MEOW MEOW: Goodspeed's CAT Tool

 

The Kenwood TH-D74 is considered the best of the best of the best when it comes to the most advanced handheld amateur radio today.  Its blend of features easily justify the price, but there are a few issues when it comes to this radio. 

I felt best to warn you before I get to the amazing work behind a great utility thanks to Travis KK4VCZ who is better known for his work with the MD380Tools project that helped bring DMR to mainstream use.

Issue #1:  Kenwood stopped making it.

Largely due to a factory issue and COVID derived supply chain crunch,  production of this radio which only came to market in 2017 has stopped in 2020.  For what sold new for $499 to $549 USD, this radio now is selling used for $700 or more.  Kenwood has always been known for great products that are on the market for a long time which also hold resale value.  It will be interesting to see what happens long term to the TH-D74 for a replacement or a manufacturer reboot.

Issue #2:  Kenwood does not like hackers too much

This is a little speculative, but soon after Hackaday covered the reverse engineering work of Travis in the "High-End Ham Radio Gives Up Its Firmware Secrets" article from July 14th 2020, Kenwood removed the latest firmware for the TH-D74 from its website. As of the date of this article:

Issue #3:  There was never a mobile application to do basic memory management with this otherwise amazing radio. Kenwood has almost always controlled its software closely, so this created a great opportunity for someone and its great to see Travis stepped forward to fill this gap with his own Android application along with some very well documented project material along the way.

Back to the amazing CAT Tool....

Since Travis is a bit of a ham radio/hacker celebrity already, it only took a few days for the media to pick up on his work in July 2020, 3 days after he published his first article.

After Travis reverse engineered things to a point where he was able to finish a pretty nice and focused Android application in September 2020 to add value to the Kenwood TH-D74 which did not exist before, Kenwood removed the latest v1.11 firmware. 

This is sort of weird and while mostly unrelated, anything is possible by manufacturers based on lessons learned with community reverse engineering of radios like the Radioddity GD-77, Anytone D878 and Alinco DJ-MD5 for other reasons.

You can read both articles about the CAT Tool below by clicking below, but here is the summary if you have the Kenwood TH-D74:

• TH-D74 Memory Management:  Use Travis's Android "CAT Tool" to download your existing radio memory to your phone, edit your channels and upload them back to the radio via Bluetooth.

HVDN Feedback:  This works extremely well. Only issue is memory tags are not read from the radio to the application, but reasons are explained in the articles.

• TH-D74 Traveling Benefits:  With a simple query in the software, you can download repeaters based on your location into the CAT Tool and then import those into your radio via Bluetooth.

HVDN Feedback:  Sort of stumbled upon this by holding down my finger on an empty channel and clicking on "Query"  That allowed me to create a list of 220 MHz repeaters easily in a 100 mile radius and load them to the radio over Bluetooth, but the memory tags in the application did not make it into the radio.

 

• Other Radio Benefits:   Travis made his application for personal use to make for easier memory management between the TH-D74,  mobile TH-D710AG and Yaesu FT-991.

HVDN Feedback: If the Icom IC-705 ever comes into his possession, that would really be nice capability to add to this program since frequency coverage is pretty equal, excluding no 220 MHz on the Icom IC-705 but identical HF and VHF-UHF receive on both radios. Another BT enabled radio that can be programmed with no wires is the Lanch HG-UV98, a popular low cost APRS radio.

There are also some other hidden Easter Eggs regarding future expansion to support memory management with radios that support DMR, but I am not going to speculate, even though something like the BL-1 BT Programmer and an MD-380 (or other DMR radios) would be an interesting combination with the CAT Tool application.  

 

Go read more here

The perfect Icom IC-705 case?

Will this post address every possible need that everyone may have when using the Icom IC-705 at home, in the field or on a picnic table?  Probably not, but I think this comes awfully close to meeting my needs so thought worth sharing my journey.

How do I want to use the Icom IC-705?

After acquiring this radio, I spent time getting familiar with its functions and watching what accessory purchases others were making.  

Lessons learned as an early Yaesu FT-817 purchaser almost 20 years ago proved that spending more than that radio cost for addon's got quickly out of hand.

And, since the Yaesu FT-817 brand new back in the early 2000's was much less than the Icom IC-705 today, I wanted to go about things a bit smarter this time around.

My intended use cases for the Icom IC-705 are as follows:

• Toss it in the backpack for easy to deploy legitimate field operations in rough conditions.

• Perfect vacation and traveling demo "shack in a box" scenarios to excite new prospective hams.

• Fill the "If I could use just one non-handheld radio" use case...

As a QRP enthusiast, I am fine with 10 watts RF output on all bands with external power or 5 watts on the internal battery. I also do not mind no internal tuner as I usually use resonant antennae for specific uses cases like satellite, digital modes and SOTA. 

Case:  The cornerstone of all accessories

Someone did the hard work already and shared this on the Icom IC-705 Facebook User Group, so I purchased this enclosed hard case for reasons explained later compared to a soft or protective rail case. 

Cost was $12.99 USD for the large size case in orange on Amazon and is made in the USA.   Purchase link:  MTM Survivor Dry Box with O-Ring Seal

The Icom IC-705 fits perfectly in this case and offers some extra room for a few basic accessories such as the wired microphone and a VHF rubber duck antenna or small end fed wire for HF.  The extended BP-307 battery fits just fine and that lives full time inside the case now attached to the rear of the radio.

Case Access:  Before making holes for antenna stuff

The MTM case is a dry case, which means your expensive radio wont get wet or screen scratched when its inside this protective cocoon.  I am not going to say its waterproof, but it feels like I would not have a moisture issue so will call this case weather tight instead. 

