TL;DR: I bought a new-looking NXDN handheld radio and tried to get it to work with one of my hotspots. So far, that has not worked. The radio software is enforcing a lower limit of 450 MHz, and my amateur radio privileges are for 420-450 MHz. The CPS software works, the FTDI cable works, but I have not been able to overcome the validation check in the radio and software.
I drop in on the ShopGoodwill website every now and then and run a few quick searches on name brands, like Icom, Yaesu, and Kenwood. A few weeks back I got a hit on Kenwood. What turned up was a new-looking radio. It was listed as:
KENWOOD NX-1302 AU UHF TRANSCEIVER, KMC-21A MICROPHONE – UNTESTED
I bid $47 and won the auction. The NXDN (Next Generation Digital Narrowband) radio looks new. It came in the original Kenwood box, with the expected Kenwood accessories. It also came with a Kenwood K-1 speaker-microphone.
Everything is still in original packaging:
The radio looks brand new:
And I got a nice K-1 speaker-microphone with the package:
When I put the battery on the radio, I saw no wear marks of any kind. The contacts in the desk charger looked new with no scuffs or scratches where a radio had been placed for charging. I think this package is new!
Of course, the reference manual dates to the year 2004, so to imply this is new is a bit disingenuous. But at least the radio looks new.
It’s not a complete win
I forgot that a Kenwood NXDN radio would probably need Customer Programming Software (CPS) and a programming cable. These two things are far more costly than what I paid for the radio.
I found a used CPS package on eBay for about $70. On Amazon, I found an off-brand programming cable for $22 (and my fingers are crossed that it works). The cable came in just a few days. I thought the CPS software would take a few weeks to arrive but it turned out to be a download so I got it before the cable arrived.
So is this a win? Well, my very inexpensive NXDN radio now totals about $150 with the CPS and cable.
Programming
My laptop loaded up the CPS software. This was not a given considering my laptop doesn’t use an Intel CPU. I had to find and load the ARM-based driver for the FTDI cable.
Once that was done and I updated the driver on the laptop, serial port errors went away and I was able to find the virtual COM port number: 21. I set that in the CPS software, plugged in the FTDI cable to the handheld radio, turned it on, and asked the CPS software to read the configuration. That worked.
I don’t know what to use for Zone Type, Zone Name, Zone Signaling Type, or Optional Signaling Decode Condition.
I changed channel 4 to match one of my hotspots running WPSD. I don’t know if this will work because the CPS software flagged my amateur radio frequencies as “out of range.” Then I configured the hotspot with my NXDN number, disabled YSF, enabled NXDN, restarted WPSD, and tried transmitting. The handheld did transmit but the hotspot didn’t see it.
The radio might be invisible to the hotspot because the TX and RX frequencies in my hotspot are below 450 MHz, and as shown in the top of the CPS software screen, the radio is apparently set for 450-520 MHz. Even though I set frequencies in the radio below 450 MHz, that radio may not be able to actually operate there. If I can’t figure out how to get the radio to transmit and receive below 450 MHz, then I have a nice-looking paperweight, because the amateur radio upper limit for the 70 cm band is 450 MHz.
I did find this on the internet:
In some versions of KPG-D6N, you can attempt to type the frequency directly. If it highlights red or gives an “out of range” error, the software is enforcing the factory limit.
I did get the “out of range” response when I entered frequencies below 450 MHz in the CPS. I may have a paperweight. There is a potential option to actually find the frequency range in the software and use a HEX editor to try to modify the validation range, but that seems extreme.
Time to search for more guidance! I’ll keep looking.
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