| This page is dedicated to promoting
increased use of the 222 to 225 MHz Band. Why ?
1. It's a great band, with
characteristics similar to 144-148 MHz, and has certain real advantages
over the 2 Meter band.
2. Radio amateurs will lose this band unless we make better use of
it than we do at present. Amateurs in the US lost 220 to 222 MHz
some years ago. Canadian amateurs have just
recently lost 220 to 222 MHz to manufacturers too. I
suspect that commercial interests in Canada want
access to the rest of the band, 222 to 225 MHz.
3. Everybody
and his dog seems to want to put up a repeater on the 144 or the 430
band. You could encourage use of this band if you promoted a
repeater on 222 MHz instead.
4. Use
it or lose it. We have been warned
often enough.
Most amateurs,
especially those newly-licensed, get equipment for the 2 Meter
band. Manufacturers put out lots of neat rigs for this band, many
paired with 440 capability, and
they generally have put the 220 band on the back burner (not
totally, as you will see below). This all goes back to the early
days before amateur rigs were available for VHF and when commercial
radios
could be readily converted to 144 MHz, and not so easily or not at all
to 220. So, lots of hams got on 2 Meters with converted
gear. Eventually manufacturers started making rigs for 2 Meters because they
saw that the market was there. The same sort of thing happened on
the 440 band. But a few manufacturers made equipment for the 220
band, and some amateurs discovered what a good VHF band it is.
Some of us used the Midland 13-509, a 12 channel crystal-controlled 10 watt rig,
still good today. The Clegg FM-76 is a comparable rig. There is also the Midland 13-513, a similar but
synthesized transceiver, 20 watts.
Many amateurs when
asked why they don't try 220 say 'why should I buy another rig when
nobody is on the band, and there is hardly any equipment available for
220'. Why you should make a move to get on 220 is noted above -
and there are amateurs on the band. The
perception that there is hardly any commercial gear for the 220 band is
a fallacy, and new equipment is available - some at very attractive
prices. There is equipment out there that you can use for
weak-signal work as well as for FM. Serious VHF contesters
have already made the effort to get on 220 using SSB and CW, for the extra multipliers.
No equipment
available, you say? Check out the following, compiled by Ted, N4TW
(plus some more).
Some of these are currently available transceivers.
Others may be found on eBay or swap nets.
| Manufacturer |
Model |
Bands |
| Mobile/Base
Units - |
| ADI/Pryme |
AR-247 |
222MHz 30w |
| Alinco |
DR-235T |
222MHz 25w |
| Kenwood |
TM-331A |
222MHz 25w |
| Kenwood |
TM-621A |
2m/220-225 25w ** |
| Kenwood |
TM-642AD |
2m/220/___
50w/25w/___ |
| Kenwood |
TM-742AD & UT220S |
2m/220/440
50/25/35w |
| Jetstream |
JT220M |
220 50/25/10w |
| TYT |
TH-9000 |
/25/10w |
| |
| Handie-Talkies
- |
| ADI/Pryme |
PR-222 |
222MHz 5w |
| Alinco |
DJ-280TH |
222MHz 5w |
| Alinco |
DJ-296T |
222MHz 5w |
| Kenwood |
TH-F6A |
2m/222/440 5w |
| Yaesu |
FT-33R |
220MHz 5w |
| Alinco |
DJ-G29 |
220MHz 5w/902MHz 2.5w* |
| Wouxun |
KG-UV3D |
144/220 |
*
This is a nice HT, and having
the 902 band is very useful. It is a little pricey,
though.
** I
have a TM-621A. You can monitor both bands at once - neat. |
A Useful Book, if you can
find it -
'The Practical
Handbook of Amateur Radio FM and Repeaters' by Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF,
and Mike Morris, WA6ILQ, was published by Tab Books in 1980. This
book has a lot of information on guess what? FM and repeaters. It
has quite a bit on equipment for the 220 band, including modifying some
older commercial equipment for 220, and details on how to convert a
Clegg FM-76 (or Midland 13-509) to a 220 repeater. This is Tab
Books No. 1212, ISBN .
Transverters -
Transverters are generally used to get on the CW/SSB portion of the
band, but with the right input can be used on FM as well. You
drive the transverter on one band and come out on another.
Received signals are converted to your driving transceiver's
frequency.
The following transverter designs use a 28 MHz transmitter/receiver to generate and
receive 222 MHz signals. You do have a 10 Meter rig, don't you
? A Radio Shack HTX-100 transceiver makes a good interface rig for
these transverters.
