Any interest in Philips FM1100/FM1000 radios?

The place to talk about specific amateur radio equipment and all types of accessories, fixes, repairs and modification.
Steve B
Regular
Regular
Posts: 69
Joined: 30 Apr 2017, 03:53
Location: Europe ;)

Any interest in Philips FM1100/FM1000 radios?

Post by Steve B »

For summary, they are a popular radio in the 90's used by Fire, EMS, Police and power companies in Britain and around europe that are very moddable and easily reprogrammed to ham bands.

The format of the EEPROM channel data has been documented and a alternative firmware was written by an amaetur PA4DEN which provides VFO and other ham-radio features on any Fm1100 radio which has the dot-matrix display keypad installed. They're normally 25 W and are in different varieties for between 50 mhz to 70cms.

Wonder if anybody here has them or is interested in them? I have a few from car boot sales and the like.

I was working on a software project for editing channels and configurations of these radios through their 2KB 24C16 eeprom binaries.

Here is a preview of it:
Image

Most functions are written into code and into the command line version of the program, but I was still working on transitioning it to all work with the GUI. The software is written in python and uses AppJar/TKinter for the GUI.
30-Tango-Mike-003
Good Christian Boys: Midland G7 XTR "Street-Legal" PMR 3-watter - Kenwood UBZ-LJ8 PMR446 - Intek FM548SX (With Homogolation boys 8) )
Naughty Boys: Philips 25W FM1100 UHF w/PA4DEN - Baofeng UV5RA, Superstar 360FM (My good one!) w/ CTE 747 100W Amp
df2tb
Regular
Regular
Posts: 59
Joined: 29 Feb 2016, 01:08
Call Sign: DF2TB
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Any interest in Philips FM1100/FM1000 radios?

Post by df2tb »

I had plenty of them for 2m and 70cm years ago. Large front, small front etc. I had 3 psu Units and this portable unit as well. Nice Radios but I do not think it makes sense to invest much time into them.

I still have the original programmer, the pc board to program them and 2 radios. I admit your software looks interesting. Do you sell it?

73 Andreas DF2TB
Steve B
Regular
Regular
Posts: 69
Joined: 30 Apr 2017, 03:53
Location: Europe ;)

Re: Any interest in Philips FM1100/FM1000 radios?

Post by Steve B »

I want to release it as open source or at least freeware since it is primarily for my personal use as a personal for-fun project, I think that such software being free may encourage more people to re-use and recycle these old radios instead of throwing them out, and maybe increase their popularity. That is my aim, anyways.

Nice that you still have the original programmer, wow, that is hard to get.
30-Tango-Mike-003
Good Christian Boys: Midland G7 XTR "Street-Legal" PMR 3-watter - Kenwood UBZ-LJ8 PMR446 - Intek FM548SX (With Homogolation boys 8) )
Naughty Boys: Philips 25W FM1100 UHF w/PA4DEN - Baofeng UV5RA, Superstar 360FM (My good one!) w/ CTE 747 100W Amp
oh5nxo
Regular
Regular
Posts: 40
Joined: 24 Apr 2017, 18:41
Call Sign: oh5nxo
Location: kp30xr

Re: Any interest in Philips FM1100/FM1000 radios?

Post by oh5nxo »

recat wrote:re-use and recycle these old radios
Well said, made my day.

Juha
sardylan
Regular
Regular
Posts: 13
Joined: 08 May 2017, 21:19
Call Sign: IS0GVH
Location: JM49sk
Contact:

Re: Any interest in Philips FM1100/FM1000 radios?

Post by sardylan »

Hi all.
Any interest in Philips FM1100/FM1000 radios?
YES!! :D :D I'm happy that there is something "still alive" about this device.
I'm interested 'cause I'm dealing with two FM1000 used as VHF repeater, and of course I have to understand how EEPROM content is stored.
I'm also working in a software similar to yours (using Qt/C++), which is available on Github.

I had several problems understanding how EEPROM data is saved. In your application the channel table have a lot of options for each channel, including tx power and custom CTCSS.
Can you please share your knowledge about how EEPROM data is stored?
Steve B
Regular
Regular
Posts: 69
Joined: 30 Apr 2017, 03:53
Location: Europe ;)

Re: Any interest in Philips FM1100/FM1000 radios?

