| KB8PPE | Rating: | 2013-07-26 |
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| Excellent radio | Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
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I started looking at commercial gear after becoming frustrated with the cheap PA chips in my ham stuff. I bought my first for $20 at a local ham swap, and I picked up several more that were being discarded by commercial shops due to narrowbanding. The radios sound great, and are built like tanks.
The only drawbacks are that they have to be programmed via computer, not from the front panel, and are more channel limited than the amateur stuff. A small price to pay for quality in my opinion.
Since the narrowbanding requirements, these have become even more affordable--they sell all the time on ebay for $60-70. Likewise, I program mine using a third party freeware program that runs on XP (Radio Doctor) and a $12 ribless cable I bought on ebay, from a U.S. company no less. |
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| N8MRC | Rating: | 2011-11-27 |
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| Great Radios | Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
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| Our local club was given 5 GM300's in the UHF range. As our club owns a 440 repeater I had a friend of mine program them up for our repeater. We use these radios to loan out to the new hams in the area so they can get on the air. We don't have to worry about them wiping out the memory and they are built tough. Very good radios... |
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| YEPSURE | Rating: | 2007-11-25 |
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| Great for the right price | Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
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I have owned many of GM300’s over the years and have found them to be excellent for amateur radio use. The previous post outlined the costs of programming equipment, which is a factor, however the previous reviewer was a little high on the costs. Using current purchase costs, anyone buying the items outlined in the previous review can expect to spend the following:
Rib.................$25
Cable...............$25
9v batt.............$2
Pirated software.... FREE VIA THE INTERNET
Shipping............$12
--------------------$64 grand total
Keep in mind this is what it would REALLY cost for these items, if not cheaper . . .
The treasured RIB doesn’t cost anything near what it used to. Good aftermarket RIBS can be purchased brand new off ebay for $20 plus shipping, not the $100 the previous reviewer stated.
The programming cable for the GM300 can be made from a simple CAT5 cable. Simply cut one end off and solder the other end to the appropriate connector. The schematic is available via batlabs and the wires are all straight forward point-to-point connections. So you could realistically knock another $20 off the price since most people have CAT5 cables laying around anyway.
Spending $5 for a 9-volt battery is purely optional. You can just as easily spend $2 for an off-brand alkaline. Or you don’t have to use a battery at all since the RIB has a D/C input jack so you can simply attach a 9-12 volt supply to it.
As for the software, or RSS, this was at one time an impossible task to acquire without paying Motorola their fee. Like everything else on the Internet though, it too can be found for free. I’m not saying it’s okay to do this but merely pointing out, like everything else in cyber land, it is in fact there.
The shipping fee is a variable amount that could be higher or lower, depending on the transaction. I’ve purchased UHF GM300’s for as low as $35 (32 channel, 40-watt model), so the bottom line shipping amount is a small variable in the grand scheme of things.
The bottom line here is to think about the REAL cost of programming this radio vs. what someone arbitrarily decides to post about it here. I’ve owned GM300’s for many years now and the required programming gear is as cheap as ever and can be purchased everywhere on the Internet. The GM300 is an excellent radio for amateur purposes IF you can buy on at the right price. They are simple radio’s that do one thing very well.
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| K9TOD | Rating: | 2006-12-26 |
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| Unce upon a time this would be good for ham | Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
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Once upon a time this was a great radio for the ham bands. I used to be a big commercial radio buff. That's changed as Motorola doesn't make radios like this one anymore and there are some things that are really tough to deal with. I got a couple of these a few years ago to make a basic repeater but the plan changed and started using them as a mobile and base radio.
It's really not feasible to program a single used radio legally. The software which you must buy from motorola is very expensive and from what I hear they won't just ship it to just anyone who calls up to order it. The programming cables and RIB box are expensive and using a cheap homebrew one can ruin the radio not to mention they don't last long. For the price of this programming gear alone, you could have a great modern day radio. I program mine so infrequently that every time the 9volt battery for the rib box is toast. Do the math:
Rib.................$100
Cable...............$25
9v batt.............$5
Pirated software....$100
Shipping............$12
--------------------$242 grand total
All for 16 measley channels.
The radio was designed for short, momentary transmissions, not long rag chews. This radio may have a rugged case but the compenents are just as fragile and can easily be burned up due to not having the heat sinks and fans that the ham rigs have.
The microphones are noise cancelling mics, and you have to speak much louder if not shout into them. They won't have as much background noise like open windows, sirens and whatever else but not a good radio to use if you have a sore throat.