Since you can pretty much operate the Icom IC-705 fully remote using software or a mobile device described later, I only wanted to make a external holes for antenna and power wiring.  

First thing you need to buy is a BNC cable that has a right angle male on one side and a female BNC bulkhead on the other.  Spending $9.49 USD, the Eightwood BNC Bulkhead Female to BNC Male Right Angle Adapter RG58 Cable 50cm /1.6 feet is what I settled on.

The length of cable also solves a counterpoise issue on the two meter band since using most standard HT antennae with the IC-705 do not work well, so this is a hidden benefit. 

The right angle BNC male is what connects to your radio. A straight BNC will be too long to go inside the case. This is why having a right angle is needed. If an easy to source right angle bulk head was available, I would have went for right angles on both sides to give me even more flexibility.

Carefully placing and putting a hole in the side of your MTM case is important, so measure twice and cut once!  

You want to avoid the straight part of the BNC bulkhead cable hitting the side of the radio inside the case. It is best to make your entry hole as indicated in the picture below.

You may notice a nice binding post next to the new antenna connector. This also has a hidden benefit since you will find you need a grounding point on your radio to connect a counterpoise for HF operation to your radio.

Purchase  Jabinco 2pcs Gold Plated Insulated Terminal Binding Post Power Amplifier Dual 2-Way Banana Plug Jack for a total of $4.99 USD and you will end up with 3 spare terminal posts you can use for some other project, like some type of portable balun.  Or, you may have a spare binding post left over from another project you can use instead, but this one is very high quality and I recommend this.

Using one of these posts will give us a ground connection to the radio. You can either use some bare copper wire or a thin piece of sheet metal with appropriate holes drilled to connect this binding post to the outer conductor of the BNC bulkhead on the inside of the case.

Be sure to tighten up your connections correctly and you now have a case with external antenna connections that are weather tight and be sure to test that your ground lug and antenna port are now connected by using your continuity function on a multimeter. You should have close to zero resistance.

Case Access:  Adding power 

It would have been nice to just use Power Pole connections for power, but they take up more space inside the case and some may require more complicated hole making, so using the "standard" 5.5mm O.D.  x 2.5mm I.D coaxial power connector which the IC-705 and the Elecraft KX2 and KX3 uses seemed like a better low profile idea. 

There are also many external battery packs and inverter generators that use this same connector, so I am not worried about interoperability too much since this is a lower current connector and the additional benefits of the Power Poles are not needed.

Purchase Link:  5.5x2.5mm Female DC Power Jack 5PCS DC-099A DC Female Panel Mount Charging Wire Threaded Socket Connector with Dustproof Plug IP67 68 Water-Proof Large Current Power Adapter

You will need to drill your hole carefully as pictured and then you will need to solder on a male right angle 5.5mm O.D.  x 2.5mm I.D coaxial power that will connect to your radio after you pass the free ends into the dry box case.

If you want to add a reverse polarity protection diode or fuse, I will leave that up to you since the IC-705 does not offer much protection if you plug in your external power the wrong way.

When using a diode like a Zener type, be sure to realize that some voltage drop may occur from your external power source. For the Icom IC-705 to give you maximum RF output, the below chart will help you.

The internal battery pack is only capable of 7.4 volts, so to get that extra kick of RF output, you need to be over 12.5 volts always if you need that extra tiny bit of decibels to make radio contact.

If you need to connect power poles, you can use a ready made cable like this one by Windcamp for $12.99. 

How to access the IC-705 now?

This is not yet a perfect solution. You will need to find a way to secure the IC-705 inside your case which may require bending a piece of sheet metal to make a bracket that can screw to the underside of the IC-705 and you can then Velcro the radio into the case.  

You can also decide to skip that construction step and ruin your radio by putting Velcro on it or your battery directly.  This is left up to you on how you like to do things. 

This really good Velcro allows for easy removal of the IC-705 so you can access the SD Card, USB port, keying jack or the other connectors you may care about.  

Icom has not enabled a way to access the SD card over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth via FTP or anything else should you want to grab screen captures or audio recordings from the radio.   

You can also not access those files over USB either, so this is one reason why you will need to remove the IC-705 from the case.

The other connectors for my personal use cases were not important, but if they are for you, that is up to you to solve for. 

I would however think to maybe add an external USB in the future if I can find a suitable connector for times where I do not thing that low power wireless signals like Bluetooth or Wi-Fi are appropriate but wish to still control the radio remotely.

Everything else can be done "almost" over bluetooth or Wi-Fi

Control of the radio can happen over bluetooth or Wi-Fi for different reasons. Using a bluetooth microphone solves some issues for portable voice operation but adds additional "how do I charge the bluetooth speaker complexity", so keeping the wired mic on hand is important.

I am only plugging in the microphone connector and not the speaker part of the hand mic. This will not impact if you use a bluetooth mic or digital modes.

If you want basic remote frequency control, you can use the 705 Remote application on Android or the free Icom RS-MS1A application.   

The Icom Android application will appeal more to those who want to use D-Star and related advanced functions where the 705 Remote by Ikeda Shogouki may be better for those looking for a classic VFO knob and more HF focused functions.  

The popular Dan Toma Pocket TXRX software does not yet support the IC-705 and your results will be mixed when using different CI-V addresses to try and use profiles meant for radios like the IC-7000, IC-7100 and IC-7300. For now, I am ignoring this otherwise great software and its capabilities.

