DOS programming woes

[pbansen]

I'm trying to program a handful of Kenwood TK-250 radios using the ancient KPG-23D software. This has always been accomplished using an very elderly laptop computer - the software runs in a DOS window under Windows '98 and the Kenwood programming cable attaches to the serial port. For some reason, it is not working this time around. I think one of my firefighters may have tried to use a programming cable that plugs into a USB port and when that didn't work, he abandoned the effort, but could not completely uninstall the USB driver.

What is happening is when I try to read the radio, I get a communications error, even though I'm using the old reliable serial port cable attached to the old reliable serial port. Yes, the radio is in -PC- mode.

Any ideas on how to restore my antiquated programming system to its usual modest functionality?

Pete Bansen
Olympic Valley, California

 

[pbansen]

What is happening is when I try to read the radio, I get a communications error, even though I'm using the old reliable serial port cable attached to the old reliable serial port. Yes, the radio is in -PC- mode.

To be more specific, when I try to read or write the radio, I get an error message that says "Check Radio Type". I have been through every conceivable radio type - 32 or 160 channel, various bandwidths, special tuning, etc - nothing makes a difference; this error persists.

Help!

 

[jim202]

To be more specific, when I try to read or write the radio, I get an error message that says "Check Radio Type". I have been through every conceivable radio type - 32 or 160 channel, various bandwidths, special tuning, etc - nothing makes a difference; this error persists.

Help!

Is there a place in the program to tell it what serial port your going to be using? Normally this would be
set to com1 or com2 for most computers. Then there is always the possibility that your com port is not
working or the computer has disabled it.

You might try going into the bios is you only have DOS as an operating system and see if the port is
set to be active.

 

[pbansen]

Is there a place in the program to tell it what serial port your going to be using? Normally this would be
set to com1 or com2 for most computers. Then there is always the possibility that your com port is not
working or the computer has disabled it.

You might try going into the bios is you only have DOS as an operating system and see if the port is
set to be active.

Hi Jim -

Yes, the Kenwood software only allows COM1 or COM2. I have gone into both the control panel and the Sony laptop setup program to verify that COM1 was working correctly. Your comment is exactly where I suspect the problem to be, but the odd part is that the software generates this "Check Radio Type" error message; it doesn't generate a communications error message.

Thanks for your reply,
Pete

 

[pbansen]

It works... mostly

I solved the problem by using the Windows 98 command to "restart in DOS mode" and running the program from the command prompt. This didn't work initially, but then I changed cables and for some reason it started to work.

I'm sure I tried this combination at least twice before and it didn't work, but I had been thinking that I should reformat the hard drive, reinstall Windows and the Kenwood software - perhaps this bit of psychological warfare bullied the computer into cooperating...

Anyway, working now, so the problem is solved for the time being.