TYT TH-9800 clicking noise on 2m transmit

[Wayfarer]

Hi all,
 

New member here.  Longtime ham but new to GMRS.

I just got a new TH-9800 and so far it's great.  Nice simple controls, easy to program, wideband coverage, seems to be well made. 

One oddity though.  On 2m, the radio emits an audible chirpy clicking noise when the PTT is pushed and then another chirp/click when the PTT is released.  The sound is not coming from the speaker, it's coming from some component inside the radio, likely a relay.  It's loud enough to be objectionable in the shack, where I plan to use this radio.  440 transmit is quiet, no chirping noise, it's just on 2m.  This happens on both my 2m/440 antenna and a dummy load, both under 1.2:1 SWR and at all TX power levels.

Is this normal for this radio and not something I should worry about?  In the back of my mind, I'm worried it might be a defective relay that will completely fail at some point.  But this is also my first experience with Chinese radios and so maybe this is normal.  I would think if this was normal relay noise, it'd be present on both 2m and 440.  I've never had this on any other VHF/UHF radio I've had, but those have been Kenwood and Icom, so maybe the Chinese radios are different.  The radio is brand new.  

Thanks,

Darren

WRMU706

[GrouserPad]

I was told by the amature operators on our local gmrs repeater that you aren’t allowed to use that type of radio on gmrs. 

[SteveShannon]

10 minutes ago, GrouserPad said:

I was told by the amature operators on our local gmrs repeater that you aren’t allowed to use that type of radio on gmrs. 

He never said that he did.  He is a longtime ham (second sentence) and describes the radio’s power under 2 meters and 70 centimeters. But even if he does use it on GMRS it wouldn’t upset me.

[GrouserPad]

1 minute ago, SteveShannon said:

He never said that he did.  He is a longtime ham (second sentence) and describes the radio’s power under 2 meters and 70 centimeters. But even if he does use it on GMRS it wouldn’t upset me.

Doesn’t upset me a bit either. Wish him the best with his radio and I hope he figures out the issue. 

[WRTC928]

I have the same radio, but I've never noticed that. It's possible mine does it but it's so quiet that I haven't noticed it yet. Next time I'm in the car, I'll check and see.

[LeeBo]

Is it the heat sink fan running? That fan runs anytime the PTT button is pressed and does make a “clicking” sound.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Wayfarer]

Yes, the heat sink fan runs as normal on both 2m and 70cm.  Just to make sure that wasn't the sound. I held the fan motionless with a pencil eraser and didn't make a difference.  

Ironically, I was sent here from my ham groups who told me most people use that radio on gmrs, not ham, and I would have better luck checking with a gmrs forum. 

Thanks for the quick replies. Doesn't sound like this is normal then. 

I'm pretty sure it's a relay.  It's loud enough to hear in the shack, but probably not enough to hear in a mobile.  Might just run the radio until it fails hopefully while still under warranty.  The radio is a day old, so there's still 364 days of warranty remaining.  I plan to use the radio heavily this summer in the Idaho backcountry, so it'll get a good workout/stress test.  But I'm thinking I'd better bring a backup radio with me.  

[SteveShannon]

I haven’t got a clue what the sound is but I would open the case and listen to see if I could see or hear the source. 

[Wayfarer]

3 hours ago, SteveShannon said:

I haven’t got a clue what the sound is but I would open the case and listen to see if I could see or hear the source. 

Good suggestion.  I found the schematics online but can't find a parts list.  Ideally, I'd find the defective relay and replace it.  My torx bit set doesn't go small enough (almost, just one more size smaller and I would have had it), so I've decided I'm just going to use the crap out of the radio and see if it fails during the warranty period.  If not, I guess it was nothing to worry about after all if it makes it through the next year of heavy use.  I'll just live with the sound.  My Flex radios all have similar sounding relay clicking on transmit, so it's something I know I can learn to live with.  Thanks for the help.  I'll report back if the radio blows up.

[SteveShannon]

29 minutes ago, Wayfarer said:

Good suggestion.  I found the schematics online but can't find a parts list.  Ideally, I'd find the defective relay and replace it.  My torx bit set doesn't go small enough (almost, just one more size smaller and I would have had it), so I've decided I'm just going to use the crap out of the radio and see if it fails during the warranty period.  If not, I guess it was nothing to worry about after all if it makes it through the next year of heavy use.  I'll just live with the sound.  My Flex radios all have similar sounding relay clicking on transmit, so it's something I know I can learn to live with.  Thanks for the help.  I'll report back if the radio blows up.

I would register a complaint with the manufacturer. They might recognize the symptom. I think you said it’s only a couple days old. Make them replace it. You’ll have more peace of mind. 

[Wayfarer]

OK, I just sent a support request to TYT asking about the clicking noise inside the radio and if that's normal or indicative of a defect.  I also found out on their website, the warranty is only 6 months, not the 1-year that I had thought.  Let's see what happens.  Thanks again.

[WRTC928]

16 hours ago, Wayfarer said:

Ironically, I was sent here from my ham groups who told me most people use that radio on gmrs, not ham, and I would have better luck checking with a gmrs forum. 

Interesting. I have noticed that on RadioReference, hardly anyone wants to admit to having one, but on a couple of Facebook groups I belong to, a lot of the members have them as well as various Baofengs. I don't think I've ever keyed my TYT up on GMRS. There's very little GMRS activity around me, and I don't have "radio dork" friends or family near me to converse with. I do get a lot of use out of it on one of the local ham repeaters. It's a very friendly group of people and if you announce that you're mobile and listening, usually someone will have a conversation with you.

[Wayfarer]

4 hours ago, WRTC928 said:

Interesting. I have noticed that on RadioReference, hardly anyone wants to admit to having one, but on a couple of Facebook groups I belong to, a lot of the members have them as well as various Baofengs. I don't think I've ever keyed my TYT up on GMRS. There's very little GMRS activity around me, and I don't have "radio dork" friends or family near me to converse with. I do get a lot of use out of it on one of the local ham repeaters. It's a very friendly group of people and if you announce that you're mobile and listening, usually someone will have a conversation with you.

Very little gmrs activity here too.  But a decent amount of 2m traffic.  I'm a member of our local club here and we use three 2m repeaters to keep in touch, especially when up in the back country.  My TH-9800 doesn't even transmit on gmrs channels, I assume there must be a diode to clip to make it work there.  But it is nice to be able to receive GMRS channels.  We have an off-road club that comes up from Boise now and again that uses gmrs out on the trail and it's useful to listen to them give reports on road conditions, for instance. 

My ham buddies were right, I got a lot more friendly help here on mygmrs than I did on the ham forums.  

[AdmiralCochrane]

No hardware change needed, it's just a software change done on startup.

I only use my 9800 on 2m and 70cm