THIS TRANSCEIVER HAS ONLY BEEN PARTIALLY TESTED (RX) AND FURTHER INVESTIGATION IS REQUIRED
It is very important that those interested in this transceiver to read EVERYTHING in this detailed description so that you can gain an idea of what needs to be done!
HISTORY:
In a previous life I was heavily involved in professional communications (Maritime) and on a personal level, Amateur radio (ex VK2DWF and now relinquished for some years) so of course I collected radio equipment and to a certain extent still do "just for fun" but these days I am "over it all" and have been working through a box of radio equipment sitting in the storage units.
Icom (Japan) make great gear, perhaps not as good as "others" but their equipment was usually well built and suited the markets they were aimed at.
After some investigation (it wasn't immediately obvious), this mobile transceiver is for use in the UHF frequency range and looks to have been setup (at least partially) for UHF Citizen Band services.
NO fancy bells & whistles, meaning no DTMF, Control Sub-Tones, SELCAL or Voice scrambling - although I found it interesting that a socket is fitted INSIDE so that this unit can be turned into a radio modem but the required module is not supplied.
If you are looking for a transceiver that you can power up and start talking immediately to your fellow inmates (or as many do on UHF CB, just utter strange gurgling sounds) this equipment is NOT FOR YOU!
If however you have "some" technical abilities in relation to radio equipment (specifically programming), this may be a fun thing to play around with.
Please read on for the details of this ICOM F410 mobile transceiver ...
ICOM (JAPAN) - COMMUNICATIONS TRANSCEIVER
Designed & made in Japan
Model: F410
Analog FM UHF Transceiver
Frequency range: 470 - 490Mhz*
* There is no indication of the design frequency range, the F410 was released in four different versions to cover
400 ~ 430Mhz
440 ~ 470Mhz
470 ~ 490Mhz
490 ~ 520Mhz
I have come to the conclusion regarding this model's frequency range based on my test results below
Fixed 32 Channel capability - programmable
RF power output: 25W
Internal speaker fitted
Basic front panel rubberised push button controls i.e Volume, Channel Up & Down, Four Function buttons (Scan, Squelch level etc)
LCD display with backlight
PL259 Antenna connector
External Speaker connector
DC (nominally 13.6V) is supplied directly into the transceiver (no DC plug/socket) and the DC high current lead is supplied (in-line fuse fitted)
ITEMS NOT SUPPLIED:
A microphone is NOT supplied but is available as a separate item HERE
Mounting bracket and thumb screws are NOT supplied
DIMENSIONS:
140mm wide x 170mm depth x 40mm height
WEIGHT:
1.25Kg
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
CLEAN
NO physical damage to the diecast main body and front panel
Light oxidisation "stains" to the top cover plate, not serious and there is no oxidisation on the underside (inside of the plate)
DC lead is nice and heavy (for the high currents at full power transmit) and the fuse is fitted in the holder
I took a quick look inside the front panel (easy to access), all clean but there is NO rubber sealing gaskets used - this means that you must not use this transceiver near water!
TESTING:
This is the part that really matters!
I only had a 12V supply at hand for testing and at a low current capability but at least it enabled me to test the transceiver partially.
Same goes for an antenna, just a simple 'whip' antenna used for testing.
Power ON (push the Blue button in) and the display comes alive
No sound yet because the squelch is active
Channel changing (using the push buttons UP & DOWN) was easy and working fine
Simplex conversations heard on Channel 17 and 20 - commerical traffic, perhaps a building site
Channel position 4 is where the stupidity starts! A repeater and its KUR02, a repeater located in Kurrajong which is fairly near here (maybe 30Km away) Nonsensical conversations by people who's brains appear to have fallen out is the most polite way I can put it! I identified the repeater from the automatic morse ID sent by the repeater - thank goodness for machines.
I went into one of the function controls (Squelch) and made sure I could adjust the squelch threshold and also checked the Backlight Low/High control and others - all good.
LCD display (Orange background, Black letters & graphics) is clean and without cracks or marking
Now I attempted to transmit ...
Nada Zero action here. It is as though the transceiver is in a lockout mode or the frequencies have not been programmed or perhaps they were erased before the equipment was disposed of.
Pushing the PTT causes the display Channel to flash slowly. The TX icon does not come up on the display. This is not a low source current power supply (needs around 8A current on full TX), no change was detected in the current requirements of the transceiver when in TX mode - it just would not "fire up"
I made some quick checks online and I am leaning towards the idea that the transceiver has no transmit frequencies programmed or they are incorrect. When the display flashes like this, it often because the VCO cannot lock or the programmed frequencies are out of the design range.
This is where the investigation is required, the receiver is obviously working but the whole frequency setup programming needs to be examined and changed.
For this task you will need an interface cable which plugs into the microphone socket (8 pin flat, like a RJ-45 network plug) a level changing interface and a PC with RS-232 serial or perhaps a USB port.
That would take care of the communications to the PC but then you need the radio software - there are a number of pirate radio programs online that can be downloaded and these will take care of accessing the equipment and changing or setting up the RX and TX frequencies.
Although I used to do this programming years ago on TAIT and MOTOROLA gear, all my interfaces and software are long gone to a new home so I cannot do it for you.
I firmly believe we are dealing with a programming issue here, not a electronic component fault
Just a quick side note here .... accessing the functions such as Squelch etc is NOT intuitive (why make it so hard Icom?)
Here is what you MUST do to access those special functions
While pushing and holding BOTH the Up & Down channel buttons - Push the Blue button to turn ON the equipment (Yes you need ALL THREE fingers working at once!)
You should be greeted with a message something like SET MENU
Now you can make functional changes to the equipment
P0 sets the MINIMUM audio level
P1 sets the BEEP on or off (when on it is loud and very annoying so I turned it off)
P2 sets the LCD backlight brightness (two levels only - dim and normal)
P3 sets the Squelch threshold level - I had a range right up to 100 (!) but set it for just 12
So there you have it, a nice quality UHF transceiver from Icom which just needs a little programming (in my opinion) Sad that it won't cover 70cm, now that would have been much more useful!
