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OPC-617 help

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W5KVV

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All, I have a couple of Icom 1020-2 mobiles and a CAT 200 repeater controller sitting on the shelf collecting dust. What I'd like to do is build a small backup repeater for the radio club. Something to throw in the truck and run up to a repeater site should one of our "real" repeaters go down. On low or medium power with proper cooling, the 1020's are quite robust.

Question is: Can anyone confirm the OPC-617 pin out is standard on all OPC-617 compatible radios? I have used numerous IC-F221's as link radios with great success, but this is my first repeater build using Icom mobiles.

Conversation on the subject is encouraged.

de W5KVV
 

12dbsinad

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Pins 1020/2020 OPC-617

1) DIM (Backlight control input)
2) PAAF (AF output)
3) DISC (Discriminator Audio)
4) IN (AF input for a terminal unit)
5) PTT (PTT control input)
6) HORN (Grounded when RX a specific call)
7) PAAF- ( Ground for PAAF)
8) DISC- (Ground for terminal output)
9) IN- (Ground for terminal input)

Here are the Pin-outs... should be the same as the 121/221, and the rest that use the 617. But at any rate, this list is specific to the 1020 OPC-617.
 

W5KVV

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Excellent. That's exactly what I needed.

Thank you for the info.

Just out of curiosity.... has anyone attempted building a light duty repeater out of the 1020-2's ? I'd like to know what if any board modifications need to be done. I'm having a hard time tracking down a service manual for these older Icom rigs. Seems like the 1020's are almost forgotten.
 
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12dbsinad

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Just out of curiosity.... has anyone attempted building a light duty repeater out of the 1020-2's ? I'd like to know what if any board modifications need to be done. I'm having a hard time tracking down a service manual for these older Icom rigs. Seems like the 1020's are almost forgotten.

I built a few some years ago, out of 2020's (UHF). I remember having issues with the VSWR fold down circuit causing crackling noise on TX even with near zero reflected power. They had issues with this (at least on the UHF band) and disabling the circuit cured it. I am not sure if the VHF version suffered from this, but I don't ever recall a 1020 having this problem. Somewhere I have notes on this.. (I think).

Other than that, no board mods are needed. Get some muffin fans to blow on the heat sink and set to low/med power. The lower the better especially if its a rag chew machine. They a built like a tank and have a good heat sink compared to today's 45W mobile radios.

Somewhere I also do have the service manual, in my ever growing pile of radio stuff.
 

W5KVV

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12dbsinad I appreciate the info. I agree on the build quality of these older radios. That big heat sink will really help dissipate the heat.

I'm a firm believer in the muffin fans. I have a 140mm fan ready to go on the TX radio. It moves a ton of air for the size. Should keep the TX side happy at the mid power setting.

I will keep an eye on the TX radio and see if it suffers from the VSWR issues like the UHF rigs.

Thanks again.
 

W5KVV

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12dbsinad: I have my repeater built and ready to go. Problem is I get no COR from pin 6. I have my controller set up for active low COR, but the RX radio just will put pin 6 to ground on RX. I've tried several different radios and no dice.

Everything else is working fine. Audio from the CAT200 to the TX radio is there, PTT is working, just no COR.

Pin 6: "Grounded when RX a specific call" I would have thought this translated to "Goes to ground on RX" but no that word "specific" has me wondering. Is there something in the programming that makes this call specific? In the 2/5 tone settings maybe??

Or possibly I need to program the radios in PMR .... They're currently programmed in LMR.

Any help is appreciated.

Matt
 
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W5KVV

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Thanks! I downloaded it from them a while back. Only place online I could find it.

It would be really handy if this forum would let you go back and edit posts.......

I meant to say pin 6 on the RX radio will NOT sink to ground during RX.

I believe it's in the programming. The PRM portion has quite a few more programming options than the LMR version.
 

W5KVV

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Well, I could not get pin 6 to do anything. I tried & tried.

Found a workaround. I found a pad on the board that was active low with PL logic. Ran the wire for pin 6 to the board and gave it a shot of Kester. All good now.
 
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