The Motorola CM200, CM300 and PM400 (and similar) Mobile Radio Index page

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Back to Home The Motorola "Commercial Series"
(CM200, CM300, PM400 and similar)
Mobile Radio Index Page
Compiled by Robert Meister WA1MIK from information provided by WA6ILQ
Currently Maintained by Mike Morris WA6ILQ

The "Commercial Series" of mobile radios, which includes the CM200, CM300 and PM400 mobiles and the CP200, CP200XLS and PR400 portables were the follow-on series to the CDM mobile and HT750/1250/1550 product line. Unfortunately the CM mobile series was discontinued in November 2014; they were replaced by the CM200D / CM300D / PR400D (suposedly the same radio, just does both conventional and DMR) or the XPR series of mobile radios (conventional and DMR). All support of the non-D-series CM radios has been discontinued. Parts are limited.

You can't program the commercial series with your regular Moto RJ-45 programming cable. Motorola wants you to purchase a PMKN4147 series cable... but instead you can modify your existing cable by adding a 100 ohm resistor. See the "Updating the cable" article below.

The CM200 / CM300 / PM400 are the most common mobile members of the commercial series in the USA and were made in three power levels (1-25, 25-45 (VHF), and 25-40 (UHF) watts. VHF radios were made in two ranges, 136-152 MHz (rare) and 146-174 MHz (common). The UHF version radios were made in two ranges, 438-470 MHz (common) and 465-495 MHz (rare).

You CAN hex edit a saved codeplug file and stretch the boundaries of a CM / PM / CP / PR series... for example a 146-174 MHz radio can be stretched down to 144 MHz amateur radio frequencies but you might loose a little sensitivity and transmit RF power... Tricking any individual commercial series radio to operate out of it's range depends on the tolerances of the individual receive and transmit RF components... Most will work, a few might not. The same method should allow a 438-470 MHz radio to to accept a frequency at, for example, 436 MHz, or stretching the receive side of a 465-495 MHz radio down to 462 MHz for GMRS. See the detailed article below.

The commercial series radios are programmed by RVN4191 CPS, which runs under Windows 95, 98, XP, 7 and probably 8 and 10. WA6ILQ has not needed to try it on anything later than Win7sp1. Let him know if you are successful and he'll update this paragraph. The help files for that CPS mention the CP150, CP200 and PR400 handhelds, the CM200, CM300, PM400 mobiles, the EP450, EM200, EM400, GM3188, GM3688, GM3189 and GM3689, and probably more. Revision R05.16 is the one to look for and use, as it is the last one that allows wide and narrow selection and does it on a per-channel basis. Revision R05.17 is the latest / last one, however it is narrow only unless you have a wideband entitlement key from Motorola.

Your author has been told (but has been unable to verify) that:
1) The only difference between the last two revisions is the forced narrowband.
2) Once you use a later version you can't go back to an earlier version.

See the CM Series Notes article below for some more details.

CM200 / CM300 / PM400 Manuals, Brochures, Guides, and Other Printed Material:

Some CM notes from Mike WA6ILQ

A CM200 / CM300 Brochure (2004 vintage) 2.85 MB PDF

CM300 Specification Sheet (2010 vintage) 141KB PDF

CM Product Line Model Number Decoder 10KB PDF
This was extracted from the Basic and Detailed service manuals listed below and compiled by WA6ILQ.

CM200 / CM300 / PM400 Mobile Radio Basic Service Manual 6802966C15-A (2004) 3.9 MB PDF

CM200 / CM300 / PM400 Mobile Radio Detailed Service Manual (UHF) 6881098C00-A (2007) 9.1 MB PDF

CM200 / CM300 / PM400 Mobile Radio Detailed Service Manual (VHF) 6802966C20-C (2009) 10.1 MB PDF

CM200d / CM300d Mobile Radio Basic Service Manual 68009618001-A (June 2013) 16 MB PDF
This manual is for the "D" series / MotoTurbo radios.

CM200 / CM300 / PM400 Mobile Radio Installation Guide 68P02966C25-A (2003) 880 kB PDF
Chapters 7 through 10 cover noise reduction. Worth reading.

CM200 User Guide 6802966C30-B (2004) 975 kB PDF

CM300 User Guide 6881096C22-A (2004) 2.0 MB PDF

PM400 User Guide 6881096C32-B (2004) 2.9 MB PDF

The Motorola Cancellation Memo on the CP200, PR400, CM200, CM300 and PM400 series 2.9 MB PDF
Dated 08-22-2014, Suggested replacements include the CP200d handheld, the CM200d, CM300d and the XPR series mobiles.

Modification Articles and Other Information:

Updating the standard Motorola mobile programming cable so it works with the "Commercial Series" radios by Robert W. Meister WA1MIK
This series of radios requires either an FKN8096B cable adapter or a modification to the standard programming cable before the radio will go into programming mode. You will want to modify / upgrade your existing programming cable with a 100 ohm 1/4 watt resistor. This article walks you through the how and the why.
The cable that is modified with the resistor is completely backward compatible and can be used with all of the older radios.

Stretching the Frequency Range of the Motorola "Commercial Series" Radios by Mike Morris WA6ILQ
This article walks you through the process to hex edit a codeplug (NOT the CPS) to allow operation out of band. Your individual success depends on how far out of range you go... performance is limited by the RF components in the indvidual radio. Back in January of 2020 the author needed to do it to a CM300, however from emailed reports this process has been succcessful on a CM200, a CP200 and a PM400... the other "Commercial Series" Radios should be identical.

