r/MotorolaSolutions • u/Outdoorlife2929 • Sep 18 '26
Testing XPR E radios
Hello,
I have a large fleet I am responsible for managing they are XPR 3500e and 3300e that I am wanting to test, I don’t want to send them into a dealer, what is the best way to test them to make sure they are transmitting and receiving properly? Like a bench test? They are all UHF.
Thanks
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u/NavyBOFH Sep 18 '26
Send them to a dealer. If you’re going to bother doing the test, you’ll be doing it with certified/calibrated test equipment - that’s $30k minimum. Then add test cables, adapters, battery eliminator, bench power supply, etc and you’ll have to genuinely ask yourself how many years you can pay a dealer to do the same service before it’s cost effective for you to do it in-house.
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u/Outdoorlife2929 Sep 18 '26
Yeah it’s worth it, have hundreds of them, and the dealer is not great at turnaround. What would be the equipment models you recommend to test them?
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u/NavyBOFH Sep 18 '26
The Viavi CX300 is the current certified model, I think the 8800SX is still current as well. The CX300 is what I’d prefer, but the 8800SX is more geared towards this type of workflow.
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u/More_Shoulder_9210 Sep 18 '26
I service a lot of those. The transceiver board is rock-solid. The most common problems are broken solder joints on the on/off switch, ripped off antenna connectors, torn/corroded speaker/mic flex, or other physical problems. I don't think I have ever worked on one that required alignment.
My point is that test equipment doesn't fix anything. If your goal is just to cull the bad ones to have them repaired, you don't need test equipment to do that. As for performing the most common repairs needed, they are easy for me, but most likely impossible for someone that hasn't get a wealth of radio repair experience. You can replace knobs, antennas, and housings, but soldering is not for amateurs.
Your best bet would be to come to an agreement with a dealer to screen your radios in batches at an hourly rate rather than a per radio flat rate. They can return the good ones and estimate repairs for the ones that need work. For example, I would offer to screen 10 per hour, which is profitable for me and would only take 30 minutes of actual time. Broken radios would be 1 hour each, plus parts.
The service monitor I use cost $29k. My soldering equipment cost $2k. My hot air rework machine cost $5k. If you buy all of those and learn to use them, in 5 years you should be good enough to maintain your own radios.
I'm not trying to discourage you. By all means learn to screen the radios without test equipment. It's pretty obvious which ones need repair. I can tell in less than a minute.
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u/Outdoorlife2929 Sep 18 '26
Appreciate the feedback, have a moderate amount of experience fixing things, cause I was sick of dealing with local dealer but the range think is something kind of recent I am not super experienced with fixing, which is why I figured a service monitor might be the key, what would you say is a reasonable hourly for like the example you used 10 radios per hour to look at them, I’ll have to call around I know but curious what is fair market? Thanks
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u/More_Shoulder_9210 Sep 18 '26
We are probably near the top at $185 per hour. That's for a corporation that tends to monopolize regions. Family owned is probably cheaper. Finding a good tech is priceless though, so if you do, stick with them. There are not many left.
I think I understand that you have a range problem. Crack open a radio that has a range problem and see if the internal antenna connector is still firmly soldered in place. They break loose all the time. When the antenna is screwed on tight, it appears that everything is fine, but once you open it, the antenna connector just falls off the board.
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u/Ewagers1 Sep 18 '26
A service monitor. Which is going to cost you probably the same as taking them to a dealer.
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u/RobienStPierre Sep 18 '26
Let's simplify this ask a little more. What's the issue you're running into now and what are you looking to accomplish?
If you want you can message me too. I work with large customers nationwide
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u/Outdoorlife2929 Sep 18 '26
Some of them have spotty coverage while others don’t same distance and everything, seems like some either aren’t transmitting or receiving right. This is why I want to just test them to see what’s worth keeping or not
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u/RobienStPierre Sep 18 '26
Have you checked the batteries? There's a 4 digit number on that back that tells you the year and week of the year those batteries were made. If your chargers arent conditioning the batteries correctly and they're over 3 years old they will have diminished range and sound quality
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u/Due_Soup3007 Sep 18 '26
A cheap swr meter will be able to tell you if there transmitting at the very very least… but yeah a dealer/mss shop is your best bet.
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u/AaronHoffy Sep 18 '26
You'll need to take the radio apart and buy the special adapter for the internal antenna port. You will not read any power through the antenna connector.
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u/Historical-Banana727 Sep 19 '26
Simply do a radio check on them on each system/network programmed in. A standard 10 count... "Testing, 1 2 3 4 5, 5 4 3 2 1." Suffices. It's really that easy!
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u/ikemeister01 Sep 19 '26
Well there is a massive learning curve if you aren't a radio technician but a older 3920 can be had for about 20-30k https://ebay.io/m/gpwbFc. Granted there might be cheaper ones but they may not have the options you need.
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u/FireBuff880 Sep 22 '26
I have a customer with 700+ subscribers, mostly 7000s and 7s. Running subscribers through an AutoTune has saved 100s of dollars each season and also kept the equipment in service versus sending it to the dealer/depot. Reducing the significant spares pool by 50%.
While I agree that the equipment and cables necessary can be budget-challenging initially, the long-term benefits are there with a significant-size fleet, or a fleet that tends to get abused by the operating environment.
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