Kenwood TR-7950; adding CTCSS

[bob-the-scanner-man]

I picked up a TR-7950 this past weekend for $20. It's in amazing shape and transmits/receives great. I was thinking about using it in our extra car but the only problem is that it lacks the optional pl tone board so it can't access many of my local repeaters.

What's the cheapest option for adding CTCSS to this radio? Considering I only spent $20 on it I don't really want to put a whole lot more into it in order to add pl tones.

So far I've found the Communication Specialists SS-64 for $28.95 and the Piex TU-79 for $64.00(way to expensive for me). Is there anything cheaper that I haven't found that would easily work with this radio? I don't mind if it can only store 1 or 2 tones.

 

[bob-the-scanner-man]

Bump.

Would something like this work? I have about $25 in "Ebay bucks" so this would only cost me about $10 or so.

 

[WX9EMS]

It looks like it would, provided the tone output gets injected in the right places and deviation is set right. I used a communications specialists ctcss tone encoder in my TR-9000 Kenwood and it works great. The unit you are referencing looks slick and hopefully works just as well.

 

[N4KVE]

Should you find a board that works, remember it wont work like a modern radio in that every freq can have it's own PL tone. The best you could expect is that every freq will have the same PL tone. Should you need to change PL tone, you will need to move dip switches. The more expensive units have a dial you turn to change PL tones, but none will program to a specific freq like a modern radio.