Kenwood TK 840 Producing Low Audio

[donniefitz2]

I bought a TK 840 on eBay and got it all programmed for my local repeaters. I tested the radio with my SWR/watt meter and I'm at 1.01 SWR pushing 26 watts. It's so nice to see a radio produce power above its stated range.

All good and well, but everyone I have talked to says my audio is really low. Like, they can barely hear me. Sure enough, testing with a HT revealed very low volume during transmission. 

It could be a bad mic and I've already ordered a new one, but, does anyone know if there's a microphone gain setting on the TK 840? I don't see anything in the software. 

[OffRoaderX]

are you sure you're transmitting in wide-band?

[donniefitz2]

1 minute ago, OffRoaderX said:

are you sure you're transmitting in wide-band?

As far as I know it is. The TK 840 is wide band only. There's a TK 840 (N) that's narrow band, but the normal one, this one, is wide band.

[dhardin53]

wild shot here; Is the repeater in or output narrow bad?  Just a guess.

[donniefitz2]

I'm hitting several different repeaters so I'm not sure. I was able to take the mic apart and clean it up, which seems to have improved it's performance. I have a new one coming soon so I'll be able to compare them and see if it is the mic or the radio. 

As for a mic gain control on the radio, I have found there isn't one.