Post by Steve B »

Nice! Glad there's someone else who shares the same strong interest for these radios. Yes I can. The screenshot there was not extracting the TX parameter's details, instead just displaying the TX hex code un-decoded as I didn't code that in yet, making the program successfully import and export functioning BIN files and importing/exporting channels from a CSV was a higher priority.
Anyways, here is a summary of what I have curated from what I've found and what I currently know

Each channel is 8 Bytes
<2 bytes> RX Freq
<2 bytes> TX Freq
<1 byte> RX CTCS
<1 byte> TX CTCS
<2 bytes> PWR/SQL

To read the CTCSS code, just convert the hex byte to a decimal, that decimal represents an index in a table which corresponds to a tone frequency. So for example CTCSS of 01 = 67.0 Hz. Here is my python dictionary for it.

Code: Select all

ctcss_codes = {0:0, 1:67.0, 2:71.9, 3:74.4, 4:77.0, 5:79.9, 6:82.5, 7:85.4, 8:88.5, 9:91.5, 10:94.8, 11:97.4, 12:100, 13:103.5, 14:107.2, 15:110.9, 16:114.8, 17:118.8, 18:123.0, 19:127.3, 20:131.8, 21:136.5, 22:141.3, 23:146.2, 24:151.4, 25:156.7, 26:162.2, 27:167.9, 28:173.8, 29:179.9, 30:186.2, 31:192.8, 32:203.5, 33:210.7, 34:218.1, 35:225.7, 36:233.6, 37:241.8, 38:250.3}
TX power codes are a bit more complicated. Here is my documentation that I wrote for myself on it. Note that this isn't my final revision of the notes so there may be a mistake somewhere, take it with a grain of salt.

Code: Select all

FM1100 Channel TX Settings Hex Breakdown

The FM1100 Channel TX Settings Hex are the last 2 bytes at the end of every channel.
Here I go into the detail of it's format as to what I could find.

"OFFSET" Refers to the microprocessor clock.
"SELLCALL" MEANS TONE ON BUTTON PRESS!

EXAMPLE HEX:
    0xE828 = No Offset, 25 W, Sellcall Off, No Scan Group
    
    Split into 4 Nibbles 
    [E, 8, 2, 8]
    [0, 1, 2, 3]   

    Nibble 0 & 1:
        TX Power Select. Choose from a table of 6.
        
        Power Modes:
            E8 = 25W
            E0 = 15W
            D8 = 10W
            D0 = 6 W
            C8 = 1 W
            C0 = 0 W / No TX
            
    Nibble 1 = ??? (Always 2)
    Nibble 3: 
        This one is split into 4 bits.
        EXAMPLE BINARY:
            0b1000
            [1, 0, 0, 0]
            [0, 1, 2, 3]
            
            Bit 0 = ??? (Always 1)
            Bit 1 = ??? (Always 0)
            Bit 2 = Sellcall ON/OFF (1 or 0)
            Bit 3 = Offset ON/OFF (1 or 0)
            
        Hence the following: 
            0x8 = Offset off, Sellcall Off
            0x9 = Offset on, Sellcall Off
            0xA = Offset off, Sellcall On
            0xB = Offset On, Sellcall On
This info was gained with the help of David Craig GI8LCJ and his RADCOM article
30-Tango-Mike-003
Good Christian Boys: Midland G7 XTR "Street-Legal" PMR 3-watter - Kenwood UBZ-LJ8 PMR446 - Intek FM548SX (With Homogolation boys 8) )
Naughty Boys: Philips 25W FM1100 UHF w/PA4DEN - Baofeng UV5RA, Superstar 360FM (My good one!) w/ CTE 747 100W Amp
sardylan
Regular
Regular
Posts: 13
Joined: 08 May 2017, 21:19
Call Sign: IS0GVH
Location: JM49sk
Contact:

Re: Any interest in Philips FM1100/FM1000 radios?

Post by sardylan »

Thank you very much for your informations.

A friend suggests me the site of F5JTZ for frequencies, CTCSS and TOT features.
TOT is at offset 0x719 and it can be a value between 0 and 255, where values greater than 0 mean how many seconds you can keep the PTT pushed. Zero, of course, means that the feature is disables.

I've also discovered that the second byte in the EEPROM (offset 0x01) seems to be the "startup" channel number. I'm still making some tests to be sure of it.

I'm adding features to my software based on your informations. You will be quoted into the "about" widget... :thumbup:
Steve B
Regular
Regular
Posts: 69
Joined: 30 Apr 2017, 03:53
Location: Europe ;)

Re: Any interest in Philips FM1100/FM1000 radios?

Post by Steve B »

The TX timeout and startup channel/channel persistence settings are some of the things documented by David Craig's RADCOM article, there is also a key beep setting (as seen in the radio settings panel of my screenshot)
30-Tango-Mike-003
Good Christian Boys: Midland G7 XTR "Street-Legal" PMR 3-watter - Kenwood UBZ-LJ8 PMR446 - Intek FM548SX (With Homogolation boys 8) )
Naughty Boys: Philips 25W FM1100 UHF w/PA4DEN - Baofeng UV5RA, Superstar 360FM (My good one!) w/ CTE 747 100W Amp
bozzy
Super Member
Super Member
Posts: 125
Joined: 19 Aug 2016, 21:34
Location: York

Re: Any interest in Philips FM1100/FM1000 radios?

