Kenwood TK-5210 Receive Issue

[DocBrown]

I have a Kenwood TK-5210 K3 Ver 2.0 That I purchased used off of eBay. The radio is able to be programmed and is not locked or stunned but is unable to transmit or receive any audio. I am able to send FleetSync side tones but nothing more. I can hear all key beeps over the speaker but am unable to hear any transmissions. When transmitting it transmits dead air, no audio, no errors. This is happening on conventional analog channels as well as conventional P25 channels. I purchased this radio for use while on duty with my ambulance agency as they are not very well off and can only provide one portable for a 2 man crew. Is there anything I can do to further investigate what might be causing this issue or am I now in possession of a paperweight?

Thanks,

Doc Brown

 

[mmckenna]

Do you have a speaker-mic you can plug in?

 

[DocBrown]

I'm going to see if I can briefly borrow the fire chief's speaker mic tomorrow to test it out. If it does indeed work with a speaker mic would I be able to replace the assembly internally or am I better off just biting the bullet and buying another radio that's been tested and in working condition from another seller? Thank you for your response btw.

 

[mmckenna]

Trouble is, there could be a number of things causing this. Without seeing the file, it's hard to guess.

How do you know it's not transmitting audio?

How are you transmitting to it to check the receive side? How far apart are the radios when you do this?

Make sure it's not programmed for the Secure Cryptographic Module.

Make sure your maximum volume setting is set to 31.

Probably 100 other things I could think of…

And of course, the original owner could have monkeyed around with the internals or the test mode settings.

 

[DocBrown]

Secure Cryptographic Mode is disabled. I was unable to meet up with the fire chief due to us getting a long distance transport right as I was scheduled to meet up with him. I wish I could upload the .dat file to you but It won't allow me to. I'm pretty well stumped on this one...

Thank you again for your assistance, sorry if i'm wasting your time.

Doc

 

[mmckenna]

No, not a waste of time, I'm happy to help.

 

[mmckenna]

OK, I PM'd my e-mail address to you.

If you feel comfortable with me taking at look at it, send me the file and I'll load it up on Monday and give it a try. I can take a look and see if I see anything amiss. I can try loading it into my TK-5210 and see if it behaves the same way.

 

[DocBrown]

Good news, I think I may have solved the problem. I decided instead of messing with it too much I would create a new file from scratch and load it into the radio. I loaded a clean file with nothing entered except a single MURS frequency so I could test it. The only thing I changed was I unchecked P25 Trunking in the product information section so that I don't have to mess with the network tab at all (Everything in our county is conventional). After loading the file I tried transmitting and low and behold I'm picking up a carrier wave on the radio across the room. I get up, walk over and key up the mic and what do you know, I'm receiving a carrier wave on the 5210 as well. The only thing that I am not able to receive or transmit on for some odd reason are the two P25 frequencies that I have programmed into the radio (I do have the correct NAC's). I will be sending my file to you so that you can look it over if you'd like. I just wanted to post my limited solution here in case anyone runs into the problem in the future. Your questions made me dig deeper and decide to start with a completely fresh file..

Thank you very much for your assistance with this,

Doc