Remote radio versus remote internet control operation

The prior mentioned basic remote setup will not offer much else than basic remote radio capability.

If you are looking for complete wireless control of your Icom IC-705, you will need to purchase the  Icom RS-BA1 software for about $120.00 USD that runs on a Windows computer or some other platform with containers or virtual machines. 

This Icom software allows you to use your radio totally remote from your computer, including virtualized COM ports for digital modes, audio and CAT operations.  

You can also use RS-BA1 to allow other software like FLdigi, WSJT-X or Ham Radio Deluxe to control or talk to your Icom IC-705 if you are interested in digital modes and wish to operate the radio remotely. For voice communication, you can use a headset or microphone with your computer.

One use case for this is putting your radio at near your portable antenna and then take your laptop to a comfortable rock or picnic table.   This way you can minimize feedlines which takes up more space and weight in your pack, if you are interested in portable operations and are not afraid of short range wireless signals

You can create a point to point Wi-Fi access point (AP) with the Icom IC-705 to connect your laptop to without the need of the internet for this type of use which is very nice.

Alternatively, if you do have internet access and wish to share your IC-705 over the "world wide web" from the field, you can do that instead by changing from AP mode to a regular Wi-Fi profile. 

If you are in the field, allowing the IC-705 to connect to a broadband hotspot or possibly an AREDN mesh network is possible.  You still need to use the Icom RS-BA1 software for this to work.

A second option, not requiring the expensive Icom software is brought to us by Norbert Varga and team via a workaround that can run on a Raspberry Pi and act as a form of  a "man in the middle" server that will bridge a computer and the IC-705 over Wi-Fi to make a server.  This may require some advanced setup to get it working if you are not very skilled with Linux. 

A link to this software and instructions are here: https://github.com/nonoo/kappanhang

While this works great, I would not recommend this if your goal is less complexity in a field environment since it means transporting a raspberry pi and power source for it which if bought new, getting the Icom RS-BA1 software may be a better long term solution. 

A third solution is the very excellent Win4IcomSuite by VA2FSQ. His software is less than half the cost of the Icom RS-BA1 and offers nearly all the same functions but also allows for better integration with other software such as digital mode or satellite related programs. This may appeal to those who do NOT want the Raspberry Pi solution complexity.

Summary:  Case closed?

Everyone has an opinion and I am not claiming this is a perfect solution for everyone, but it does offer complete protection of your expensive radio and offers the ability to use it in the field with a good degree of safety.  

Here is a list of things mentioned in this article if you wish to buy it all from Amazon Smile, which a tiny part of proceeds benefits the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club.

View Amazon Shopping List for HVDN Icom IC-705 Case

Analyzing Frozen Air Traffic in the Hudson Valley

 

Ever wonder where airplanes are headed to and from?  The easiest way to figure this out is by spending about $30 for an inexpensive USB software defined radio (SDR) receiver and a small antenna designed to receive signals at 1090 MHz globally and 978 MHz in the United States. These systems are called ADS-B and UAT with some more details here.

The above chart shows all air traffic for about the last 30 days in the Hudson Valley as seen by the main HVDN ADS-B receiver located in Poughkeepsie. 

See that huge drop off of air traffic on February 1st and 2nd?  That is easily explained by that HUGE snow storm that dumped more than two feet of snow across the region which the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio had a constant weather reporting discussion on its wide area 146.805 MHz repeater locally here in the Hudson Valley. 

While that chart only shows the number of transmissions made by aircraft that you can receive with something like the genuine RTL-SDR v3  or the optimized ADS-B version by Flightaware, here is what that looked like for actual individual aircraft. Sure looks like UPS and Fedex flying in and out of KSWF were busy just before the white stuff closed the airport.

Analytics & SDR 

Any hobby that involves some sort of radio communication is a great way to also learn about database management, data visualization and data capture. 

Keeping a Raspberry Pi computer nice and cool is important if you will be doing anything compute intensive and here is a view of the internal temperature of the one running the ADS-B receiver up in Steve K2GOG's attic.   Given how cold its been the past month, we can easily see it benefited the processor core temperature.

All these great charts and many more like it are courtesy of the Graphs1090 application that can run on a Raspberry Pi along with the ADS-B (1090 MHz) and UAT (978MHz) receiver software. 

Special care long term needs to be taken though in storing data long term though since a standard SD card may get corrupted over time due to so many read/write cycles. Another lesson being learned in real time. 

With the simple antenna and receiver, here is a visualization of the range of the receiver Steve has set up and shows four different tiers of range between different altitude boundaries.

The inner most plot is for historical range received by any aircraft below 9999 feet and outermost red colored plot is for aircraft traveling 30000 feet or higher.

As covered previously in the "Line of Site: Aircraft Edition" article, there is not much that can be improved upon unless the antenna is moved much much higher, and is thus a point of diminishing return for the effort versus benefit gained.

You may notice not a omnidirectional pattern and that is due to a mountain range to the north west of the receiver location and a lower amount of air traffic in that general direction.

The above collection of charts shows just the air traffic over just a two day period between February 15 and the exact time of this article's publish time. Its pretty clear when there are more aircraft flying around, how far they are detected and even the signal level received.  

For the most part, if there is an aircraft traveling in the Hudson Valley area, Steve's receiver can hear it!

The only way to improve the system is by placing other receivers at other locations and sharing that data in real time into the HVDN Locator tool built upon Virtual Radar Server.

Its easy to  combine multiple receivers into one view and even go back and filter what each receiver was able to hear by itself or as part of the wider network. 

