Flameout

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

I was curious about a couple of mobile mag mount antennas. I recently purchased a Kenwood TK880 from ebay and it came with an antenna. I just figured it was a junk antenna, but it was this one https://www.mobilemark.com/product/a1845-series/ The actual antenna, that goes into the mount has a sticker 450-470 but testing SWR it is well over 3.5:1. I've had luck in the past using brazing rods, so I tried it and SWR dropped way down, to about 1.7:1. Testing with a continuity tester, there is continuity between the center pin of the PL-259 and the outer screw on part. If I take off the antenna, there is no continuity, so I assume the base is good. When I check the actual antenna though (photo attached) there is continuity between the center pin and the screw on part. Is that normal? I know my Midland MXTA26 isn't like that

Sounds good, thanks

I just picked up another Kenwood TK-880 that came with a microphone. The only problem is the 880's have a 8 pin RJ-45 and the microphone I received has 6 pins. My other 880 has an 8 pin mic. Does that matter as long as it works? It is a Kenwood mic, with no model number or anything. Just says Dynamic Microphone - Impedance 600 ohms - Made in Japan

I have given up experimenting and have come crawling to the forums for help. What do I need to set in the software in order to get the keypad on the microphone to work? I somehow have the * key displaying MEMORY RCL and # key MEMORY STO. None of the other keys do anything

What he said. For example, ALH24593110 brings up this: https://fccid.io/ALH24593110

What I did was set up a cw wav file of callsign and then set up task manager in my computer to play it every hour (or whatever time frame you choose) and the headphone out from computer goes to mic input on a cheap baofeng on low pwr, VOX turned on and set to repeater rx frequency. For me was 467.550 pl 136.5. Seems to be working just fine

I received my programing cable 2 days early and it works great. The programming software is a bit complicated though. Using the CS-F3020/F5010/F5020 I was able to read the radio. Sure are lots of setting for an 8 channel radio. I imagine some of those setting are for other radios too, with more channels and LCD screens Took a bit, but I was able to write all 8 channels with GMRS repeater info and all working. Radio puts out 4.6w/26w/44w. I still can't figure out how to set up scan all 8 channels (A and B ) with 1 button, if it's even possible. There seems to be lots this radio can do, but with no LCD screen, you'd need to carry a notepad/cheetsheet to remember everything. I've already written to the radio about a dozen times, experimenting

I did order a cable from bluemax49 on Ebay (will be here next Wed) but thought I'd take a shot at making a cable. I see there are lots of cheaper ones out there (that I guess don't use that chip) and see they are hit or miss as to them working. I figured the worst that would happen is that it doesn't work

If I we're to attempt to make a programing cable, does anyone know which wires would go to which pins on the RJ45, based on these diagrams?

I was just kind of experimenting with the different frequencies, to make sure I was doing thing correctly. The only thing I really want to use the radio for is GMRS repeater. I did enter a 70cm local repeater into it and it does work fine in the 443 MHz range

I ended up getting Scan to work. I just needed to put a check in "Off Hook Scan"

I was given an Icom F6011 because it kept blowing fuses. turned out that someone had mickey moused the power cable. I fixed it and now it powers up nice an putting out about 42 watts. The problem is, I have no idea how to program it (It certainly isn't as simple as my Icom 2730a) Is this radio worth the trouble of a good programming cable? The guy on ebay (Mark) has this: FTDI USB Programming Cable Icom IC-F6011 IC-F6021 IC-F6022 + CS Cloning OPC-1122 but isn't that software really complicated to use? It is the 400-470 MHz, 8 channel, so I imagine it would be good for GMRS. It does accept PL tones, right? I just want to find out as much as I can before buying another programing cable. I downloaded cs-f3020_f5010_f5020_v3.4 but I see this cable comes with OPC-1122. Is that the software I could use to program?

It is scanning now. Under Edit-Scan Information I had to check Off Hook Scan

Maybe I just have a bad scan button? But if I assign something other that 'Scan' to it, it works. I tried those steps and the scan button does nothing. On the display, it is showing which channels are selected to be scanned and I can turn that on or off with the A button. I only have 1 group, using the name GMRS and the number 1. I bet I've written to this radio 50 times today lol. I'm sure I'm probably missing something simple

I just realized my screens were different and I wasn't showing the same setting. I figured out I need to open as Conventional and not Trunking. I really appreciate everyones help. Only thing I need to get working now is scan. I have it selected/assigned to Scan key, but it does nothing (Even though the channels that I added were included in the scan

I somehow got it working, but no idea what setting I changed but now rather than a channel name showing up,like it was, it is just numbers. There sure are lots of different settings in the program! I probably should have been saving the file after each change. Now I have no idea how to get it back into showing the channel name. Is it capable of showing the channel and name and channel number?