Motorola XTN446 Repair

[Werthers]

Here I have dug out my old Motorola XTN446 which works fine but needs attention.

Before I get started I want to mention that I don't know that much about these radios I bought this one years ago for a fiver at a car boot sale. That was a right bargain. I have seen these selling upwards of 60 pounds.

The insulation has crumbled away from the antenna and my plan is to completely remove it and replace it with a BNC connector.

I am not aware of any mods that can be done to these radios, my one puts out 500mW so if there is a way to get 4 or 5 watts from this I'd be interested to know. I can only see 8 channels on this, it would be nice if I could get the full 16 channels.

Is there a BNC antenna kit for these? it don't matter if there isn't I can make a mold for the BNC connector to fit nicely to the radio.

[Werthers]

Ok I have taken the thing apart. No info whatsoever online about these and no replies on here so I take it nobody knows.

Nothing is ever straight forward... the first four screws came out easy but the two hidden screws at the top under the plastic tab were a nightmare to unscrew but I got them off without rounding off the heads.

Quite a bit of modifying will need to be done to fit the BNC socket in place.

I know I can't be the only one who has done a BNC mod to one of these radios surely.

[26mb04]

Personally, unless there's a solid base to mount the BNC on I'd just leave the antenna as it is. Adding a BNC to an insecure mounting/case will probably cause more problems that you'd solve. Those coiled antennas aren't too bad.

[Werthers]

Personally, unless there's a solid base to mount the BNC on I'd just leave the antenna as it is. Adding a BNC to an insecure mounting/case will probably cause more problems that you'd solve. Those coiled antennas aren't too bad.

I'm going to create the solid base mount.

[Mikel]

Personally, unless there's a solid base to mount the BNC on I'd just leave the antenna as it is. Adding a BNC to an insecure mounting/case will probably cause more problems that you'd solve. Those coiled antennas aren't too bad.

I'm going to create the solid base mount.

Different radios I know but I modified a couple of Motorola T5522 radios a while back by fitting BNC socket and it was very successful.

So much so that I did the same to some other old PMR446 radios I had around.

I cant remember where I bought the BNC sockets, maybe Maplins before they closed the local store but there are loads similar on ebay.

The BNC sockets are held in place by self amalgamating tape and this has proved to be very effective with none coming loose at all.

As far as the connection goes, I just used as short a length of thin wire as possible from the pad where the spring antenna is attached to the centre of the BNC socket.

I did find some very thin coax after the mods were done and was going to use that to connect to the BNC sockets but range tests showed that they were working extremely well so decided to leave them with the original wire connection.

Obviously you can just buy some cheap Baofengs or similar but I was interested to see how much the performance of these radios that I already had could be improved.

Here are some photos of the Motorola:

T5522-1_70.jpg

T5522-4_70.jpg

T5522-2_70.jpg

[Mikel]

And here is a photo of the Motorola along with a Binatone and a Uniden PMR446 radio which I fitted BNC sockets to as well.

I have plenty of Wouxun, Linton and Yaesu handies that I could use, but I found this was a bit of fun and significantly improved the performance of these little radios both on receive and transmit.

And before the band Police obsessives with no life make a comment, yes I know this not a legal modification to transmit with on PMR446

3-radios_70.jpg

[Werthers]

A 1/4 wave length on 446 MHz is so small that the stock antennas will almost be as good but its nice to have that BNC just encase you want to put a yagi on it or something while hill topping. Its not really rocket science to to fit a BNC to any PMR 446 set and make it secure.

I have some Inteks MT5050 radios I didn't bother doing the mod on all of them, I only did a couple and there was a kit available for them so I bought the kit, not that I really needed the kit but I thought if its available then may as well get it as it keeps the radio looking somewhat original. I fitted it all but a few months later the radio fell on to a hard surface and the plastic casing and antenna socket broke off but I repaired the body of the radio and repaired the socket seating.

[Mikel]

A 1/4 wave length on 446 MHz is so small that the stock antennas will almost be as good but its nice to have that BNC just encase you want to put a yagi on it or something while hill topping. Its not really rocket science to to fit a BNC to any PMR 446 set and make it secure.

