Motorola Recycling!

Motorola has 3 current programs to recycle products they produce. The first one covers a variety of electronic items including 2-way radios. American Recycler magazine’s January 2010 issue has an article about the take-back recycling program. Plain and simple, Motorola 2-way radios can be returned to participating dealers for proper disposal. Another Motorola program Race to Recycle accepts cellphones (most any brand) for recycling. The cellphones are worth cash to participating schools.  If you do not have a local participating school you can still turn your old cellphones in at Delmmar and we will give them to a participating school. And the third recycling program is an ongoing battery recycling program. Rechargeable radio and cellphone batteries are sent to an authorized recycling center. These three programs are an effort to keep these electronic products out of landfills. If you’d like to dispose of any of the mentioned items, you can send them to Delmmar. We will get them turned in to the appropriate program. Mark the box “FOR RECYCLING”.

Jack’s radio

If your radio could talk………

My user, Jack takes me off the shelf in the garage and gently plugs the charger into my charge jack. I can feel the juice surging into my power source and I begin to perk-up a bit. As I gain some strength I take a look around the garage, I see familiar items. A tent and sleeping bags lay on the floor, as well as a cooler and a dark green duffle bag. Looks like we’re going HUNTING!

Jack & I love to go hunting – being out in the wild with our buddies, just doesn’t get any better than that. I can’t wait!

As I sit patiently on the shelf I begin to feel that my battery is not taking the charge like it did when we were younger. I really need a fresh battery pack every 18 to 24 months to work my best and keep Jack in contact with our buddies. I sure hope he has a new, fully charged battery to take along on our trip, for I fear this one is “not going to do the job” and Jack will be disappointed in me. I really don’t like it when he shakes me and pounds me into the palm of his hand. I like being crisp and clear for Jack, but I can’t do it with a tired old battery pack. What if Jack doesn’t have a new battery for me – what will I do?

Please, Jack, call the girls at Delmmar Communications and order me a new battery, they will ship it out to us PDQ and we’ll have a wonderful hunting trip. Just doesn’t get any better than that!
~JMc

2-way radio range

Handheld radios, such as the Motorola CP200, will generally transmit radio-to-radio, line-of-sight up to 2 miles. Once you start putting obstacles between the radios you will shorten your range. Even the body fluid of the person wearing the radio on their hip will absorb some of the range. Higher wattage radios will have a slight increase in range and a significant increase in clarity of transmission on the outer fringes of your range.

Mobile radios, such as the Motorola CM200, will generally transmit radio-to-radio up to 8-10 miles depending upon the obstacles and the terrain. 

Base stations will generally transmit approx. 8-12 miles.

What can you do to improve range? Contrary to popular belief wattage does not determine distance. Antenna height and placement determines distance.  Hold your portable radio perpendicular to the ground, not slanted like you would hold a phone. This problem alone could decrease your range by up to 2/3s. Don’t shout CB-style, shouting reduces talk-range on industrial-type radios. If you have a radio user who stays in a fixed location, think about adding a small base station into your system. Have your radios serviced every two years to maintain peak performance.  When using a mobile radio or base station: Be certain with your antenna that it is installed correctly. You can improve the range of your mobile radio by using an antenna which is cut to the appropriate length for your primary transmit frequency. Proper positioning of the antenna on the vehicle is key to good range.

Necessary Motorola verbage:
MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office.
All other product and service names are the property of their respective owners. © Motorola, Inc.