Three Service Notes: If your wattmeter says you have a low RF power situation on a new-to-you radio...

If you are using a "D" series (i.e. CM300D) and you are in a digital mode you need to realize that your wattmeter is designed for analog signals and is going to misread on a DMR signal. You need to program an analog frequency into the radio and read the power there.

If you have a low RF power problem then first check the power setting in the programming software. The radios low power and high power can be adjusted. Each mode can have a selection of low power and high power. Out of a fleet of eight surplus radios three were between 10 watts and 14 watts out.... On those three someone had programmed the high power down. After the power setting was reset all three were fine.

The design of the radio has a thermal sensor circuit on the RF power amplifier. A colleague in west Texas had a a number of radios that had failed with a very low RF power output. It gets hot in the summer in west Texas. He was able to bring them back to full power by simply disassembling the radio, removing the circuit board, flipping it over and cleaning off the PA heat sink pads of the old thermal compound, appling new compound and reassembling the radio.
Conjecture: the users ran them at high power and the factory thermal compound dried out, shrank, lost contact and the PA overheated. The thermal protection circuit did what it was supposed to do and shut down the PA. In this situation it might be worth switching to the "Artic Silver" product made for computer processors.

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A joint CDM / CM page was created 07-Oct-2016 by WA1MIK from material on the main Motorola page by WA6ILQ.
The page was split and the CM material was moved to its own page in October of 2021

This web page, this web site, the information presented in and on its pages and in these modifications and conversions is © Copyrighted 1995 and (date of last update) by Kevin Custer W3KKC and multiple originating authors. All Rights Reserved, including that of paper and web publication elsewhere.

	Some CM notes from Mike WA6ILQ
	A CM200 / CM300 Brochure (2004 vintage) 2.85 MB PDF
	CM300 Specification Sheet (2010 vintage) 141KB PDF
	CM Product Line Model Number Decoder 10KB PDF This was extracted from the Basic and Detailed service manuals listed below and compiled by WA6ILQ.
	CM200 / CM300 / PM400 Mobile Radio Basic Service Manual 6802966C15-A (2004) 3.9 MB PDF
	CM200 / CM300 / PM400 Mobile Radio Detailed Service Manual (UHF) 6881098C00-A (2007) 9.1 MB PDF
	CM200 / CM300 / PM400 Mobile Radio Detailed Service Manual (VHF) 6802966C20-C (2009) 10.1 MB PDF
	CM200d / CM300d Mobile Radio Basic Service Manual 68009618001-A (June 2013) 16 MB PDF This manual is for the "D" series / MotoTurbo radios.
	CM200 / CM300 / PM400 Mobile Radio Installation Guide 68P02966C25-A (2003) 880 kB PDF Chapters 7 through 10 cover noise reduction. Worth reading.
	CM200 User Guide 6802966C30-B (2004) 975 kB PDF
	CM300 User Guide 6881096C22-A (2004) 2.0 MB PDF
	PM400 User Guide 6881096C32-B (2004) 2.9 MB PDF
	The Motorola Cancellation Memo on the CP200, PR400, CM200, CM300 and PM400 series 2.9 MB PDF Dated 08-22-2014, Suggested replacements include the CP200d handheld, the CM200d, CM300d and the XPR series mobiles.

	Updating the standard Motorola mobile programming cable so it works with the "Commercial Series" radios by Robert W. Meister WA1MIK This series of radios requires either an FKN8096B cable adapter or a modification to the standard programming cable before the radio will go into programming mode. You will want to modify / upgrade your existing programming cable with a 100 ohm 1/4 watt resistor. This article walks you through the how and the why. The cable that is modified with the resistor is completely backward compatible and can be used with all of the older radios.
	Stretching the Frequency Range of the Motorola "Commercial Series" Radios by Mike Morris WA6ILQ This article walks you through the process to hex edit a codeplug (NOT the CPS) to allow operation out of band. Your individual success depends on how far out of range you go... performance is limited by the RF components in the indvidual radio. Back in January of 2020 the author needed to do it to a CM300, however from emailed reports this process has been succcessful on a CM200, a CP200 and a PM400... the other "Commercial Series" Radios should be identical.
	Three Service Notes: If your wattmeter says you have a low RF power situation on a new-to-you radio... If you are using a "D" series (i.e. CM300D) and you are in a digital mode you need to realize that your wattmeter is designed for analog signals and is going to misread on a DMR signal. You need to program an analog frequency into the radio and read the power there. If you have a low RF power problem then first check the power setting in the programming software. The radios low power and high power can be adjusted. Each mode can have a selection of low power and high power. Out of a fleet of eight surplus radios three were between 10 watts and 14 watts out.... On those three someone had programmed the high power down. After the power setting was reset all three were fine. The design of the radio has a thermal sensor circuit on the RF power amplifier. A colleague in west Texas had a a number of radios that had failed with a very low RF power output. It gets hot in the summer in west Texas. He was able to bring them back to full power by simply disassembling the radio, removing the circuit board, flipping it over and cleaning off the PA heat sink pads of the old thermal compound, appling new compound and reassembling the radio. Conjecture: the users ran them at high power and the factory thermal compound dried out, shrank, lost contact and the PA overheated. The thermal protection circuit did what it was supposed to do and shut down the PA. In this situation it might be worth switching to the "Artic Silver" product made for computer processors.