If you live somewhere in the Hudson Valley region and would like to set up your own receiver that can feed into the HVDN Locator project, please consider becoming an HVDN member and/or drop a note into our HVDN Slack channel.  Our system is only made publicly available during certain times of the day, whereas during other times, only our members can access the system. 

The system even supports live weather data being pulled into the system too, which is fun to watch in real time as air craft need to change altitude to dodge storms, plus see how often specific aircraft hit crappy conditions by using the report generation tool found in the upper left hand menu drop down.

An example of a report is looking at historical military aircraft received by visiting milair.hvdn.org. 

Getting an understanding of who is flying around allows for much easier audio monitoring on VHF and UHF channels that will be covered in future articles.

Hacking in USB CAT control to the Kenwood TS-50

The Kenwood TS-50 was a great radio in its day and still holds its own against modern radios over 30 years later.

When Kenwood released this mobile 100W HF radio back in 1993, it was in the early days of modern computer aided transceiver or CAT evolution.  

This article explains how to add USB based CAT control to a vintage Kenwood TS-50 and maybe squeeze some extra life out of this great radio when it comes to digital modes.

Gathering Supplies

The bottom of the TS-50 has a small removable plastic disk that allows the user to access a 6 pin connector which the no longer available (and expensive) Kenwood IF-10D computer interface connected to along with the also expensive (and no longer available) Kenwood IF-232C serial converter.  

The original Kenwood IF-232C accessory permitted the inverted TTL communications native on the TS-50 to work via standard RS-232 serial communications at a blazing 4800 baud which is more than fine for simple communications between a radio and computer.

While there are some other aftermarket solutions still available in 2020, there is a cheaper way.

For less than $20 in parts, you can add modern CAT control to your TS-50 for easier use of digital communication modes like PSK31, FT-8, FT-4, JS8CALL and so much more. 

We will also not need to be removing that little plastic disk, so leave that alone.

To add modern USB CAT control to a Kenwood TS-50 you will need:

• CP2104 USB-TTL UART Serial Adapter
• JST ZH 1.5MM 6 Pin Female Single Connector with Flat Wires
• Some ingenuity to mount the CP2104 in your TS-50

Both items can be easily sourced via Amazon.com and you will even end up with 9 more sets of wires and matting PCB mount connectors that you can save for some other projects. Mounting inspiration is illustrated and detailed below.  

A small donation from the purchase link of either item is also headed to the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club located in the Hudson Valley to help them maintain its famous 146.805 analog FM repeater and to add to its treasury for future additions like a DMR repeater or advanced APRS digipeater plus support great events like ARRL Field Day, Winter Field Day and other special outdoor events.

Connections on the TS-50

The below photo diagram illustrates which  of the six pins on the Kenwood TS-50 offers what function.

On the CP2104 USB-TTL UART serial adapter, we are going to need to attach the following wires.

For this to work, matching up the TX to the RX and RX to TX pins are needed between both devices.

While some other less detailed guides made it seem that only the TX, RX and GND pins were needed, on the recommended UART serial adapter, we also need to connect the 5V line for a total of 4 wires used. The remaining two wires from the 6 pin pigtail were just left for future use and taped up.

You will see the onboard green LED blink to show that communication is happening between the radio, TTL adapter and computer. You will not be able to see this LED since it will be hidden inside your radio if you install it the way that I did.

Mounting the CP2104 inside the TS-50

After removing all the outside case screws, go ahead and remove both covers of the TS-50.  You may wish to use a piece of painters tape to hold the TS-50 speaker in place while you flip the radio chassis over.

There are not many places to put the TTL adapter inside the Kenwood TS-50 unless you want wires hanging out of the TS-50 which looks messy and unsafe, so now is the time to get organized. If you wish to be neat with this modification, you will need to cut a hole into the side of your TS-50 on the side of the bottom cover.

The support bracket  for the TTL adapter was fashioned out of a brass corner bracket on hand and was insulated with a piece of heat shrink to ensure the metal to did not contact any PCB traces on the bottom of the TTL adapter.

Some zip ties were used to hold the TTL adapter in place, but another piece of heat shrink was used during final assembly to hold things in place. A screw and double nut were also used to attach the bracket to the radio for mechanical strength, but this is optional if you trust glue 100%.

Finally, some epoxy was used to fill up some small gaps left behind from cutting the TS-50 case so that the TTL adapter PCB can add additional structure to the finished modification.

To complete the assembly, simply route the connector end of the 6 pin wire between the front face and main chassis near where shown below.

You can then plug the connector into the radio and reassemble your radio carefully.

If cutting a hole in the side of the bottom cover of your radio, be sure to make sure your mounting bracket or the TTL adapter will not accidently squish board level components such as the picture toroid's.

Using the TS-50 CAT Upgrade

When using software like FLdigi, you can use the "hamlib" for control and select the TS-50 from the menu of supported radios. This is the easier path for CAT control. 

Be sure to set your speed to 4800 baud and you select the correct COM port. Most other settings should be automatically found when using FLdigi and most other software.

After you have the software configured, then go ahead and power up your radio after connecting the USB cable to the TS-50 and into the USB micro port. 

You should be easily be able to change frequency on the radio and have it track correctly in your software of choice. 

Using a TS-50 on digital modes with CAT control

Adding CAT control only offers control of frequency and some other basic functions of your TS-50.  This upgrade does not route any transmit or receive audio, nor does it offer PTT control.

It is possible to use the TTL adapter and a simple 4N26 optocoupler with the CTS wire to add on PTT, but its possible to accidently trigger transmit while the radio powers up or down when the USB wire is connected between the radio and computer, so this feature was left out of this article on purpose. If you wish to enable this convenience, that is up to you.

