KENWOOD TK-863G RADIO

[nokones]

I just acquired three Kenwood TK-863G radios that I intend to set up for Jerk/Run loaner radios with mag-mounts for my radioless Jeep Creeps and Porsche People to use for Trail Comms on the Trail. I only paid $35 for these radios so I couldn't pass these up to help people out.

Since, some people like to use POS Cheap Pandaland radios which are horrible in regards to Farz, and for trail safety, I feel it would be best that they can have better communicating radios .

I have access to the various Kenwood CPS applications and I believe the TK-863G radios require the KPG-76 CPS for programming. Is the KPG-76 CPS the correct CPS?

 

[AM909]

Yes, KPG-76.

 

[nokones]

Yes, KPG-76.

Great, thank you.

 

[nokones]

I received the three TK-863G radios yesterday and I read the radios and checked the RF Output power and everything checks out good. I did find the programming of these radios are significantly and strangely different than their cousin models, TK-780/880, and 7180/8180s etc.

But, I was able to easily figure out the systems and groups configuration for conventional operation. The systems are Zones and the Groups are channels within a zone. It is interesting that there is no programming setting for Talkaround. Since, the radios will be used for simplex channel operation it is not a big deal.

I also found the internal speaker is either defective or disabled on all three radios. I suspect they were disabled for some reason. I'm not sure why anyone would want to physically go inside the radio to disable the internal speakers and use an external speaker, when the internal speaker would automatically disable when the external speaker is plugged into jack.

Since, I could not find any related CPS setting to disable/enable the speaker, I am assuming that someone went inside the radio. We'll, at least the extrrnal output jack works. Just need to acquire three external speakers with a 3.5 mm mini plug.

The radios will be used as jerk/run loaner radios for my radioless Jeep Creep friends. I guess I can't complain too much for a radio costing $30 each. They'll work great for there intended use.

 

[mmckenna]

If the radios had the KAP1 PA board in them, there's a zero ohm resistor (R153) that may have been removed.
Service manual would show that and you could solder across the pad and get your speaker back, if that's the cause.

 

[ramal121]

Also if it has the KCT-19 accessory connector on the back, the internal speaker may have been unplugged to accommodate a big boy KSC-5 speaker off this cable.

Since this is a dedicated trunking radio using it for just conventional is indeed a bit screwy.