Lscott

My buddy didn’t program the radio. He purchased it from another Ham who had gotten it from a guy that worked for the FBI, I believe he said, tonight at our weekly coffee meet. I’ve seen a person selling a service doing exactly what you mentioned, hacking the code plug, in this case to drop the lower limit to 440 from the normal 450. I’ve hacked some Kenwood code plugs, the ones I played with used simple XOR encryption, to see what they really contain. The idea was to hack a code plug for one of the cheap ProTalk radios, the ones where you can only select frequencies from a predefined list, to enter some GMRS channels. I don’t have one so I sort of dropped the idea for now.

Check it out. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorola-XPR6550-Mototrbo-Digital-Two-Way-Walkie-Talkie-UHF-Portable-Radio-/174821776460?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m2548.l6249&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0

If you can find the FCC ID look it up and see what certifications it has, likely just Part 90.

The version I found on-line has some modified DLL files to enable the Canada full frequency range for programming anything above 866MHz for radios in that part of the UHF band, enabling the 25/20 KHz bandwidth and by-passing any code plug passwords that might be set. The password thing looks like it works because I downloaded a sample template. Using the RM app, I think I tried, to edit the template it wanted a password. I followed the patch instruction to type in anything and it will work, which it did. After playing with the Radio Manager app I have to agree it's NOT for working with just a few radios, but a rather large fleet. I had it installed so might as well play with it. Looks like I can just ignore it now. The Motorola stuff works different than any of the other CPS systems for my other radios. I do have the D878UV and built a code plug from scratch with both analog and DMR channels. That got me somewhat familiar with DMR concepts. Looks like most of that applies to the Motorola radios. Just have to sort out whatever the differences are in the terminology. At least the help files aren't too bad. I'll be talking to my buddy about buying his XPR6550 if he doesn't want way to much for it. Some of the used ones on eBay look pretty good price wise, at least not crazy expensive. One thing I quickly found out using the Motorola CPS, when they say the frequency range for a given model is 403 to 470, they mean it. You can't enter anything outside of that range. Kenwood radios are not like that. They will let you enter in an out of range frequency but you have to click through a warning message each time you do it. Looking at used XPR6550's on eBay I'm checking the FCC ID numbers to make sure exactly whats being sold. One seller has a radio up for sale, but all the ID stickers are very obviously missing. You figure out what that means.

I'm with you on that account.

For GMRS all you really need is a 1/4 wave antenna. That's about 6 inches long. The multi-band antenna won't do you much good unless you have a multi-band radio. The antenna is physically longer because it's likely designed to work on the VHF band where the frequency is lower and thus you need a longer antenna to be resonate. Stay away from the ultra short ones too, those seems to be around 3 to 4 inches long, and will defiantly be inferior to the normal 1/4 wave design. If you're the kind of person who likes to sit the radio upright on a table to monitor the longer antenna makes the radio more prone to falling over. Be vary careful buying cheap antenna off sites like Amazon, eBay etc. They are full of counterfeit antennas with packaging that looks almost identical to the real deal. Nagoya antennas seem to be one of the favorite ones that get counterfeited.

Best thing is look in the service manual. If its possible the manual will explain how its done. Looking briefly it appears the answer is no to your question. http://manuals.repeater-builder.com/Kenwood/tk/TK-8360/TK-8360(H)(K2_M2)_B51-8964-00.pdf As a matter of practice I spend time hunting down all the relevant documentation, in PDF format, for any radios I have or plan on buying. I have a library of folders for each radio/model series with user guides, service manuals, notes, FCC grants, modifications if any and manufactures brochures. The last one is the first thing I look for when thinking about purchasing a used radio. Excellent source for features, exact frequency ranges, on UHF it's common to have more that one, number of memory channels etc. If I don't like what I see then I've saved myself some money by not getting something I won't like or can't use. https://pdfs.kenwoodproducts.com/30/TK-7360HV-8360HUBrochure.pdf http://manual.kenwood.com/files/53d7482397066.pdf https://fccid.io/K44415502

I'm thinking about maybe adding some Motorola radios to my collection. Looking to buy a buddy's UHF XPR6550, and later adding in the VHF version. Before doing so I want to be sure I can even program Motorola radios, otherwise they'll just be expensive paper weights. I located and installed Mototrbo CPS V16 build 828, with the wide band (25/20 KHz) and full Canadian frequency hack. It seems to work but is considerably different than any other radio programming software I've used. My question is there any good written training materials for download showing how to use it? The actual code plug editor I'm sort of figuring out, playing with one of the sample code plugs, but creating radio "templates" using the Radio Manager app I'm getting nowhere with it. I added what I think are some radios but I can't seem to locate or add in the so-called templates. The software looks like the aim is for fleet management of radios. Maybe it's just not what I should be worrying about.

Business band type radios like the Kenwood's do not use offsets. If you look at the radio programming software there are two entries for frequencies. One is strictly used for receiving and the other is just for transmitting. For example you want to use a repeater the receive frequency would be 462.675 and the transmit frequency is 467.675. There are two tones which you can use, separately, also for receiving and transmitting. The transmit tone is the "ENC" while the receive tone is "DEC". You don't have to use a receive tone. I never use them, just the transmit tone. That way I don't care what tone the repeater transmits, I'll still hear it.