You can follow this article by HB9AMO  to add PTT if you wish and by using the extra wires we taped up before from the 6 pin connector.  

Routing of audio signals and PTT is done via the 8 pin microphone connector through your interface of choice such as a Rigblaster, Signalink or something like those devices.

 Summary

So now that we have near total control of the TS-50 using only two sets of wires, one for CAT and one for audio/PTT, the old Kenwood TS-50 is much easier to use for digital modes. 

It was decided that the Kenwood TS-50 was the perfect radio to use as part of an inexpensive dedicated digital data station for the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club and joint HVDN special events. 

Given that the radio, computer, power supply, antenna tuner came from inventories held by both organizations, this was the perfect project to show how old and new can be used together to aid in digital awareness of amateur radio in the Hudson Valley and beyond.

If you enjoyed this radio, please support HVDN or OMARC with a small donation via the links below:

Support the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club - 501.c3 charitable organization

Join Hudson Valley Digital Network as a supporting member

And, if you happen to be looking for a great portable case for your own go kit digital or otherwise, the Kenwood TS-50 along with its supporting cast of support components as a self contained digital station has a new home in this great 4U Gator Case and if purchased, a small donation also goes to the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club too!  

You can see this in action at the upcoming COVID compliant Winter Field Day event at Ferncliff Forest in Rhinebeck between the hours of 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM Saturday January 30th and from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM on Sunday January 31st 2021.

Teardown: Alinco DJ-MD5XTG (2nd Generation DMR)

What can I cay, I have always liked Alinco products going back to my first ever HT, the credit card sized Alinco DJ-C1T.  

Much has happened in  the world of amateur radio since and Alinco continues to do interesting things via its latest DMR handheld offering, the DJ-MD5XTG. 

This article details from the inside out, what makes this model different than its predecessor. 

Alinco had different DJ-MD5 radios?

Let me first start out and dispel a rumor I created that the latest Alinco DJ-MD5XTG would support the 220 MHz band. It does not or at least officially, which makes the band coverage on par with the popular Anytone AT-D878UV, available from vendors such as Bridgecom.

At the time of this article, the second generation Alinco DMR DJ-MD5XTG is available in the United States by DX Engineering.

When purchasing an Alinco DJ-MD5 series radio, there are now three versions that have been created and the most basic DJ-MD5T is discontinued. The major difference between it and the Alinco DJ-MD5TGP is the inclusion of GPS functionality.

 If you are looking to sell your original DJ-MD5 series radio to offset the cost in buying the new radio or are looking for a deal, please think about some of the following based on the teardown of the new DJ-MD5XTG.

The major differences

I did the hard work so you do not have to by doing a basic tear down of the DJ-MD5XTG and comparing it to the DJ-MD5TGP, which I also tore down back in November 2018. The below non-RF major component  table will help guide us along. 

Both versions main PCB interestingly both show that they are both considered revision 2.0, but with different date of manufacture codes.

1st Point: You get a faster MCU with more memory

Really the only major difference is that the Alinco DJ-MD5XTG upgrades to a 1024k flash and 96k SRAM memory configuration which is identical to that of the Anytone AT-D878UV.  

The older Alinco DJ-MD5TGP and DJ-MD5T (Without GPS) has the 512K flash and 64K SRAM memory configuration. The GD32F3030 (VGT6) is what is found inside the latest Alinco DMR radio.

The extra memory, like in the competing Anytone radio, allows for Alinco to support a few new features in the software which we will talk about later such as roaming and analog transmission of AX.25 based APRS. There is also a GPS/Baidou toggle, weather alert and few other changes.

If you have really good eyesight, you may notice what appears to be sloppy soldering on the MCU, but this is intentional. 

Alinco has bridged the shown pins on purpose, just like as found in the earlier Alinco DJ-MD5 radio as well as the Anytone AT-D878UV and the earlier AT-868UV. 

I just want to point this out that there is no bad workmanship inside this radio, especially since many find it easy to question construction capabilities of radios made today to save costs because of frugal or entry level customers.

The Alinco DJ-MD5TGP is indeed a high quality product and assembled/manufactured in Japan and not China like most, not all Alinco communications equipment.

However, the absolutely useless instruction manual which is little more than an instruction guide on how to attach the belt clip, connect the battery, screw in the antenna and turn on the radio along with some basic operation instructions is indeed printed in China, so take that for whatever value you want to place on that.

For what the manual is, it is rather well made and laid out, but just lacks any major value.

2nd Point:  Newer versions of other major components

Beyond the MCU (Micro Controller Unit), the baseband vocoder which helps your radio become a DMR radio, has a new production code and but is identical to the 2018 version of the SCT3258TD. 

Everything else is the same too and the only other differences which have not yet been thoroughly  tested  on the the main PCB are some slight changes in the RF front end and filtering compared to the older radio.  The below photo shows the main PCB along with the two RF shields removed on the DJ-MD5XTG.

3rd Point: What does the FCC have to say?

The Alinco DJ-MD5XTG does carry the FCCID of  PH3DJ-MD5, which is the same as its predecessor, so we may see an update on the FCC website in the coming months, but it does not seem like it may mean much from an RF perspective. Here is the Alinco DJ-MD5XTG fully disassembled.

Hardware:  DJ-MD5XTG instead of the Anytone AT-D878UV?

What attracted me to the Alinco DJ-MD5TGP back in 2018 are the same reasons as the DJ-MD5XTG.

