[FADCA] 9k6 radios

[fadca@mailman.qth.net]

Comments below...

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Freeman Crosby [mailto:mail@fcrosby.com]
> Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2002 01:42 PM
> To: fadca@mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [FADCA] 9k6 radios
> 
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> About 1995 I bought a Kenwood TM451A and a Kantronics 9612 
> TNC, I also 
> sprung for the cable Kenwood had to connect the two together. 
> I put the 
> Kenwood on 446.050 turned on the TNC in Kiss mode and it has 
> functioned 
> ever since. Never did align it, set levels or change frequency.
> The real shame is the radio has so many nice features which I 
> do not use, 
> In fact the mike is still in the little plastic bag it came 
> in. Hopefully 
> they now make one aimed at digital use.

This is the sort of thing that I hope that most of these radios
are now giving us. The prices look like they are dropping to the
point that it becomes less worth while to look for old radios
and spend the time to mod them (unless you have the time to kill
which I sadly do not)

Now the questions are. (all relevant with 9k6)
1. How well do they talk to each other?
2. How much of a front porch (TXDelay) do you need
	to get the radio ready to send good data?
3. How long does it take the radio to get into RX
	when it switches?
4. How does the radio behave in high RF environs
5. How hard is it to mod to do 19k2 or faster?

> 
> Recently I bought an Alinco DR 135 with a built in TNC, 50 
> watt 2 meter 
> radio to use as an APRS beacon.
> The radio is great but APRS is about all that TNC is good 
> for, I don't see 
> any Kiss mode option at all in the command list.

KISS is in there, but I pulled the manual off of the 'net and
there is a caviat in there that says that you should not use
it, I suspect that it is the same as with the Kenwood internal
TNC, it only has space for about 1 frame of data and that is
it. That is one reason why the external TNC is better, also
another reason is you usually have better control over such
things as monitoring the eye pattern and setting levels, and
of course if your TNC goes out it is much easier to replace.


> 
> The radio does have provisions to run an external 9600 baud 
> TNC and has 
> data In & Out on the DB-9 connector on the back when the 
> internal TNC is 
> not installed. It seems if one is installed then the connector is a 
> standard RS-232  serial port for the computer connection only.
> 
> The Alinco DR-435 uses the same manual and I'd be glad to 
> provide whatever 
> information anyone wants from it for either the 2m 220 or 440 version.
> 
> The manual says the internal TNC  will run both 1200/9600 
> baud but I was 
> unaware of that when I bought it.

I am really interested in the 220 and 440 radios for linking, sure
the 2m one is very interesting as it allows you to give the users
a 9k6 access point with a minimum of work, and it sounds like it
is proven, the 2m unit is also much lower cost than the other two
units. Or they are quoting the other two with the TNC installed.
The price on the 220 and 440 units is slightly higher than the
price of the 2m unit WITH TNC installed, but I was told that they
did not have the TNC installed. I think I will be in ORL tomorrow
and hope to be able to pay a visit to AES and look at a couple of
these radios right in the face. May take my test gear and give them
a ring out.
 


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