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Welp..

I noticed ODOT already purchased a large number of Harris Unity Portables..

Well, they opted for Unity mobiles as well...

VHF LB rx, with tx on VHF/UHF/700/800 @ 50W.. on one radio.. from a control head that looks like a cellphone... Not only is the control head 90% touch screen (still have volume POT, rotary POT, and two programmable buttons), but when you select the channel, you can see info such as TX/RX freq, PL on RX/TX, or NAC/ID etc through a channel info option...

GPS receiver is built in.

The control head wire is just 3 conductors, and uses CANBUS.. you can daisy chain up to 16 control heads/devices. no more 25/37 conductor control head wires.

SS2000 still works via DB9 on back of radio.


Radios support Smartzone and phase I/II P25 (upgradeable) on all bands (except VHF LB)

I want one of these so bad... :D

(An install I got finished yesterday)




Also... I had to fabricate some artificial groundplanes due to the oddball equipment they're running.



This was a street vacuum.. It has an articulating arm so it meant no antenna on the roof...

The multiband antenna is a custom antenna and REQUIRES a groundplane like no tomorrow. With a simple lip/L NMO mount, I was getting 6W reflected.. With the groundplane I was getting less than half a watt back... Pretty damn good considering it was below the cab..

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Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help, I'm being repressed!

Uh, no, they are not SmartZone capable. And what ODOT rig is white?

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Mt Wave SAR member
Support Search & Rescue: Get Lost!
http://www.mwave.org

Some radios have Portland PD programmed into them, PPD is trunked so... I dunno what else it could be..

It's a Vactor (?) Vacuum truck.

I have not had a chance to look at the Personality yet...


Here's what it looks like (not the exact one, but similar)



Hilarious thing.. though.. (unrelated)

Last night I was on here looking for Portland area repeaters.. and found a thread with you saying how much you loved 440.450 and how you hang on there.. I tuned my VX8 to it and heard 3 guys in a QSO.. then I heard you ID, I thought it was a funny coincidence.... I shoulda said hi :-p

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Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help, I'm being repressed!

Its set to the still experimental 700 MHz System thats up for testing, thats why. I have a friend (who you probably heard in that QSQ) who actually embarrassed a Harris rep who didn't know it doesn't support SmartZone!

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Mt Wave SAR member
Support Search & Rescue: Get Lost!
http://www.mwave.org

lol.

I probably met him (Harris rep) as I've met 3 in the past few weeks...

There are some bugs with the radios...

1. Change state - radios powering up on an active channel will NOT pass audio, you must change state (channel, button press, etc) in order to 'wake'.. as the radio turns on assuming no state change.. The M7100 had the same issue.

2. Dust covers - the radio uses a CANBUS cable that has a 90* on one end.. you use the straight cable on the control head, leaving a 90* @ the radio end.. Problem is, with the DB9 dust cover in place, the CANBUS cable can't go on.. So we've had to notch the dust cover or just use the 90* on the control head end.

3. Voltage sensitive - Hooked up a battery charger to jump start a unit.. CH turned on but wouldn't connect to radio. Tried radio with another control head - no connection... Tried control head with new radio - no connection. Replaced both CH and radio.. worked perfectly.. Turns out the battery charger puts out 16V, which I'm assuming toasted the radio... We told them NOT to use that charger, since then another radio has gone down with the same systems... I'm betting they used the charger... 2V out of spec isn't a lot... I've had spectras and orions @ damn near 18v that, other than acting flaky, suffered no long term effects.

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Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help, I'm being repressed!

And you will hear me on 440.450 in about 1.5 hours :P

_________________
Mt Wave SAR member
Support Search & Rescue: Get Lost!
http://www.mwave.org

Someone is already trying to call you on the N7PIR .450

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Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help, I'm being repressed!

And of course, I get on and no one is there.

_________________
Mt Wave SAR member
Support Search & Rescue: Get Lost!
http://www.mwave.org

Digging up this thread again because on Tuesday, I saw one of ODOT's new communcations trailers which has the new Unity handhelds plus two nice Daniels repeaters. Talking with their head honcho, he was telling me the antenna shelf that is seen in the photos is a painted road sign from the ODOT Sign Shop! That is GENIUS!

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Mt Wave SAR member
Support Search & Rescue: Get Lost!
http://www.mwave.org

I see more of the ODOT vehicles with the thick multi-band antenna.

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"I was installing un-programmed radios"

Yeah, thats the antenna they use but some of the rigs like this from TechoWeenie, its not possible to drill a NMO hole in the roof, so they need that "shelf"

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Mt Wave SAR member
Support Search & Rescue: Get Lost!
http://www.mwave.org

That 'shelf' was custom fabbed on the spot.. haha... A resourceful bunch they have at the depots... :D

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Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help, I'm being repressed!

Well, anything is custom fabbed if you have a metal bender!

_________________
Mt Wave SAR member
Support Search & Rescue: Get Lost!
http://www.mwave.org

Improvise-adapt-overcome.

Nice to see something like that as opposed to a RFQ for custom antenna mounting plates which some vendor would be only too happy to provide at $4500 each.

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President-in-Exile, Seattle Area Radio Communications And Scanner Traffic Intercept Crew (SARCASTIC)
Don't feel bad if you can't use your STD100/200; there are still people using Digital Frequency Search!
Bunnery definition for the under-fives