Word of warning if you're thinking about buying a Motorola though - it's an arcane platform and you're gonna need specialized equipment and software just to set it up. This stuff is available, but particularly for the software, can be hard to find. The exception is radios that mention "FPP" or "front panel programmable".
This is why I generally don't recommend Motorolas unless you're looking for a whole new hobby.
That’s very good information. I’m a radio idiot, but I don’t want to be. Is there a satisfactory interoperable radio platform that has good range and supports encryption—but isn’t $500?
I'm not really sure these days, haven't really been active in the radio hobby for quite a while. Ham regs prohibit crypto so it's pretty much never found on radios intended for ham use. I wouldn't be too surprised if there's some Chinese "ham" set that does, but this is just speculation and I haven't ever seen such a thing.
If you want an interoperable crypto-capable radio you're pretty much looking at something that supports "APCO-25" (aka P25) and intended for professional/LE/military use, with the whole can of "professional radio" worms that entails (need a whole tool chain to program it, and probably more stuff to actually load crypto keys in it).
Motorola XTS P25s are shockingly cheap on ebay these days. Not sure how easy it is to enable AES on a basic radio but IIRC they all support it.
Not that I recommend anyone that "just wants a radio" going down the Moto rabbithole...
Which frequency capability should I be looking at?
UHF is probably your best bet.
Word of warning if you're thinking about buying a Motorola though - it's an arcane platform and you're gonna need specialized equipment and software just to set it up. This stuff is available, but particularly for the software, can be hard to find. The exception is radios that mention "FPP" or "front panel programmable".
This is why I generally don't recommend Motorolas unless you're looking for a whole new hobby.
That’s very good information. I’m a radio idiot, but I don’t want to be. Is there a satisfactory interoperable radio platform that has good range and supports encryption—but isn’t $500?
I'm not really sure these days, haven't really been active in the radio hobby for quite a while. Ham regs prohibit crypto so it's pretty much never found on radios intended for ham use. I wouldn't be too surprised if there's some Chinese "ham" set that does, but this is just speculation and I haven't ever seen such a thing.
If you want an interoperable crypto-capable radio you're pretty much looking at something that supports "APCO-25" (aka P25) and intended for professional/LE/military use, with the whole can of "professional radio" worms that entails (need a whole tool chain to program it, and probably more stuff to actually load crypto keys in it).