Poor audio from TK760hg

[hp368]

Hello all, I have a TK760HG that I'm wanting to put into service for 2m HAM freqs, I have all the programing software and have have successfully programmed the radio for the freq that I need. The radio is factory set for the high end of VHF band (148-174mhz) however I have read that people have successfully used them for 144-148mhz.

The problem I am having is poor Rx audio, lots of noise and static. The noise is so bad that the local repeater will not open the radios squelch. I can open the squelch and hear the repeater but the quality is so bad that any traffic is unreadable. It is currently hooked up to a 1/4 wave ground plane antenna, antenna has been tested on other radios and it works perfectly.

Does anyone have any advise on how to diag/improve this issue? I've done some searching but have come up very little trouble shooting info.

Thanks in advance.

 

[mmckenna]

How does it sound on higher frequencies? If you program in a NOAA weather transmitter, does it sound OK?

 

[hp368]

I completely forgot to mention that. Weather channel and other 154mhz channels come in much better but they still have some noise as well. My cheap Chinese ht sounds 10x better with the same antenna.

 

[cmdrwill]

Antenna! ?

 

[hp368]

Let me clarify. I have a 1/4 wave 2m ground plane antenna I built and installed in the attic in my of my shop specifically for this radio. Checked with a Rigexpert aa170, swr of 1.6 across the entire 2m band. I have an adapter that I use to hook up the same antenna to the ht so I can still talk when i'm out in the shop. I've gotten good signal reports with just the ht and the attic antenna so I know the antenna is working fine.

 

[kayn1n32008]

Sounds like the receiver needs an alignmemt.

 

[mmckenna]

Yeah, I agree.
If it's a well used radio, no telling what it's been through. If it's just old, components can drift, maybe. Either way, putting it on a monitor and giving it a once over wouldn't be a bad idea.

I could see if it was flakey outside the designed frequency band, but if it's that way inside where it's designed to work, then it's probably out of whack.

 

[hp368]

Thanks guys. The radio was used as a mobile by a friend of mine in his patrol car (NC SHP) to monitor county fire dept freqs. It has been in a veh for the past 3-4 years used only to listen. I talked with Kenwood Service, they will realign it and give it a full look over for 65 plus any parts it may need. I think I may go that route as I have no experience what so ever in testing/aligning radios.

 

[mmckenna]

Thanks guys. The radio was used as a mobile by a friend of mine in his patrol car (NC SHP) to monitor county fire dept freqs. It has been in a veh for the past 3-4 years used only to listen. I talked with Kenwood Service, they will realign it and give it a full look over for 65 plus any parts it may need. I think I may go that route as I have no experience what so ever in testing/aligning radios.

That's a pretty good deal.
Around here, an hour of bench time is about $85/hr, not including parts.
That $65 bucks should get you a well working radio that's been fully checked. While you may be able to find a used one close to that price, it likely won't be recently aligned.

 

[cmdrwill]

Alignment and shops do not have a Ham discount so $ 80 + is the norm. Some so called service shops do not do a very good job of alignment.......

 

[Charlie]

check whether the programmed bandwidth is narrow or wide. I vaguely recall this is a consideration with the -80 and -90 series...perhaps the -60[HG]'s do, too. someone with more Kenwood experience than me may be able to chime in.

 

[hp368]

The radio has both options in the Kenwood programming, wide and narrow band. IIRC I had it set for wide band when I programmed it. I will have to look again to confirm.

The shop I called was an authorized Kenwood LMR service center in VA listed on Kenwoods site.

 

[hp368]

Small update, changed all the channels to narrow band from wide band where it was set. So far the local repeater sounds much better but still has some noise. Going to wait until our evening net to see how the rx is now. I'll update tonight.