That's actually is very well made! VHF and UHF antennas are fun to build since they are rather small for the simpler designs. If you look around on the Internet you can find scanned PDF's of antenna design books. I'm not talking about the crazy vector calculus filled pages using Maxwell's equations either. They are basically construction projects that anybody with modest skills and tools can build. This is just a sample of what you can on the Internet with some effort looking. http://hamradio.uz/media/uploads/2018/04/19/arrl_antenna_book_21st_ed.pdf

Yikes!!! I never learned to type, and really still can't. I get by using the two-finger method. I don't want to guess how long it took to type that many cards.

I remember when some student used the wrong device code for the output in his FORTRAN assignment. Instead of going to the line printer his data was send to the card reader/punch. Yup, you guessed it. Every source deck after that one was punched full of holes destroying them. Fortunately my job ran before that one. They had a female student retyping all the source decks like a demon on the computer center's key punch machine. That's provide you could read the code printed on the top edge, most of the ribbons were worn out and almost impossible to read.

Now try learning FORTRAN and doing your assignments using a keypunch machine to type up your source deck. Oh, provided they even worked, which was about half the time. Everything was batch processed with a typical 4 to 5 hour turn around time. That was for my engineering degree. Yuck. I remember I had to take a programming class in COBOL for my computer science degree. At least the school had a VAX cluster by then with terminals. You could even dial in from home and log into your account to do your programming projects.

I have a Kenwood TK-2160 coming from an auction. The seller said it worked fine last time he used it 2 years ago when he stored it. Now it doesn’t. He said the battery pack likely failed. It was a NiCAD pack suiting for 2years I’m not surprised. For $22 including shipping for the radio, antenna, charger and a likely failed battery pack it’s not bad. These radios make excellent MURS radios, even if they’re not certified for it. They can be programmed to be compliant however, power, frequencies and bandwidth. http://www.telectronics.biz/assets/mainmenu/59/editor/PDF_leaflet_TK-3160.pdf With 16 channels there is plenty of room for the 5 MURS channels and the 7 NOAA channels with a few left over. The UHF version could be used for GMRS. Enough channels to stick your local repeaters in it and a few of the simplex channels. Doing some careful shopping you can get these radios for a decent price. All the CCR radio type accessories work on them including the programming cable, just not the battery packs or chargers. The programming software is fairy easy to find on the internet and will work on Win 10. I’m thinking about buying a buddy’s Motorola XPR6550. I currently don’t have any Motorola stuff so it will be a learning curve. http://www.streammktg.com/stream/images/specs/TRBO Portables/XPR6000 Series Product Spec Sheet.pdf

Yeah, I suppose one could simply buy a cheap Chinese dual band radio that does Ham 2M, MURS, VHF marine, VHF railroad, VHF NOAA weather channels etc. frequencies, then it can also do the Ham 70cm band, various government and public safety UHF frequencies, UHF FRS, UHF GMRS, UHF business band frequencies etc. for $25 through Amazon. Of course the people who buy it won’t know, or care, about the difference between a megahertz or millimeter. That happened with those combo FRS/GMRS radio a few years ago. They included clear instructions that a license was required to use channels above 14. Nobody cared and nobody bothered to get the license either. With your suggestion nobody is going to be dissuade by a warning tone, message etc. They’re going to press that PTT button all the same as proven by past experience. At least by requiring different radios the potential for mass interference is reduce because the hardware, along with the firmware, limits the operation to a particular service. As long as people act stupidly, or irresponsibly, you get these government regulations. Is it efficient? No. But that isn’t the aim of the regulations either.

One other way to get some exclusivity is picking something like NXDN. Haven't seen any CCR's doing that digital mode yet. I have two radios for it already. One is an HT, NX-340U the other is a mobile, NX-820HG, a freebie from a buddy who didn't want it. https://comms.kenwood.com/common/pdf/download/05_nx240v_340u_K_1117_typeD added.pdf https://comms.kenwood.com/common/pdf/download/10_NX-720HG&820HGBrochure.pdf Both are the 400-470 MHz band split. There is only one repeater around the Detroit area that is listed as being NXDN enabled. In fact it's the only one listed in the whole sate using "repeaterbook.com" to check. https://www.repeaterbook.com/repeaters/details.php?state_id=26&ID=390 I know there is a pocket of NXDN activity in the Florida area. https://ni4ce.org/nxdn-digital-communications/ For P25 these are the only ones listed. https://www.repeaterbook.com/repeaters/feature_search.php?state_id=26&type=P25 The one closest to me I have equipment for it the machine listed for Warren. https://www.repeaterbook.com/repeaters/details.php?state_id=26&ID=276 So between the two modes, P25 and NXDN, nether one is widely used around here. The popular digital modes in Michigan are D-Star, DMR and System Fusion. There is a wide area coverage System Fusion machine in the down town Detroit area. The antennas are on top of the current GM head quarter building at 775 feet AGL. http://www.gmarc.org/wp/

I guess I got lucky with the P25 radio I purchased. This is the original item listing reference number on eBay. 294333278387 I think you can go here and enter the above number. That should bring up the original listing. http://www.watchcount.com/ I spend a lot of time checking eBay using my saved searches to see if anything new pops up for the models I'm looking to buy. If it looks like a good deal I have to spring for it quick before somebody else notices it. That's how I snagged a TK-D340U 32 channel Kenwood DMR radio for around $40 to $50. The same thing happened with a Kenwood NX-340U 32 channel radio for NXDN for $50. Never saw any deals that good since.