Starting with how to program the Alinco with the Computer Programming Software (CPS) is that you use a common USB micro cable used with smart phones instead of a dedicated cable like that of the Anytone and other radios like the TYT, Radioddity, Lanch HG-UV98, Baofeng and Ailunce radios that have been covered across past HVDN articles plus the much higher end Kenwood TH-D74.

This may be a benefit to some people if you have a habit of misplacing things and need an instant replacement. It is also worth noting that while the Kenwood D74 can be programmed wirelessly via Bluetooth, it can also use a standard USB micro cable as well.

Another reason I like the Alinco over the Anytone is that it is a perfect radio for taking hiking. The speaker/microphone connection uses a 3.5mm jack for the speaker/headphone function and the smaller 2.5mm jack for the microphone. 

While this is now considered opposite of what used to the standard, this lets me use a regular pair of wired 3.5mm stereo headphones or earbuds with the Alinco should I wish to listen to communications or music privately.  While its common to have Bluetooth earbuds these days, sometimes a wired version is helpful to have since they do not require rechargeable batteries!

One thing I did learn with the original Alinco MD-5TGP is that using a speaker microphone seems like a burden, even with the nicely made Alinco EMS-76.  

Alinco and its resellers caution every user to only use this microphone with this new DMR radio, but if you have an older microphone wired the same as the EMS-76, it will work just fine. 

Just avoid trying any of the speaker microphones meant for other radios as they will damage your radio due to incompatible wiring.

I say a speaker mic might be a waste since the microphone is nearly the same size as the radio itself. Instead, while hiking as an example, I just clip the radio upside down on my pack strap such as pictured below while visiting Red Hill Tower last September as part of the Catskill Fire Tower Five Challenge.

The Anytone AT-D878UV still offers Bluetooth capability for remote PTT and for pairing to external audio devices.  It would be nice to see bluetooth added in the future to the Alinco DJ-MD5 series, but battery life may then become an issue.

My personal opinion is that I do not see this as any shortcoming. Please also be aware that the SMA-J style antenna connector is used on the DJ-MD5XTG like its predecessors, so this is NOT the same as what is used on the Kenwood D74 for comparison.

Software:  This needs another article or three, maybe four?

There are some new features found in the Alinco DJ-MD5XTG which will really make it appeal to those that enjoy an active converged lifestyle and some future articles will cover:

• What is roaming and do you really need it?

• Analog APRS:  This is the original, not the new APRS or D-APRS

• GPS: How do you set it up and actually use it

• Proof is in the programming:  Basic US Alinco DJ-MD5XTG code plug

• Talking about the band options in the Alinco DJ-MD5XTG

Keep an eye on the HVDN Notebook for future articles all December long about the Alinco DJ-MD5XTG or bookmark this handy link. https://hvdnnotebook.blogspot.com/search/label/Alinco%20DJ-MD5XTG 

Review: Lanch HG-UV98 APRS 2m/70cm HT

Many amateur radio vendors now offer hand held radios with digital voice capability such as DMR, Fusion or D-Star modulation modes, but still lack easy to use data only functions that work across different vendors equipment.

AX.25 based APRS is the only current  protocol that will let users of some Yaesu, Kenwood and certain Icom equipment "talk data" to each other over non-voice means for point to point communications or through some type of infrastructure like a digipeater or the Brandmeister DMR network, Icom's D-Star and other API avenues that lead to websites like APRS.fi

Let us now explore the current crop of APRS capable hand held radios and introduce a low price alternative which offers this stalwart universal packet based data communication mode.

This review will talk about the $169.95 USD Lanch HG-UV98. This analog dual band (2m/70cm) with APRS radio has some tricks that make it unique in a world full of digital voice radios not found elsewhere.

What does the Lanch HG-UV98 compete with?

Lets start out by sharing a list of what current production model radios support both receive and/or transmit capability of 1200 baud AX.25 based APRS communications.

As we can see in the above table, the Lanch HG-UV98 is drastically less expensive than much of the competition when it comes to full featured APRS functionality.

While this early 2019 release radio does not offer digital voice modes like the majority compared in the above table, there are many things that make the HG-UV98 interesting more than the price.

The $500+ USD Kenwood TH-D74 is roughly the same
size as the $169.95 USD Lanch HG-UV98

Lanch HG-UV98 Basic Review

Nothing seems all too extraordinary, unless you are looking for a radio with data communication capability for under $200 USD.  The Lanch HG-UV98 will also appeal to users interested in asset tracking, experimentation, hacking, telemetry,  programming and casual analog voice communication. Basic specifications include:

• Receive: 136-174 MHz and 400-470 MHz
• Transmit: 136-174 MHz and 400-470 MHz
• Transmit Output: VHF = 5W High, 1W Low , UHF 4W High, 1W Low
• Memory Channels:  128
• Battery: 7.4 V 2500 mAH polymer Li-Ion 

The more exciting features are:

• 1200 baud APRS RX & TX
• Location with GPS, BeiDou, GLONASS selection
• Temperature sensor
• Barometric Pressure sensor
• Battery voltage telemetry
• One additional external I/O
• Bluetooth for PC/Phone pairing for APRS/GPS
• VHF & UHF simultaneous reception
• 5 V USB charging (Standard USB Micro connector)
• Color display with day/night option
• Plus more...

Detail on HG-UV98 Non-APRS features

All the usual features found in every modern handheld analog FM radio for voice communication  are included such as PL/CTCSS, DCS encode or decode, channel naming, etc.

The HG-UV98 is also dual watch in the same band, but not dual receive at the same time in the same band. Dual band receive at the same time is supported, which means a signal at 145.880 and 435.350 MHz can be heard through the speaker at the same time.

