Flameout

I checked the voltage regulator on another 880 and it was basically the same. 13.8 and 7.94. I'm looking over the board now with strong magnification under a bright light.(I will probably need some Tylenol after this) I took the board out of the case, so the photo is the part that was hidden by the case. Is that white stuff normal or are those components failing or already failed?

oh wow, ok. I just read through the data sheet again (I may have to read it a few times) I just checked that voltage regulator that I put in. It was showing 13.8v / gnd / 7.88v so pin 2 of the PA is getting that 7.88 from the volt reg so I guess I can start from there, or should it actually be 6v? I guess the 17v is like the maximum? At least I can hold off on buying a new PA for now. I know I'm probably putting more into this old radio than it is worth, but it's kind of fun trying to figure it out

Thanks for the link. I'm getting a nice little collection of Kenwood TK-880 files. I checked pin 2 and 3 and only pin 3 was gettting power, so maybe the PA is good after all. If I were to bypass everything and temporally supply the (13.6) voltage to pin 2 to see if the radio would actually transmit, would that do more harm than good? I guess I'll start tracing back and see if I can find the problem

Ok, thanks. Well that is well above my pay grade lol. I may take the risk and offer this seller $30. I just have no idea what else may be wrong with the radio. It powers up, programs, red light comes on when transmitting and green comes on for receiving and it is working ok as the rx radio in the repeater setup and sending that signal to the tx radio https://www.ebay.com/itm/403511558565?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=6B03kewjR7i&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=0zihXCkJQWG&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Oh, I did have an antenna connected. I guess the power amplifier is the part that I have circled in my photos? Looks to be around $40 for the 40w, for the 880H. Not sure if it's worth the gamble. Is there a way to test the power amplifier that you (or anyone) know of? I guess that also affects the audio output?

Are the only differences (besides the obvious larger heat sink of the 880H) on these two radios just the RF MOSFET Amplifier Module and the extra voltage regulator on the 880? Am I missing something else? I bought a non working 880H and was able to get it to power on by replacing a diode, a capacitor and the one voltage regulator, but there is no audio and no power coming from the antenna, even though it is transmitting and receiving. I started looking at the two and those are the only differences that I see. Seems weird that the lower power 880 has the 2 voltage regulators where the 880H just has the one. Also, any idea why the 880 has no audio and no power coming from the antenna wire (I tried external speaker and had swr?watt meter attached to antenna wire with zero SWR and zero watt output - even though when I transmit, it is being picked up on an ht nearby) Another thing too, even though the display works on the 880H, the LED's don't Also, don't mind those extra wires. I was testing these radios as RX radios in a portable repeater

I was getting just over 5.7w from mine, and close to 11 when I checked before it went into the duplexer. I'd be a bit upset with that 2.27

Could I have that radio set on a repeater channel, say R21, and transmit 467.700 to a repeater and Rx back on 462.700? I didn't explain myself very well in the previous post,sorry. Just didn't want to screw up the duplexer if I were to TX into the low side which is meant for 462.xxx. Maybe I should just get another antenna

I was able to update the firmware of my nanovna (from 0.4.0 to 0.8.0 build date nov 25, 2019 to jun 19, 2020) so not sure if it's even the latest, now to work on checking the duplexer, but I do have another question. The two TK-880's that I'm using as my portable repeater, can I still use the Tx radio of the repeater to transmit on? Of course it takes it out of the 'repeater' configuration. For example, I still have it programmed with the GMRS channels, but when using it as a repeater, I have it set on channel 19. Can I just plug a mic into that Tx radio and use it, transmitting while it's still connected to the duplexer? Reason I ask is that it is receiving much better on the antenna connected to the duplexer than a small junk antenna connected to my other GMRS radio. The photo is how I have it set up, and the radio on the right is the Rx radio, which is still programmed to the GMRS channels

I was able to get the software up and running on my laptop (win10) but unfortunately can't get it running on my shack computer (win7) First things first, I need to work on updating my older nanovna. Running version 0.4.0-3-ge04d3af from Nov 25, 2019 and as soon as I can figure that out, I'm going to give it a shot at seeing if I can figure out where this duplexer is tuned. Right now I have it up and running on .650 and seems to be working ok. Can this cause interference on say .625 and .675 if it wasn't specifically tuned for .650?

