help needed with a TK 272g-2

[bamakid]

hi...

newbie here w/ a question about a kenwood tk 272g-2 VHF radio. I bought this the other night for use on a volunteer fire dept, it said it was a VHF radio, but everything I have looked at since I bought it shows it to be in the 136-150 mhz, I need 150-174 mhz, is there a way to make this radio work? or do I need to sell it and find another? thanks for any help....

[n5tbu]

You can program freqs above the 150 range in the radio and it will work till the VCO unlocks.
In my area most FD freqs are 154 and 155,the radio should work fine there.
mod

[bamakid]

thanks for the reply...most of ours is in the 154 and 155 also, but 1 I need to tx on is 160.125. do you think it will work on that?

[n5tbu]

You won't know till you program it up and try!
mod

[bamakid]

thanks for the info. I will try to program it and see what it does....

[bamakid]

UPDATE:

I tried to program the radio and it would not work....it would just beep and if I tried to key up, it said unlock on the display

[westcoaster]

There should be two "ranges" on your radio. One range would be from 136-154 and the second range would be from 148-174 (actual frequencies are more than likely different but you should get the idea here...)

On my kenwood tk-760 If I were to set the radio to start up as 150-1 the frequency range is in the upper band. If I were to set the radio to 150-2 the frequencies are now in the lower band. (front panel programming)


Where you would find this and how it is set I do not know as I don't have one, nor do I have the software to look at it. This is just a hint as to where you would need to look.


edit:
TK-272G
K........(X57-5870-11) 150~174MHz
K2......(X57-5870-13) 136~150MHz

I received a maintaince manual a while back for a tk-272g. The radio does do the frequencies you want and the above is the split. You do need to start your radio up in a different mode. This should be a software only thing....

[n5tbu]

"it would just beep and if I tried to key up, it said unlock on the display"

At what freq would it do this? I am guessing on the 160,but what about 154 and 155?
The VCO is adjustable,but just how far...ya gotta do it and see!
You can tell your radio it is a 150-174,but it was built/tuned for the low end so it would be the same prob.
Maybe find a ham to buy that one and you get the right one for you?
mod

[bamakid]

I have the kpg56D V3.10 software. when I read the code plug on the radio, it came up as a TK 272g 136-150mhz, I changed it to a TK 272g 150-174 mhz and programmed it. when I copied the code plug back to the radio, it said the model was wrong and I told it to overwrite. it programmed, but started beeping on rx. my receive freq. is 154.325 and my transmit freq. is 160.125? I believe and a encode and decode of 151.4.

[westcoaster]

I have the kpg56D V3.10 software. when I read the code plug on the radio, it came up as a TK 272g 136-150mhz, I changed it to a TK 272g 150-174 mhz and programmed it.

That's where you should have stopped....

change the radio to 150-174, and reprogram your frequencies manually. Do not try and reload the old program back onto the radio as it is set for the wrong radio type.

I believe you can save the old programming to disk somewhere to be reloaded at some future time.

[bamakid]

That's where you should have stopped....

change the radio to 150-174, and reprogram your frequencies manually. Do not try and reload the old program back onto the radio as it is set for the wrong radio type.[/quote]

I tried it that way, it still beeps on anything higher than 151 mhz. I have a friend that has a ham radio that was tweaked to work, he said he would take this one where he had his done.