Kenwood portable problem

Brian H

Member
May 25, 2010
296
Iowa
I have a problem with a TK-2170. It' receives just fine but when I go to transmit on certain channels it doesn't go out or is muffled according to dispatch. I've tried replacing the antennas, taking the speaker mic off, and then just using the portable speaker w/ no luck. I've double and triple checked the programming and thats all fine but curious if there is something else that needs to be done before I send it off. I have a TK-2180 and 7180 that work fine but this one is giving me problems
 

GaryErrol

Member
May 28, 2010
308
Indianapolis
I don't have one of these radios. However the key word in what you said is "certain channels". I take that to mean on other channels it works as you want it to. Only on certain channels should rule out antennas, speaker mics, etc.. It about has to be in the programming. Could those frequencies be set to narrow band if your dispatch is on wide band, or the other way around? On the right side off the screen where you input frequencies is where you normally change individual parameters per channel.
 

Brian H

Member
May 25, 2010
296
Iowa
I know exactly what you're talking about and the answer is, yes everything is set to Narrowband. I'm not a radio guy by any means but someone just told me to set them all to Narrow...?? The freq is 154.310 and set to narrow on the 2170. My other 2 radios are set the same way but I don't seem to have a problem. Do they all need changed to Wide then?
 

GaryErrol

Member
May 28, 2010
308
Indianapolis
No way I can tell you if you need to use wide or narrow band. As who ever is in charge of your radios which they are using. It may well be that some of your frequencies are wide band and the others narrow band but only your systems administrator or who ever programs your radios will know for sure.


If you saved a copy of your programming, you can send me a copy of your .dat file and I'll see if I have the software to take a look at it and see if I can see anything funny.
 

RL1

Member
May 20, 2010
1,649
Ga
When ever you use the bad channels, are you ever at or near the same place? I ask because there is a spot in our office where the same thing happens on my dispatch channel, but none of the others. It sounds like the dispatcher has the mic in their mouth and they say I sound like I'm yelling from across the room. Fortunately, it's not at my desk, but in what I call the 'war chair' (like the POTUS War Room, where only the sgt and I talk about stuff 'on the record'). His radio doesn't have any problems, but he's got an older Moto and I have a Kenwood. We think it has something to do with the way the olllllld building was recently rewired.
 
Jul 14, 2010
1,639
S.W. Ohio USA
This probably won't fix this particular problem, but I have had luck with fixing quirky portable and cell phone problems by "power cycling" them. Power the device off, take off the battery, wait a minute or two, and reinstall the battery. Kind of like restarting a PC when it acts up. I was told to do this regularly by a radio tech and a cell phone tech, and it works. Clears out glitches, I guess. Like I said, probably not your issue, but good advice that works for me.
 

AdaFire38

Member
May 16, 2010
148
Lowell, MI
Brian H said:
I know exactly what you're talking about and the answer is, yes everything is set to Narrowband. I'm not a radio guy by any means but someone just told me to set them all to Narrow...?? The freq is 154.310 and set to narrow on the 2170. My other 2 radios are set the same way but I don't seem to have a problem. Do they all need changed to Wide then?


Here's a quick experiment...


On the channels that are giving you issues, reprogram them as WIDE band. I'll bet your issues go away.
 

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