• To anyone looking to acquire commercial radio programming software:

    Please do not make requests for copies of radio programming software which is sold (or was sold) by the manufacturer for any monetary value. All requests will be deleted and a forum infraction issued. Making a request such as this is attempting to engage in software piracy and this forum cannot be involved or associated with this activity. The same goes for any private transaction via Private Message. Even if you attempt to engage in this activity in PM's we will still enforce the forum rules. Your PM's are not private and the administration has the right to read them if there's a hint to criminal activity.

    If you are having trouble legally obtaining software please state so. We do not want any hurt feelings when your vague post is mistaken for a free request. It is YOUR responsibility to properly word your request.

    To obtain Motorola software see the Sticky in the Motorola forum.

    The various other vendors often permit their dealers to sell the software online (i.e., Kenwood). Please use Google or some other search engine to find a dealer that sells the software. Typically each series or individual radio requires its own software package. Often the Kenwood software is less than $100 so don't be a cheapskate; just purchase it.

    For M/A Com/Harris/GE, etc: there are two software packages that program all current and past radios. One package is for conventional programming and the other for trunked programming. The trunked package is in upwards of $2,500. The conventional package is more reasonable though is still several hundred dollars. The benefit is you do not need multiple versions for each radio (unlike Motorola).

    This is a large and very visible forum. We cannot jeopardize the ability to provide the RadioReference services by allowing this activity to occur. Please respect this.

NXR-710 base station conversion to repeater?

Josh

Josh

Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2002
Messages
766
Location
Auburn Hills, Michigan
I've recently been able to take control over some Kenwood NXR-710 50 Watt VHF base stations, retired from my company (sadly to be replaced by similar iCom radios for unknown reasons, but that's not the point).

The radio I'm currently looking at was in use as a simplex base station. It only has one 'N' connector on the back for the antenna. the RX antenna spot is just a hole in the chassis. There is a neighboring BNC connector for "REF IN" however.

Not really seeing an TX relay or antenna switch internally... if I were to move the "REF IN" BNC connector's termination from its receptor port near the "TX VCO/PLL" plug over to what I think is the RX port at "CH101" would that be all there is to make this a repeater- aside from programming?

Or is there more than meets the eye, like firmware or other hardware. All service manuals and brochures I find don't reference anything that looks like this.

Thanks
-Josh
 

Attachments

  • radioref.jpg
    radioref.jpg
    124.7 KB · Views: 28
prcguy

prcguy

Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2006
Messages
15,361
Location
So Cal - Richardson, TX - Tewksbury, MA
There are two coax cables from the transmitter to the receiver and one is certainly the RX antenna path. Could be diode switching instead of a relay. There are also many cables between the transmitter and receiver and in my opinion not great for TX/RX isolation. You would also want to back the power way down for repeater use like 20 watts or whatever the recommended minimum is.

There are many other radios suitable for use as a repeater, why not start with something known to work well? You might be able to sell several of these mobiles and have enough to buy an actual repeater.
 
mmckenna

mmckenna

I ♥ Ø
Joined
Jul 27, 2005
Messages
23,881
Location
Roaming the Intermountain West
Page 8 of this manual shows the conversion from the standard repeater setup to a base station setup:


You'll need a new coaxial cable to replace the one that gets the connector cut off for the modification, as well as some chip capacitors and desolder a pad. You'll need to reverse engineer the process from the directions in the manual.

You'll still need a duplexer to make this work as a repeater.
 
Josh

Josh

Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2002
Messages
766
Location
Auburn Hills, Michigan
No worries about a duplexer. Thanks mmcknenna, the answer to my question was earlier in the service manual than I looked. This shouldn't be too bad, but I still plan on using the 'REF IN' BNC connection to be my new RX antenna point because the reverse engineer can't be perfect. Thank you for putting me on the right path.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

G
no Duplex operation repeater HYTERA RD625 accessory connector
Replies
1
Views
263
speedway_navigator
S
S
Yaesu: Creating my own Fusion repeater
Replies
16
Views
785
n9upc
N
S
Newbie question re better antennas for HT
Replies
1
Views
427
N6ML
N6ML
C
Trouble hearing repeater on Tidradio but ok with Baofeng
Replies
6
Views
503
FKimble
F
W
DB224 refuses to duplex
2
Replies
24
Views
1K
WRMD298
W
Top