Hello, I’m looking to purchase a set of radios for use in an indoor area with a lot of people the size about 250K square feet. I was looking at the Motorla XTN XV2100 radios. Its perfect for the distance I want to cover.
My question is for the people that have used this radio before. How is the interference with them? I need the radios to be really secure and not get any interference at all. Any feedback and advice would be appreciated.
Thank You.
If you are going to be using the radios indoors, you may want to consider the UHF version, the Motorola XU2100. VHF signals don’t penetrate walls as well as UHF.
You mentioned interference and security, which are separate subjects.
Interference occurs when you hear unwanted transmissions from other radios. This model supports 121 PL codes. A PL code (also called a ‘privacy code’ or CTCSS/DTCS codes) is an inaudible tone that the radios attach to a transmission. They will filter out any transmission that doesn’t include the selected tone. By selecting a PL code, you can almost certainly eliminate any interference.
Security is a different matter. If you need secure communications, then you don’t want anyone else to be able to hear what you are saying. There are no standard two way radios that can offer truly secure communications, there are only degrees of security. Nothing that MUST remain private should ever be said over a radio.
Police scanners are used by eavesdroppers to listen in on radio communications, and a huge majority of radios can be overheard using them. Some models, like the Motorola XU2600, have a voice scrambling feature. The radio encrypts the transmission as it sends it, and the receiving radio decrypts it. Someone with a scanner would hear a garbled voice. However, using a scramble feature usually makes your radio incompatible with different model radios, and someone could get the same model radio as you and still overhear. Radios with frequency hopping technology (like the TriSquares) are the best because they do not use a set frequency. This completely defeats scanners, but even they are not completely 100% secure, as someone intent on listening could get a TriSquare radio and potentially figure out your channel number.
Hope this was helpful.