I have some Inteks MT5050 radios I didn't bother doing the mod on all of them, I only did a couple and there was a kit available for them so I bought the kit, not that I really needed the kit but I thought if its available then may as well get it as it keeps the radio looking somewhat original. I fitted it all but a few months later the radio fell on to a hard surface and the plastic casing and antenna socket broke off but I repaired the body of the radio and repaired the socket seating.

A quarter wave for 446 is just over 6 inches/160mm so is a fair bit bigger than the 'pen-spring' you usually get fitted as stock and from my experiences fitting a BNC socket with a longer antenna makes a significant difference to both receive and transmit, but I am willing to bow to your superior knowledge and experience.

But as you correctly state 'Its not really rocket science to to fit a BNC to any PMR 446 set and make it secure' and I just did it for a laugh, but we will laugh about anything around here mind you - must be all the mountains and sheep

[Werthers]

A 1/4 wave length on 446 MHz is so small that the stock antennas will almost be as good but its nice to have that BNC just encase you want to put a yagi on it or something while hill topping. Its not really rocket science to to fit a BNC to any PMR 446 set and make it secure.

I have some Inteks MT5050 radios I didn't bother doing the mod on all of them, I only did a couple and there was a kit available for them so I bought the kit, not that I really needed the kit but I thought if its available then may as well get it as it keeps the radio looking somewhat original. I fitted it all but a few months later the radio fell on to a hard surface and the plastic casing and antenna socket broke off but I repaired the body of the radio and repaired the socket seating.

A quarter wave for 446 is just over 6 inches/160mm so is a fair bit bigger than the 'pen-spring' you usually get fitted as stock and from my experiences fitting a BNC socket with a longer antenna makes a significant difference to both receive and transmit, but I am willing to bow to your superior knowledge and experience.

But as you correctly state 'Its not really rocket science to to fit a BNC to any PMR 446 set and make it secure' and I just did it for a laugh, but we will laugh about anything around here mind you - must be all the mountains and sheep

I don't know what you mean by superior knowledge. You don't need any to fit a BNC socket to a pmr446 set. The way you talk about "you having big success" like its a difficult task.

I said the spring antennas were almost the same as a 1/4 wave length. 3 to 4 inches isn't that far from 6 inches.

[Mikel]

A 1/4 wave length on 446 MHz is so small that the stock antennas will almost be as good but its nice to have that BNC just encase you want to put a yagi on it or something while hill topping. Its not really rocket science to to fit a BNC to any PMR 446 set and make it secure.

I have some Inteks MT5050 radios I didn't bother doing the mod on all of them, I only did a couple and there was a kit available for them so I bought the kit, not that I really needed the kit but I thought if its available then may as well get it as it keeps the radio looking somewhat original. I fitted it all but a few months later the radio fell on to a hard surface and the plastic casing and antenna socket broke off but I repaired the body of the radio and repaired the socket seating.

A quarter wave for 446 is just over 6 inches/160mm so is a fair bit bigger than the 'pen-spring' you usually get fitted as stock and from my experiences fitting a BNC socket with a longer antenna makes a significant difference to both receive and transmit, but I am willing to bow to your superior knowledge and experience.

But as you correctly state 'Its not really rocket science to to fit a BNC to any PMR 446 set and make it secure' and I just did it for a laugh, but we will laugh about anything around here mind you - must be all the mountains and sheep

I don't know what you mean by superior knowledge. You don't need any to fit a BNC socket to a pmr446 set. The way you talk about "you having big success" like its a difficult task.

I said the spring antennas were almost the same as a 1/4 wave length. 3 to 4 inches isn't that far from 6 inches.

OK boss

[Merkin]

I mite do this to my old 446 walkie talkies, saw these on fleabay, OK or no?

[Mikel]

That looks exactly like the ones I used so should be OK. Fitment will depend on the radio so you have to be a bit creative.

If you fit a quarter wave antenna it makes a big difference compared to the short helical spring, and anyone who claims otherwise obviously hasn't really made the comparison.

Is 'Marks' still open in Commercial Street, Newport as they may have some there if it is?