This may be of interest those interested in duplex operation via SO-50, AO-92, AO-91 and a few other satellites.

While you can dual watch 144.390 and 146.520 at the same time, you can only receive one of those signals at the same time and not both. You can set a TX or RX priority though to offer additional priority flexibility.

Lanch HG-UV98 CPS program is simple to use

The HG-UV98 lacks an audio mixer function such as the one found on the Kenwood and Yaesu radios. You can however enable mute on the "A" or "B" side of the HG-UV98 which is helpful if you want to use APRS on "A" but not hear the packet data bursts while listening to voice communication on the "B" side. This can also be flipped depending on user preference.

While strange at first thought, you can mute both sides of the radio at the same time, which may be interesting if you want to set APRS for both UHF and VHF at the same time as some sort of tracking device and not have any RX audio come out of the speaker, regardless of how you set the master volume knob. 

With APRS, you could even set side "A" as TX and "B" as RX or both. This is sort of a nice set of features offered in this radio which others lack.

Detail on HG-UV98 APRS Features

When it comes to APRS or other AX.25 packet communication, you are limited to 1200 baud compared to the faster but underutilized 9600 baud speed highlighted in the comparison chart.

This is not a shortcoming however, as the TNC in the HG-UV98 is hardware based which means more reliable decoding or encoding of packets. Based on testing, the overall experience RX or TX is on par with the Kenwood TH-D74 and has not missed a packet while field testing this radio during a recent travel excursion.

This is worth mentioning because the most economical "new purchase" entry route to APRS prior to the Lanch HG-UV98 was to use a simple $10 cable that would connect a low priced analog FM radio such as a $25 USD Baofeng UV-82 to a smartphone.

This approach uses a emulated software modem in software running on a smartphone or tablet and the use of "voice activation" to handle switching from transmit to receive which is not very reliable.

If your first taste of APRS was through this "Baofeng" method, the HG-UV98 should be your upgrade path unless you really want digital voice as found in other radios. 

The Lanch is going to be a truly night and day difference from the Baofeng UV82 or UV5R type of radio when used with the aforementioned cable.  The HG-UV98 is 100% self contained for APRS much like more expensive radios.

Here are some highlighted HG-UV98 features for APRS not found on other radios:

• Setting a different channel for RX or TX for APRS at the same time

• Setting a different channel or two channels or one over Bluetooth for APRS

• Setting different UNPROTO paths on different schedules (WIDE1-1, ARISS, etc)

• Setting APRS TX at timed intervals, after every PTT or smart options based on speed, etc

• Ability to toggle on/off the TX of in built atmospheric telemetry or voltage sensor data

Critical Compatibility Notes

Only the listed Kenwood and Yaesu radios can actually receive and transmit 1200 baud APRS, thus making them 100% compatible for two way data communications with the HG-UV98.

The Anytone AT-D878UV can only transmit APRS, so while those can be received on the HG-UV98, you can not transmit APRS back to the Anytone expecting the user will receive the message.

The only way for full two way communication via APRS with the HG-UV98 and radios such as the Icom ID-51, Anytone D878 and Alinco DJ-MD5TGP are via internet routing involving a hot spot or repeater plus looking at the APRS.fi website. This is NOT the same as legitimate APRS communication, so do not be fooled.


HG-UV98 Hardware Review

So far this article may be giving you a lot to think about, so lets switch to talking about the hardware to give your APRS section of your cranium a brief rest.

The included battery of the HG-UV98 has 2500 mAh capacity at 7.4 V.  Built in voltage measurement function reads is just as accurate compared to an external meter.  This is no big difference compared to other radios which have a similar battery specification like a TYT MD-UV380 and many other recent radios. The battery will not fit any other model radios though.

The really unique thing however is that the battery has a USB micro connector that allows you to charge the battery from either the included 12V to 5V USB "cigar/accessory" adapter or  the 120 VAC to 5V USB power cube along with the included USB "A" to USB "Micro Male" cable. A charge cradle is an optional accessory.

Simply put, this power flexibility should not to be overlooked for almost near universal charging capability.  All but the newest smartphones other than Apple or USB-C based devices made in the last 10 years have the USB micro connector.

The outside structure of the radio is very, very sturdy and feels solid in the hand. The battery has a special clasp that allows it to dock into the radio for an almost seamless fit.  The bottom of the HG-UV98 is stable to not tip over on flat surfaces even with the nice LED light built in to the bottom which can be controlled by different programmable buttons in the radio menu.

The default setting for the top mounted "orange" button at the top between the channel selector and SMA-J antenna connector is for controlling the LED flashlight and alarm functions. The SMA-J connector is the same one found on most other radios excluding the Kenwood, Icom, TYT and Yaesu radios which all use a standard SMA.  

The Alinco. Anytone and most other Chinese based low cost radios use the same antenna connector. The way to understand what an SMA-J connector is if it has a center pin instead of a socket at the center of the antenna connector on the radio itself.

The top of the radio also features a master volume and power switch plus a LED to indicate status of the radio during reception (green),  transmit (red) or scan (orange).  Blue flashes indicate APRS data packet reception and can be turned on or off.

While facing the front of the radio, the left side has a pair of programmable buttons and the PTT, which is angled for a feel sort of like the one on the Yaesu FT-70DR and some of the other "commercial inspired" radios they also offer for sale currently under the Vertex brand.

On the right side of the radio is a very nice gasket seal that can rotate which hides the standard "Kenwood/Baofeng" 2 pin connections for a speaker microphone.  This same port is what is used to program the radio or APRS modem.  

