Old TPX Handheld help!

[Chikan]

Hey guys!

New to the boards..

Was hoping I could get some help with our radios... YES, they're old... But our agency works on a VERY limited budget, and these were cheap... LOL

Anyhow, we've got a batch of batteries on their way to replace the bad ones, and new antennas as well... we're planning on getting a couple cheap mobile radios for our cars, but we're having a heck of a time figuring out if these things are UHF, VHF, or what.... can't even tell what frequency we're on!! Unfortunately, most of them have the labels scratched off the backs, so I don't even have an exact model number... is there an easy way to tell what frequency we're on, so we know what band we're in? We've tried running a scanner while transmitting, but so far the closest we've come is a staticy 'ghost' transmission that obviously wasn't the right frequency...

Any help would be great! Thanks again!

[jim202]

By any chance have you looked around the station on the wall in the dispatch area for a license? The other thing you could do is look on the FCC site for ifo if the license is still valid.

If you can't find any license info anyplace, I would refrain from using the radios. The fine is $10,000 a day for each violation.

Would it be too hard to check with the local radio service shop?

Jim



[quote="Chikan"]Hey guys!

New to the boards..

Was hoping I could get some help with our radios... YES, they're old... But our agency works on a VERY limited budget, and these were cheap... LOL

Anyhow, we've got a batch of batteries on their way to replace the bad ones, and new antennas as well... we're planning on getting a couple cheap mobile radios for our cars, but we're having a heck of a time figuring out if these things are UHF, VHF, or what.... can't even tell what frequency we're on!! Unfortunately, most of them have the labels scratched off the backs, so I don't even have an exact model number... is there an easy way to tell what frequency we're on, so we know what band we're in? We've tried running a scanner while transmitting, but so far the closest we've come is a staticy 'ghost' transmission that obviously wasn't the right frequency...

Any help would be great! Thanks again![/quote]

[Chikan]

I'll have to look for license stuff....

As far as shops go, all the ones in this area except for ONE, deal strictly with motorolas.... and the one shop that CAN work on them, doesn't know exactly what they can do for us, because these are so old...

[1 ADAM 12]

The GE TPX where either 800MHZ or 900 MHZ radios and are really old. Designed for GE MARC trunking thought they do some conventionals.

[Chikan]

So these are probably 800 mhz radios then? Wow, I woulda figured the 450-470 range max.... hmm... guess I'll have to keep diggin... thanks!

[Glen W Christen]

This radio is 800 MHZ. Very old, and among other short-comings, it has a fragile flex circuit and an on-board memory battery that goes bad. When it does, you lose ALL memory and Tracking data (level setting) Circular file it ASAP!