Thanks for that info. There was a video on you tube where someone used that same spectrum analyzer that you linked to. For that price, I may have no choice to to buy one, or something similar haha. The ebay link was also showing a few others. I initially was just building a portable repeater that I could take camping, use in emergency etc but it's easy to get carried away. Although the repeater was working ok using two antennas, adding the duplexer and going with one antenna I thought would be easier. So I now have the cheap Fumie duplexer which I didn't have tuned but says 462-467. I was just curious as to what they actually tuned it to.. I haven't tired it yet as I needed two more N connectors. Really appreciate the help and advice from these forums

I'm going to have to learn this VNA a little better first. I'm kind of lost at what you are saying. I bought this thing over a year ago, but never really got the hang of using it

Ok, thanks. I'm gonna give this another try. I got these numbers but I just had the nanovna connected to low then high. 463.860 and 464.280. It said it was tuned to 462 -467 so I guess I should expect something closer to that

Is there a way to check a duplexers high and low preset using a nanovna? I realize you can tune one this way, but thought maybe there might be a way to find this info. You tube wasn't much help

Ok, thanks. I certainly don't have the equipment to tune one of these things. Seems I have (lots) more reading to do. I have no idea if they are br/br or bp/br but one was a Fumie the other I didn't see a name. Both from China of course so certainly not high end duplexers. I just made a portable repeater out of two Kenwood 880's and it's working ok with separate rx and tx antennas but thought it might be easier with just the one antenna. This isn't something I planned on operating 24/7. Just traveling, camping etc. And I imagine a duplexer would take away some of the power from the TX radio. It's putting out 24 w right now so a duplexer would probably take half of that. Been looking for an 880H, for that little bit more power, but the ones I've found must have gold bars stashed inside

I'm sure this has been answered, but I can't find it. (Sure are lots of results when searching duplexer) If a duplexer says it has been tuned for 462-467 does that mean it will now work on all of the GMRS repeater frequencies, or does it need to be tuned for a specific frequency, like 462.650 - 467.650? I asked a seller on ebay and they had no idea.

In my area, GMRS is all but useless during the day. Pretty my nothing but road crews, construction and others and they ALL seem to want to use 15-22 so more repeaters wouldn't even help. Already have repeaters on 600, 625,675,700 and 725 but as I said, no sense even bothering with it till evening

I got about the same deal. $338 and it included the gmrs antenna and the coax. And it only took 4 days from ordering until it was at my door. I'm actually surprised at how well this little unit works

No, but I'm sure I'll be able to find it. I'll do some searching now. Thanks Axorlov, I don't have that firmware file. Reading through the thread, I believe it is E613.zip right? I haven't had any luck finding it. Right now I have that V 2.0 radio set up as a Rx only in a makeshift repeater system that I made using 2 TK880's and so far it has been acting ok. No yyyyy screen, but my email is my username at gmail

Yes, the entire front panel. Just two screws and the ribbon cable. Sorry for not being more specific. I'm kind of surprised that all of that stuff is on that small PC board. Still confusing though. So my 2.0 radio itself is ok, it's the front panel that has the problems. So the radio box is the same between versions, just the display panels are different?

I realize that this is an older thread, but I've been playing around with a few TK880's (2 are V1 and 1 is V 2.0) I just recently got the V2, programmed it and worked good for a few days, then I got the yyyyyyy screen. Reprogrammed it again and it was good. I noticed the display was brighter than my other 2 radios, so I swapped it to on of the better radios (the V2 was in bad shape, as far as crud on the PC board) Was an easy swap and all was good, but then the V1 that I put the brighter display in got the yyyyyy screen. I then swapped the screens back and that is when I realized that it wasn't the radio causing it, but it was the display itself and the yyyyy display showed up on the previous good radio and the bad radio that was showing yyyyy was now fine The V 2.0 radio was also showing VER: 1.5205 but that too follows the screen and nothing to do with the radio as it also was showing that when I had that screen in the other radio. How is that possible? I still haven't found a way to fix that V 2.0 radio and the yyyyy. When I bought the radio, it was SUPPOSED to be the 880H but seller sent wrong radio so he refunded my money and let me keep the radio. I'd be a little more upset if it was the 880H and I put money out on it. BTW, still looking for an 880H

The outside antenna is a Comet CA-712 EFC. I kind of just now reconfigured my shack. I'm now using the Icom 2821 for GMRS (and scanning) and back to only 2m-440 (and scanning) for the Icom 2730 with an outside Comet GP-6. I'm still a bit surprised at how much better the older 2821 receives signals

I found this out by accident while playing around with some radios. Two older radios, an Icom IC-F2821 and a couple of Kenwood TK880's and a newer Icom IC-2730a. I have been using the 2730a mostly, but stuck a cheap mobile antenna into the 2821 and started picking up a somewhat local GMRS repeater that the 2730a wasn't receiving, using an outside, roof mounted antenna. Tried the cheap mobile antenna on the 880 and also worked great, picking up the repeater. I tried the mobile antenna in the 2730 and nothing. Of course both the 2821 and 880's worked great with the outdoor antenna. Is it because the 2821 and 880's are more of a commercial radio where the 2730 is more consumer oriented radio?

The top part of the antenna can be removed and it is the exact diameter of brazing rods that I have. They fit right in and can trimmed to achieve a good swr

I took out the antenna part from the base and inserted brazing rod. I cut it down till SWR is good. Checking SWR using a Comet CCA-500 set at around 465.000. I did that with a Nagoya UT72 (I think that's the model) and found that a piece of rod cut to about 4" has best SWR. All testing was done with antenna in center of car roof