The USB micro on the battery is only for charging, not computer interfacing. The HG-UV98 can also be programmed over Bluetooth as well as to stream APRS, GPS or both. More on that later.

The front of the radio has back-lit keypad and soft functions that are well thought out and allows much easier toggling of GPS and APRS functions compared to some other radios.  

The only complaint with the keypad is that each key press has a loud click sound, but this may be considered a benefit to some users unless you are a covert operative on a special mission requiring absolute quiet.

Finally, the rear of the radio has connections for an optional drop in cradle charger and a rather nice belt clip.

Bluetooth and the HG-UV98

The HG-UV98 includes Bluetooth connectivity and the ability to pair the radio to any device that expects to receive KISS,  UI, GPWPL or KISS Acs.  This all means that the GPS and APRS data can seamlessly pass through to devices like a laptop, smartphone or tablet when using applications like Pinpoint, APRSdroid or most other popular APRS or terminal programs like TeraTerm, Putty and more. 

For those interested in Winlink, the HG-UV98 will work perfectly with that and will not require a wire connected to your computer.  This may appeal to someone involved in "emergency amateur radio communications".  

If all you have is a computer and HG-UV98, you can probably put the radio in a tall tree to extend your APRS range since it will then communicate back to your computer via short range Bluetooth.

Having Bluetooth creates some nice user application scenarios for full two way keyboard to keyboard communication when the HG-UV98 is wireless paired to other devices.  

Compared to the Kenwood and Icom radios, pairing Bluetooth and being able to connect with minimal fuss at a later time is much easier.

HG-UV98 Software

The computer programming software or CPS for short is pretty basic. It is only used to program the channels and basic features of the radio which are mostly not related to APRS.  It is possible with very little work that the widely adopted C.H.I.R.P software could be made to work with the HG-UV98. There is also an Android application available for the HG-UV98 but is in early release stages at the date of this article.

There is a separate software package for programming the APRS features for the HG-UV98.  This software is based on the APRS51 based tracker and modem devices found on E-Bay or elsewhere which offers some commonality with other equipment.

The only quirk with the APRS software is that you can only read settings from the radio. In order to write new settings to the HG-UV98, you need to put the radio into upgrade mode by holding down PF1 side button while turning the radio on.

After you do this, its easy to write APRS settings to the radio. You will know this is done correctly when the "write" button is clickable as in the above photo.

This same procedure is also used when updating the firmware for the radio also.  Everything can be written to the radio via Bluetooth for APRS but not for programming the memory channels which is sort of curious. The default Bluetooth pairing code for the HG-UV98 is "1234"

HG-UV98 Bottom Line 

For the price, this is an interesting piece of equipment. It is a higher transmit power upgrade from the 1 Watt PicoAPRS devices as well as the APRS51 based devices found on E-Bay  like the $90 USD AVRT5 which are only for data communication.

Compared to basic voice only communication radios for roughly the same price, this is a nice upgrade if you are not looking for digital voice capability or wanting to spend over $400 USD for some form of digital voice, analog voice and full featured APRS.

There is certainly room for improvement on some small menu names such as sub-menu #3 for frequency step size found under main menu #1 Local Setup. This is spelled as "SETP" instead of "STEP" .

 Menu #6 for setting repeater shift direction is abbreviated as "SFT_D" but its clear there is more room to spell this out.

Having the ability to even switch between black on white or white on black text like most other radios also shows this is a well thought out user interface aside translation quirks between Chinese and English. For those with poor vision, the HG-UV98 also has a voice menu option that is implemented well.

Other menus have random ALL CAPITAL LETTERS while others are Partially Capitalized. Under the "Meteorological" setting, changing from Celsius to Fahrenheit or metric to standard does not seem to work.

The APRS software also has some related issues, but overall this is a good start for a new company that can be fixed with a later software upgrade.

Below shows the HG-UV98 paired to an Android smartphone via Bluetooth running APRSdroid software.  The telemetry shows that the temperature, barometric pressure, voltage and altitude along with speed and location are easily viewed.

One final comment in closing, is that there appears to be an unsigned Android application for programming the radio from a smartphone over Bluetooth or through a USB OTG connection, but I can not seem to get this to work.

While not sure, there could be inspiration from the Xiaomi Mijia Walkie Talkie we have reviewed before and it is known that the HVDN blog does have many Chinese readers who follow our feedback which may have influenced some product decisions that led to the creation of the HG-UV98.

If you are willing to experiment a little, this product is great but for those looking for 100% polished software elements, there will be reduced expectations. On the bright side, the hardware is certainly best of class in my opinion and would make a great purchase to anyone looking for a reasonable investment in APRS communication equipment.

Expect an update on this radio at a later date.

Supplementary Notes

• The Lanch HG-UV98 was independently reviewed by HVDN and was purchased from Venus I-Tech in 2Q2019

• The corporate website for Lanch is found at http://yw.qzlcdz.com 

• The firmware in the HG-UV98, serial number  AO9A00378 in this review was v1.0.1_190416 and is hardware v1.0.1

• The computer programming software, firmware, instruction manual and APRS configuration program can be found on the Venus, Lanch or HVDN websites.

• HG UV-98 User Manual (April 2019 release)

• HG UV-98 Radio Programming Software (v1)

• HG UV-98 APRS Configuration Software (v1) 

• HG UV-98 USB Drivers (Standard CH340 Drivers)

UPDATE 4/21/2020:  Please note the above hosted files are on the HVDN server and not the manufacturer website which appears to be down