Not all radios do the signalling so ask before you buy.
Obviously this radio doesn't scan the band and most that you find has to be modified for ham band. And for what? So you can look cool having a durable police radio? At one time, that would be a good reason but now this radio is 10-15 years old and there are far better offerings in modern day ham radio that are rugged, easy to program, will scan the ham band and look professional. It's like driving an Iroc because they were a cool car when you are in high school. Now they are not so great.
To sum it up, for the current price of a used GM300, you can have a rugged radio designed for how you're using it, that can be modified to xmit GMRS or MURS or Mars/cap if that is your intention and when they break you toss them and get something else. At least you can program the things. If you're wanting to build a repeater with these, there are also better offerings out there! Not all GM300 models are able to do plug & play with the RICK/repeater operation. Ask before you buy. Most of these you find on ebay or at ham fests have had multiple owners by now. |
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| W0TRJ | Rating: | 2006-10-23 |
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| A great ! Radio | Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
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GM300 UHF Model Moblie/ Base with a power supply.
The UHF GM300 comes in different band splits, I'am using the 430.0-470.0 Mhz Model.
I got this one to use in the Ham band and
found it on Ebay for $160.
To program the Radio you need a interface called
a Rib and the Motorola software or you can buy
a Ribless programminig cable on Ebay for around $19 Dollars.
So far the Radio is working as it should, This model was a 8 channels type. I Modified for 16 channels using the info I found on the net.
The RF power output on this model is 40watts
and this helps me to hit the Repeaters in my area 30 miles plus.
Also I think using a external speaker on the Radio is a must.It really brings the audio up alot.
If you need any help with this Radio drop me a Email and I will see what I can do.
trjohn@mlecmn.net
W0TRJ |
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| N4RAP | Rating: | 2005-08-01 |
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| Bullet Proof | Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
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If you need an 'idiot proof' and/or 'bullet proof' radio...this is it. I have 14 repeaters on the air and many of them are linked to each other. I use the GM300's as link radios and as repeaters. They work great. The have great transmitt audio and receive audio. The 16 pin plug in the back is ideal for tapping into COR, squelch, mic audio and speaker audio as well as 'flat' audio and discriminator audio and a host of other features and be able to connect that to a repeater controller. I also have two of them for back up radios. A good idea for your kids and or spouse as their mobile radio. Why? Because they can't program it...and they can't mess it up or wipe out channels by accident. no more 'oops I must have pushed the wrong button'...'sorry Daddy!'
They are also capable of dual PL tones and Digital Pl Tones. See ya
73 from N4RAP |
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| HR2PAC | Rating: | 2005-05-06 |
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| Like a tank. | Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
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| Great radios for the serious ham that goes mobile. Although they are easy to program they can become a pain considering that you have to use a RIBLESS, software and a PC to acomplish this. Now I operate a commercial two way radio company here in Honduras and we have all of the gear to program, you can pick these up on Ebay in pretty decent shape I have even seen them NIB on Ebay!! Bottom line these things are built like tanks and will take the abuse, although I think that for ham radio use they might be overkill considering you can buy ham rated equipment for less money. 73's from HR lands. |
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| KC8QDR | Rating: | 2002-10-29 |
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| Awesome radio | Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
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| An awesome rig all around! Excellent Tx/Rx audio. Defenetly gets you noticed on the band (especially if you have the mdc1200 signaling turned on :-) ).If you get one with the 16 pin acc. connector, it is great for packet. Searched ebay and found a new OEM 16 pin plug, so tnc hookup was a snap. Also, cheap 'rib less' programmers are readily available for this radio and it's brother, the maxtrac. So I say go commercial, especially if you only use a couple of frequencies and don't need to be tuning all over the band. Now if they would make one with a vfo... |
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| KC7MMI | Rating: | 2001-10-12 |
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| Outstanding Mobile | Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
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| I had the oportunity to get two of these radios set up for use by the Explorer Post that I am associated with. They have excellent audio along with a simple user interface. These radios are commercial radios and do perform as such in the ham bands. |
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| VK2PHREAKTRIP | Rating: | 2001-09-03 |
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| mad ... | Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
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Have used this radio for a while now it does high power (40 w) (50 w on VHF) its built like a brick like all of motorola's stuff! got mine for $300 AUD ($150 US). and can easily be moded to 40 channels has a whole lot of features and is easy to program (goto www.batlabs.com)
mad 7/5 |
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