Post by bozzy »

Are any of the EX-BR FM1200 radio's coming onto the market with the move to GSMR?

If so, could maybe help with info as I have the service manual and other info for these somewhere as I used to repair them.
Steve B
Regular
Regular
Posts: 69
Joined: 30 Apr 2017, 03:53
Location: Europe ;)

Re: Any interest in Philips FM1100/FM1000 radios?

Post by Steve B »

bozzy wrote:Are any of the EX-BR FM1200 radio's coming onto the market with the move to GSMR?

If so, could maybe help with info as I have the service manual and other info for these somewhere as I used to repair them.
What's BR? Either way i'd suggest scanning and uploading that stuff to one of those radio file host sites!
30-Tango-Mike-003
Good Christian Boys: Midland G7 XTR "Street-Legal" PMR 3-watter - Kenwood UBZ-LJ8 PMR446 - Intek FM548SX (With Homogolation boys 8) )
Naughty Boys: Philips 25W FM1100 UHF w/PA4DEN - Baofeng UV5RA, Superstar 360FM (My good one!) w/ CTE 747 100W Amp
bozzy
Super Member
Super Member
Posts: 125
Joined: 19 Aug 2016, 21:34
Location: York

Re: Any interest in Philips FM1100/FM1000 radios?

Post by bozzy »

BR is British Rail, go google NRN radio system.

Originally Phillips FM 1200 radio's, then Simoco, I spent quite some time at the factory at Cambridge.

Used a schlumberger stabilock for testing and alignment of them (think it was a 4031)?

The NRN system is being de-commissioned due to GSMR so a lot of units will be OOU.

I am an SU of the PMU for GSM-R.
oh5nxo
Regular
Regular
Posts: 40
Joined: 24 Apr 2017, 18:41
Call Sign: oh5nxo
Location: kp30xr

Re: Any interest in Philips FM1100/FM1000 radios?

Post by oh5nxo »

Is the reference oscillator division changeable in FM1k ? Sometimes it could be useful, if a set could be made to operate on a random frequency, instead of integer x times 6.25 kHz. Checking beacons, for example.

Juha
02DC16
Registered New User
Registered New User
Posts: 2
Joined: 12 May 2017, 13:08
Call Sign: GI8LCJ

Re: Any interest in Philips FM1100/FM1000 radios?

Post by 02DC16 »

Hi Bozzy I see you used to repair FM1100 radios, so did I. I used to work for Pye telecommunications in 1970 and retired 38 years later. I have modified a number of them for the 4,2 , and 70cm amateur bands.

Dave GI8LCJ
Steve B
Regular
Regular
Posts: 69
Joined: 30 Apr 2017, 03:53
Location: Europe ;)

Re: Any interest in Philips FM1100/FM1000 radios?

Post by Steve B »

02DC16 wrote:Hi Bozzy I see you used to repair FM1100 radios, so did I. I used to work for Pye telecommunications in 1970 and retired 38 years later. I have modified a number of them for the 4,2 , and 70cm amateur bands.

Dave GI8LCJ
Pretty neat seeing you here from the FM1100 group!
30-Tango-Mike-003
Good Christian Boys: Midland G7 XTR "Street-Legal" PMR 3-watter - Kenwood UBZ-LJ8 PMR446 - Intek FM548SX (With Homogolation boys 8) )
Naughty Boys: Philips 25W FM1100 UHF w/PA4DEN - Baofeng UV5RA, Superstar 360FM (My good one!) w/ CTE 747 100W Amp
bozzy
Super Member
Super Member
Posts: 125
Joined: 19 Aug 2016, 21:34
Location: York

Re: Any interest in Philips FM1100/FM1000 radios?

Post by bozzy »

02DC16 wrote:Hi Bozzy I see you used to repair FM1100 radios, so did I. I used to work for Pye telecommunications in 1970 and retired 38 years later. I have modified a number of them for the 4,2 , and 70cm amateur bands.

Dave GI8LCJ
Hi Dave

Yes, a cracking radio the FM1000 range, technically is was FM1200 radio's I worked on. I had dealings with a couple of guys at Cambridge, Malcolm S and Todd S, you may remember them?

I found my visits to the factory fascinating, real "White Smock" wearing people in the factory. However it had changed to Simoco when I used to visit.

Regards
Bozzy
Post Reply