Wouxun KG-818 VHF Teardown

On the Hamradio Friedrichshafen I got myself a Wouxun KG-818 VHF (5W, 136-174.995 MHz). I plan to realize a small APRS transmitter for my car. “The Wouxun…” …whithout batteries. You have to remove the screws on the bottom left and right… …as well as the nut around the antenna connector … …to slide-wedge the whole assembly bottomwards-out. The dials will come off as well as some plastic thingy. Beware of the ribbon! The two modules. On the left the processor/TRX-board, on the right, the LCD/speaker/kexs section with part of the case. And once again the TRX/Chinagirl-module. Unfortunately the PCB is soldered to the RF-connector, which prevented me from further teardown, because I had no soldering iron at hand. Underneath the firmwaresticker it reads “M64X802”. Great!” The TRX works even without its keys/speaker etc attached! Well and that’s about it. I

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Magmount refurbishment

I do (of course) have an antenna on my car, which was to date mounted with a pretty rusty old magmount. I don’t know; our local marten didn’t like that at all, the RG-58 which was unprotected ~20cm was completely torn to peices. To cut it short; I didn’t document the process. I could only reuse the magnet from the original magmount, the connector was completely encased in PVC and thus irretrievable. So i turned a new connector holder out of delrin (POM) and milled the fitting for the connector with my CNC. After I de-rusted the magnet, drilled matching holes, applied a base coat and some layers of laquer I screwed on the holder with V4A INOX screws. Tada…. (click for larger..)  

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FUNcube Dongle Pro unboxing

My FUNcube Dongle Pro arrived today (via FedEx). Ingenious tool, the first tests after the firmware upgrade were very promising; even with the “universal”-antenna which I ‘stole’ from my trusty Yaesu VX-3E… 😉 Using windows, the usage of the ‘FCD’ is easy. Even though I am able to change frequency under Linux, it is a matter of demodulation software there. More about working with the FCD hopefully soon, now some exclusive images… 😉

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