5100 Alignment

Forum dedicated to discussion on EF Johnson Radio products such as the VP8000, VP6000, VP5000, VM7000, VM6000, radios. Support for Armada software platform.

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902
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2012 7:40 am

5100 Alignment

Post by 902 »

Hello everyone,

I have a 242-5113-210-BC with v. 1.18.15 firmware. Most of the time, the radio is used into a VHF narrowband analog repeater and I seem to be at the edge of its reliable coverage.

The squelch has a relatively high unsquelch threshold (~0.5 uV) and wide hysteresis range which seems to stay in carrier squelch until it mutes again. Aside from the high unsquelching threshold value, the sensitivity appears to be in spec. The power output at high power is 3 W. In a side-by-side comparison, this radio appears to underperform compared to an MT-2000 set to 5 W output and a much lower unsquelching threshold (the EFJ is unreadable and must be in a sweet spot to get a high enough signal level to unmute, the MT-2000 is readable and will unmute to a much lower signal level with correct PL).

I would like to do two things: 1) raise the output to 5 W in high power mode; and 2) reduce the unsquelching value so that unsquelching becomes less positional. Ideally, I'd also like to change the squelch response so that it more closely resembles that of the MT-2000 and go through a full alignment.

Access to alignment points do not seem to be available in PCConfigure 1.30.7. I seem to remember another program that did this. Can someone please advise the part number of the utility I can buy from EFJ to perform these alignments? I'd rather make the call with some background knowledge.

I am no longer in business, but do maintain a test bench with a service monitor and have had a bit of experience working on LMR equipment. I'd rather work on my own stuff than send it somewhere else.

Thank you

"902"
pvandrew
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Apr 23, 2016 12:20 pm

Re: 5100 Alignment

Post by pvandrew »

PC Tune 1.1.1 is what I use to tune the 5100 portables, a Service Monitor is a must and is referred to in the PC Tune Software. Hope this helps!
W0VNE
Posts: 41
Joined: Fri Apr 17, 2015 1:51 pm

Re: 5100 Alignment

Post by W0VNE »

If you (or anyone else) wants a tune up on one of the Legacy 5100 53xx radios send me an email. I work cheap (I'm just a semi retired dude doing this from the spare room) I've done a lot of these radios and I've never seen a radio that didn't operate a lot better after being tweaked up.

One thing on the power output. On most of the radios I've worked on there are sub bands where you can get full (or more) output and some that really do peak around 3 to 4 watts. Normally on the high end of the VHF band. I don't know if this is just the way it is? They are pretty wide banded radios. Just about every radio I've worked on had near nothing on the low power setting btw. All of them that I've tuned (for low power) adjust up to 1 watt fine.

Typically I see a marked improvement in reception and most radios have drifted (a bit) off frequency and in almost all cases the setting for deviation were off (wide band too high and Narrow band too low) I talked to a guy today who said he was a little shocked how much better the Version 1 5300 was receiving then the Version 6 (Or was it 4) that he was issued for work.

And just a note that this is not just EF Johnson radios. Motorola radios of similar vintage have the same issues.
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