were any cheap mobile radios that could be purchased from Amazon or something that I could install in our vehicles and mount an antenna that would allow me to program to our repeater frequency. When we’re in a vehicle and get out of range for the portables, we can still communicate to the repeater. Not looking for 20 mile range or anything, but something to just help get us coverage to about a 2-3 mile range from our site when inside a vehicle.
Our old analog radios are Vertex VX-264 and 454 and I’d be willing to even find an in-car mounting and charging option but they’re older radios so no idea where to look or if any of those accessories exist unless somebody here has suggestions.
Hi Damnrona,
Are you looking to extend the range of the old radios or new radios? Also, would be helpful to know the brand/model of the new digital radios.
Depending on the situation it may be more cost effective to install antennas to the vehicles that you can just plug your portables into. The gain from the external antenna will greatly improve your range while communicating within a vehicle.
Well, I’m actually curious if there’s any really cheap solutions on Amazon that would allow us to do an install inside the vehicles with a mounted antenna on the roof that would work with our repeater. Hoping to avoid going to the dealer to purchase mobile radios. We kind of broke the bank buying the new radios and repeaters so there’s not much left for in-car solutions.
However, if there are ideas to use our old analog Vertex VX264/VX454 radios, that would be awesome too. Right now, they’re just sitting in storage and not going to be used except for a back up. If there’s some type of permanent mounting/charging option for the vehicle and an antenna we can get for the roof, I think that would be an even better option since they’re already programmed.
The new radios we have now are Tait TP9800 series radios. I think a 9860. We definately want to keep those as our dedicated portables as we’re in and out of our vehicles on a fairly regular basis. but definately want to get some ideas and suggestions on how to get something affordable working inside the vehicles.
Tp9800 tait radios are P25 radios, so you went for expensive and clever, and sadly, there arent any cheap P25 mode radios im aware of. If you stick antennas on the vehicles, the range will increase, of course, but that is a faff for the users. The other question is if you have a simple repeater with the analogue system still active, your old radios will work, with or without linking. My guess is your new system does not have analogue enabled so the old radios are useless. You bought a system, that doesnt include flexibility, because the tait solution to your problem is buy more radios, which is what typical systems of this kind have to do. If it had been a DMR system, you could be up and running for much lower cost.
Yes, our older analog radios still work as well as the analog portion on the new digital repeater. That’s why I’ve mentioned them and being open to using them as well as an in-car solution since they’re already programmed. Otherwise they’re sitting in storage as a backup incase one of our digital radios fails.
Thing is, these are older radios and I have no idea where to look or what accessories to purchase for a permanent mount/charging and antenna to purchase for external mounting…or if these parts even actually exist. We’ve had these Vertex radios for close to 8 years so I’m suspecting their models and accessories have been discontinued.
But if there’s a cheap mobile radio option that can be gotten from Amazon that allows us to use the repeater, I’d be interested in that as well. I’m just trying to see if there’s cheap solutions besides going back to the dealer for equipment as I know theirs will be close to 500-1000 per radio
If you can go with analogue, then there are dozens of cheap imported radios that will work on your analogue system from $50 upwards! All you need is the receive and transmit frequency, plus any access CTCSS/DTS tones your old system uses. enter them into the radios, and away you go, and the forum hosts will sell you some decent ones, and supply antennas if you like. Antennas can be mag mounts, or clip ons or drill a hole - up to you. Your system could be UHF or VHF and that matters for vehicle antennas.