Vertex VXR-7000 Wideband Programming Problem
After investing about 30 hours of time to troubleshoot problems with a Vertex VXR-7000 recently, I discovered that the software for programming the radio is to blame for a host of problems. If you are using these radios for amateur or GMRS operation this information will be extremely useful for you. Any uses which are wideband and use 5 KHz maximum deviation will experience issues if not aware of this information.
The short story is that you must use CE-27 for Windows V1.8 to program the radio. However, there are two versions of this software and you must be using the “exp” or “Export” version. More on that below.
V1.7 of CE-27win does not allow adjustment of the tx or rx settings. Although it will allow you to view those settings it does not allow changing of them, even in the dealer (-d) mode. One must use V1.8 to actually change the settings.
Both V1.7 and V1.8 of the software has a bug that forces the radio to operate in narrowband mode on all channels. Each channel has a selectable option for wideband operation but it does not work. This is deceptive as even when the channel displays “W” in that cell, the radio will exhibit severe distortion when receiving wideband signals and reduces transmit to 2.25 KHz maximum modulation. The solution for this was to run the “exp” (export?) version of the software which does seem to work properly in this regard.
So if your VXR-7000 has low deviation and/or distorts on receive, it is most likely that the radio has been programmed with the wrong software. I have also found that even if the transmit and receive performance is within spec, if you’re experiencing erratic operation of functions such as remote PTT on the accessory connector, use of the export version of CE-27win V1.8 will correct this as well.