Motorola XTL to Kenwood TK Interconnect / Patching

[K3RJS]

Does anyone have experience linking a Motorola XTL-series radio (J2 connector) to a Kenwood TK-series (25 pin) radio for crosspatching?
Have a couple disparate radios I'm trying to patch together. The process has been fairly simple within the same brands, but been running into issues connecting between kenwood and moto, even with the COR,PTT,MI2,AFO pins identified.

Is there different behaviors between these brands that I'm missing?
Thanks!

 

[a417]

What issues are you having, what radios specifically, what pinouts & interconnects are you implementing and how are things programmed?

 

[Project25_MASTR]

Your audio levels are going to be way out of wack due to the impedance mismatch between the Motorola and Kenwood (it's Kenwood's high impedance audio lines).

 

[WB5UOM]

Now 2 KENWOODS would be easy peasy back to back

 

[K3RJS]

Update on this, got it working pretty well bidirectionally. The main issues I encountered was that this specific XTL ended up being active high on ChanAct(#13) and failing to jump the emergency pin to ground did not let other pins behave normally. I used a relay to get around the active high situation and rig up an active low for the kenwood. Audio wasnt too terrible but some resistors inline helped get that to a decent level.

Some notes from this project that may help others:

Kenwood TK8180:
PTT - 24 (enable in programming)
COR - 23 (enable in programming)
AUD IN - 6 (pad with resistor as needed)
AUD OUT - 17
GRND - 7

Motorola XTL1500:
PTT - 16
CHANACT/COR - 13 (active HIGH in some)
AUD IN - 23 (pad with resistor as needed)
AUD OUT - 21
GRND - 1
Emergency jumper to ground is required as is IGN.


From here its simple crossing of logic between PTT and COR (watching for active high vs active low) and AUD IN with AUD OUT, padding with resistors if needed.

Not a ton of use on it but have used it a bit and haven’t had any issues yet.