The CP200 two-way radio from Motorola Solutions has been the company’s most popular radio for more than a decade. It’s an economical, industrial-strength portable radio with 16 channels, 4 to 5 watts of power and dust/water resistance. With few bells and whistles, the CP200 is easy to use and requires little training.
About the only thing missing is digital capability — and Motorola closed that gap last year by introducing the CP200d, a digital/analog hybrid. The CP200d is identical to the analog model in form factor, with all the buttons and knobs in the same places. All the improvements are inside.
If you already own a fleet of CP200 analog radios and are wondering if you should upgrade, here’s a look at what’s in store if you buy the CP200d.
Backward compatibility and dual-mode capacity
Motorola realized its customers would have lots of analog radios that still have years of life left, so it designed the CP200d to work in both digital and analog modes to ensure new radios will communicate with the old ones. And customers who aren’t ready to go digital just yet can buy the CP200d in analog mode and upgrade to digital with a simple software upgrade.
Longer battery life
The CP200d uses a transmission format that requires less power than analog radios, which means it can have about 40 percent more battery life. That can be extremely helpful in ensuring employees’ radios can last an entire shift on a single charge.
Better sound quality
The CP200d translates the human voice into packets of digital data. That allows software to filter out background noise and provide clear transmissions to the edge of a digital radio’s range.
Questions to ask if you’re thinking of upgrading to the CP200d
- How much digital technology are you using already? Digital radios can send and receive data via IP, or Internet Protocol. With the right combination of repeaters and an interface connecting your radio network to the Internet, your radio transmissions can travel the world. Furthermore, digital transmissions create data that can be tracked to improve the efficiency of your operation. If you’re already tapping into the Big Data trend, your digital radios can become yet another data source for your analytics software.
- Do you need more security? Digital radios have built-in encryption, which can protect your transmissions from scanners and snoopers. This is key if your business deals with confidential data or site security.
- Do you need more network capacity? The CP200d uses one-half of the channel capacity of the analog version, so you can use two digital radios for every analog radio you now have in place without having to secure additional frequencies.