'Widebanding' a Yaesu VX177 UHF - help

The place to discuss Commercial & Private licensed hand held & mobile transceivers, as well as imported hand held and mobile transceivers.
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Ninja
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Location: Cumbria

'Widebanding' a Yaesu VX177 UHF - help

Post by Ninja »

Hi all,

in my last thread on UHF handies 'what would you buy' I stated that I wanted a few Yaesu VX177's as they seemed like a high quality rugged UHF's, but it was kindly pointed out to me by you guys that I couldn't use them on the actual PMR446 freq's due to a lack of 6.25khz steps.

However, I was put in touch with someone who is selling one and he says it has been 'widebanded' and now works fine on PMR446.
Is this possible and how was it done?
Would I be able to do it to any other VX177's I bought?

I have asked these questions to the guy selling it but I thought I would double check on here!

Plus it's a postage job so I just have to take his word for it and can't actually try the radio out on 446 first.

Many thanks people, I appreciate it.
overlandadventures
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Re: 'Widebanding' a Yaesu VX177 UHF - help

Post by overlandadventures »

My best guess he has a european spec one which would stop its tx/rx at 440 mhz, by widebanding it he has increased the tx/rx range upto 470 thus giving him the abilty to transmit on 446 mhz, the radio still won't "actually" transmit on the 446 pmr licence free frequencies has it does not support the 6.25khz steps required, he will just be able to get close to them using 5khz steps standard tuning on the vx177.
As your looking at HK imports then its a bit irrelavent as they all tx to 470mhz anyway.
hth
John
Ninja
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Re: 'Widebanding' a Yaesu VX177 UHF - help

Post by Ninja »

Brilliant, thanks John.
That clears up the wideband issue.
And yes I would be buying other VX177s that were imports so would have the full range anyway without the need to wideband.

to clarify/add more detail:

The guy said the widebanding has not added the 6.25khz steps, however he says the radio will work fine on the 446 channels as long as you get the freq as close as possible using the nearest steps available.

He says he has used it on the 446 channels countless times without issue in the past, with both rx and tx being clear despite not being perfectly 'on frequency'.

I'm not an expert by any means with radio and just have a basic understanding, hence why I am asking the opinion of you guys on this.

You think it will be ok?

Cheers.
overlandadventures
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Re: 'Widebanding' a Yaesu VX177 UHF - help

Post by overlandadventures »

Have a look at the frequencies as they are explained here
http://www.geocities.com/euro446/freqs.html
I've just tried a radio set on 446.005 talking to ch1 on a standard 446 radio and they could hear each other fine, although the antennas were only around 10ft away.
If you buy a second VX177 then it will of course be on the same frequncy exactly and they will work fine.
hope that helps
John
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