Your old BK's are Garbage!

Yeah, I know I haven't been posting for a while, and this news isn't exactly breaking, but Relm has finally ended support for al E series radios.

Several years ago the NIFC struck all EPH's from their approved list of radios after discovering compatibility issues with some straggling agencies that still had some in their cache. About a decade ago the USFS started phasing out the EMH and EPH radios in favor of the P25 ready G and D series radios, but up until a few months ago Relm/BK still supported these radios. Well, they finally pulled the plug on factory servicing all EPH, EMH and some early GPH radios. I guess when you can replace the radios for under $100 online their is no point in sending it in for factory service.  I bought my last EPH 5102X last year for $50 on ebay and it was in like new condition. The good thing for people like me, who still repair, rebuild and use EPH, and LPH series BK portables, the antennas, batteries, PTT buttons, knobs, and many of the other parts are interchangeable with the DPH radios so these frequently worn out parts are still abundant.

DIY tactical repeater for $100

Wiring / physical mod instructions can be found here.

Instructional video on how to downband an LPH for 144MHz

Picked up a new BK

Well, not new it's an old LPX2101 800MHz LTR trunking radio. It was listed as broken for parts, but with a price of $2 I figured I'd pick it up. It's pretty unique, physically, for a Bendix King. I powered it on and it spears to be working, but just the screen is dead, or more likely just needs to be reseated. We'll see what happens.

Alternate batteries to Alkaline AA's

There has been some discussion on the Bendix King user group about alternate batteries to standard alkaline AA batteries when using a BK clamshell. For years I have kept a set of nine 2000mAh Sanyo Eneloop batteries in my clamshell and I will say they outperform the standard BK battery as far as run time and there is also a notable improvement in "getting out" from areas where I have been unable to raise dispatch or hit a repeater. Even in my FT-60r "alkaline tray" I have used the eneloops with results that outperform the standard Yaesu battery.

The Energizer Ultimate Lithium are some of the lightest and longest lasting AA batteries on the market. They have a shelf life of over a decade even in extreme environments, so you can leave them sitting in your backpack for years and don't have to worry about them. Here is a spec sheet from Energizer comparing them to Alkaline cells. While the lithium's are not an economical alternative to the eneloops, which have a +1000 cycle recharge life, when backpacking the lithium batteries would cut the weight of my clamshell in half. You could probably go on a three day backpacking trip with just a clamshell of lithium cells and as long as you keep transmissions to a minimum it would probably last the entire trek.

DIY BK tactical repeater

Here is a pdf file explaining how to convert old Bendix King HT's into a low power tactical repeater. I have done this before with a MPH and LPH I bought off eBay for about $10 each. I'll post more info later.

http://www.repeater-builder.com/bendix-king/pdf/bk-repeater.pdf