True. The P25 activity might pick up with time. I'm guessing that's simply because DMR is becoming more popular. Once people get bored with it they'll jump on the next thing that looks cool and carries some prestige as being unique or rare. Then the cycle starts all over again with repeater networking etc. P25 might also become more popular when more of the business, and particularly government users, switch over to P25 Phase 2 equipment. All the P25 Phase 1 stuff will get dumped on the surplus market.

In general the FCC doesn't like combing different services together. In the case of FRS and GMRS they had already screwed that up years ago by allowing the marketing of dual service FRS/GMRS radios. Almost NOBODY ever got the GMRS license when purchasing those combo bubble-pack radios. The FCC had to throw in the towel and make what was already common practice legal by changing the rules back in 2017/2018. Then they could wash their hand of any enforcement issues.

Thanks. It's good to get another perspective on things. I guess if there isn't going to be much P25 activity around by me or any repeater linking the radio makes for a really nice fancy analog FM one. 8-( I was watching a really short video earlier where a guy was using what looked like a almost new NX-300 just for GMRS while ignoring the digital half, NXDN, of the radio. https://comms.kenwood.com/common/pdf/download/02_NX-200G&300GBrochure.pdf

Actually FRS/MURS would be a better fit. Just have to use a fixed mount antenna. Most of the channels on FRS are already 2 watts. All the MURS channels are also 2 watts. Both services are license free provided one uses FCC certified radios. This would give the average everyday user up to 27 channels split between FRS and MURS. This allows the user to pick which band works better under the current conditions without carrying two radios or having to pick one over the other, and maybe getting poor results because it was the wrong choice. There is a reason why dual band VHF/UHF radios are so popular in the Ham world for example.

Oops. The Kenwood models should have been the NX-200 NX-300 radios. https://comms.kenwood.com/common/pdf/download/301_NX200-300.pdf Motorola https://www.motorolasolutions.com/content/dam/msi/docs/business/products/two-way_radios/portable_radios/wide_area_large_business_portable_radios/xpr_6500/_documents/static_files/mototrbo_portable_spec_sheet.pdf

I’ve been looking at picking up some more commercial radios, analog/digital, for Ham radio. Some models I’ve been looking at are Kenwood TK-200 and TK-300, then I was looking at the Motorola XPR-6550’s (VHF/UHF) types. I have a buddy that has the XPR-6550. The older Kenwood stuff I’ve had good luck finding the programming software. I also have the accessories including the programming cables to fit them from the other radios I have already. These will work on the models I’m looking at. The Motorola radios I have zero for them. I would have to make an investment in cables, battery packs and chargers. The software is my major concern. I need to find it really cheap or less. Further it has to program the radio in both wide and narrow band modes. I also don’t know if you can force the radios to go out of band like the Kenwood radios if the band split is above the Ham band. For example the Kenwood 450-490 band split I can enter, with a warning, frequencies below 450 and get the radios to work down to 440, maybe a bit lower. I stumbled on a review of the XPR-7550 and XPR-6550 on YouTube by a Ham for Ham applications. The comments about the XPR-6550 being limited to 16 channels per scan list seems very limiting for me. I do a lot of passive scanning with my radios, frequently with more than 16 channels being active. The XPR-7550 apparently doesn’t have that limitation but costs significantly more than the XPR-6550 and used some kind of weird antenna jack. The XPR-6550 I can find on the big auction site for $100 more or less in good condition if I shop carefully and wait for a good deal.

Which one did you get? My last major purchase was a TK-5320 analog/P25 UHF radio. There’s hardly any P25 activity in my area, but like you said for experimenting. https://pdfs.kenwoodproducts.com/18/TK-5220&5320Brochure.pdf

This why I use the custom boot up screen option in any of my radios that have the feature. I put my call sign on that screen. Nothing like turning on a stolen radio and seeing the owners ID on the screen. If the thief doesn’t know what it is they might show the boot up screen in their on-line ad. Or whoever buys it will recognize what it is, lookup your callsign up on the FCC database, get your address and contact you if they have any suspicions about the radio’s sale. One other thing on my Kenwood commercial radios there are 2 embedded message blocks, 2 lines of 32 characters each, you can type in any info you want. I use my call sign and home address in it. One is normal the other is password locked against editing. These message blocks get written to the radio as part of the code plug. When the radio is read you can examine what’s in those message blocks. I highly recommend people use this feature if you have it. Every used commercial radio I buy the first thing I do is read out the current contents and check to see what’s in that embedded message block before reprogrammed them. That code plug I save on disk. While the above might not be any guarantee you’ll get a stolen radio back, it will improve the odds.