Hello,

What is everyone using or have a opinion on a programmable portable radios and radios good for use in MOW or vehicle use?
Need radios with keypad to activate a crossing. We have poor reception for the most part because of terrain in certain areas. 99% only one train on the line at a time.

Thanks

Unless they have changed drastically in the past 10 years, avoid ICom radios. If range and charge life are important to your operation, they generally s*ck. That is a technical term. Nothing like a good old Motorola brick.

Baofang UV-5R only cost $25

Check govdeals.com You can find good used VHF radios that can reprogrammed to your frequency.

On ebay, keep an eye out for an Motorola HT1000. A cursory search turns up two of them. They are/were popular with the ham radio crowd. Be sure that the item you buy says VHF in the description. There is also a UHF model that doesn't transmit on the correct frequencies.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorola-HT100 ... SwjRpZVm6B

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Used-Motorola- ... ctupt=true

They come with and without the DTMF capability. You'll need the DTMF (T stands for tone) The item I pictured is what you need.
Most of these on ebay are probably being sold by reputable dealers who would also be able to program the right "tone" in for you to activate (tone up) your railroad crossing apparatus, if it's in the VHF spectrum. Some ham operators would probably be capable of programming your unit, also.

I use the exact same walkie talkie on my job at UP. I'm about the only person left who has the HT1000... they're obsolete and the company is handing out Kenwood radios, and the one they gave me to replace my Motorola is a "Nexedge Fleet Sync" somethingerother that doesn't have near the range my Motorola does. The yard I work in is a mile long. The switch engine I work... when the switchmen I'm working with go to the rear of a long track, their radios have a hard time breaking the squelch on my engine radio a lot of the time...they have to hold them high up in the air to talk to me, but I can talk to them back there with my HT100, no problem.

These HT1000's, not so many years ago, were bringing $1,000 on ebay!!! Now, they've dropped down to a reasonable price.

Here you go 125 Channel UHF VHF new radio for $20
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Baofeng-UV-5R- ... SwofFbkk8l

And you can use FREE software to easely program them.
And acessorys are also very cheap.

All DN models and some CN Models of HT1000 capable of narrow band compliance. If it's not able to go narrowband, its a brick.

I'm pretty sure my radio dates from at least 1999, and it's narrow band capable.

It's not really incapable of being used if it's not narrow band capable, I don't think. Depends on what frequency you'll be using it on. If you're not using AAR assigned channels, I'm not real sure you have to go narrowband.

Plus, if you just use it to actuate your crossing mechanism, would that have to be narrow?

P.S. ~ I had a Motorola HT600, an even older 6 channel walkie, that still worked. It was "wide band" only. Finally got to where the radio man was giving me the evil eye when I'd use it.. He kinda got his shorts in a twist about "those things are supposed to be confiscated by us and destroyed", so I finally let him have it. In exchange, he gave me all the spare parts and batteries he had for the HT1000's laying around, since he wasn't going to be servicing them anymore.

He kept an old laptop in his office which was dedicated to programming software for the HT1000, which is a 16 channel.

He programmed 6 RR freq's that I am liable to encounter on my portion of the railroad to narrowband, then I talked him into programming the 10 local police, ambulance and sheriff department vhf frequencies into it, also. Had him set it to where I could scan those freq's. It's against railroad rules to enable a railroad radio to scan railroad channels, because of the problems it could cause if you accidentally put your radio on scan and missed a radio transmission. Since then, the law enforcement agencies in Kansas have gone "digital", and this Motorola walkie is not capable of receiving those transmissions.. now, it's not a police scanner anymore!

Those HT1000 are the best! When programming them, be sure to have whoever to set them at 5 watts transmit.
One place I worked had a few and one was the best. we bought newer model Motorola's and they were weak. Took one back to the place we bought them and the service guy told me there are two programmable transmitting settings, 1 watt and 5 watts. 1 watt was for battery life, 5 watts was for distance.

I have never heard of tone activated ctossings before. We ho makes them?

It's not uncommon for crews to be able to use a radio tone to activate line side equipment. I believe the Wheeling and Lake Erie has interlockings that crews can remotely switch that way, and CSX has set up the lights in the Howard St. tunnel in Baltimore to be activated with tones, one for on and a different one for off.

Except for being FCC aproved I don't see how a HT1000 is better than a Baofang. The UV-5R does everything and then some UHF/VHF a ton of channelds narrow band DTMF tone easey and free programing software (CHIRP) very good price CTCSS and DTS dual watch... the list goes on.

Seriously?
Type acceptance is very important.
A quality receiver is much more important, same with a transceiver with good spectral quality. I have seen spurious emissions from the baofeng garbage interfere with railroad and public safety systems. Do you trust this radio with your life? I carry either a Motorola APX 8000 or a Kenwood NX-200 for vehicles I have a Motorola APX 7500 vhf/700/800 or a Kenwood nx700. For quality I go with Motorola, for price and nxdn/idas compatibility I use Kenwood subscribers. Class 1s are trending to nxdn for yard, special usage.
The baofeng is hot garbage at best, at worst will get someone killed, potentially holding the owner liable

I've had my HT1000 for around 20 years. Last year I had to replace the broken antenna and the mike. Had a little bit of trouble locating them.

I cannot talk for the most current "state of the art," but when I was working with huge downtown conventions or marathons with the local ham club out east, we rented Motorola HT1000s from the local commercial radio dealer. There are legal reasons for this--can't use ham radio for commercial gain.

A couple of us used our programmable scanners and radios for the freqs in question.

Let me just say this: The difference between Baofeng/Yaesu, Kenwood/Bearcat, and Motorola is the difference between a kiddie car, a Ford F-150, and a Sherman/Abrams tank. The Asian stuff is nice hi-tech gizmos but poor build quality--think those smart-phones with cracked screens versus the old Ma Bell phones.

A railroad environment probably doesn't need hi-tech gizmos. What they need is durability and reliability.

Go talk to a company whose business is commercial radio and the equipment.