Conversion of business band radios for Ham Radio use

Home BX-64 Tower Packet Radio 6 Meter Repeater Wi-Fi Ham Radio Antenna Projects Off-Grid LMR Conversion

 

Kenwood

Most, or all LMR commercial radio can be converted to ham radio, some require more work than is practical however.   For example with "Low-Band" 29-50MHz band radios, you do not want to end up with 35-40MHz split versions.  Also, 800MHz radios to be used for 900MHz is also a hard deal usually.  The older radios that are crystal controlled make good repeaters, but nothing like having a synthesized radios for regular general use.  Brands I have played with the most are Kenwood, Midland, Motorola, and Bendix-King.  6 Meters is my favorite band since it gets out the best and with a good LMR radio give the best performance! Your receiver is the most important part of any radio set, having just 3db more readability is the same as doubling your Transmitter power basically.  The problem with 6M and 10M FM is the noise, AM doesn't care.  Most Ham radio have always had the FM portion of them as an after thought and has NO noise blanking what-so-ever.  Typically a signal needs to be stronger than 1µV to even be heard on 6 or 10.

Radio I have experience with converting are:

Kenwood TK-630, TK-690, TK-190 and the TK-6110 (My Favorite).

Midland

  70-050 ST-1 30-50 50 watt 80CH Dash Mount low band

70-055 ST-1 30-50 50 watt 80CH trunk mount low band

 70-052 ST-1 30-50 50 watt 80CH Dash Mount low band

70-056 ST-1 30-50 110 watt 80CH trunk mount low band  

 "A"=29-37mhz, "B"=35-44mhz, "C"=40-54mhz

70-340 ST-1 136-174 40 watt 80CH dash mount VHF

70-440 ST-1 136-174 40 watt 80CH trunk mount VHF

70-342XL ST-1 136-174 40 watt 80CH dash mount wide band VHF

70-442XL ST-1 136-174 40 watt 80CH trunk mount wide band VHF

70-380 ST-1 136-174 80 watt 80CH dash mount VHF

70-480 ST-1 136-174 80 watt 80CH trunk mount VHF

70-382B ST-1 136-174 80 watt 80CH dash mount wideband VHF*

70-482B ST-1 136-174 80 watt 80CH trunk mount wideband VHF*

70-385 ST-1 136-174 110 watt 80CH dash mount VHF

70-485 ST-1 136-174 110 watt 80CH trunk mount VHF    

*"A"=136-156mhz, "B"=148-174mhz
The 70-382 and 70-482 radios are noted as "B" models because they were not available in A range.  

70-834b ST-1 150-174 5-35 watt Repeater

70-0355C XTR 42-50 60 W 22/99CH Trunk Mount

70-0371C XTR 42-50 110 W 22/99CH Dash Mount

70-0375C XTR 42-50 110 W 22/99CH Trunk Mount

70-1526B   450-470 25W 8CH Dash Mount

 

 

 

 

Batlabs and Repeater-builder are always good sites.