An article in QST recently (May 2001) describes how you can modify a Ten-Tec
Model 1210
2 Meter
transverter (available in kit form at a reasonable price) to come out on
222 MHz. The modifications could be done by anyone who could build
the kit ( for 2 Meters ) in the first place. There are lots of
colour photographs showing details of the conversion.
There is a design for
a no-tune transverter for 222 MHz on the QEX CD-ROMs from ARRL.
This was designed by Jack Lau, W1VT, and was described in the July 1993
QEX.
The tuned circuits are etched on the circuit boards. The pc boards
for this project are available from . Rick, VE3CVG, has notes on the construction of
this transverter at .
has a transverter for 222 MHz, the 222-28, which
is available already constructed or in kit form.
Transmitter,
Receiver and Transceiver Kits -
There are a
number of companies that offer kits (or sometimes built up) for 222 MHz,
mostly FM equipment.
offers the model 1230 synthesized transceiver. This rig has 20
watts output. If you plan to build an FM transceiver, check this
one out first.
See also
for their T301 and TA51 transmitter and R301 and R100 receiver
kits.
________________________________________
|
Here is
some useful information on building a 220 band repeater, from
Dan VA3OT:
And, see below as well for observations on Dan's information on
the TH-9000, from Rad N2VRO
(Please Note
that I have no personal experience with or knowledge of the
TH-9000,
so I am unable to evaluate or comment on the
information provided about this rig. Graham, VE3BYT)
I have just purchased a pair of
TYT TH- Mhz. Radios and have discovered how easy it is
to make a repeater out of a pair of these rigs.
The TYT TH-9000 and the
Jetstream JT-220 share the same PC board platform , on which
resides a small 6 pin board mounted socket . This 6 pin
connection has available , all the necessary connections
needed to make a functioning repeater.
Pin
Function
1
Ground
2
Tx Audio
3
COS
4
Rcv Audio
5
PTT
6
+ 5 Vdc
The TYT TH-9000 has a smaller
socket (1.5 mm pin spacing ) then the Jetstream JT 220 ,
but connections are exactly the same.
A mating plug with wires
attached can be purchased from Digikey , Part # A100196-ND
for $1. 39 ( US dollar ) to fit the TYT TH-9000 .
The TYT TH-9000 has a plastic
cover hiding a machined opening to fit a 9 pin
serial port , complete with 2 threaded holes to mount a serial
port.
The TYT TH-9000 series of
radios covers 2 meters, 1.25 meters and the 440 Mhz band all
share a similar case appearance , with 10/25/55 Watts output.
I purchased mine from the
Radio-Mart , online , at a very affordable price.
I have an old CSI Private Patch
V which will work as a full duplex controller but I am
currently looking for a set of 220 Mhz Cavity Duplexers.
I thought this information
would be of interest to your 220 page.
Dan
VE3OT
(February 2013)
________________________________________________
Hi,
I have an update/correction to the TYT 6 pin info on your
website labeled "Here is some useful information on
building a 220 band repeater, from Dan VA3OT:"
I just finished interfacing two of the TH-9000D (220Mhz) mobiles
as well. I interfaced it to an S-COM 7330 repeater controller.
A buddy of mine and I actually figured out that PIN3 on these
radios is actually not COS but instead it is PL DETECT.
If you put a multi-meter on PIN 3, set the TYT-9000D being used
as the receiver for Tone Squelch (T SQ) and set your handheld or
whatever test radio you're using to NOT encode(do not transmit
PL) the proper PL you'll notice that PIN 3 no longer goes active
low; the BUSY indicator on the display does light up indicating
there's a signal, which SHOULD activate COS/COR, but it doesn't,
because this PIN isn't COS, it's PL DETECT. Once you
encode(transmit PL) the proper PL on your test radio you'll now
see PIN 3 go from ~5v down to ~5mv, which is an active LOW
signal. This however is actually a great thing. I was dreading
having to find the PL Detect signal in these radio's but now
that we've discovered this all I had to do was to find an
alternative signal for COS/COR. I ended up probing around with
my multi-meter while keying up my test radio on/off and was able
to find a good point on the nearest gold board hole closest to
the M62426 HLF138 microchip. With the front of the radio facing
to the left of you this hole is towards the lower right of this
chip. I took a photo of this point which can be viewed here
I've now got proper PL Detect along with COS/COR going into my
S-COM 7330.
Hope this helps anyone looking to do this in the future.
Thanks
--Rad
N2VRO
(February 2015)
________________________________________
|
VE3BYT
Send me
an if you need
further information,
or if you have information we might add to this file.
Return
to the SLVRC - Table of Contents.
We're happy to
be on the 220 Band -
|
