Cobra compatible with Motorola?
Chris J
questions.
It seems the Cobras offer "more bang for the buck" in terms of
features. Are the Cobra radios compatible with the Motorola
Talkabouts? If I get Cobras, how well will I be able to talk to my
friends with the Talkabouts? Also, how is the quality of the Cobras
compared to the Talkabouts?
All help appreciated. Thanks!
Chris
Phil Stripling
> It seems the Cobras offer "more bang for the buck" in terms of
> features. Are the Cobra radios compatible with the Motorola
> Talkabouts? If I get Cobras, how well will I be able to talk to my
> friends with the Talkabouts? Also, how is the quality of the Cobras
> compared to the Talkabouts?
I have a Moto T7200 and a Cobra PR2000. They talk fine as long as they are
set to the same frequency and CTCSS tone. I can also use the T7200 with my
Radio Shack and AudioVox GMRS radios.
(Aside: I had a problem with the T7200, and I called support. The woman
said to send them in. I said I had only one. She was shocked that they
could be used with brands other than Motorola; she was told that was not
the case and she couldn't figure out why I had bought only one.)
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John L. Wilkerson Jr.
@posting.google.com:
Motorolas have a compander circuit used to reduce noise... as a result, if
you listen to any other brand of radio on a Motorola, the sound is very
distorted.
Phil Stripling
> Motorolas have a compander circuit used to reduce noise... as a result, if
> you listen to any other brand of radio on a Motorola, the sound is very
> distorted.
I think the level of distortion may be exaggerated by Moto's marketing
folks. I have a T200, so I gave it a try last night with a Midland FRS/GMRS
combo radio. I could hear some distortion the Moto when Louise counted to
ten using the Midland. We switched radios and tried again. She said the
distortion disappeared when she turned the T7200 down.
Craig Schroeder
found one and being lazy, am pasting in here:
"I had brought this subject up last Fall from a situation that made
this behavior intolerable. In a hunting situation during our
Wisconsin deer season a couple of years back, my Cobra radios were
banned from the group because of their behavior in a sea of Motorola
250's. In a quiet, still woods situation, the person transmitting
needs to speak very quietly into their mic/radio. The party receiving
needs to have their ear bud turned up high enough to understand the
quietly spoken transmission. The tail scratch is then exaggerated and
we had people who could hear the scratch from a surprising distance
(even off another's ear bud!). The sound in this scenario is very
much like a cracking twig and is unsettling for fellow hunters and
also spooked the stalked critters, too.
My son and I were asked to not disrupt the hunt with the Cobras and
borrowed a couple of 250's for the remainder of the week. The
following season had some Audiovox radios behave in a similar way and
they were asked to not be used, too. I had one of the Audiovox
GPS/GMRS combo rigs and this was better behaved but still left more
scratch than people cared for. BTW, those old 250's would always
receive better than any of the alternate radios that have shown up in
camp. Many times, one of our group would be at the outer limits of
our woods range and the 250 user would be receiving a message that an
alternate radio user could not receive when standing right next to the
250 user. I might break down and find an old 250 on eBay for the
coming season!" -end of paste-
I've since picked up a T7200 and an ICOM and will never look back....
The Cobras (300WX) that I had were fine for general use and I liked
the Vibralert feature but in the extreme settings situtation I
described above, they weren't the best combo with friends' Motorolas.
John L. Wilkerson Jr.
news:3qu0w9f...@shell4.tdl.com:
> "John L. Wilkerson Jr." <johnwilke...@sbcglobal.net> writes:
>
>> Motorolas have a compander circuit used to reduce noise... as a
>> result, if you listen to any other brand of radio on a Motorola, the
>> sound is very distorted.
>
> I think the level of distortion may be exaggerated by Moto's marketing
> folks. I have a T200, so I gave it a try last night with a Midland
> FRS/GMRS combo radio. I could hear some distortion the Moto when
> Louise counted to ten using the Midland. We switched radios and tried
> again. She said the distortion disappeared when she turned the T7200
> down.
I've got one of the older talkabouts. I never use it since anything I hear
is impossible to understand.... totally useless.
Phil Stripling
> I've got one of the older talkabouts. I never use it since anything I hear
> is impossible to understand.... totally useless.
This is the YMMV situation. We have a choice of considerations: the radios
are different, my tolerance, Louise's tolerance, and your tolerance of
distortion are all different. Shrug. The original poster will have the
benefit of our posts and will have to make the decision based on the
conflicting reports.
Ya want my T7200? I refuse to use it because of the shaky batteries. :->
That way, you'll at least have a pair.
Phil Stripling
> I've since picked up a T7200 and an ICOM and will never look back....
> The Cobras (300WX) that I had were fine for general use and I liked
> the Vibralert feature but in the extreme settings situtation I
> described above, they weren't the best combo with friends' Motorolas.
I'd forgotten about this post; thanks for the reminder. Here's my query:
Your friends have Motos? Can you hear them without distortion on the Icom
(I presume the F21?) and can they hear the Icom without distortion?
The issue appears to be a proprietary compander in the Moto radios. Please
review John Wilkerson's posts and mine.
Phil Stripling
> Did the piece of foam that holds the batteries tight get lost?
No, that was the first question the support person asked. The foam is
there, it's just not sufficient to keep the batteries in place and in
contact. As they bounce, they lose electricl contact, and the radio goes on
and off with pretty much each step. It makes the radio completely unuseable
with AAs. I send the radio back, and they replaced it with a refurb. The
refurb is better, but the radio still turns off and on at unpredictable
times.
Craig Schroeder
yet but with my own 250 and 7200 and a few other odds and ends, the
Icom seems to work fine. I had one channel/code combo that wouldn't
work right with an Audiovox GMRS base unit (2 base unit samples acted
the same), but other than that quirk, the Icoms have seemed fully
compatible and a good match for the other radios (Moto's and others).
On 16 Jul 2004 09:43:41 -0700, Phil Stripling
Craig Schroeder
This sits in the chamber as a single, rigid unit. This avoids the
problem altogether. I put some AA's in mine back when you first
posted this problem and I wasn't able to duplicate the behavior in
mine but I can see how it could likely happen when looking at the
design. The springs are very tight and it seems like it could put an
extreme amount of tension between the cells.
On 18 Jul 2004 13:14:09 -0700, Phil Stripling