Icom F70s P25 upgrade

[stevelton]

So I picked up a lot of several Icom F70ds and 70s portables at Dayton last month. They were in various stages of repair or lack there of, and were practically given to me. I managed to cobble together out of the parts 3 working P25 version radios! I also have left over 2 KNOWN working ut-120 boards that I did some swapping around with the ds radios to make sure they did in fact work. I am now trying to install them into one of the "s" versions to make it p25, but the radio is not recognizing the ut-120. I have all of the technical bulletins where it says it needs to be activated by a key I must purchase from Icom. I would have guessed since these boards were already working in P25 mode in the ds radios they were pulled from, I wouldnt need to purchase another activation key, would I??

I have updated the radio's main firmware to 3.0, and I can even write the version 2.6 dsp firmware to the radio (or the ut-120 I assume), and it takes it, but when I read the radio info in the software, still doesnt show the board as an option...

Any ideas?
p.s. These will be used on ham radio 2m freq.

Steven

 

[MTS2000des]

You can't just slam a UT-120 into an radio and the firmware recognize it. You have to order the P25 activation software which is serialized to the radio from Icom, I believe the part number is EX-2785 J01.

Without the activation software, you have a radio with P25 hardware in an non-activated state.

The UT-120 does not store the activation status, that is in the host radio's controller. The UT-120 just handles generating and decoding IMBE. The radio's "brain" is what gets activated (which is married to the serial number) with the activation software,

 

[stevelton]

Thats what I was afraid of...
Thanks for the reply and confirmation.
Any idea ballpark what they charge for the activation key? Wondering if it will be cheaper to send in the parts radios the boards were pulled from for repair (since I would then assume the key on the original radios would still be good) rather than upgrading the s models...

Thanks
Steven

 

[MTS2000des]

It's been some years since I had some of these, but the activation software was a couple hundred dollars, or at least it used to be. It is serial number specific.

I don't know if Icom has a flat rate repair like Motorola does, but it may be a better route to go unless the radios are physically damaged (most flat rates don't cover abuse/misuse only normal electrical failures).

 

[K4SVT]

i have 2 F70DTs that are P25 enabled..as MTS said they are activated though the software..even the P25 Chip alone is about $465..and top that to activate P25 in the software.

 

[stevelton]

Thanks for the feedback. My friend and I decided to resell the 70s's and send in the ds bodies that have already been activated to see how much Icom will charge to repair. If that is a no go, I will have 2 bodies for parts (1 ds and 1 dt), and sell the 2 ut-120 boards separate unless someone makes me an offer before then.

Steven