Order economics
Why two quotes for the same R7 differ
A quote is a configuration, not a model number. The five lines that usually differ between two R7 quotes, and how to make them comparable before you decide.
Buyer notes
Decisions that get made before a purchase order exists
Each note answers one question a buyer has to settle before the order can be written — which band, which build, which name on the paperwork. Where the answer depends on your regulator, your site or your forwarder, the note says so instead of guessing.
The reference material these notes are built on
- Selection FAQThe eight questions that decide an order.
- Full catalogueAll 112 recorded identifiers, with their parameters.
Band and power
The first decision is not which handset — it is which frequency range your licence covers. These notes work backwards from the licence to the ordering code.
Band selection
UHF 403-470 MHz or UHF 403-527 MHz — which one does your licence need?
Both ranges are recorded in this catalogue, and the difference is not quality — it is where the ceiling sits. If your licensed frequencies sit above 470 MHz, only one of the two blocks reaches them.
Band selection
VHF or UHF — which one works on your site?
The general rule is well established: VHF travels further across open ground, UHF gets into and around structures. Your licence still decides — but the site tells you what to ask for.
Band selection
The 800 MHz option in a DMR handset — and what "on selected models" means
25 identifiers record an 800 MHz option, and the records describe it in four different ways. Only one of those wordings commits a single unit to covering the band.
Names and order codes
The same hardware is sold under different names in different regions. A tender document, a purchase order and a shipping label can therefore describe one radio three ways.
Naming
XPR, XiR, DGP and DP — four names, and which one your order actually needs
This catalogue records 156 regional counterpart names across 76 identifiers. They are not extra products — they are the same hardware under the names each region sold it as.
Naming, worked example
Is the DP1400 the same radio as the XiR P3688, the CP200d or the DEP450?
Yes, as a family relationship — and that is the whole of the claim. This catalogue records three counterparts for the DP1400, one per market, and none of them is a specification.
Names and order codes
Before you reorder, read the label — not the panel
A family name covers several builds. The label on the chassis is what distinguishes them, and a photograph of it removes the round of questions that a description cannot.
Names and order codes
DP4801, DP4801e and DP4801 Ex: three identifiers, three radios
The numbering reads like a sequence. The records describe four builds: IP57 on two, IP68 on one, IP67 on the Ex, and a UHF ceiling that drops on the Ex alone.
Selection basics
Analog or digital, how many channels, how many units. These are the questions that set the shape of the order before any model is chosen.
Reference material: Selection FAQ
Analog segment
GP338 and GP340: what 128 channels buys over 16
Two analog portables that look alike on a quote, recorded at 128 channels and 16. The channel plan decides which one a site needs, not the price.
Middle of the range
DP2400 or DP2400e — the letter changes the build
The e is not a revision of the same radio. One record holds 16 channels at IP55, the other 64 at IP67 — a build decision that a price comparison hides.
Site coverage
DR3000: what a repeater changes that a radio cannot
A repeater is not a bigger radio. It changes the licence, the antenna system and where the equipment can sit — and the record states indoor rack equipment, not a portable.
System choice
Analog or digital DMR — which does a new fleet actually need?
Digital is not simply the newer analog. It changes what the radio can be asked to do — and it changes what happens when part of your fleet stays analog.
Energy items
Is this part number the right battery for this handset?
A battery part number is easy to quote and easy to get wrong: it looks like a commodity item, but it carries a chemistry and a voltage that have to match the handset. The fit list is the check — provided you read it for what it actually is.
Selection basics
Handheld or vehicle-mounted: which one the job asks for
Most fleets need both, and the ratio is set by counting posts rather than people. Three things change with the form factor: where the antenna sits, what powers the radio, and who signs it out.
Industry configurations
What changes between buyers is the ordering priority, not the brand. Each note starts from the operating environment and works towards a specification.
Hospitality
Radios for hotel and hospitality staff — which builds, and how many channels?
In a guest-facing operation the radio is visible to customers, is carried for a full shift, and is handed to people who started this morning. Those three facts set the specification.
Mining
How many radios and which build for a mining site?
Mining ranks requirements differently from an office or a hotel: the equipment is abused, shifts are long, and a flat battery stops a section rather than a conversation.
Logistics and ports
How many radios does a logistics fleet need, and how do you plan the channels?
Fleet size is not headcount. It follows from concurrent positions, shift overlap and charging — and the channel plan follows from who has to reach whom, not from the size of the yard.
Configurations
One catalogue, six operating environments — what actually changes
Every buyer draws from the same catalogue. What separates a mining specification from a hotel specification is the order the questions are asked in — and in four of the six environments below, one constraint overrides that order entirely.
Security and guarding
Radios for a security and guarding operation — what the configuration changes
A guarding operation buys for people who were trained this morning and may not be here next month. That changes the specification before any model is named, and it changes what the fleet actually costs to run.
Warehousing
Radios inside a warehouse — what the building does to the specification
A warehouse is the one site where adding more building makes coverage worse. Racking, machinery and noise change the specification before the model list is reached, and the shift pattern decides how the fleet is charged.
Education
Radios for a school or campus — why the roles decide, not the roll count
A school is a site with a public face, a large transient staff population and a calendar that leaves the building empty for weeks. Each of those changes the specification, and none of them is a function of how many pupils there are.
Import and admission
A radio is admitted to a country, then authorised to transmit, then released to the buyer. These are three separate permissions granted by three different parties, and no supplier can settle any of them on your behalf.
Reference material: Support
Import and admission
Four questions that decide whether a radio order clears and may be switched on
A radio order has to pass four separate permissions before anyone can switch it on. None is granted by the supplier, and each is decided at a different point in the order — which is why settling them in the wrong order is what causes the delay.
First order
Buying two-way radios for a market you have not ordered in before
A first order into an unfamiliar market fails for administrative reasons far more often than technical ones. The hardware is rarely the unknown; what is unknown is who decides what, and which claims on a catalogue page have actually been verified.
Editorial policy
Buyer notes are written from the catalogue and the published reference pages. They carry no parameter the site cannot evidence, and an unconfirmed value stays unconfirmed here too.
Nothing here is written to fill a page. Where a note would have to assert a parameter, a certification or a price that this operation cannot evidence, the note is either not published or it says plainly that the answer is decided elsewhere — by your regulator, your site authority or your freight forwarder.
BaltiGo is a trading and distribution company supplying Motorola two-way radio hardware into markets worldwide. It does not claim to be a Motorola authorised dealer, official distributor or channel partner.
Enquiry
Send the decision, not the model number
The band you are licensed for, the destination country and the quantity settle more of a quotation than any model name. Build a brief and the first reply can be a specification rather than a question.